Wave Swimmers Start Fall Champs With Big Win

Jay Pearson

Fall Divisionals Meet Recap

Wave swimmers dominated at the first Championships of the Fall Season, the first of three consecutive weekends of champs meets. Wave won the North Division handily by more than 200 points.

Big shout outs to our PNS 14&U Champs qualifiers Haim Jung (who also won the 10-yr-old Boys Penthalon) and Emily MacDonald, and to our State Senior Champs qualifiers Kyra Yuan, Abby Gong, Aditi Kandiah, and Landon Yuan.

Shout outs also to our swimmers who won three races: Aaradhya Bharadwaj, Aaron Chakraborty, Max Smagley, Lina Wu, and Haim Jung

Black Group

Awesome job Black Group athletes and families! Some of the wins included:

The bulk of the kids were on time for warm-ups.
The kids all came prepared with their E/H/L info written out
The kids were aware of the speed of the meet, and with all the swimmers and races going on, I don’t think they missed a single race
The kids enjoyed the experience, and the coaches had fun watching them race.

We had 24 swimmers complete all five races successfully. Eleven swimmers broke 20 seconds in their 25 Free with a number of kids getting close to that, as well as tons of new best times and awesome racing. Watching the kids step up and race is always fun to see. Some individual highlights:

Amishi Sharma had a very nice meet in terms of performance, and an even better meet in terms of her confidence
Timur Shafigulin focused in and put everything together to finish his first legal 50 Breast
Aadhya Sirimamilla has worked hard on improving her body position and breathing in her butterfly and that paid off for her in a big way in her 50 Fly
Vivaan Agarwal had outstanding freestyle races: both his 25 and 50 Free races were well done
Aadyant Agrawal raced hard in everything, and we were excited to see a first-time legal swim in his 25 Fly
Amy Yang nailed her 25 Breast. Yeah, she can do that!
Margaret Ursulenko hadn’t swum in a meet for a bit, but it was worth the wait as she absolutely crushed her swims. Not shocking given what a great job she does at practice, and more fun to see happen!
Bode Boone had an awesome 25 Free, showing tons of improvement in that race
Daniel Rondel raced with some awesome effort in his 25 Breast and surprised people in his heat from lane 1
Arthur Dauletbaev had an awesome 50 Free, racing it with way more confidence
Aabha Nargund looked so good in her 50 Free! Huge improvement there!
JoJo Miller finished her first 50 Fly with a strong first effort in the race
Julie Dong showed much smoother strokes in her 25 and 50 Free races that helped push her fastest swims so far
Brock Georgievski raced strong in his 25 Free and 25 Back with strong new best times in those races
Emmy Miller was terrific in both of her freestyle races, especially her 50 Free
Stephen Luo really got his legs going to help power his freestyle strokes
Timothy Huang had an all-around awesome meet, and like a number of kids here, he really raced well in his freestyle events, looking long, smooth and fast
Felix Jiang, not surprisingly, swam awesome in both of his freestyle races
Gavin Liu was also awesome in his freestyle races and had a really nice swim in his 25 Breast as well
Remy Kalicinski broke 40 seconds for the first time in his 50 Free!

Congratulations to all our Pentathlon Finishers: Aaradhya Bharadwaj, Raya Hari, Finley Meier, Cora Sun, Lily Ellis, Annabelle Gerber, Ella Liu, Sindy Liu, Neeva Goel, Rosemary Huang, Evelyn Marr, Ryan Hu, Mo Chen, Hudson Porter, Daniel Rondel, Robert Gilmore, Aadyant Agrawal, Jeremy Lyu, Austin Wu, Kai Chen, JoJo Miller, Aadhya Sirimamilla, Quinn Braun, Aaron Yang

White Group

White Group performed excellently at this meet! The swimmers gave it their all each race, which paid off with a host of new motivational cuts and tons of new best times! The flexibility of each swimmer to check in with different coaches was very impressive. Good work, White Group swimmers!!

