Wave May Invitationals Meet Recaps

The Sport Team had an outstanding performance at the Wave May Invitational held at Juanita High School. All the team members who participated showcased their hard work and dedication, resulting in numerous personal bests, first-time swims, and new US Motivational Times. A huge shout out to Feynman Chan, who became the first Sport Team member to earn an AA time…and he did it twice! A shout out also to Maja Wang, who earned new B times in all three of her events!

Purple Group

Purple Group had a fantastic meet where a lot of kids swam new events for the first time. Seven swimmers swam the 500 Free, four for the first time. There were 27 of swam the 100 Fly for the first time and 18 swam it legally! I could not be more proud of every swimmer for pushing their limits and succeeding at new challenges.

• Tvesa Bansal swam incredibly last weekend, dropping time in every event and swimming the 100 Fly for the first time. Her best swim was the 100 Free where she dropped just over 3 seconds and is now only 1.8 away from qualifying for the Age Group Seattle Open!
• Alex Belkin went 3/3 not only in dropping time but also in earning silver times for the Seattle Open. He dropped a whooping 14.43 seconds in all his events and gained two new 13-14 B times in his 100 Breast and 100 Free. His biggest drop was more than 6 seconds in his 100 Free, crushing the 1:05 barrier with a new best time of 1:02.04!
• Ethan Chan did really well at this swim meet. He dropped a little bit of time in all his events, and now he’s oh so close to silver times in all three events he swam. His biggest drop was the 100 Breast where he dropped more than 6.5 seconds!
• Amarissa Chandra just moved up to Purple and absolutely crushed it at this meet. She dropped so much time in every event that her smallest drop of 2 seconds in the 100 Breast seems like almost nothing! She not only dropped 7 seconds in her 100 Fly, but also 17 seconds in her 100 Free to score an astounding total time drop of 26 seconds!
• Joshua Hunter swam the fastest we’ve ever seen, a blur in every event. He swam the 100 Fly legally for the first time so he could only drop time in two events, but that didn’t stop him from dropping more than 9 seconds in both his 100 Back and 100 Free. He also broke the 1:20 barrier in his 100 Free with his new best time of 1:19.21!
• Alina Karptsova not only swam the 100 Fly for the first time legally, but also managed to get a silver time in the event. That wasn’t the only event she managed to get a silver time in as she dropped more than 6 seconds in her 100 Back for her second silver time. She also dropped more than 5 seconds in her 100 Free and is only 0.31 away from the silver time!
• Emily Kehm has been working hard in practice and it shows, as she dropped more than 6 seconds in her 100 Breast and more than 5 seconds in her 100 IM. She also swam the 500 Free she swam for the first time and she is only 4 seconds off the 8:30 barrier with a first time of 8:34.23!
• Aditi Koppal has been kicking butt in practices and has been focusing on bettering her technique and it shows. She dropped a total of 3 seconds in both her 100 Free and 50 Breast and even managed to show off her beautiful stroke in the 50 Fly, swimming it legally for the first time!
• Lydia Liu earned a silver time in all three events, g9t a new B-time in her 100 Back and—after swimming it for the first time legally—is only 5 seconds away from a B-time in her 100 Fly! Her 100 Back time was a monster drop of 50 seconds from a 2:13.85 to a 1:23.52! I’m pretty sure that was the biggest time drop in the whole entire meet!
• Thomas Ovendale has been slowly coming back to practice after a shoulder injury and absolutely crushed the meet! If he wasn’t turning 13 before the Age Group Seattle Open, he would’ve gained silver times for each event, dropping more than 32 seconds total: 10 seconds in his 100 Back, 16 seconds in his 100 Breast, and 6 seconds in his 100 Free. He is right on top of breaking that 1:10 barrier as his new best time is 1:10.86!
• Carlo Villanueva absolutely destroyed this meet, going 3/3 in silver times, gaining one new 13-14 B-time, and dropping more than 10 seconds in total! He dropped 5 seconds in his 100 Back to break the 1:15 mark. His smooth, perfectly rhythmed butterfly got him a 4-second drop, and he break the 1:05 barrier in his 100 Free with a new best time of 1:04.35!
• Yifan Xu did very well at the meet, dropping 11 total seconds in two events (7 seconds in his 100 Breast and 4 seconds in his 100 Free). His third event was the 100 Fly that he nailed and got legal for the first time!

