Age Group Regionals Meet Recap

Jay Pearson

Age Group Region XII Meet Recap

After a four-year absence, the Northwest Age Group Regionals meet returned to the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way last weekend. Nearly 800 swimmers came from six states and more than 60 teams to race in one of our region’s biggest meets of the year. For our 12&Unders, this is the premier meet of the entire year.

Wave finished 12th, led by gold-medal winners Noah Sattari and Nik Brusilovski, and by top point scorer Claire Gao, who finaled in five races. Congratulations to all our swimmers for a fantastic meet!

Senior Epic

Senior Epic had another successful meet last weekend! We had six swimmers racing at AGR and they had exceptional swims in Federal Way. Among our achievements, we had a number of lifetime bests, qualified to swim many finals, brought home some gold and bronze hardware, and achieved new Sectionals and Zones cuts! On top of all, five swimmers in our group qualified for finals and scored points for Wave!

  • Noah Sattari had an inspired weekend and picked up 2 Spring Sectionals cuts in both 100 and 200 Fly. In the 200 Fly, Noah demonstrated strong underwater dolphin kicks and solid technique to drop over 4 seconds and win the gold medal! In the 100 Fly he has been dropping time all season long and was still able to shave off a bit more time (-0.29) to get his second Sectionals cut and win another gold medal! This is the first time Noah qualified for Sectionals!
  • Owen Ledrick came strong and improved his times in both 100 and 200 Breast. He dropped half a second in the former and 3.42 seconds in the latter where he swam Finals finishing in 5th and getting one more Zones cut! He also swam a best time in the 50 Free (-1.06) and right at his times in the 200 Free and 500 Free.
  • Jenna Kimborowicz demonstrated great versatility swimming strong in both distance and sprint Free. She brought home two new personal bests and a bronze medal from Regionals! She was very excited with her time drop in the 500 Free where she had an amazing swim racing hard until the last 25! She dropped 1.14 tenths of second to pick up the bronze medal in the 500 Free! She also had a best time in the 50 Free (-0.46) leading off the 200 Free relay and setting the tone for the relay.
  • Anouk Balog had an excellent meet and went three best times! In the 200 Fly she dropped more than 2 seconds and broke the 2.20 barrier with a solid race strategy where she qualified for Finals and finished in 6th. She also dropped 0.41 in the 100 Fly and 0.53 in the 200 Free. And she was extremely happy with her 500 Free where she swam right at her time, dominating her strategy very well (again) and feeling strong until the end of her race.
  • Raymond Chen did an amazing job in the 100 Fly and went faster every time they got into the pool! Ray swam the 100 Fly during the time trials, then swam the event again in the Prelims and qualified for Finals. On the third swim (Finals) they broke the 55-second barrier for the first time (54.96), earned an AA Time, and placed 8th. Ray also had another great swim in the 100 Free dropping 0.70 second.
  • Lola Reynolds has been busy with some other activities recently, but she came to Regionals to swim three individual events plus a few relays. Her strongest swim was the 200 Breast where she managed a very good strategy holding her pace throughout the race. She also had a strong swim in the 200 Free Relay where she anchored it racing hard.

Congrats to all Epic swimmers for the strong season and fantastic results!

Senior 1

The Senior 1 Group had seven swimmers compete at Age Group Regionals. The meet was awesome and the swimmers absolutely crushed it, we had tons of best times and even some new qualifiers for higher level meets. It was a ton of fun to watch everyone really put everything they had into their races and seeing the smiles on their faces as they obliterated their previous best times. We had one 1st place finish, six Top 3 finishes, and one Senior Sectionals qualifier. I am so proud of this group and can’t wait to see what they can do moving forward.

  • Oleg Arlouski is finally fully back from injury and illness. He really made the most out of the work he has put in the last month, going best times in all of his races. He started the meet off super strong in the 500 free dropping 5 seconds and finishing 6th overall. He would just continue to ride the wave as he dropped 2 seconds in both the 100 and 200 free.
  • Nik Brusilovkski has really come into his own as a distance swimmer and the results from this meet speak for themselves. He started off winning the 500 free while also going a best time. He would then bookend his meet spectacularly by finishing second in the 1650 free on his way to a 27 second drop.
  • Hailey Crawford was all smiles at the meet as she swam incredibly well. She started off by helping the 400 freestyle relay to a fourth place finish, she would go on to help both the 200 and 400 medley relays finish third. Hailey had been stuck at 1:11 in the 100 breast for close to a year, she finally had her breakthrough in the event and went a best time going 1:10 for the first time ever and qualifying for finals. In finals she would drop a couple more tenths on her way to a sixth place finish.
  • Iris Huang came to help the team in the 200 free relay. She was our leadoff leg and absolutely dominated going right at her best time and setting up the rest of the relay to succeed.
  • Adrian Juco is a man on a mission when it comes to breaststroke events. He once again went best times both the 100 and 200 making finals in both. In the 100 breast he turned in a dominant swim in finals leading him to a second place finish. He swam very well in the 200 in prelims then turned around in finals and split an even better race dropping 2 more seconds earning him a sixth place finish. His biggest drop of the meet was 12 seconds in the 100 fly, a race he has been working hard to improve.
  • Daniel Xia had a spectacular meet going a perfect 4/4 on best times. He started out strong, dropping 2 seconds in the 100 breast. He followed that up with a second drop in the 100 free going under 52 for the first time, this is after he dropped in the event in February to qualify for the meet. He then turned in a blazing fast 50 free going sub 24 for the first time. He then finished his meet off with a huge 2 second drop in the 200 free. He has really been on top of his training and it really showed in his racing.
  • Rina Yuan had an incredible meet. She was very excited all weekend as she was able to turn in fast swim after fast swim. She led off the 400 free relay dropping 1.2 seconds from her best time and setting up the team for a good swim. She was a major factor in our other relays finishing as well as they did. Then came her 50 free, a race we have stayed away from the past couple meets in order to kind of reset. This strategy paid off in the biggest way possible as she absolutely crushed the race in prelims winning her heat, going under 25 for the first time ever, and qualifying for Senior Sectionals. She finished off her season in the best way possible and is eager to see what else she can do moving forward.