A Group

Alexa Back Righetto dropped 8.49 seconds in her 50 Fly keeping a quick tempo and strong kick. She did great at checking in and out and being prepared for each race.
Sebastian Chan was one of the newly turned 11-year-olds who warmed up with Purple group and had to adapt to a different session. He did great at not only adapting to a different environment but also in his races. Exciting swimmer to watch for future meets!!
Phoebe Zang is a fairly new swimmer who’s still learning and adjusting to the swimming world. She had a few setbacks with some DQs that she not only accepted but was eager to learn from and correct for future races. Great mindset and attitude, Phoebe!
Asmi Sarkar achieved a new BB time in her 100 IM, dropping exactly 1 second to get this new cut! Her bright attitude is refreshing and vibrant to be around especially at meets!!

B Group

Emma Ter-Vardanyan was amazing at checking in and out and was also great at taking feedback and being willing to ask questions. She dropped more than 6 seconds in both her 100 IM and her 50 Free. In a 50, 6 seconds is crazy work! Very impressive!
Agastya Agrawal dropped nearly 30 seconds combined in all his events! His biggest drop was shaving off 18.93 seconds in his 100 IM. His hard work at practice and competitiveness shined at this meet!
William MacDonald crushed this meet! He swam two new events and dropped in the other three. These three drops were all more than 7 seconds. Great job getting new best times, William!
Anika Thondamuthur had steady drops with great form and consideration on her meet strategy. She’s been working hard at practices, rewarding her with two new best times!

Purple Group

Purple Group had a smashing finish to this section of the short course season! I was very impressed with all the fantastic swims and consistent meet prep such as checking in/out and warm up/cool down. These little things and good habits at practice and meets lead to big time drops! Amazing job to all Purple group swimmers!!

A Group

Ross Gawthrop had a great meet for time drops and learning experiences. He dropped in every event including his 200 Free where he dropped 8 seconds! His 200 Free offered a needed learning opportunity for keeping track of laps, yet even with miscounting, he still crushed his race and dropped a crazy amount of time. Very excited to see his next 200 Free!
Adwita Raman completed her first 200 Fly, swimming strong, and keeping a steady pace and consistent kick throughout. Other people in her heat went out fast but dropped off, allowing Adwita to catch up to them at the end. Smart swim and good work!
Charlie Page also swam the 200 Fly and had the most grit of the team at this meet. He not only completed it without any DQs but also did it with his goggles falling off! The determination and perseverance was crazy to watch!
Ethan Chan dropped more than 30 seconds combined, topped by his 100 Fly where he dropped 15.24 seconds! He is great at checking in and out and taking feedback gracefully.

B Group

Prisha Ahuja had a very successful meet dropping a combined 30 seconds in all her events! On top of her great swims, she is always coachable at meets and practices doing great with the feedback given to her.
Julia Bouianov swam two new events (100 IM and 200 Breast) and showed an enormous amount of determination and grit with all her events. She is rapidly improving for being a newer swimmer to the team and is very exciting to watch!!
Jayan Upadhaya has been focusing on pushing his hardest in practices and at this meet, it paid off in a super way! He dropped in nearly all his events and had great technique improvements.
Amarissa Chandra crushed her 100 Fly, dropping 19.87 seconds! She went out strong and held it amazingly. She’s focused on keeping her form smooth and quick for future 100 Flys.

High School

We had some phenomenal swims at Divisionals. Everyone from the group can say that they came to race and at least one outstanding time drop!

