SSCD Winter Open

Our Select Team made the short trek to Kamiak High School in Mukilteo to race a lot of off events, new events, and try for some new cuts. All the groups have put in some good training so far this season and they are excited to keep pushing themselves to continue to improve. Way to go, swimmers!

Senior 1

We had 23 swimmers compete at the meet. I was very pleased with the performances of our swimmers across the board. We used the meet as a training meet and I was very happy to see everyone step up and put everything they had into their races. We had many swimmers drop time and everyone was right on their best in at least a few of their races. I am excited to see what they can accomplish moving forward. It is always fun for me to see their hard work pay off and I know that we are going to have some amazing swims. Looking forward to working towards excellence.

• Bianca Bensen has been working hard to come back from an injury in December. She is back to race form as she was right on her best time in all her races and even put up a best time in the 50 Back. Her backstroke dominance continued as she finished 1^st in the 200, 2^nd in the 50, and 4^th in the 100.
• Abby Gong has been one of the most consistent trainers since joining Wave. All her hard work is starting to pay off as she turned in some absolutely huge swims at the meet. She has really been working on her endurance lately and it really showed in her 500 Free as she blasted her old time by 40 seconds.
• Peter Hansen is another swimmer who comes to practice every day and puts in the work. He has seen his raw speed improve a lot so far but was excited to show that his endurance has also improved. He had an awesome 200 IM dropping 2 seconds. He also took on the 200 Free, a race he does not swim very often and absolutely crushed it, dropping 14 seconds and almost breaking 2:00.
• Rahul Purkayastha has been working to improve his short axis strokes. He had a great opportunity to race some breast and fly over the weekend and took full advantage of it. He started off by dropping 1 second in the 100 Fly and followed up with a 4-second drop in the 100 Breast.
• Isabella Vasilescu had an awesome meet, going best times in four of her races. She works hard every day and was very ready for some big swims. Her fly remains her strongest stroke and she turned in a solid 2-second drop in the 100. She was another who took on the 500 Free and absolutely crushed her best time, dropping 20 seconds.
• Daniel Xia took the opportunity to swim some of his off events at this meet. He proved that he is incredibly versatile and can swim almost anything. He put up a solid 400 IM dropping 16 seconds and achieving a Senior Zones qualifying time. He had solid backstroke swims dropping 1 second in the 100 and 6 seconds in the 200.

Age Group 1

AG1 had a great start to the second half of the SCY Season. Every single swimmer who competed in the meet was able to drop time in at least one event, with most kids dropping time in 5-6 out of their 6 swims. Awesome start to the year and a fun weekend of great swimming. Congrats to the whole group and special shout out to the two birthday girls who competed at the meet, Adele Bokach and Siena Stahlkopf.

• Max Sun has been working hard at practice, leading his lane and really taking coaches’ feedback and improving his strokes. It was awesome for that hard work to pay off with some amazing swims over the weekend. He went 6/6 in best times and dropped a total of 50 seconds over the weekend.
• Vivian Hu also had a great weekend. She was 5/5 in best times and completed her very first 100 Fly. In total she dropped a full minute across those five swims. But the coolest thing to see was the improvement that her freestyle had in her events, as she was swimming long and smooth just like we have been working on.
• Berit Dunn crushed the weekend, going 6/6 in best times and—although she might not think she is an IM’er just yet—in her heart she knows it to be true. The two biggest stand outs were her 200 IM where she did a great job improving her underwaters and turns like we have been working on, and in her 50 Breast where she got her very first AA Time.
• Elaina Jiang dominated the weekend going 6 /6 in best times. She dropped 27 total seconds across all her swims. Her standout swim was the 200 IM where you could really the see the improvement in her 50 Fly and 50 Back where she worked her underwaters and kept her stroke strong and consistent.
• Owen Wilson also went 6/6 over the weekend and dropped 33 total seconds across all his events. He has also been working very hard in the water, especially in the kick sets, and that hard work showed up this weekend with some great times and stroke improvement. I was very impressed with how that kick work paid off in his 50 Back where he was able to get his very first A Time.

Great job to all the AG1 kids who competed in the meet this weekend. The group absolutely crushed the weekend and I can’t wait to see them continue to improve through the year.

Age Group 2

We have been working very hard on our endurance not just for free but all the strokes, especially butterfly. Everyone’s hard work paid off huge as we had 17 first-time 400 IM, 9 first-time 200 Fly, and 4 first-time 500 Free swims. We have worked every day on our ability to have excellent breakouts and spent much of January improving our starts. The result was usually coming up in first place off our starts and running the competition down on our turns. Well done, AG2!

