Bellingham Bay Summer Splash Meet Recap

Our final meet of 2022-23 was a rousing success for Wave swimmers. We trekked up to Mt Vernon on August 5-6 to race at the Skagit Valley YMCA and turned out amazing swim after amazing swim! Below are highlights from each group:

High School & Senior 1

The High School and Senior 1 groups had some phenomenal swims. So many bests! Great work! Ron Saveliev is our biggest loser this meet!! Way to go!

• Ori Ami Ad: -0.01 in 100 Breast, -0.39 in 100 Free, -4.18 in 200 Back, -0.02 in 50 Free
• Tanvi Bathe: -1.61 in 100 Back for a B time, -1.14 in 100 Breast, -0.39 in 100 Free, -0.58 in 200 Back
• Zander Brumfield: -6.79 in 200 Breast, -1.36 in 200 Free
• Ian Chow: -0.96 in 50 Free for a B time
• Surabhi Koundinya: -0.28 in 200 Breast
• Ron Saveliev: -2.98 in 100 Back, -4.34 in 100 Breast, -3.47 in 100 Fly, -2.21 in 200 Breast, -0.52 in 200 IM, -0.89 in 50 Free
• Ekansh Verma: -2.29 in 200 IM
• Jonathan Yu: -3.19 in 100 Back, swam 500 Free for the first time
• Neha Phatak: -0.53 in the 200 IM to win the event

Age Group Select & Senior Prep

Senior Prep and Age Group Select did amazing this weekend. It was so exciting to watch each one of your swims and how far you all have come over the course of this season. All your hard work paid off! I’m super excited to see what you all can achieve in the next season.

Sr Prep

• Gahl Ami ad dropped in every single one of his events: he set high goals for each event and crushed each one. His most exciting swim was the 200 Fly, where he stayed strong, dropped 16 seconds, and finished first! He also dropped 20 seconds in his 100 Fly, gaining a new B time!
• Arya Bhatt had an amazing meet, dropping in every single event. He demolished his heat in the 200 Breast and dropped more than 17 seconds! He has been working hard on his freestyle and it showed with an 8-second drop in the 200 Free and almost a 1-second drop in the 50 Free!
• Ahana Bhattacharya had a little bit of a rough start on the first half of Saturday, but she came back strong and dropped in each event. She did amazing in the 50 Back, where she dropped 5 seconds, as well as the 100 Back, where she dropped more than 4 seconds and earned a new BB time!
• Madeleine Cheng had a strong meet and stayed within her best times. Her best swim was in the 100 IM where she dropped almost 3 seconds! She pushed through each length and looked amazing in her last length, sprinting to the end!
• Lauren Hizzey worked a lot on her freestyle, and it showed in her first event–the 500 free–where she dropped almost 5 seconds and gained a new A time! She also dropped a second in her 200 Free and is getting closer and closer to the A time!
• Kirill Kadach’s hard work in practice really showed in this meet. His most exciting swim was the 200 Free: he started, stayed, and ended strong, and even though there was a hiccup in the middle of it, he still dropped more than 10 seconds and gained a new B time. He also earned another B time in the 200 Back!
• Lainey Meyer’s work on her breaststroke in practice resulted in a 3-second drop in her 50 Breast! She also did amazing in her 50 and 100 Free, where she dropped 0.5 on her 50 Free, and nearly 3 seconds on her 100 Free, gaining new B times in both events!
• Roshni Padmanabhan swam her first 200 Fly strong, never gave up, and won her heat! She also broke :30 for the first time in her 50 free, coming out with a new BB time, and dropped more than 3 seconds on her 100 Free and came just shy of another BB time!