Lina Wu went 6/6, going out fast in every event. She had fun with her races and didn’t over think it- That was her strategy and it paid off! She dropped -0.95 in her 100 Free for an A time, -2.42 in her 200 Free for a BB time, -0.66 in her 50 Back, -0.20 in her 50 Breast, -3.82 in her 50 Fly, and -0.52 in her 50 Free for an A time.
Kennedy Tremblay had the most compliments in our Winners’ Circle from her teammates. They all said she had the best sportsmanship at the meet and best positive attitude. She dropped time in four events. She had the biggest time drop in her 100 Fly with a -6.48 for a BB time, swimming that race the best she could with little error! She also dropped -0.22 in her 50 Back, -2.18 in her 50 Breast, and -0.29 in her 50 Fly.
Surabhi Koundinya: This is her first meet back since the high school season. She has been focusing on catching more water and a faster tempo in practice. She swam really well, dropping time in 4/6 events: -2.59 in her 100 Fly, -2.00 in her 50 Back, -1.38 in her 50 Breast, -0.39 in her 50 Free.

Age Group 1

The Age Group 1 athletes had a tremendous weekend of FAST swimming at the meet, which was split into individual days by gender and each day built as a Pentathlon for the kids to race in the 50s of each stroke and the 100 IM. It was awesome to see how well rounded all the athletes looked and how great they did. Nice work and let’s get ready for Champs for the kids swimming at Champs on relays!!! Standout Swims:

Mira Erdim had a very strong meet. She dropped time in 4/5 swims. Her standout swim was her 100 IM where she shaved off more than 2 seconds especially her back half where she crushed her breaststroke and freestyle legs.
Tyler Fernendez had a great meet dropping time in 3/5 events. His standout swim came in his 50 Free where he kept his stroke long and his motoring hard for a 1.5-second time drop.
Maya Razdan crushed the weekend going 4/5 in best times. She crushed her 100 IM with four laps of strong swimming to drop 2 seconds in the event. Shout out to her great underwaters through the swim.
Zhizhi Ji had an amazing weekend, going 4/5 in best times. Her standout swim was her 100 IM where she had a great butterfly leg and kept her legs strong on the backstroke to carry her to just shy of a 3-second drop.
Maggie Zhou had a great weekend with some really strong swims across the board. Her standout swim was her 50 Back where she put together a great flip turn for a full 1-second time drop.

Age Group 2

We had an outstanding weekend of championship caliber racing as the swimmers finished off the Fall season with a lot of excellent swims. We’ve worked hard all season and it was great to see it come together for the athletes. Well done, AG2!! Check out these highlights!

Abby Gray could only race one day but she made the most of it, especially with her 100 Free, where she lead from start (literally – she was the fastest off the block!) to finish for her first 1:02, narrowly missing the Champs! Her attention to detail in her strategy allowed her to be aggressive from the get-go and blasting her way to winning by more than 5 yards!
Emma Lu works incredibly hard even while dealing with an injury, and it paid off with several big swims. She was only 0.25 away from a 6/6 weekend, and her standout swim was her 100 IM, where slashed 8.5 seconds off her previous best by attacking each stroke and earned another new B time!
Andrew Ouyang has really improved his workout habits, leading him to a 4/5 weekend and a 5^th place in his first-ever 200 Breast. His best swim was his 200 IM, where he executed strategy beautifully, giving him a 9.3-second drop!
Aditeya Verma had several excellent swims, dropping more than 30 seconds while going 5/6 best times, and earning a new BB time in his 50 Back. His standout swim was his 100 IM where he went out fast on his fly leg and never let up, dropping 14.5 seconds!
Andrew Zhu had his best race of the entire fall season with his 200 IM, holding his butterfly together than entire first 50, stayed in the race with his back leg, than blasted away on the breast leg, running his competitors down before finishing with a very strong free leg to drop more than 7 seconds!

Well done, AG2 swimmers!