Wanted to give a congratulations to all the swimmers that swam the 100 Fly legally or the 500 Free for the first time:

• 100 Fly: Anika A, Tvesa B, Reagan E, Joseph F, Neha G, Joshua H, Alina K, Dmitry L, Ethan M, Claire O, Rayona S, Rachel S, Yifan X, Ishansh Y, Sushrut Y, Katie Y, and Michael Z
• 500 Free: Prish A, Emily K, Alizeh L, and Shatadru R

Black Group

First, thank you moms and dads for getting your athlete to the pool on time, having them prepared with their events written out in sharpie, packing healthy snacks for them, volunteering to make this meet run, and keeping the job of our volunteers easy by not trying to be inside the building. Thank you!!!

The Black Group had about 60 swimmers at the meet, and almost a third of them were brand new to the group and team. Some big learning opportunities for the new swimmers, who did really well with everything.

Lots of disqualifications as usual, but tons of first-time successes as well. Over the past couple practices, coaches have been working to cover the disqualifications, hand out ribbons, and get the kids talking about the meet. These are all positive things for the kids to do following a competition.

A few athletes that needed a shout out, having had an excellent day of racing:

• Mo Chen – Dear Mo, you had an awesome meet and the coaches loved watching you race. Yes, you were in the butterfly again, but you killed that race, probably the best fly we’ve seen you do so far. Your other races (25 Free and 50 Back) were excellent as well. Keep up the great work at practice that’s making these kinds of races happen! -Sincerely, your idiot coach, Erin
• Poppy Covington earned my unofficial swim of the meet in her 50 Back. It was the best effort swim I’ve seen her do so far, and I was excited to share that with her after her race. Her 25 Breast was a huge improvement, and she rounded out the meet by completing her first-ever legal 25 Fly.
• Julie Dong puts in a really good effort at practice, and we loved seeing her races reflect that. Very excited to see the improvement in her fly. Her freestyle was excellent too, and we are always excited to see a strong 100 IM swim.
• Annabelle Gerber is a bundle of fun to have around, and at the meet we were excited to see her getting after her races. She’s a strong kicker and used those legs to power her way through her races. She had her first-ever successful 25 Breast and posted new bests in her 25 Free and 50 Back.
• Madeline Godbout had possibly her best meet so far. The coaches were really impressed with how much better her freestyle breathing looked, and we loved the effort she raced with in her 50 Back and 50 Breast!
• Amelia Horng showed tons of improvements showed at the meet, starting with her first-ever legal 25 Fly, and huge drops in her 50 Back and 50 Free. She does an awesome job at practice so it’s really cool to see these kinds of successes happen at the meet.
• Ryan Hu had an awesome meet, and he looked so good in his races. Both his breast and back races looked terrific, and we thought he raced really well in his 50 Free. Awesome meet, Ryan!
• Aashay Rane- Aashay put some awesome effort into his races, with some super results. The most fun of his races to watch was his 25 Free where he and Aaradhya raced head-to-head to a photo finish. His 100 Free was awesome as well, and his 50 Back looked really strong. Great job Aashay!

Congratulations to ALL of our Black Group Swimmers who competed at the meet!

High School

The High School group had a great meet! This meet was just a prep meet for the rest of the long course season yet everyone has been training so hard and really focused on bettering mechanics and racing that we swam far better than I’d hoped! Way to go, team!

