Wave January Invitationals

Our Sport Team started 2024 with Wave’s series of three invitational meets. We witnessed astounding performances from every practice group, including multiple new US Motivational cuts and several swimmers qualifying for the AGI meet next month! Way to go, swimmers!

Purple

We had an outstanding meet, with loads of best times and few disqualifications. Way to go Purple!

10-14 Meet Highlights

• Ethan Chan had a great meet winning his heat in all his races! He dropped more than 7 seconds in his 100 Back using a strong pull, dropped more than 3 seconds in his 50 Breast using a strong kick, and more than 2 seconds in his 100 Free with a strong building tempo!
• Lydia Liu dropped more than 7 seconds in her 50 Back racing with a great body position during her swim with a good arm tempo that she has worked hard in at practice. She also had a strong finish, really racing her opponents to the wall!
• Emily MacDonald broke the 3:00 mark in her 200 IM having a strong overall race especially in butterfly making her the 1^st place winner overall for the event and really putting her race strategies to use! She is up for any challenge race in swimming and pushes herself in practice that she shows off and shines bright in races with!
• Karina Maksyutov dropped time in all her races making her Top 5 overall in each. She especially showed her strength in the 200 IM when she dropped more than 38 seconds and had a strong breaststroke and freestyle to finish it off. Her consistency in practice really shined through in this race!
• Priyadarshi Lahiri had a strong meet coming back from a long break and was able to get best times in all his events! He had an outstanding 100 IM dropping more than 10 seconds and continued to carry that energy for the rest of the day.
• Mila Paulus has been doing great work in practice, which showed her focus and hard work during this meet! She had an impressive 100 Free, getting a major best time while maintaining a smart racing strategy.
• Mia Mohr shined in multiple ways at this meet by not only swimming fast but also learning new race strategies and getting in the racing mindset. She swam new events for the first time and got PRs in others while having tons of fun with her team and friends!
• Ross Gawthrop was one of our best racers of the day. His increased attention to technique during practice resulted in massive improvements for each race! He showed a great competitive spirit within his heats and took feedback from each race with thoughtfulness.

12&O Meet Highlights

• George Kosseff dropped more than 4 seconds in his 100 Breast taking the win by racing till the end and out touching his competitors. His high energy and competitive spirit really showed as he pushed through in his races. Special shout out for cleanly completing the 400 IM for the first time!
• Sushrut Yearva out touched his opponent by 0.3 in his 100 Breast to win his heat. He has been working hard on his kicking in practice which really proved to have helped power him through and really getting into the finish racing all out to the end!
• Carlo Villanueva had a strong 100 Free with a great dive and strong first 50 yards. He put all his hard work he does at practice into his racing, making him a well-rounded competitor at the meet. Special shout out for completing the 400 IM for the first time with a strong back half!
• Senul Wickramaratna dropped more than 15 seconds in his 200 Free by holding a strong long stroke, allowing him to work on his pacing and then race to win the heat. He thought about the racing strategy and put it to use which came in clutch for the win.
• Alina Karptsova dropped more than 15 seconds in 100 Breast and 200 Free. She used her 200 Free pacing wisely paired with her strong kick that helped her end that race with a solid time drop. Her breaststroke kept pushing forward at a solid pace, finishing that race out strong!
• Lindsey Caruso dropped just under 2 minutes in her 200 IM by keeping a smooth and strong pace throughout the entirety of her swim. She has been working hard in practice, which showed as she cruised through this event!

High School

We had a great meet! There were some fantastic swims from individuals that have been training hard! I am so happy to see the reward after the work! Let’s keep it going!!

Highlights:

• Dario Giuliani: -3.78 in his 100 Breast for a BB time, -4.87 in his 100 Free for a BB time, and -9.97 in his 200 IM for a BB time! He has been making a ton of effort in practice to get faster! When he shows up, he puts in the work!
• Lina Wu: -0.22 in her 100 Breast, -2.35 in her 100 Free, and -14.37 in her 200 IM. She has been working on what needs to be done the last few weeks to get where she needs to be! Continue the work and persevere!
• Eka Bhuyan: -8.86 in her 100 Back, -9.29 in her 100 Breast, and -3.51 in her 100 Free. She has been working hard on mechanics and swimming fast.
• Saanvi Adgaonkar swam the 100 Fly, 200 Back, and 200 IM for the first time. She has been working hard on mechanics and figuring out how and when to sprint.

Black Group

Many thanks to our Wave parents who helped make the meet so successful! We asked you to take care of a number of things like arrive on time and packing healthy snacks and you responded amazingly well! We also had no problems with Wave parents and seating at the pool. Thank you for your understanding, you made it easy for the coaches and deck marshals.

With more than 50 Black Group swimmers and just two coaches, you might be concerned about athletes missing a race, but our swimmers were on it and I don’t think we missed a single race! We had our usual mix of success and disqualifications in the pool, but mostly successes. However, we did have a higher number of DQs in butterfly so we will work with the kids in the pool on that.

