Washington Open Meet Recap

Our Senior 1 and Senior Epic groups sent nearly 40 swimmers to Federal Way for the first meet of 2024, the 47^th Annual Washington Open, one of the oldest short course meets in the state. The meet featured over 900 swimmers from Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Montana and we are very proud of how well our athletes performed so early in the winter season!

Senior 1

The Senior 1 group had 20 swimmers compete at the Washington Open. Our group used this mostly as a training meet as we have only been back in the water a short time. We focused on racing well and trying to learn from each swim. The swimmers who competed did a great job of stepping up and putting everything they had into their races. We had several best times and many other swims that were right on best times. This is very promising moving forward and I am very excited to see how the group progresses through the season. We’re looking forward to training hard and crushing our next meet!

• Quinn Anderson has shown he has speed, so he was excited to get a chance to compete in some longer events to show his endurance is high as well. He had great swims in both the 200 Fly and 200 IM dropping time in both races. His biggest drop of 11 seconds came in the 200 Free, he had a strong swim going out fast and holding his speed throughout.
• Bradley Barkans came into the meet getting over an illness, but he didn’t let that slow him down as he showed great speed, dropping in two events. He had an awesome 100 Back swimming hard all the way to the finish and just missed breaking the 1:00 barrier for the first time. He is ready to go under his next time out.
• Anton Mazepa was on point all weekend as he went five best times. He has really been working on his speed and it showed as he had a huge 3-second drop in the 100 Free. He continues to excel at the backstroke events, going best times in his 50 and 200 Back as well.
• Kieran O’Gorman looked strong and was right on his best times or better in all his races. He had a very exciting 100 Back that came down to the finish and had six swimmers finish within 0.3 of one another. He put everything he had into his 100 Free going a best time and getting himself very close to breaking 50 seconds.
• Ani Purkayastha continued to build on her success from December. She was right on or better than her best times in all her races. She swam an incredible 50 Back in prelims to get herself a spot in finals. In finals, she turned around and blasted an even better swim moving up one place and going under :28 for the first time.

Senior Epic

We had our first meet of the year with all swimmers in the Epic group competed at the Open. It was great to see where we are to start off the season and what the athletes need to work on in the upcoming blocks of our training program. Despite just a couple weeks of training after the break, we had some exciting swims, athletes going best times and many swimming right at their times. We will continue to build their aerobic and anaerobic capacity and they should be feeling better to race in our upcoming meet in two weeks. Enjoy the highlights from some swimmers in the group:

• Daniel Cho has been focusing on a very specific mission in the 100 Breast and this weekend he demonstrated that he is on the right path! He swam only 0.10 off his tapered time achieved in December in the 100 Breast. He qualified for finals and demonstrated his consistency going the same time as the morning. He also swam a best time in the 200 IM (-3.44) with a fantastic breaststroke split and went another personal best in the 100 Fly dropping 3.48 seconds.
• Hailey Crawford started off her season with strong swims in all her events and managed to swim a best time in the 100 Free (-0.23). Then she went less than a second off her best times in the 100 and 200 Breast, 200 Free, and 50 Free. Her 200 events were her strongest swims where she showed amazing speed to close her races. She also learned a bit more about race strategies and where she can improve in those events.
• Ethan Na has been chasing the 50 Free Sectionals cut for the past month and swam only 0.04 off the cut! He knows what he did well and what he can improve and will be working on that for the next meet. Overall, he had a solid meet, going a best time in the 200 Free (-0.15) and the 100 Breast where he found his speed to drop a solid 1.63 seconds and earn an A Time.
• Megan Traina had a great start with many solid swims during the weekend. Her outstanding swim was the 200 Back where she did a good job keeping consistent and strong dolphin kicks in all her turns to swim a personal best time. She also demonstrated the ability to be competitive in all her events, swimming within less than 0.5 off her best times in the 50 & 100 Back and 50 & 100 Free.
• Jaiden Sreenivasan had a rough start on the first day but was able to recover in the middle of the meet and finished strong, swimming two of his best events really well. In the 400 IM, he qualified for finals and won the B final with excellent splits in both breast and free. In the 1650 Free, he dominated the race from the beginning where he held a strong and consistent pace and was able to turn on his turbo mode and sprint to a great finish.
• Rina Yuan took advantage of swimming in some odd events at this meet and went a best time in two events. She dropped almost a second in the 100 Breast and shaved off 0.13 in the 50 Fly. She also had solid swims in her main events—the 50 and 100 Free—where she did a good job working on her race strategies and also swam right at her time in the 200 IM.
• Henry Geitz brought home two best times. He has been working hard on his breaststroke and it has been paying off. He dropped another 1.67 seconds in the 200 Breast and another 1.57 seconds in the 200 IM to earn an A Time. He also went right at his time in the 100 Fly with a solid technique during the race.
• Iris Huang has been exploring her race strategies a bit more and went less than a second off her times in the 50 and 100 Free. She also swam a best time in the 200 IM and found her speed in the 200 Medley Relay, swimming a great butterfly split for the team.

We have a lot of work to do in the upcoming months and I am excited to see what this group can accomplish during the process! Go WAVE!!!

New US Motivational Times

 AAA 

• Anton Mazepa – 200 Back

 AA 

• Anton Mazepa – 100 Free

 A 

• Henry Geitz – 200 IM
• Anton Mazepa – 100 Breast
• Ethan Na – 100 Breast
• Gabriel Traina – 200 Back
• Daniel Xia – 100 Back

 BB 

• Quinn Anderson – 200 Free
• Amaris Rus – 200 Back

Wave on 3!!