Senior Prep

Sr. Prep had four swimmers at regionals. We had some great learning experiences and some great swims.

  • Anton Mazepa had an amazing meet. He had the biggest drop for the group with a really amazing swim in the 100 Fly with lots of tempo and quickness for more than a six second drop. He also dropped a full second in his 100 free to break the 58 barrier for the first time. His 100 Back and 200 Back both dropped about half a second. Great job Anton!
  • Cora Ledrick dropped in every event she swam. She looked great racing all of the freestyle events. She attacks her walls and was out fast for every one of her races. She dropped just under three seconds in her 500, just over a second in her 200 Free, and achieved another AA time. Her 100 Free was a huge .8 drop too! Great racing Cora!
  • Lena Duryee had a great learning meet. In the 500, she was out perfectly in the first 150, and then backed off pace based on how the other swimmers were swimming. Learning if you are swimming your own race is a good thing to figure out as an age group swimmer. She was right at her best times in the 50 and 100 Free events. She crushed her best 50 Free time with an amazing relay split on the 200 Free Relay.
  • Ani Purkayastha swam fast on our 200 Free Relay with a 26 on her relay split. Thanks for crushing it on the relay, Ani!

Age Group Select

All six of our athletes who swam last weekend scored points for Wave at the biggest age group meet of the year--our equivalent of the Olympics! Our relays scored big points! Our 200 Medley Relay, featuring Maria Kokhan, Olivia Henaire, Ellen Feng, and Olivia Liu, won the Bronze Medal, while the 200 Free Relay—Olivia H, Olivia L, Fiona Herman, and Ellen—raced to 4th. Relays score double points, so these swims were huge for our team.

Our three individual swimmers all placed in the Top 8. Olivia Henaire dropped huge time in the 100 Breast to finish 8th and picked up 6th in the 50 Breast. Ellen Feng swam a blistering 50 Fly to win Bronze and then dropped 3 seconds in her 100 Fly to grab 7th. Claire Gao swam all best times, earning 4th in the 50 Fly, Bronze in the 50 Free, and Silver in the 100 Free, in addition to finaling in her 200 Free and 100 IM. She also swam a 26 in both prelims and finals in her 50 Free and a 57 in both of her 100 Free swims!

Congrats to all our swimmers who swam at KCAC this weekend!

Top 8 (Scoring) Finishes

  • Oleg Arlouski – 6th (500 Free)
  • Anouk Balog – 6th (200 Fly), 3rd (200 & 400 Medley Relay), 4th (200 Free Relay)
  • Nik Brusilovski – 1st (500 Free), 2nd (1650 Free), 5th (200 Medley Relay)
  • Raymond Chen – 8th (100 Fly), 5th (200 Medley Relay)
  • Hailey Crawford – 6th (100 Breast), 3rd (200 & 400 Medley Relay), 4th (400 Free Relay)
  • Ellen Feng – 3rd (50 Fly), 6th (100 Fly), 3rd (200 Medley Relay), 4th (200 Free Relay)
  • Claire Gao – 2nd (100 Free), 3rd (50 Free), 4th (50 Fly), 5th (200 Free), 7th (100 IM)
  • Olivia Henaire – 6th (50 Breast), 8th (100 Breast), 3rd (200 Medley Relay), 4th (200 Free Relay)
  • Fiona Herman – 4th (200 Free Relay)
  • Adrian Juco – 2nd (200 Breast), 7th (100 Breast)
  • Maria Kokhan – 3rd (200 Medley Relay)
  • Jenna Kimborowicz – 3rd (500 Free), 8th (1650 Free), 3rd (200 & 400 Medley Relay), 4th (200 & 400 Free Relay)
  • Owen Ledrick – 5th (200 Breast), 5th (200 Medley Relay)
  • Olivia Liu – 3rd (200 Medley Relay), 4th (200 Free Relay)
  • Lola Reynolds - 4th (200 & 400 Free Relay)
  • Noah Sattari – 1st (100 & 200 Fly), 5th (200 Medley Relay)
  • Rina Yuan – 3rd (50 Free), 3rd (200 & 400 Medley Relay), 4th (200 Free Relay)

New US Motivational Times

AAA

  • Ellen Feng – 100 Fly
  • Claire Gao – 50 & 100 Free
  • Adrian Juco – 100 Breast
  • Rina Yuan – 50 Free

AA

  • Oleg Arlouski – 200 Free
  • Nik Brusilovski – 1650 Free
  • Claire Gao – 200 Free, 100 IM
  • Cora Ledrick – 200 Free
  • Noah Sattari – 200 Fly
  • Daniel Xia – 100 Breast

A

  • Olivia Henaire – 50 & 100 Free
  • Adrian Juco – 100 Fly

WAVE ON 3!!