Wave Makes Waves at the SRST Summer Invitational!

Jay Pearson

SRST Summer Invitational Meet Recap

Wave sent a large contingent to of swimmers from Sport and Select Teams to Snohomish for three days of fast racing. We saw a huge number of swimmers making new qualifying times and motivational cuts. Many swimmers took on challenging races they had never tried before, especially in the 200 Fly! Congrats Wave athletes!

Age Group 1

The AG1 Group came out fast and strong at the SRST Summer Invite!!! The group had a pentathlon set up with 5 swims in a quick session and the group stepped up big time and swam strong on all 5 events. It was great to see the group competing in the fastest heats. Stand Out Swims of the weekend:

Haim Jung went 5 for 5 on best times and really had a great weekend dropping big time in short events. His standout swim came in the 50 Back where he kept his body alignment strong and let his legs do the heavy work.
Yuna Ma had a great weekend as well, going 5 for 5 in best times. Her standout swim came in the 100 IM where she shaved off just shy of 15 seconds and put together all four strokes with the improvements she has been working on in practice.
Maya Razdan had a tremendous weekend, winning 4 of the 5 events for 8&U Girls. The standout for the weekend was her ability to adjust her start from the first 25 into the following two dives from the shallow end wall. She did an awesome job of taking feedback and improving.
Steven Wang had a great weekend and really showed his improvements from being in the new group over the past few weeks. He made some big time drops in three of his events and completely his first-ever 50 Fly. It was great to see the improvement in kicking that he has been working on in practice show up in his free and back.
Adele Bokach picked up five best times with four being new BB times. She has worked very hard in practice and that really showed, especially in her 50 Fly where she is now only 0.18 away from her first AA time.

Purple Group

Purple Group did a phenomenal job at the meet and I could not be more proud of everyone! We got two new B times, nine swimmers raced their first legal 200 Fly, four swimmers raced their first legal 400 IM, and two swimmers raced their first 500 free! At this meet, we focused a lot on more challenging events and events a lot of swimmers have never swam before. There were 27 swimmers who swam three or more 200 events with very minimal DQs and 27 new silver times, one of which was in the 200 Fly!

Apolline Abram-Profeta scored her first B time in her 50 Free and dropped time in every event as well as swimming her first 200 Fly! She dropped 18.27 total seconds, including 8.5 seconds in her 200 IM, which also gave her 6^th silver time!
Victoria Arena Absolutely crushed this meet! She legally swam the 100 Fly, 200 Breast, and 200 IM for the first time and got a silver time in each. She dropped more than 24 seconds in her 200 Back and more than 7.5 seconds in her 50 Breast, gaining a new silver time in both!
Anika Kulkarni swam a total of 1000 yards total at this meet! She swam well under 4:00 in all four 200 yard events—her first time in each event! She also broke 2:00 in her 100 Fly!
Claire Olsen also swam 1000 yards this weekend. She dropped massive amounts of time in all the events she had swum previously! Her smallest time drop was 6.01 seconds (100 Back) while her biggest time drop was 17.33 seconds in her 200 Back! She dropped a whopping total of 49.54 seconds!
Charlie Page raced an impressive first 400 IM and is just 5 seconds away from breaking the 6:00 barrier! He broke the 3:00 barrier in his 200 Breast by 0.10 and just missed a B time! His biggest drop was in his 200 Free where he dropped over 7 seconds while in his 50 Free, he is a mere 0.07 from a B-time!
Adwite Raman just came off an ankle injury and had a phenomenal meet, dropping 16.77 seconds in four events and earning her first legal times in the 100 Fly and 200 IM. She dropped 5 seconds in her 100 Breast and almost 7 seconds in her 200 Free.
Victor Shirshov swam 900 yards at the meet and broke the 4:00 mark in all his 200 events. His most impressive swim was his 200 Back, where he nailed every flip turn and a new silver time!
Anishi Singh dropped time in every event she swam (more than 19 total seconds), including two new silver times. Her biggest drop was in her 200 IM, where she cut off an impressive 7.3 seconds! She also dropped 3.96 seconds in her 100 Back and 6.19 seconds in her 100 Breast!
Jayan Upadhaya dropped a whopping 23.91 seconds in his 200 Breast, breaking the 4:00 barrier. He also swam the 200 Back and 200 IM legally for the first time, gaining silver times in both events!
Jared Wen got two new legal times and dropped 16.79 total seconds in three other events! He swam the 100 Fly legally for the first time and is only a second away from the 2:00 barrier.
Katherine Yi swam like I have never seen her swim before. She lead her heats and no one could catch her! He she had several huge time drops, including a humongous 25.37 seconds in her 100 Back! In her 100 Fly, she dropped 13.50 seconds from her previous best time at the May invitational. In total, she dropped 55.55 seconds!
Eric Zhou was another swimmer raced 1000 yards and dropped more than 8 seconds in both events he improved in: 8.32 seconds in his 200 Free, crushing the 3:00 barrier, and 12.16 seconds in his 100 Fly. He also crushed the 200 Back silver time by 19 seconds!
Michael Zhou only swam one day but earned his first B-time and dropped 24.27 total seconds in two events! He also swam his first-ever legal 200 Fly!

