October Invitational Meet Recaps

The Sport Team started off the 2023-24 short course season with a series of one-day meets at Juanita over two weekends. We saw a boatload of huge drops and new motivational times as well of many first-time swims. Way to go, Sport!

Black Group

First, a big thank you to families for arriving on time and arriving prepared, as well as following along with our seating arraignment. The seating worked well as far as making it far easier to find swimmers and get them downstairs to staging and their lanes.

Thank you also to everyone who volunteered in some way. We cannot run a meet without our parents filling in critical positions.

Thank you also to Coach Misho and our stagers. I believe we had zero missed races, and no one ended up in the wrong heat or lane. All those are very likely to happen, but not this time around! It took a team of people plus the athletes paying attention and being where they needed to be.

Warm-ups went smoothly. There was some uncertainty from some of the swimmers, and it was crowded, both of which are to be expected, but the athletes did really well with this part of the meet.

Moving on to the races-

I want to first highlight the athletes who completed their first 100 IM: Shreyan Acharya, Quinn Braun and Avani Yadav all successfully completed the 100 IM for the first time. Raya Hari also swam the race, and while she’d done this before, she posted a new best time in it.

Second, I want to congratulate Blakely Hansen (50 Back) and Lexie Watrous (100 Free) for earning new B times! Both young ladies do an awesome job working on their underwater skills at practice, as well as everything else. It’s always awesome to see efforts at practice pay off at meets. Well earned!

With lots of new Black Group athletes, there were lots of first-time legal swims that happened-

• Abha Acharya 25 Breast
• Kanav Acharya 25 Back
• Shreyan Acharya 25 Free
• Arifin Capiral 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Mo Chen 25 Free
• Poppy Covington 25 Back, 25 Free
• Arvaan Deshmukh 25 Back, 25 Free
• Julie Dong 25 Breast, 25 Free
• Ziad ElGamal 25 Back, 25 Free
• Theodore Gerber 25 Back, 25 Free
• Bianca Ghiondea 25 Back, 25 Free
• Neeva Goel 25 Back, 25 Free
• Feifan Gong 50 Back, 50 Free
• Felix Henaire 25 Back, 25 Free
• Kaiji Homma 25 Breast, 25 Free
• Amelia Horng 25 Back, 25 Free
• Ellie Hsu 25 Back, 25 Fly, 25 Free
• Rosemary Huang 50 Free
• Bessie Jiang 25 Back, 25 Free
• Yeim Jung 25 Fly, 50 Breast
• Martin Li 25 Breast
• Zhile Li 25 Fly, 25 Free
• Sophie Liu 50 Breast
• Elvis Lu 50 Breast
• Josh Lu 25 Back, 25 Free
• Keira Lydick 25 Back, 25 Free
• Yuna Ma 25 Back, 25 Free
• Hanna Nagpal 100 Back, 25 Breast, 25 Fly
• Phoebe Priday 25 Back, 25 Free
• Aashay Rane 100 Back
• Xander Ritscher Osorio 100 Back
• Daniel Rondel 25 Back, 25 Fly, 50 Free
• Gabriel Steijn 25 Back, 25 Fly, 25 Free
• Cora Sun 25 Back, 25 Fly, 25 Free
• John Tang 25 Fly, 50 Back, 50 Free
• Emma Ter-Vardanyan 25 Fly, 50 Free
• Margaret Ursulenko 25 Fly
• Claire Wang 25 Back
• Steven Wang 25 Back
• Cameron Watrous 25 Fly
• Isaac Xie 25 Breast, 25 Fly, 50 Back
• Owen Yan 50 Breast
• Ping Yang 25 Back, 25 Fly, 25 Free
• Alison Yu 25 Breast
• Bella Zhang 25 Back, 25 Free
• Derek Zhu 25 Back, 25 Free

Congratulations to all our Black Group athletes who competed at the meet. The coaches are looking forward to our next opportunity in December to get some racing in!

White Group

For a short meet, White group has a sizable pile of awesomeness to be proud of. We had 59 first legal swims, 600s of dropped time, and exactly 0 missed swims. More impressively, we knighted more Motivational Graduates than ever before: 12! Even our DQ stack is minimal and easily fixable. More importantly, we had fun with friends, and looked great in the water. So that’s a win, in many ways. A few swimmers and swims, warrant a little extra shout-out recognition:

FIRST MEET MASTERS: We had 16 ‘rookies’ at this meet, and they hit the water swimming. Of these, 8 of them had ‘beginners’ luck’, landing all their events legally the first time they tried! Kudos to Nuo Chen, Flora-May Lawrence, David Li, Otis Lloyd, Duru Ussakli, Eva Kalicinski, Anika Kulkarni and William Zhang!