• Ilia Maksimchuk finished his first 200 Fly with strokes that looked as good as his first length…and he did it all without goggles while picking up 5^th place. He also swam his first-ever 200 Back and broke the 1:20 in his 100 Free.
• Jayden Hor only raced one day but made the most it, dropping 95 seconds(!) off his 500 Free time (his previous best was just last June), and earned 6^th place.
• Keira Spitze not only shattered her entry time in the 500 Free by more than 1 minute (and a B time), she did so with a gorgeous long stroke and perfect pacing. She has worked very hard on keeping her stroke count per length down and it really showed in this race. It also showed up in her 100 Free (-2.7 seconds) and 200 Free (-13.3 seconds).
• Esha Bhatia has worked especially hard in dryland at building her body strength and has also discovered how to push herself in swimming. The result was all best times highlighted by her first 500, a 6.5-second drop in her 100 Free, and a 14-second drop in her 100 Fly.
• Deniz Cankaya was a perfect 6/6. No surprise, as he has paid incredible attention to his technique not just in his strokes but in his starts, turns, and finishes. He finished Top 5 in all his races, including winning the 200 IM with a 27-second drop and the 50 Back. He also finished 3^rd in his first-ever 400 IM, earning a BB time in the process.
• Lucas Deng has really turned on the power in workout, swimming at a whole new level in the past two months. The pay off was winning the 500 Free with a 9-second drop, 2^nd in the 200 Free with a 10-second drop, and 5^th in the 100 Fly with 20-second drop.
• Ellen Feng earned five new best times swimming several off events. She discovered a new love of backstroke, earning 2^nd place and a new A time in the 100. She also scored 2^nd place in her first-ever 200 Fly after working very hard the past few months at correcting her head position, and qualified for Age Group Regionals in the process.
• Vedah Tuladhar cranked up her leg speed to 11 and went 6/6 with several amazing finishes. She swam her first-ever 200 Breast and 400 IM (where she scored 3^rd!), dropped more than 7 seconds in the 100 Free and just missed breaking 1:10, and chopped off an astonishing 26.3 seconds in the 200 IM where she blasted past two other swimmers on the final length to pick up 3^rd place.
• George Ursulenko has worked very hard on his butterfly and endurance and had a huge payoff with a big drop (13+ seconds) in his 200 IM and an AGI qualifying time in his first-ever 400 IM. That went along with going 5/6 in best times for the meet!

Senior Epic

Senior Epic's goal at this meet was to compete hard and find the best strategy to race considering the accumulation phase of our training program. They did a good job despite the heavy training we have been doing and no recovery practices before the meet. We had some best times, many fast swims, and most of the swimmers in the group were able to put together the skills they have been working on in practice while racing. A big shout out to Jaiden Sreenivasan who broke the 1:00 barrier in the 100 Breast for the first time. Enjoy more highlights from our group:

• Samantha Merriam has been working hard on her butterfly and it showed on her 200 Fly. Sam came mentally prepared and had a great swim where she dropped 9.26 seconds and showed a big smile at the end of the race. She also went a best time in the 50 Breast dropping 0.71 and was satisfied with her swims.
• Nik Brusilovski requested to swim the 200 Fly at this meet and came ready to crush it. He had solid splits and demonstrated good endurance to close his race going stronger in his last 50. He had a huge 8.61-second drop and earned an A Time.
• Owen Ledrick’s outstanding swim was the 200 Breast where he has been chasing the Sectionals cut and missed it by only 0.19 tenths of second! He still has another month of training and will try again in our February meet. He also went a best time in the 400 IM. dropping 11.29 seconds with an excellent breaststroke split.
• Jenna Kimborowicz has been training very well and feeling strong. At the meet, she was happy with her 500 Free and how she managed her race. She tried a new race strategy and was able to stick with it feeling good in her race and swimming strong until her last lap.
• Oleg Arlouski swam some off events in this meet and went two best times. He went a best time in his 100 Breast, dropping 4.16 seconds and did a great job in his 50 Back where he worked on his stroke tempo and updated a very old time by a lot.