Congrats! A shout out to everyone who swam three or more 200-yard events or a challenge event.

Three 200 yard events: Apolline A, Victoria A, Anika A, Lindsey C, Mishikaa JKK, Emily K, Kiara K, Justin K, Alizeh K, Lydia L, Mia M, Mahetzi R, Victor S, Anishi S, Jayan U, Sushrut Y, Katie Y, and Michael Z.
Four 200 yard events: Ross G, Joshua H, Aditi K, Anika K, Claire O, Rayona S, Hannah Z, and Eric Z.
The only swimmer to swim all five 200 yard events: Theresa Nguyen!
200 fliers: Apolline A, Emma H, Kiara K, Alizeh K, Lydia L, Theresa N, Anishi S, Zach Z and Michael Z
400 IMers: Victoria A, Keshav I, Charlie P, Molly P, and Ishansh Y
500 freestylers: Tvesa B, Anu B, Joshua H, and Thomas O

Black Group

Abha Acharya had a super meet with many new best times. She is one of the most consistent workers in Black Group so the coaches are pumped to see her racing so well. Her best race of the weekend was her 25 Free where she posted a strong new best time in that event.
Annabelle Gerber swam five out of her six races legal, completed the 25 Fly for the first time, and posted several new best times including a nice showing in her 25 Breast. Great job Annabelle!
Qifan Gong keeps making steady improvements at practice and those improvements showed at the meet with five out of six swims successful, several new best times and two Top 16 finishes in the 8&U age group as a 7-year-old.
Ryan Hu, like some of the swimmers mentioned above, was successful in five of six races, five new best times and two very solid swims for a 6-year-old in his freestyle races. Keep up the good work at practice!
Zhile Li is pretty new to the sport yet powered his way to some strong swims. In particular, his 25 Fly was a huge improvement.
Josh Lu swam hard all weekend and showed off the huge improvements he’s been working on at practice, including a superb swim in his 50 Free.
Aabha Nargund is pretty new to the team, so we were excited to see her swim so well, and post two brand new swims in the 25 Fly and 50 Free, along with a nice improvement in her 25 Breast.
Timur Shafigulin has worked hard on his underwater kicking at practice and used those skills at the meet to his advantage. He had two 8^th place finishes, and a huge drop in his 50 Free.
Cora Sun improved in five of six races and made a qualifying time for the Age Group Seattle Open meet, an excellent weekend of swimming for her!

Age Group 2

Olivia Liu churned out a fantastic meet, going 7-for-7 best times. Not surprising considering her excellent work ethic at practice and near-perfect attendance! Her best swim of the weekend was her 100 IM where she went out fast in the fly and stayed fast for the other strokes, dropping nearly 2 seconds and earning 2^nd place!
Aaron Chakraborty just joined Wave this spring and turned out several outstanding swims and four Top 8 finishes. His best swim was his 500 Free where he applied our strategy and shattered his previous best by 19+ seconds and crushed the 7:00 mark!
Nika Svirydovich has been burning up workouts and it paid off huge at this meet, including a 58-second drop in her 500 Free (a time from January). Her hard work helped go 7-for-7 in best times!
Serena Zhang had two outstanding 200s where she perfectly applied strategy. In her 200 Free, she went out quick and descended her 50s to drop nearly 17 seconds. In her 200 IM, she swam a smooth fly leg then negative split her other three strokes to drop almost 6 seconds!
Abby Gray blasted an amazing 200 Free where, just like Serena, used excellent strategy to run down other swimmers and more than 22 seconds off her previous best! She also picked up a new BB time in her 50 Free, edging ever so close to breaking the :30 barrier!