AGS

• Arjun Bhate dropped on every single one of his events–more than 5 seconds in his 100 Breast, and 4 seconds in his 100 IM! His best swim though, was the 100 Back–he put up a great race with the other swimmers in his heat and pulled ahead of everyone with a strong back half!
• Aman Bhatt and Rory Geitz were in the same heat for nearly every event and it was awesome to watch them support and race each other. They finished seconds within each other in the 100 Back, Breast, Free, and 50 Breast, and both got new B times in the 100 Breast and 100 Free!
• Mira Erdim has been putting a lot of work in the water at practice and it showed in her race strategies, turns, kickouts, and dives. She was body lengths ahead of everyone in nearly all her heats! Her best swim was the 100 Breast, where she dropped almost 15 seconds and is only 0.21 off a B time!
• Abby Gray absolutely crushed this meet and dropped time on every single one of her events. She won nearly all her heats by a landslide, especially in the 100 Free where she dropped nearly 10 seconds. Her most exciting event was the 50 Back where she nearly went to the 15-meter mark on her kickout and came out far ahead from the rest of her heat.
• Grace Zhang did amazing in her 100 Back: she had great kickouts off each wall and dropped nearly a whole second. Her greatest swim though, was the 50 Breast: even though her cap fell off early on, she persevered through, and finished it legally!

Purple Group

Purple group had a strong meet to end off their season. We saw great improvements in everyone's swims and are very proud of the hard work all the athletes have put in and the races they accomplished. Some highlights were:

• Alex Belkin dropping 5 seconds in the 100 IM
• Eka Bhuyan dropped 7 seconds in the 100 IM
• Alizeh Kurji dropped 6 seconds in the 100 Free and 5 seconds in the 50 Fly
• Jonah Lynn dropped 5 seconds in the 100 Back and 8 seconds in both the 100 Free and 100 IM
• Ethan Marnadi dropped 13 seconds in the 100 Breast and 12 seconds the 50 Fly
• Ishaan Pol dropped 14 seconds in the 100 Back and 26 seconds in the 100 Breast
• William Scott dropped 10 seconds in the 100 Breast
• Jayan Upadhaya dropped 8 seconds in the 100 IM
• Arjun Yadav dropped 12 seconds in the 100 Breast and 8 seconds in the 100 Free
• Zach Zeng dropped 7 seconds in the 100 Breast
• Michael Zhou dropped 26 seconds in the 100 Free

Congratulations to everyone who attended this meet and to our whole group for finishing the year off strong!

Black Group

This was a really good meet for our Black Group athletes who attended this competition! Outside of racing, the swimmers did an excellent job of warming up and dealing with a crowded warm-up. They also organized themselves and spent some time rehearsing their turns. They also didn’t have a single missed race, having their E/H/L information written down.

Thank you to all the families who got their swimmers to warm-up on time. Being prepared ahead of time, leaving in plenty of time so you aren’t rushed, and arriving on time always set a great place for swimmers to start a meet. It’s also a terrific opportunity for parents to model an important life skill!

In the pool the kids had a ton of great races. It’s always fun to see what the swimmers have been working on at practice show up in meets, as well as seeing them racing hard. Anyone who swam a best time in a 25 of Fly, Breast or Free- and there were a lot -that’s awesome, as the kids weren’t allowed to dive (pool was too shallow at that end) so the kids started in the water from a push.

Some successful first-time swims (finished the race without being disqualified) from:

• Kanav Acharya 100 Back, 25 Free, 50 Free
• Shreyan Acharya 100 Back, 100 Free, 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 50 Free
• Quinn Braun 100 Breast
• Tony Chen 100 Back
• Eric Feng 100 Breast
• Viyan Gupta 100 Free, 100 IM, 50 Breast, 50 Fly
• Vladislav Kalyuzhin 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Atharva Koppal 100 Free, 25 Free
• Connor Li 25 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Free
• Ostap Lytvynovskyi 100 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, 50 Breast, 50 Free
• William MacDonald 25 Back, 25 Free, 50 Back
• Evelyn Marr 25 Back, 25 Free, 50 Free
• Heidi Menshing 100 Back, 25 Back, 25 Fly
• Hanna Nagpal 25 Free
• Angela Pan 25 Back, 25 Free, 50 Free
• Beatrix Pressman 100 Breast
• Asmi Sarkar 25 Back, 25 Breast, 50 Free
• Timur Shafigulin 25 Breast
• Steven Wang 100 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 25 Free
• Cameron Watrous 25 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Free
• Avani Yadav 100 Breast, 50 Fly
• Aaron Yang 100 IM
• Leo Yang 25 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 25 Free, 50 Back, 50 Free
• Maggie Zhou 100 Back, 100 Breast, 50 Breast