MOTIVATIONAL GRADS:

BB:

• Emma Lu - 50 Back - Just earned her first three B-times at her last meet in August! Now she has already leveled up again, but in a new stroke she didn’t even have a B time in! After she DQd a near miss in the event last meet, she nailed it this meet, with a legal and fast flip turn, and 1 with 1 second to spare. She also earned a ticket to the Age Group Invitational (AGI) meet next month!

B:

• Aditeya Verma - 50 Free - After a week out for a cold, he was a bit lost at the meet, but he knew what to do when he hit the water, dropping 5 seconds, earn his first B time and a ticket to the AGI meet!
• Tyler Fernandez - 50 Back - He dropped 6 seconds in his 50 Back, earning his first B time without knowing it. We had to track him down to get a hi-five. He then dropped 15 seconds in his 50 Breast and 5 seconds in his 50 Free like a man just doing a job that he was wildly overqualified for.
• Ella Gao - 50 Fly - After a lot of fly work, Ella’s fly has the kind of smooth power that makes it fast and fun, without making it look any harder…and it earned her a first B time that is already closer to BB. Young swimmers who can fly well are an elite club.
• Zoey Harmetz - 50 Back - She had no idea she even had a chance at a B time, especially not in backstroke. Zoey thought she was a breaststroker, but she has a fantastic feel for the water that helps her drop time, every time. She is now an everything specialist.
• Eva Kalicinski - 50 Back, 100 BR - In her first meet ever, Eva couldn’t lose for winning. She pole-vaulted over B times to land halfway to BB in her 50 Back and even closer to BB in her 100 Breast. Those were first swims, so she didn’t have much competition in her heat, and she couldn’t drop time officially, but she sliced 22 seconds off her time trial bests. She is a time trial fruit ninja.
• Anika Kulkarni - 100 Breast - She’s been a Wave-r since April, but this was her first meet ever and she hit a hole-in-one, earning a B time in her 100 Breast without even knowing that she had a chance! And it wasn’t a moment too soon, as this was also her last meet as a 10&U!
• Aanya Sharan - 50 Back, 100 Breast - After just missing a first B in her last meet, she slam-dunked a couple B times this round. Not leaving anything to chance, she powered 2 seconds into B in her Back, and 4 seconds in her 100 Breast. She was also close in her 50 Free.
• Victor Shirshov - 50 Back, 100 Breast - He earned his first two B times in his 50 Back (dropping 4 seconds) and his 100 Breast (dropping 16 seconds). Both of those swims were improvements on times from just two months ago! We worked on freestyle and backstroke for this meet so he wasn’t supposed to win breast...but he didn’t know that, so he did! He dropped so much time that he sailed past B to land closer to BB times than B times in both events. He also dropped 6 seconds on his 50 Free to land just inches from a third B time!
• Olivia Wu - 50 Back, 100 Breast – She landed her first two B times at the meet, though the margin of error had our hearts skip a beat! In her 50 Back, she dropped 7 seconds to land a 0.19 under the B cut. But that feels cushy compared to her 100 Breast, where she dropped 22 seconds to land 0.03 into B!
• Alex Yang - 50 Back – He had some exceptional beginner’s luck. His 50 Back was on fire, shaving 5 seconds off his time trial, and earning him both a first B time (almost BB) and a ticket to the AGI meet. But it was disqualified…then reconsidered and overturned. A rough roller coaster, but a win in the end!
• William Zhang - 50 Back, 100 Breast - In his first meet EVER, and his last meet before he turns 11, William scored two big firsts. He snuck his 50 Back into B time-zone with 0.06 to spare while his 100 Breast burned past B to land 0.4 from a first BB time!

LOSS LEADERS: Total time dropped at the meet

• Cut 20s+: Hayley Chou (-21 seconds), Maggie Zhou (-23 seconds), Asmi Sarkar (-23 seconds)
• Cut 25s+: Aria Beazer (-26 seconds), Tyler Fernandez (-29 seconds), Victor Shirshov (-27 seconds), Zoey Harmetz (-26 seconds)
• Cut 30s+: Amelia Ye (-33 seconds), Ann Ding (-32 seconds)
• Winner: Olivia Wu (-38 seconds)

ON FIRE: We focused on back and free for this meet and these swimmers connected with it, reaping the steepest improvements.