Senior Prep

Sr. Prep had an outstanding swim meet at the SRST Meet with 144 successful swims where 96 were best times, our 66% of all our races as well as 17 exactly at our best time or within 0.5 of our best time. The average time drop for all swims was 4.33 seconds per race! We also had 4 new swims where a swimmer completed a race legally for the first time. Nice swimming Sr. Prep! Here are some shout outs to some highlights from the meet:

Henry Cheng showed how gritty and tough he was with a 78-second improvement in the 500 Free. He also improved by a monster 28+ seconds in the 100 Fly and almost 5 seconds in the 50 Fly. Your rhythm and tempo on your butterfly is so much faster than your previous stroke. Great job Henry!
Grace Zhang just missed getting under the 7:00 mark in her 500, but she dropped more than 51 seconds in the race and did such a great job of racing the correct race strategy. She also improved by 15 seconds in her 200 IM and more than 12 seconds in her 100 Fly! All your strokes are looking really good, and you have really focused on your technique these last couple months. Excellent focus Grace!
Han Sun improved by more than 45 seconds in his 400 IM with great improvements for all his strokes. He also dropped more than 17 seconds in his 200 Free and a big 3+ second drop in his 100 Free. Nice overall improvement and lots of good improvement in your freestyle top speed. Way to go Han!
Yihan Li dropped in every event she swam. She led off with a 31-second improvement in her 500 as well as a huge 40-second drop in her 50 Back, and then had a pair of 5+ second improvements in the 50 Fly and 100 Fly events. Excellent job staying on top of the water in your butterfly. It has really improved your tempo and made a dramatic difference in your fly speed. Good job focusing on changing your stroke technique!
Ahana Bhattacharya had a 34-second improvement in her 500 Free, a nearly 10-second improvement in her 200 IM, an almost 6-second improvement in her 100 Breast, a 4.6-second drop in her 200 Free, and a large 2.46-second drop in her 50 Breast. She has excellent technique and works really hard in practice so it was lovely to see so many great improvements at the meet. Excellent swimming Ahana!

High School Group

Eka Bhuyan brought an excellent attitude to each race. She improved in four or her six events, dropping more than a second in the 100 Free, 50 Fly, and 50 Back. Great job Eka!
Arnav Jha brought it for each of his events! He had great top end speed and went out well in his races. Highlights include an 8+ second improvement in his 200 IM, a 4.72-second improvement in his 50 Back, and an almost 3-second drop in his 100 Fly. Nice Swimming Arnav!
Roshni Padmanabhan really went out beautifully in her 200 IM. She has the most gorgeous butterfly going out smoothly and with tempo, and then really raced the backstroke all out. She ended up dropping almost 7 seconds in the race. She also had an aggressive race in the 200 Free where she improved by 2.43 seconds and showed she has room to improve even more. Great aggressive racing Roshni!
Jay Song had an outstanding meet. He improved in five of his six races highlighted by a 4.86-second drop in his 400 IM, a 1.2-second drop in his 50 Breast, and more than a 0.5-second improvement in his 50 Free. I love the energy that you always bring to the team at meets, Jay!
Kennedy Tremblay had an outstanding 200 IM, improving by 5.40 seconds. Her strokes looked great all around and she really did a great job racing the last 150 of the race. She also dropped more than 2 seconds in her 100 Breaststroke as well. Great job Kennedy!
Senul Wickramaratna improved in every event! WOW, nice work! Highlights include an 18+ second improvement in his 50 Fly, an 8-second drop in his 200 Free, and almost a full second drop in his 100 Free. Excellent job Senul!
Jonathan Yu improved in every event except one, which he missed by only 0.1! His most impressive swims were a 9+ second drop in his 200 Free, a 5-second improvement in his 200 IM, and a 4.5-second improvement in his 200 Breast. Great all-around improvement Jonathan!

