Wave Swimmers Swim Lights Out to Start Off 2025 FAST!!

Jay Pearson

Wave Winter Invitational Meet Recap

Wave began 2025 with the entire team participating in our own invitational. We witnessed a huge number of outstanding swims, big time drops, tons of new motivational times and cuts, and most importantly, we had a lot of fun! A big shout out to all the parents who volunteered at the meet! A huge shout out to our 8&U Pentathlon winners, Aaradhya Bharadwaj and Remy Kalicinski! Well done, Wave!

Black Group

Thank you to everyone who helped us to run a successful meet! We cannot run a meet without people to make it happen. There are lots of positions to fill- timers, timing system, hospitality, clean-up, deck marshals, etc. The coaches typically have limited interaction with most volunteers during the meet- the exception from this often our stagers who help get the kids lined up and into correct lanes and heats for their races.

On both days of the meet, each set of stagers did a terrific job, which freed us as coaches to watch the races and interact with the kids about their swims. Thank you! And thank you again to EVERYONE who helped out in some way!

Other ways that families helped the meet be successful are the simple things of having your athlete there on time, arriving prepared (towels, team suit, uniform, E/H/L info, etc.), communicating with the coaches as needed- text or WhatsApp messages updating us. Our families had tons of these things working for them. Thank you!

Some athlete highlights:

Toby Gawthrop has been on the team about a month and this was his first meet with the team. He did a terrific job finishing 4/5 races legally, and racing hard in all five events.
Brock Georgievski has been making nice progress at practices. At the meet he was able to successfully complete the 100 Free and the 25 Fly.
Annabelle Gerber was terrific in her 25 Fly and had a big improvement in her 100 Free.
Atharv Girotra has been on it at practices and the meet showed that with a nice 25 Free, a first-time 25 Fly + 100 Free and a strong swim in his 25 Back.
Neeva Goel raced hard at the meet and had some strong races including a really nice 25 Back and 100 Free.
Amelia Horng was a small mistake in her breaststroke away from placing Top 8 in the pentathlon. The rest of her races were excellent, especially her 100 Free and 25 Fly.
Clara Huang does a wonderful job at practice and keeps making steady improvements that showed at this meet with multiple new best times and a first-time swim in the 100 Free.
Keira Lydick was our only 9-year-old from Black in the meet. She had a very nice meet with a first-time swim in the 100 Back, and numerous best times by significant amounts showing the improvements she’s been working on at practices.
Austin Wu is still working on getting everything down in his breaststroke, but swam the 100 Free for the first time, and posted strong swims in his other three races.
Amy Yu completed four new races in just her second meet, getting through the 100 Free, 25 Back, 25 Fly and 25 Free without a disqualification.

White Group

White Group had an astoundingly good meet this past weekend. The swimmers did great at listening in warmups and checking in and out for their races. The coaches saw many big drops and had lots of fun as always with the kids. Keep up the great work White Group!!

A Group

Ira Joshi was our only White Group swimmer in the 200 Free and represented us very well by dropping 18 seconds! She had a smart race strategy and held on to her speed throughout the whole race.
Ata Sakin dropped 17 seconds in his 100 Fly and did great with checking in before races!
Avni Garg received another BB time in her 100 Breast dropping more than 7 seconds, getting a 1:42.68. Great work, Avni!
Roohi Indurkar had a great meet dropping in 5/6 races. She smashed her 100 Fly, dropping 4 seconds.
Ziad ElGamal got his second B time in the 100 Free at this meet crushing his race and dropping 4.55 seconds!

B Group

Enya Zhu had a great 50 Breast dropping 6.18 seconds! She also learned a good lesson that it’s normal to have goggles fall off but still be able to have a good race. Great job, Enya!
Gihoo Kim got his first B time in his 50 Breast dropping 1.70 seconds. Great accomplishment, Gihoo!
Aarush Kakkar dropped in 5/6 events, with his biggest drop being 27 seconds, earning him a new best time of 1:37.13!!
Abha Acharya dropped in all her events with the biggest being 19.24 seconds in her 100 Back! She was also one of our top swimmers asking for tips and race strategies before and after her races. Very nice!

Purple Group

Purple Group showed up and showed out for this meet! I was highly impressed with the swims and maturity that the swimmers demonstrated. Many of them were coming back from holiday trips or sicknesses but they still put in their best effort and reaped the rewards. Great job Purple!!