The following swimmers had some excellent 100 IMs. For us as coaches, we are always excited to see a strong race here for the obvious reason of needing to use all four of the strokes, and wall skills.

• Blakely Hansen, Elaina Jiang, Lexie Watrous, Vivian Hu, Ira Joshi, Aaron Yang, Viyan Gupta

White Group

White group had more first Bs/BBs than we have had at any meet recently, even though it can be harder to level up in short course! Despite a few unfortunate backstroke DQs (too many wall watchers?), we trounced this meet.

MOTIVATIONAL GRADS:

BB:

• Rhea Dawani - 100 Breast, she earned her first BB ever in her first legal 100 Breast ever! She nearly doubled the feat on Sunday in her 50 Breast, landing just 0.3s shy of BB. Then she had a lot of ‘almost’s, barely DQ-ing B times in the 100 Back and 100 Fly, and landing 1s shy of B in 50 Free. Even so, she earned the most points of any white grouper. Great work, Rhea!
• Jonathan Liu - 100 Free, in the last event, on the last day, of his last meet in White group Jonathan burned past the 100 Free BB time cut, by 2s! That was after the 100 Fly, when most were giving up, but Jonathan was just getting warmed up. He’s a force of nature.
• Siena Stahlkopf - 50 Breast, in the Medley Relay, the first day, she realized she was close to BB in her 50 Breast. Sunday, she doubled down and landed her first BB with 0.3s to spare! But she’s not a one-stroke wonder, landing 3s under B in her 100 Fly… except for a DQ. Then landing 0.01 shy of a B in her 100 Free!

B:

• Emma Lu - 100 Breast, 50 Breast, 100 Free, she went from zero to hero, earning her first three B times. She might have had a fourth but for a backstroke flip turn tangle. Even so, her 100 Back was closer to BB than B, so she'll be unstoppable once she nails the flip.
• Amarissa Chandra – 100 Breast. She was only able to swim Saturday, but what a day. She lined it up and powered it up to earn her first B time and the steepest time drop in the meet: -14s in six weeks!

MOST NEW MOTIVATIONAL TIMES:

• Owen Wilson couldn’t lose for winning, landing every event legally and losing time, to earn 5 new Bs. Specifically, they were his 50/100 Breast, 100 Back, 100 Fly and 100 Free. His 50 Free wasn’t far behind, only 1.5s from B, but it was also right after the 100 Fly.

FIRST MEET MASTER:

• Vivienne Marr - landed 5 of her 6 events legally on her first try. And that last event, the 100 Backstroke, was a popular DQ.

LOSS LEADERS: total time dropped at the meet

• Cut 30s+: Hayley Chou (-37s), Benji Ovendale (-30s)
• Cut 40s+: Siena Stahlkopf (-48s), Esha Bhatia (-47s), Ethan Pan (-40s)
• Cut 50s+: Jason Gao (-51s)
• Winner: Navya Arora (-62s), dropping in all events!

ON FIRE - these swimmers time off of recent swims (which had already dropped time)

• Amarissa Chandra - 100 Breast (-14s in 6 weeks)
• Hayley Chou - 100 Breast (-15s in 6 weeks)
• Anu Bathe - 100 Back (-8s in 6 weeks)
• Sienna Stahlkopf - 100 Free (-21s in 3 months)
• Owen Wilson - 100 Breast (-8.5s in 6 weeks)

EPIC EVENT CLUB-ers: swimmers who tackled and won their first 100 Fly, legally! (in SCY).