Senior Prep

We had a great weekend of swimming at the meet with kids chasing their AG Champs cuts and came away with some new qualifiers. It was awesome to see the times dropping across the board with everyone dropping time in four to five events and some dropping time in all six swims over the weekend. Great work to the group and let’s get ready to rock at the AG Champs Meet!!! Standout swims:

Anika Razdan had an amazing swim meet, dropping time all over the place in 5/6 events. Her standout swim was her 200 IM where she went out hard and showed the improvements in her back and breast to give herself a chance to race home for a 12-second time drop.
Adam Kantor had a great meet with time drops in 5/6 swims. His standout swim was his 12-second drop in his 100 Breast, where he kept his tempo strong in the second 50 for an awesome improvement.
Aaron Chakraborty swam awesome all weekend long with five time drops over the weekend. He absolutely crushed his 100 Breast with a 36-second time drop. He took his swim out aggressively and kept his stroke together to dominate the event.
Sanvi Shrivastava had a great meet, going 4/6 in best times. Her standout swim was her 6.5-second drop in her 200 Breast, where she was consistent off all her walls with great pull outs and that extra energy saving allowed her to race home strong the last 50.
Lainey Meyer had a great weekend, dropping in 5/6 swims. She did an awesome job across the board, with the biggest drop coming in the 200 Free where she kept her kick outs together through the whole swim and had a very well-paced race for a 4-second drop.

Great Job to all the Senior Prep athletes who swam in the meet!!!

Senior 1

We had eight swimmers take the pool by storm as our swimmers stepped up and dominated the pool. This group trained so well this season and made a ton of progress. It was awesome to see everyone racing so well. Overall, the group had a bunch of best times, executed the little things in races incredibly well, and secured two new Champs qualifiers. Everyone who competed put everything they had into their swims and did an incredible job of leaving it all in the pool. I cannot express just how proud of these swimmers I am. I am excited to see what we can do moving forward. Highlights include:

Arya Bhatt has worked hard on his butterfly and took a shot at all three fly events. He put in some serious work to be able to maintain speed throughout the 100 and did a lot of work pacing for the 200. His work really paid off as he crushed the 100, swimming strong from start to finish, dropping 3 seconds, and winning the event. As good as his 100 was, his 200 was even more exciting. He swam strong throughout but was trailing the leader for most of the race. On the final 25 he put his head down and stayed tough blazing right past the person in the lead, dropping 13 seconds and winning the event.
Tanay Boda has been working on all four strokes as well as improving his endurance. His work showed through as he turned in best times in the 50 Fly and 50 Breast, dropping big chunks of time in both. His endurance training paid off as well: in the 100 Free he got off to a hot start, then found himself in a dead sprint to the finish with a fellow Wave swimmer. He and his teammate celebrated in the water after the finish as they both went under :55 for the first time.

Abby Gong is really finding her racing speed. After a tough October, she rallied and put in very solid work in the month leading up to the meet. She came with one goal: to qualify for Senior Champs. She had a great first day of the meet turning in best times in both the 100 Free and 100 Back. It was on the second day that she really hit her stride. Swimming the race for only the second time this season, she absolutely crushed the 200 Back. She got after it right from the start, going only 0.5 slower than her 100 time, then really turned on her kick and was able to perfectly even split the back 100. This amazing swim resulted in a huge 6-second drop and, even more excitingly, her first Senior Champs qualifying time.
Aditi Kandiah was very excited to swim at the meet as she was entered in primarily sprint events. She has been steadily increasing her speed all season and things really accelerated at this meet. She finished the meet a perfect 5/5 best times, one 1^st place finish, and two 2^nd place finishes. The race she was the most focused on was her 50 Fly. She has been stuck at the :30 mark all season long and was eager to finally get under that mark. She put up a fantastic swim dropping almost a full second to go :29 for the first time and qualify for Senior Champs.
Jiesse Shi proved to be a jack of all trades at the meet. He swam a variety of races and found success in all of them. He has been training very well and ensures that he stays strong in all the strokes. That proved to be the case as he had a huge swim in the 200 IM, putting up a monster 8-second drop and demonstrating his great closing speed. He showed off his closing speed again in his 100 Free. In his heat he was right on the hip of the leader for the first 75, then put it into overdrive coming off the wall, absolutely crushing the last 25, out touching the person next to him, and going under :55 for the first time.