Senior Prep

Sr. Prep did very well at the SSCD Winter Open with 73% of our races being best times and another 17 swims that were exactly at our best time or within 0.5. Our average time drop for all swims was 2.72 seconds per race. We also had fifteen new swims where a swimmer completed a race legally for the first time. I especially wanted to give a shout out to all the swimmers that swam the swam the 200 Fly legally for the first time: Claire Gao, Caden Grey, Dami Jung, Beata Sobol, Maya Surugiu, and Edi Vasilescu. Highlights:

• Gahl Ami ad had a super meet. He improved in 5/6 events with a monster 25+ second drop in his 400 IM and a pair of 9+ second improvements in his 200 Back and 200 Breast events. Excellent job Gahl!
• Phoebe Anderson had an outstanding meet with improvements in every race she swam including a 24-second drop in her 400 IM and 2+ second drops in her 50 Breast and 100 Fly races too. Way to go Phoebe!
• Evan Deng has the award for biggest improvement at the meet for Sr. Prep, dropping his 500 Free time by more than 48 seconds. He also improved in every race he swam other than the 400 IM, which was the first time he has swum it. Nice work Evan!
• Caden Gray had an outstanding meet with improvements in every event other than the 200 Fly, which was his first successful swim in the event! He dropped 20+ seconds in both the 100 Fly (-29) and the 500 Free (-23) as well as a 6+ second drop in his 200 Free. What a meet, nice job Caden!
• K Kadach had huge drops in just about everything he swam. His 500 was more than 27 seconds faster than his last time earlier this season! He also had a 7-second improvement in his 100 Breast, a 6-second improvement in his 200 Breast, and a 5-second improvement in his 400 IM. Impressive swimming, K!
• Lainey Meyer had four very large improvements with a 12-second drop in her 500 Free, an 8-second drop in her 200 Back, and a pair of 4-second improvements in her 100 and 200 Breast events. Super racing and pacing, Lainey!
• Roshni Padmanabhan had the second biggest improvement in Sr. Prep in her 400 IM, swimming 41 seconds faster from her time from last May! She also had the largest drop in the group for a 50 distance with a 6+ second improvement in her 50 Breast. Her 200 Back improving more than 5 seconds is also a highlight worth mentioning. Excellent work, Roshni!

New US Motivational Times

 AAA 

• Claire Gao – 100 Fly
• Anton Mazepa – 100 Back
• Jaiden Sreenivasan – 100 Breast

 AA 

• Berit Dunn – 50 Breast
• Fiona Herman – 100 Free
• Anton Mazepa – 200 Fly
• Daniel Xia – 400 IM

 A 

• Nik Brusilovski – 200 Fly
• Kamilla Bugaitsova – 50 Free
• Addy Clarke – 50 Back
• Ellen Feng – 100 Back
• Claire Gao – 200 Fly
• Bennett Geitz – 200 IM
• Fiona Herman – 100 IM
• Adrian Juco – 200 Free
• Dami Jung – 50 Fly
• Elise Kabakci – 100 Back
• Lingyi Li – 50 Fly
• Anton Mazepa – 100 Fly
• Max Smagley – 50 Free
• Alex Wang – 50 Back
• Owen Wilson – 50 Back
• Ally Yuan – 100 & 200 IM