• Ostap Lytvynovskyi - 50 Back (-9 seconds in two months), the steepest improvement for White Group in the whole meet! Ask him his speed secret next time you see him. Let’s hope he knows it!
• Maggie Zhou - 50 Free (-7 seconds in two months) and 50 Breast (-9 seconds in 2 months), she improved ALL her events steeply, even though she swam them ALL just two months ago. Don’t get in her way, she’s going places!
• Asmi Sarkar - 50 Back (-16 seconds in three months), she improved all her events as well, and steeply. More impressively, she told the coaches how she did (most White Group swimmers usually have no idea). And her smile could light up the pool. It’s important to know what a ‘win’ is so you don’t miss a celebration.
• Katelyn Chen - 50 Free (-7 seconds in two months). She had her head down, with a turbo kick and a fast flip. All the right pieces in all the right places.

ONES TO WATCH: Swimmers who narrowly missed big firsts, are usually driven!

• AGI Qualifiers: David Rondel, Maks Nikitenko, Emma Lu, Aditeya Verma and Alex Yang earned a ticket to the AGI meet next month. They have a chance to be in relays and try some longer events there, so anything is possible. David is even within range of qualifying for Champs or even earning an A time in his 100 Back or 50 Fly!
• Almost B : Bryan Wei and Doyeol Yang landed less than a second from a first B time in the 50 Back. Roohi Indurkar was just as close in her 50 Breast
• B but for a DQ: Maja Wang - 50 Back, scored her first B time, except for a disqualification for missing the wall in the flip turn. Yet, It was brave to opt for the flip turn in her first meet, in her first 50 Back in her first event at her first meet ever. Missing the wall takes longer than hitting it, but she still finished well below the B line, so she will tear it up next time.

Purple Group

Congratulations to all Purple Group Swimmers who participated in the last couple of meets!! We had great swims and a bunch of time drops across the board!! Some highlights below:

• Apolline Abram-Profeta — Dropped 5 seconds in 200 Free and 50 Back
• Sachi Akers — Dropped 7 seconds in 100 Back
• Anika Arvan — Dropped 5 seconds in 50 Back, 7 seconds in 50 Breast, and 10 seconds in 50 Free
• Lindsey Caruso — Dropped over 20 seconds in both 100 IM and 200 Free
• Joshua Hunter — Dropped 7 seconds in his 100 Free
• Keshav Iyer — Dropped 23 seconds in 100 Fly
• Alina Karptsova — Dropped 12 seconds in 100 Back
• Lydia Liu — Dropped 11 seconds in 100 Free and 9 seconds in 100 IM
• Jonah Lynn- Dropped 26 seconds in 200 Free
• Karina Maksyutov — Dropped 5 seconds in 100 Free
• Mila Paulus — Dropped 9 seconds in 100 Breast and 12 seconds in 50 Free
• Rayona Saraswat — Dropped 10 seconds in her 100Bk, 15 in her 100 IM, and 23 in her 200 Free
• Anishi Singh — Dropped 9 seconds in 50 Fly and 11 seconds in 100 IM
• Rachel Siu — Dropped 6 seconds in 100 Breast and 11 Seconds in 100 Free
• Yan Wang — Dropped12 seconds in 100Bk and 17 seconds in 100 Breast
• Joshua Xia — Dropped 5 seconds in 50 Fly, 7 in his 100 IM, and 8 in his 100 Free
• Katie Yi — Dropped 17 seconds in 100 IM and 19 seconds in 50 Breast
• Neha Gopisetty — Dropped 7 seconds in 100 Back and 14 seconds in 100 Breast
• Adam Kantor — Dropped 32 seconds in 200 IM
• George Kosseff — Dropped 8 seconds in 100 Breast
• Alizeh Kurji — Dropped 9 seconds in 200 Free
• Greg Lee — Dropped 7 seconds in 100 Free
• Emily MacDonald — Dropped 9 seconds in 100 Back
• Theresa Nguyen — Dropped 15 seconds in 200 Breast
• Molly Page — Dropped 10 seconds in 200 Back
• Senul Wickramaratna — Dropped 21 seconds in 100 Free
• Hannah Zhao — Dropped 12 seconds in 200 IM

Great job to all Purple Group who attended these past meets!! Hard work pays off, on to the next!!!!