• Aaradhya Bharadwaj had an outstanding meet with really excellent effort in all her races. Her 100 Free showed improvements with her wall skills as well as her stroke. She looked strong in her 50 Back and crushed her 50 Breast looking so much better than last meet and moving really well with each stroke.
• Quinn Braun had the same event lineup as Aaradhya and showed nice improvement in all three her races as well. Her 50 Breast was her best race that day, a really strong swim with better walls and was able to break 1:00 for the first time. Her 100 Free showed her really digging in to finish strong and we liked how she got off her start on her 50 Back.
• Julie Dong raced to a third place finish in the 25 Fly with a strong-looking stroke, destroyed her 50 Back with some awesome kicking, and successfully finished the 50 Breast for the first time.
• Ziad ElGamal has been working hard in practice and keeps getting better so we were super proud to mention him here. He had a couple DQs but we know he’ll fix those up. His 25 Free looked super good- nice dive, intensity, kicking, etc.
• Qifan Gong has also been working hard at practice and it showed in his 25 Fly as well as a strong first-time swim in his 50 Back. Awesome!
• Raya Hari looked so good in her 100 Free—long smooth strokes, good kicking, improved walls—but that’s what we’ve been seeing at practice so we weren’t surprised. She showed improvement in her other two swims and is closing in on breaking :50 in her 50 Back.
• Ellie Hsu brought the energy to her races and posted excellent swims in her 100 Free and 50 Back. Both were first time swims, but she raced them without fear.
• Yeim Jung we have been working on our breaststroke pullouts and he showed what good underwater work can do for your breaststroke races, finishing first in the 100 Breast, and third in the 25 Breast. Both races showed his attention to detail he’s put into his pullouts at practice. He also swam his best-ever 50 Fly and broke 1:00 for the first time.
• Miya Ma crushed all three of her races and still found time to give me a hard time at the meet. But then, she normally works hard at practice while putting me in place so I shouldn’t be surprised. Her 100 Free and 50 Back were vastly improved swims and she looked super good in those. She completed the 25 Breast for the first time and finished first!
• John Tang does an awesome job at practice and has really made progress over the past several months. His 100 Free and 50 Breast were both first-time races for him and he did an awesome job with them. We are excited to see him continue to grow and develop!

White Group

What a great start to 2024 with a beaucoup of best times and a deluge of new cuts!

• Eva Kalicinsk missed a first BB time in the 50 Breast by a small DQ in December, but this time she slam-dunked it with more time to spare! Her breaststroke is a kind of crouching tiger, a hidden dragon that slays in the breaststroke scene!

• Nandita Bhandari has been going nowhere but up since returning to White Group last February after being diagnosed with diabetes. She dropped time by the bushel this meet, totaling -51 seconds in just three events. She has also been creeping up on B times in several events, and she broke the tape in her 50 Back at this meet! She didn’t just break it, she fruit-ninja-chopped it, landing halfway to a first BB time and scoring a ticket to the Age Group Invitational Meet at KCAC. She has great times and an awesome story!

• Ella Gao was on fire this meet, dropping 7 seconds for a first B time in her 100 Breast, and dropping another -1.5s in her 50 Fly to qualify for the AGI meet. Now her 50 Fly sits just a second from a first BB time. But that second is going down! It should know better than to get between a flyer and anything she wants.

• Hayley Chou scored her first B time ever in her 50 Back, with a turbo-charged stroke, a precision flip turn, and a slightly goofy smile. The first couple ingredients got her under the line, but the smile powered her half-way to a BB time.

• Qiqi Cao dropped 13 seconds to earn a first B time in his 100 Breast and celebrated with one ‘I’m cool’ in passing. He knows this is the first of many and he’s getting busy on the next. In fact, he’s close in many strokes!

• Ann Ding scored a first legal time in her 100 Breast as well as a first B time and even a personal best for her 50 split (also a B time!). She is long, she is strong, and she is a ‘strong, silent type’ - the kind of athlete that often goes all the way in the swimming world!

• Flora-May Lawrence dropped 18 seconds in her 100 Breast since October! She dropped so much that she’s already 10 seconds under the B cut and only 3.7 seconds from a first BB time! Her secret sauce? Getting her head down for the glide! (and listening to coaches)

• Ethan Pan couldn’t lose for winning this meet. He dropped large blocks of time on all his events, including 35 seconds in his 100 Breast, 8 seconds in the 100 Free, and 1 second in his 50 Back. But that 1 second was the most exciting and impressive, because it bumped him over the PNS Gold timeline, and earned him a ticket to the Age Group Invitational!

• Maja Wang didn’t miss her back flip turn this time around and crushed a first B time by 3 seconds! In fact, missing her flip turn last time helped her focus on it, which was clutch in her big drop. She’s now closer to a BB time than a B, and she knows how to hit what she aims at!

• Thomas Godbout has been an arrow aimed at a 50 Back B time since last June, when he first realized he was in range. Since then, he has been taunting his fans, getting closer and further in successive meets. But he finally slam-dunked this mission this time, cutting 1.6 second off his best to land well under the cut!

New US Motivational Times

 BB 

• Feynman Chan – 200 Free
• Dario Giuliani – 100 Breast, 100 Free, 200 IM
• Evangeline Kalicinski – 50 Breast
• David Rondel – 100 Free

 B 

• Nandita Bhandari – 50 Back
• Qiqi Cao – 100 Breast
• Feynman Chan – 200 IM
• Hayley Chou – 50 Back
• Ann Dinh – 100 Breast
• Ella Gao – 100 Breast
• Thomas Godbout – 50 Back
• Devon Gordon – 100 Back
• Arnav Jha – 100 Back, 200 Free
• Evangeline Kalicinski – 100 IM
• Priyadarshi Lahiri – 50 Free
• Flora-May Lawernce – 100 Breast
• Emily MacDonald – 200 IM
• Karina Maksyutov – 50 Breast
• Maksim Nikitenko – 200 IM
• Charles Page – 50 Back
• Molly Page – 100 Free
• Miranda Range – 100 Free
• Victor Shirshav – 100 Back
• Aditeya Verma – 100 Free
• Maya Wang – 50 Back
• Olivia Wu – 100 Back
• Alexander Yang – 100 Back

WAVE ON 3!!