 BB 

• Gahl Ami ad – 200 Breast
• Alex Arlouski – 100 Fly
• Oleg Arlouski – 100 Breast
• Aman Bhatt – 100 Breast
• Arya Bhatt – 100 Free
• Ahana Bhattacharya – 100 IM, 200 Back
• Adele Bokach – 100 Fly, 100 Free
• Kamilla Bugaitsova – 100 Breast
• Roman Byelykh – 100 Fly, 200 IM
• Deniz Cankaya – 50 & 100 Free, 200 & 400 IM
• Addy Clarke – 100 Breast
• Rhea Dawani – 100 Back
• Lucas Deng – 100 Fly
• Berit Dunn – 100 & 200 Free
• Ellen Feng – 200 Fly
• Rory Geitz – 50 Free
• Abby Gong – 500 Free
• Sophia Gorveatt – 100 Back
• Caden Gray – 100 Fly, 200 & 500 Free
• Blakely Hansen – 100 Breast
• Peter Hansen – 200 Free
• Olivia Henaire – 100 Free
• Penelope Hepkin – 200 IM
• Fiona Herman – 50 Breast
• Olivia Horng – 50 & 100 Back, 100 IM
• Vivian Hu – 100 Back, 100 & 200 Free
• Elaina Jiang – 100 Free, 100 IM
• Dami Jung – 100 Fly, 50 Back
• Elise Kabakci – 100 Fly
• Kirill Kadach – 400 IM, 500 Free
• Avery Lee – 100 Back, 100 Breast
• Lingyi Li – 100 Back, 200 IM
• Anika Lichtenberg – 100 Back, 100 Free, 100 IM
• Bryan Lin – 200 Free
• Rinat Maksyutov – 100 Free, 100 IM
• Andy Nguyen – 50 & 100 Back, 50 Fly
• Andrew Ouyang – 100 Back, 50 & 100 Breast
• Vien Pogue – 100 Free, 200 Back
• Ani Purkayastha – 100 Breast
• Irene Qu – 100 Free
• Timothy Rakovchuk – 200 IM, 50 Breast
• Rachael Rose – 100 Fly
• Joshua Rus – 100 Back
• Max Smagley – 100 Fly
• Beata Sobol – 50 Fly
• Clara Stevenson – 50 & 100 Back, 100 & 200 IM
• Dan Sun – 100 Back
• Max Sun – 100 Back, 100 Fly, 100 Free
• Isabella Vasilescu – 100 Free
• Anna Ventura – 100 Breast, 100 Fly
• Lasya Viswanadham – 100 Back
• Owen Wilson – 50 & 100 Breast, 100 & 200 IM
• Andy Yang – 50 & 100 Fly, 200 & 500 Free, 50 Back
• Isshin Yokoyama – 200 Back, 200 Breast
• Kenshin Yokoyama – 100 Fly

 B 

• Gahl Ami ad – 200 Back, 400 IM
• Phoebe Anderson – 100 Fly, 400 IM
• Alex Arlouski – 100 Back
• Arya Bhatt – 100 Back, 100 Breast
• Ahana Bhattacharya – 50 Fly
• Adele Bokach – 50 Breast
• Deniz Cankaya – 100 Breast
• Henry Cheng – 50 & 200 Back, 400 IM
• Evan Deng – 100 Fly, 100 & 500 Free, 400 IM
• Mira Erdim – 50 Back, 50 Free
• Tyler Fernandez – 100 Back
• Rory Geitz – 50 Back, 100 IM
• Sophia Gorveatt – 200 Breast
• Blakely Hansen – 100 Back, 100 Free, 100 IM, 50 Breast
• Nora Herman – 50 Breast
• Lauren Hizzey – 100 Fly
• Alexander Hor – 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Olivia Horng – 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Vivian Hu – 100 Fly
• Haim Jung – 100 Breast, 100 Fly
• Kirill Kadach – 100 Breast
• Maria Kokhan – 200 Free
• Yihan Li – 50 & 100 Breast
• Bryan Lin – 200 Back, 200 Breast
• Olivia Liu – 50 & 100 Back
• Eleanor Lopez – 200 Back, 400 IM
• Elizabeth Luo – 200 Back
• Rinat Maksyutov – 200 IM
• Lainey Meyer – 200 Back
• Kumail Mukadam – 50 Free
• Andy Nguyen – 200 Back
• Albert O – 50 & 100 Free, 200 IM
• Benji Ovendale – 100 Breast
• Roshni Padmanabhan – 200 Back, 400 IM
• Amelia Pletosu – 200 Breast
• Beatrix Pressman – 100 Breast, 100 Free, 200 IM
• Irene Qu – 100 Fly, 500 Free
• Rachael Rose – 50 & 100 Back
• Sanvi Shrivastava – 200 Back, 200 Breast
• Mudit Singh – 50 & 100 Fly, 50 Breast
• Max Smagley – 100 & 200 IM
• Keira Spitze – 500 Free
• Siena Stahlkopf – 100 Free
• Dan Sun – 200 IM
• Han Sun – 100 Free, 100 IM, 50 & 200 Breast, 50 Fly
• Nika Svirydovich – 50 Breast
• Vedah Tuladhar – 50 & 100 Free, 200 & 400 IM
• George Ursulenko – 50 Free
• Edi Vasilescu – 200 Fly
• Anna Ventura – 100 Free
• Lexie Watrous – 100 Fly
• Natalie Whitbeck – 50 Free
• Arjun Yadav – 100 Free
• Alyssa Yang – 100 Fly, 100 Free
• Andy Yang – 50 Free
• Aiden Ye – 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Free
• Serena Zhang – 200 Breast, 500 Free
• Maggie Zhou – 50 Breast
• Andrew Zhu – 100, 200 & 500 Free

WAVE ON 3!!