White Group

This Pentathlon felt like a backward 200 IM, broken into 50s, with a 100 IM bonus! Swimmers seemed to climb out of the pool just-in-time to get to staging and dive back in. Yet, in spite of a compressed timeline and increasing difficulty, White groupers pulled off some big ‘wins’! We landed 35 first legal swims, 9 swimmers earned a first silver time, and 2 swimmers earned a first B time, ever! Also impressive was the stuff that didn’t happen: we had far fewer DQs, only one swimmer missed an event and no one dove in and swam the wrong stroke! Kudos! Also, a shoutout to Jayden Chen, who aced his first swim meet ever, swimming 5 of 5 events legally on his first try!

First B times

Asmi Sarkar (50 Breast, 50 Fly) after realizing she was close to a B time in her 50 Fly, her times have been in freefall in all strokes! She earned her first two B times, overshooting the mark with seconds to spare. And now she’s close in her back and, well, everywhere! Almost making a time cut is the best thing that can happen to a swimmer!
Melanie King (50 Back) Last time around she got close enough to taunt, which wetted her appetite. That hunger powered her to a B this time in her back and nearly in her 50 Free (0.3 away) and 50 Breast (1 second away) as well! Her secret superpower is an awesome kick and a fast flip turn!

Almosts

Leo Yang (50 Breast, 50 Back) dropped 11 seconds total, creeping up on B times in both events, missing the cut by 0.85 in both! It couldn’t have been a more perfect set-up to lure a kid back after he takes a break for the rest of the summer!
Isaac Xie (50 Back, 50 Free) In spite of not feeling well, he cleaved time off all his events. In his 50 Back, he dropped 6 seconds to land 0.9 from a B! In his 50 Free, he dropped 7 seconds to land just 0.35 from a first B! He’s the kind of coachable kid who doesn’t know how to complain but does know how to turbocharge a race, so it’s dangerous to stand between him and his first B time: that 0.35 may not be long for this world.
Noah Chen in his 50 Back shaved 1 second to land just 0.2 from a first B time! That’s a kick turbo charge, or an extra dolphin kick off the wall, or maybe a tighter streamline for a little longer. He is the kind of kid with laser focus that can get it done in the moment that matters.
Ira Joshi stands only a second away from a first B time in her 50 Back after dropping a second! She’ll be there when she powers up her kick.

First Silver times:

Zido ElGamel (50 Fly, 50 Free) has done it again! It was just last meet that he was improving steeply. Now he’s dropped steeply off times that were themselves steep drops! He shed 53 seconds total across his events. What’s his secret?? You’ll have to ask him, but I can tell you, he’s a skill sponge and a hard worker! Also, he’s a great smiler.
Braxton Davis (50 Breast, 50 Free, 50 Fly, 100 IM) hit the water swimming, and scored his first four Silver times, including 50 Breast where he cut 12 seconds in one month!
Navya Arora (50 Free) Her smooth freestyle is getting ever longer and stronger without falling apart or thrashing it up, helping her drop 4 seconds for a first silver time! She’s even closing in on a first B time!
Kanav Acharya (50 Breast) would likely tell you he’s not a breaststroker, but he dropped 4 seconds in one month to land 2 seconds under the silver time cut! His kick is good, but his ‘line’ and timing are great. And he’s not the kind of kid that falls apart in a race.
Ata Sakin (50 Back) improved more toward the end of the meet and dropped 3 seconds in his back for his first silver time and broke through the 1:00 barrier in his 50 Fly. It looked like he was just getting warmed up by the last event.

Steepest Improvements

Kabir Vats dropped 17 seconds in his 50 Back in one month! His kick is really connecting now, and it’s lifting his hips and engaging his core. His ability to balance in the water fast is as good as anyone in the group!
Miley Chen dropped 17 seconds between her 50 Back and 50 Breast. In her short career, she has never DQ’d even in Fly or the IM. Well done, Miley!
Atharva Koppal cashed in on some hard work and steady focus in practice to drop 16 seconds off times that were mostly only one month old. He has developed into a driven athlete, dropping time hand-over-fist! He’s also closing in on a B time in his 50 Breast!