Top 6 Finishes

All Top 6 finishes scored points for Wave!

Shreyan Acharya (4^th 50 Breast, 5^th 50 Fly, 6^th 100 IM)
Phoebe Anderson (4^th 50 Fly, 5^th 50 Breast & 50 Back)
Mira Arora (4^th 200 IM)
Alex Belkin (2^nd 50 Fly, 50 Free & 100 Free, 5^th 50 Back)
Aaradhya Bharadwaj (1^st 25 Free, 25 Breast & 50 Free)
Aman Bhatt (6^th 200 Free)
Arya Bhatt (1^st 100 Fly & 200 Fly, 3^rd 50 Fly)
Stas Black (2^nd 200 Fly)
Lucas Blat-Phillips (5^th 100 Back)
Tanay Boda (2^nd 50 Free, 3^rd 50 Back, 4^th 100 Free, 5^th 50 Breast & 200 Free)
Alex Bouianov (6^th 50 Fly)
Julia Bouianov (6^th 100 Fly)
Norah Braun (3^rd 200 Breast, 6^th 100 Breast)
Aaron Chakraborty (1^st 50 Fly, 50 Free & 200 Free, 3^rd 100 Breast, 5^th 50 Breast)
Mo Chen (3^rd 25 Fly, 5^th 25 Free)
Shatadru Choudhury (3^rd 200 Fly)
Braxton Davis (1^st 50 Back, 2^nd 100 IM, 3^rd 50 Free & 50 Fly, 5^th 50 Breast)
Evan Deng (1^st 50 Free & 100 IM, 2^nd 200 IM & 100 Back, 3^rd 100 Breast & 200 Breast)
Anurag Fadnavis (6^th 200 Fly)
Tyler Fernandez (2^nd 50 Back, 4^th 50 Free & 100 IM)
Joseph Foster (2^nd 200 IM & 200 Back, 4^th 100 Free, 5^th 200 Fly, 6^th 50 Back)
Evan Galuska (2^nd 200 Fly, 6^th 100 Back)
Ella Gao (5^th 50 Back)
Abby Gong (1^st 100 Back & 200 Back, 2^nd 50 Back, 5^th 100 Free)
Abby Gray (1^st 100 Free, 3^rd 50 Fly)
Caden Gray (1^st 200 IM & 200 Back, 3^rd 100 Back & 200 Fly, 5^th 200 Free)
Raya Hari (5^th 25 Breast, 6^th 25 Free & 50 Free)
Ryan Hu (4^th 25 Fly, 5^th 25 Breast, 6^th 25 Free & 50 Free)
Keshav Iyer (6^th 100 Fly)
Jennifer Ji (3^rd 50 Breast, 50 Fly & 100 IM)
Haim Jung (1^st 50 Free, 100 IM & 50 Breast, 2^nd 50 Fly, 3^rd 50 Back)
Yeim Jung (3^rd 100 IM, 5^th 50 Breast)
Kirill Kadach (1^st 200 Free & 200 Back, 2^nd 50 Back, 3^rd 100 Back)
Eva Kalicinski (1^st 100 Breast & 200 Breast, 2^nd 100 Back)
Remy Kalicinski (3^rd 25 Free & 50 Free, 4^th 25 Breast)
Aditi Kandiah (1^st 100 IM, 2^nd 50 Fly & 100 Fly, 4^th Free, 6^th 100 Free)
Kiara Keim (4^th 200 Fly)
Aditi Koppal (5^th 200 Fly)
Dima Leonov-Vendrovskiy (5^th 50 Fly, 100 Fly & 50 Breast)
David Li (3^rd 50 Breast & 100 IM)
Lydia Liu (3^rd 100 Breast & 50 Free, 4^th 50 Fly, 5^th 50 Back)
Elizabeth Luo (3^rd 200 IM, 4^th 200 Back, 5^th 50 Fly, 6^th 50 Back & 50 Free)