High School

So many great swims at this meet! We had 19 B times and 3 BB times. Great way to start the year off. The swim of the meet goes to Julien Wang for chasing down his competitor in the 100 Free and dropping his time! Way to go!

• Saanvi Adgaonkar: -15.90 in 100 Free. Swam 100 Breast and 100 Back for the first time.
• Ori Ami ad: -1.08 in 100 Breast for a B time. -2.02 in 100 Fly.
• Aanya Atwal: -2.83 in 100 Free. -4.86 in 200 IM.
• Eka Bhuyan: -4.01 in 100 Breast. -0.03 in 100 Free and swam the 200 IM for the first time.
• Lucas Blat-Phillips: -10.33 in 100 Back for a B time. -6.04 in 100 Breast. -3.31 in 100 Free for a B time.
• Cayden Chan: No time drops but still swam a B time in the 100 Free.
• Alvin Chang: -4.84 in 200 IM for a B time. Swam 200 Breast and 100 Free- With a B time for the first time.
• Madeline Cheng: No time drops but still swam her best!
• Thomas Claux: No time drops but still swam his 100 Free at a BB time.
• Felix Deng: -1.10 in 100 Breast. -6.86 in 100 Free. -17.45 in 200 IM for a B time.
• Evan Galuska: No time drops but had great swims!
• Dario Giuliani: -3.50 in 100 Free for a B time. -5.95 in 200 IM for a B time.
• Aiden Honjaya: -2.38 in 100 Back. Swam 100 Fly for the first time.
• Arnav Jha: -47.46 in 100 Fly. -10.10 in 200 Back for a B time. Swam 200 IM for the first time for a B time.
• Margot Kleinpeter: -0.33 100 Breast. -3.30 in 100 Free. -2.41 in 200 IM.
• Jonathan Kong: -0.92 in 100 Fly. -0.86 in 100 Free. -5.07 in 200 IM.
• Daniel Luckowski: Swam 100 Fly for the first time. No time drops but still swam the 100 Free with a B time.
• Aayona Pattanaik: -3.00 in 100 Breast. -4.73 in 200 IM.
• David Peysakhov: Swam 200 IM for the first time.
• Ron Saveliev: -1.32 100 Back. -2.65 in 100 Free.
• Victoria Seto: Swam 100 Fly for the first time. -11.58 in 200 IM. -31.99 in 500 Free.
• Jay Song: Swam 200 Breast, 100 Free and 200 IM for the first time. Got a B time in the 100 Free.
• Raina Tuladhar: -1.88 in 100 Back. -0.29 in 100 Free.
• Ekansh Verma: No time drops but great swims.
• Julien Wang: -6.99 in 100 Back. -4.02 in 100 Breast. -2.93 in 100 free for a BB time.
• Oliver Wang: -4.18 in 100 Back for a B time.
• Lina Wu: -1.12 in 100 Back for a B time. -1.49 in 100 Free for a BB time.
• Liya Wu: -2.60 in 200 IM for a B time.
• Jonathan Yu: -2.71 in 100 Back. -9.16 in 100 Breast. -2.78 in 100 Free.

New US Motivational Times

 BB 

• Emma Lu – 50 Back
• David Rondel – 50 Fly
• Julien Wang – 100 Free

 B 

• Ori Ami ad – 100 Breast
• Lucas Blat-Phillips – 100 Free, 100 Back
• Amarissa Chandra – 100 Breast
• Alvin Chang – 100 Free, 200 IM
• Felix Deng – 200 IM
• Emily Dong – 100 Free, 50 Fly
• Tyler Fernandez – 50 Back
• Ella Gao – 50 Fly
• Dario Giuliani – 100 Free
• Blakely Hansen – 50 Back
• Zoey Harmetz – 50 Back
• Arnav Jha – 200 Back
• Evangeline Kalicinski – 100 Breast, 50 Back
• Alice Khudyakov – 100 Back
• Anika Kulkarni – 100 Breast
• Lydia Lu – 100 IM
• Karina Maksyutov – 100 Free
• Emily McDonald – 100 Back, 100 Fly
• Charlie Page – 200 IM
• Aanya Sharan – 100 Breast, 50 Back
• Jay Song – 200 Breast
• Aditeya Verma – 50 Free
• Oliver Wang – 100 Back
• Lexie Watrous – 100 Free
• Olivia Wu – 100 Breast, 50 Back
• Alexander Yang – 50 Back
• William Zhang – 100 Breast, 50 Back

Wave on 3!!