• Aria Beazer, Mudit Singh, Tim Rakovchuk, Clara Stevenson, Aanya Sharan, Kareli Dotson, Owen Wilson, Emma Lu

ONES TO WATCH: swimmers that narrowly missed big firsts, are usually driven!

• Esha Bhatia is inches away from a first BB in her 50 Back (+0.5s) after a 3s drop this meet.
• Aanya Sharan was on fire the first day, dropping 8s in her 100 Breast and 4.5 in her 100 Back to land just 1.5s from B in both!
• Victor Shirshov cut 4s off his 50 Back and now lies just over a second from a first B!
• Roohi Indurkar could only make one day of the meet, so she made the most of it, cutting 5s off her 50 Breast, to land just 1.4s from her first B. If she braves her dive, she’ll have it!

Event Winners

Wave scored big at this meet. Here are all our swimmers who finished 1st in their event in the final meet of 2022-23!

• Shreyan Acharya - 50 Free
• Gahl Ami ad - 100 & 200 Fly
• Alex Belkin - 50 & 100 Back, 100 Breast
• Esha Bhatia - 100 Back
• Arya Bhatt - 50 Free
• Feynman Chen - 100 IM
• Madeleine Cheng - 100 & 200 Breast
• Tony Chen - 100 Back
• Ian Chow - 100 Breast
• Rhea Dawani - 100 Breast
• Abby Gray - 100 Free, 50 Back, 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 100 IM
• Blakely Hansen - 50 Back, 100 IM, 25 Breast
• Lauren Hizzey - 200 & 500 Free, 200 Back
• Elaina Jiang - 100 Free, 50 & 100 Breast, 25 Fly
• Kirill Kadach - 100, 200 & 500 Free, 100 & 200 Back
• Jonathan Liu - 100 Fly
• Roshni Padmanabhan - 200 Fly
• Neha Phatak - 200 IM
• Beatrix Pressman - 50 Free, 50 Fly
• Alex Ritscher Osorio - 100 Free
• Clara Stevenson - 100 Fly
• Alessandra Watrous - 100 Back
• Owen Wilson - 100 Back
• Kenshin Yokoyama - 50 Back, 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 100 IM

New US Motivational Times

A

• Lauren Hizzey – 500 Free

BB

• Alex Belkin – 50 Breast
• Ahana Bhattacharya – 100 Back
• Rhea Dawani – 100 Breast
• Abby Gray – 100 IM, 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Jonathan Liu – 100 Free
• Benji Ovendale – 100 Free
• Roshni Padmanabhan – 50 Free
• Siena Stahlkopf – 50 Breast

B

• Gahl Ami ad – 100 & 200 Breast, 100 & 200 Fly, 50 & 100 Free
• Tanvi Bathe – 100 Back
• Alex Belkin – 100 Back, 100 Free, 100 IM
• Esha Bhatia – 100 Back
• Aman Bhatt – 100 Free
• Arya Bhatt – 100 & 200 Free
• Ahana Bhattacharya – 100 Fly, 50 Back, 50 Free
• Amarissa Chandra – 100 Breast
• Ian Chow – 50 Free
• Rhea Dawani – 50 Breast
• Rory Geitz – 100 Breast, 100 Free
• Vivian Hu – 50 Back
• Elaina Jiang – 50 & 100 Breast, 100 Free
• Kirill Kadach – 200 Free
• Adam Kantor – 50 Breast
• Jonathan Liu – 50 Fly
• Emma Lu – 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Emily MacDonald – 50 Breast
• Lainey Meyer – 100 Free
• Benji Ovendale – 100 Back, 50 Breast, 100 IM
• Nicolas Palfreyman – 100 Back
• Mudit Singh – 100 Free
• Clara Stevenson – 50 & 100 Breast, 100 Fly
• Owen Wilson – 100 Back, 50 & 100 Breast, 100 Fly, 100 Free

Wave on 3!!