• Arnav Jha has been really focused on fixing his backstroke, DPS, and turns. Working on all those things resulted in a huge time drop in his 100 Fly -5.93 for a B time as well as -1.29 in his 100 Back for a BB time.
• Jonathan Kong has been really working on tempo and racing. He had a time drop in all three races! -5.53 in his 100 Back, -5.20 in his 100 Fly, and -2.28 in his 100 Free.
• Mike Nikitenko has been working on conditioning and racing. He dropped -4.10 in his 100 Back and -6.47 in his 100 Breast.
• Miranda Range has been focused on fixing her stroke mechanics and really learning to race. She dropped -3.79 in her 100 Breast and -3.85 in her 100 Fly.
• Victoria Seto has also been focused on tempo and racing. She has been working hard on pacing and racing the last 25 to 50 yards of each event. She dropped -0.19 in her 100 Back, -1.28 her 50 Free for a B time, and -2.78 in her 500 Free.
• Liya Wu is a mid-distance swimmer who is working on finishing strong and it really shows. She got a time drop in every event: -1.67 in her 100 Back for a B time, -1.16 in her 100 Breast for a B time, and -1.07 in her 100 Free for a BB time.
• Jonathan Yu has been working on power in dryland and working on speed in the pool. He dropped -9.11 in his 100 Back, -3.81 in 100 his Breast, and -1.30 in his 100 Free.

White Group

It was a fantastic meet for White group, with lots of firsts and bests everywhere we could get a first or best!

We also had 10 swimmers competing at a meet for the first time, and they did fantastic, so congrats to Jayden Chen, Katherine Gubin, Patrick Long, Kabir Vats, Mahan Setayesh,Vaani Sharma, and Vyom Singh. Extra kudos to Miley Chen, Braxton Davis and Rajas Deshpande who aced the meet, finishing all three events legally in their first attempts ever.

• Arifin Capiral (1^st BB in 50 Breast) It was only one meet ago that he earned his first B times and he’s already leveled up again, earning a BB in his 50 Breast! At this rate, he’ll be at AAAA in only four more meets!
• Zoey Stark (1^st B in her 50 Back) She has been working hard in practice, and seeing it pay off with steady improvements in all strokes, most especially backstroke!
• Doyeol Yang slam dunked his first 50 Fly, 100 IM and 100 Fly…175 yards of fly in total, and every stroke of it legal! He works harder than the average bear, and his fly is fun to watch!
• Akira Andhare in her first-ever 100 Fy hop-skipped over the B cut, and landed just 2 seconds from a first BB time! And that is a hard BB time to sneak up on!
• Maja Wang was on fire, claiming the steepest time drops of the whole meet, dropping 24 seconds in her 100 Fly and another 10 in her 100 Free and 50 Breast. And she made it look easy!
• Asmi Sarkar dropped time in all events! After her 50 Fly, though, she was disappointed that she had gained time, except that she hadn’t. She dropped so much, that she was only 0.4 from a first B time in her 50 Fly!
• Shreyan Acharya has been tearing through his personal bests, dropping steeply in all his events despite having recent times. He had the most consistent steep improvements of the whole meet, and even scored a qualifying time for the Age Group Seattle Open in his 50 Breast. His hard work has clearly paid off in a big way.
• Zido ElGamel - Not only did he improve steeply in every event, but he also did something that demonstrates even more grit; negative splitting his 100 Free! He went a full second faster on the second 50, dropping 13 seconds in just two months. And we haven't talked about pacing at all in practice!

New US Motivational Times

 AA 

• Feynman Chan – 100 Fly, 100 Free

 BB 

• Arafin Capiral – 50 Breast
• Feynman Chan – 100 Back
• Arnav Jha – 100 Back

 B 

• Akira Andhare – 50 Back
• Nandita Bhandari – 50 Breast
• Alex Belkin – 100 Breast, 100 Free
• Sebastian Chan – 50 Breast
• Alvin Chang – 100 Breast
• Thomas Godbout – 100 Free
• Roohi Indurkar – 100 IM
• Arnav Jha – 100 Fly
• Priyadarshi Lahiri – 100 Back
• Greg Lee – 50 Free
• Lydia Liu – 100 Back
• Otis Lloyd – 50 Free
• Thomas Ovendale – 100 Free
• Victoria Seto – 50 Free
• Zoey Stark – 50 Back
• Carlo Villanueva – 100 Free
• Maja Wang – 100 Fly, 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Lina Wu – 100 Fly
• Zachary Zeng – 100 IM

WAVE ON 3!!