Lizza Lytvynenko (5^th 200 IM)
Emily MacDonald (1^st 100 Fly & 200 Fly, 3^rd 50 Fly, 5^th 100 IM)
Ilia Maksimchuk (1^st 100 Free, 3^rd 100 Fly, 5^th 50 Fly, 6^th 50 Free)
Karina Maksyutov (4^th 200 IM, 5^th 100 Free)
Finley Meier (2^nd 25 Free, 4^th 25 Back, 5^th 25 Fly)
Lainey Meyer (3^rd 100 Back & 200 Breast, 5^th 200 Free, 6^th 100 Breast & 50 Free)
Mia Mohr (3^rd 200 Fly, 5^th 100 Fly)
Maksim Nikitenko (3^rd 100 IM, 4^th 100 Back, 6^th 100 Free)
Albert O (4^th 200 Breast)
Andrew Ouyang (5^th 200 Breast)
Ben Ovendale (4^th 200 Free)
Charlie Page (5^th 200 Fly)
Ethan Pan (5^th 200 Back)
Rahul Purkayastha (6^th 50 Back)
Tim Rakovchuk (1^st 100 Fly, 3^rd 200 IM & 200 Back)
Adwita Raman (6^th 200 Fly)
Miranda Range (6^th 100 Breast, 200 Breast)
Anika Razdan (5^th 200 IM)
Maya Razdan (2^nd 50 Free, 50 Fly, 50 Breast & 100 IM, 3^rd 50 Back)
Daniel Rondel (3^rd 25 Breast, 5^th 25 Fly)
Daniel Sarana (3^rd 50 Breast)
Jessie Shi (3^rd 100 Free, 5^th 200 IM, 6^th 200 Free)
Sanvi Shrivastava (3^rd 100 Fly, 6^th 50 Back)
Rachel Siu (5^th 200 Fly)
Max Smagley (1^st 50 Fly, 50 Back & 100 Free, 2^nd 100 Fly, 3^rd 50 Free, 5^th 100 Back)
Gabriel Steijn (4^th 50 Fly)
Cora Sun (6^th 25 Breast
Dan Sun (2^nd 100 Back, 4^th 100 IM, 5^th 200 IM & 50 Back)
Kennedy Tremblay (1^st 100 Fly, 4^th 50 Back, 6^th 50 Fly)
Vedah Tuladhar (1^st 100 Back & 200 Back, 4^th 50 Back)
George Ursulenko (1^st 200 IM, 2^nd 100 Free, 3^rd 100 Back, 5^th 100 Breast, 6^th 100 Fly)
Anna Ventura (1^st 100 Fly, 2^nd 200 IM & 50 Fly, 4^th 100 Free, 100 IM & 50 Free)
Aditeya Verma (2^nd 50 Fly, 4^th 50 Back)
Claire Wang (6^th 50 Fly)
Maja Wang (2^nd 50 Back, 6^th 200 Back)
Steven Wang (2^nd 50 Breast)
Lina Wu (1^st 50 Free, 100 Free & 200 Free, 4^th 50 Back, 5^th 50 Fly & 50 Breast)
Liya Wu (2^nd 200 Free & 200 Back)
Avani Yadav (4^th 50 Free, 6^th 50 Breast, 50 Back & 100 IM)
Daniel Yang (5^th 200 Fly)
Aidan Ye (5^th 50 Fly & 100 IM, 6^th 50 Breast)
Kyra Yuan (1^st 50 Breast)
Landon Yuan (1^st 50 Breast, 3^rd 200 Free, 4^th 100 Breast, 5^th 100 Free, 6^th 200 Breast)
Bella Zhang (4^th 50 Breast)
William Zhang (6^th 200 Back)
Michael Zhou (6^th 200 Free)
Andrew Zhu (3^rd 200 Breast, 6^th 100 Breast)