A Group

Shatadru Roy Choudhury earned two new B times in his 100 Free and 50 Breast. His 50 Breast was extra aggressive and impressive, dropping 5.46 seconds!
Molly Page raced all the breaststroke events, which is her least favorite stroke. She had a good attitude about it and dropped in all three with the biggest drop being 4.98 seconds in the 200!
Priyadarshi Lahiri had a great meet dropping 25.36 seconds in his 100 Breast. He did great at checking in and focusing for each of his races.
Alina Karptsova smashed her 200 IM, dropping 24.41 seconds and earning her 10^th B time! She is always fun to watch while racing and does great at applying feedback from coaches in to her races.

B Group

Kiara Keim had a very solid meet shaving off a bit of time in almost every race. She’s been refocusing and working hard during practice, which paid off here, especially in her 100 Breast where she dropped 4.75 seconds!
Doyeol Yang is a leader in races and practices. He’s always pushing the pace and his teammates. He had an impressive 200 Free, dropping 9.51 seconds!
Nandita Bhandari had a crazy successful meet especially with her 100 Fly, breaking the 2:00 mark and dropping 18.53 seconds.
Alexander Korolis was preparing and aiming for his first B time at this meet. He not only achieved it excellently by dropping almost two seconds but put in hard work and focus at practice. Very impressive goal setting Alex!

High School

This meet we went into it knowing that we would have a number of time drops but we exceeded that! We’ve been talking about meet strategy a lot in practice and it really paid off.

Ethan Chan swam his first meet since he’s moved up from Purple. He’s been working very hard and his attendance has been great. His new times reflect his hard work: -5.91 in his 100 Back, -9.73 in his 200 Breast, and -9.96 in his 200 Free for a B time.
Miranda Range has been working on her mobility and allowing her body to rotate and feel smooth in the water. She has also been working very hard on racing and working on race strategy, which paid off with some excellent swims: -2.27 in her 200 Free, -1.52 in her 50 Back, and -0.44 in her 50 Free for a BB time.
Jay Song is a hard worker in practice, putting 100% into each workout. His efforts show. His goal is to make it to more champs meets and his results show he’s well on his way: -7.57 in his 200 Free for a B time, -6.55 in his 200 IM, -3.36 in his 50 Back, -2.46 in his 50 Fly, and -0.40 in his 50 Free for a B time.
Jonathan Yu had a fantastic meet on Sunday and dropped a ton of time. He dropped -34.82 in his 200 Back, -2.23 in his 200 IM, and -2.96 in his 50 Back.

Age Group 1

AG1 had some amazing swimming this past weekend at the meet. It was awesome to see the kids get to race again after a few weeks off and they had some great swims. Great job to the group. Shout out swims of the meet:

Akira Andhare had a tremendous swim meet, crushing her 100 Breast with a 12-second drop and some awesome pull outs.
Ella Gao had a great swim meet with a 22-second drop her 200 Free where she was super strong on the back half of the race.
Nolan Gu had a great meet with three first-time-ever events in the 50 Back, 100 Breast, and 100 IM. He crushed all three with some great swimming!
Haim Jung had a great weekend picking up three AG Regional cuts over the weekend. His 200 Free was his strongest event with a 10-second drop and some awesome turns.
Maya Razdan had a great weekend of swimming with some really great time drops. Her standout swim was her very first 100 Fly where she kept her stroke long and legal and had a great first swim.

Age Group 2

We started the year off with a lot of new swimmers from White and AG1, jumping right into some hard, intense training. We trained straight through the meet and, even though they were tired, everyone had several fantastic swims. Shout outs to Ally Yuan, Anna Ventura, Leo Chen, and Aditeya Verma who all completed their first 200 Fly! Well done, AG2! Shout out swims of the meet:

Albert O has upped his workout intensity to a new high, and it paid off with 5/6 best times. In addition to a 26.51-second drop in his 200 IM, he also dropped 17.68 seconds in a perfectly paced 200 Free where he held strong in his back half, especially the tough third 50, and crushed the 3:00 mark!
Ally Yuan has long been the standard bearer for what it means to work hard day in and day out in AG2, and not surprisingly, she turned out another great meet. In addition to her first 200 Fly, she shattered the :30 barrier in her 50 Free for the first time after spending the past few months stuck at 30.1. She also perfectly split her 200 IM for a huge 7.8-second drop!
Clara Stevenson, in her first meet in AG2, went 6/6 best times including two outstanding 50s: her 50 Back and 50 Breast. In both races she was aggressive yet swam with beautiful strokes. She nailed her breakouts, her turns, and her finishes to have big drops in both 50s, and picked up her first AA time in the 50 Back!
Finley Wiegand, also in her first AG2 meet, went 6/6 best times with her highlight being her 50 Breast. She started with a powerful underwater pullout, was aggressive with excellent short glides and explosive recoveries, grabbied an early lead that she never let go to not only win the event but earn her first AAA time!
Siena Stahlkopf also went 6/6 best times in her first AG2 meet. Her finest swim was a gorgeous 100 Back where she went out fast and smooth with excellent body position and really cranked up her kick in the second 50 to drop 11.7 seconds for a new BB time!

Senior Prep

Our group had a tremendous weekend. We were focused on updating off event times, swimming in some events they either haven’t done yet or haven’t done in a long while. It was awesome to see the group’s improvement in their off events and the fun they had racing some strokes they don’t swim as often. Great Job to the whole group on a great meet weekend. Shout out swims of the meet:

Rihit Gandhi had a very strong weekend. He crushed his very first 200 Fly with some strong kickouts and consistent rhythm in his stroke for the full swim. He even snagged an AG Regionals cut in the event.
Arvin Kandiah had a great weekend of swimming with great times all weekend long. His standout swim was his 200 Breast where he kept his pull outs long and his kick strong throughout the swim for a big 5-second drop.
Vedah Tuladhar had a tremendous weekend of swimming with several best times and her first-ever 200 Fly. Her standout swim was her 200 Breast where she dropped 15 seconds by having strong pull outs and some great pacing for a strong race.
Beata Sobol had a great weekend with some strong swimming. Her standout swim was her 200 Free where she went out aggressive and kept her stroke long through the back half with a great 2.5-second time drop.
Max Smagley had a great meet, with some strong swimming and a lot of distance events that he doesn’t typically swim. His 200 Breast was his standout swim where he was able to keep his tempo strong through the back half of the swim and hit a 22-second drop.

Senior 1

We had 30 swimmers compete at our first meet back since tapering and taking our winter break. We kicked the year off with some very exciting races and some fast swimming. The group trained hard all the way through the meet so many of them were racing very tired. It was awesome to see them able to step up and race well even when they weren’t feeling 100%. Many got opportunities to swim races they often don’t swim and had a lot of fun updating old times and swimming events very much out of the norm for them. I was pleased with the performance of the group as they have been working hard and it's nice to see it pay off for them. I am excited to see what these swimmers can accomplish throughout the rest of the season. Highlights include:

Gahl Ami ad has been working hard at practices and it really showed in his racing as he went best times in all his events. He has been working to improve his freestyle and has been able to take on faster and faster intervals in practice. That work was evident during his 200 Free. He started the race strong then during the back 100 he really turned on the jets splitting almost evenly and putting up a big 3-second drop to start the meet.
Penelope Hepkin was very excited to swim some races that weren’t free or breast. She has been crushing it at meets this year and this meet was no different. She went way outside her comfort zone and took on the 100 Fly, a race she rarely swims. She swam with great confidence and pushed herself hard all the way to the finish resulting in a very solid 2-second drop.
Cora Ledrick was another swimmer excited to swim some of her off events. Taking a little break from her usual races she put up very solid swims in the breast and fly events. Her most exciting swim was her 200 Breast. She was a little nervous heading in but once she was behind the blocks she put her game face on and got to business. She used quick turns and strong underwater pullouts to propel her to a solid drop in the race. She is considering increasing her breaststroke training moving forward.
Neha Phatak always comes to practice with a positive attitude ready to work hard. She approaches meet in a similar manner. The combination of her solid training and positivity resulted in some really stellar swimming at the meet. She tore it up in most of her races, finding the most success in her breaststroke events, including an absolutely fantastic 100 Breast. She crushed her pullouts, found a steady tempo, and held her glide, adding up to a huge 5-second drop.
Rahul Purkayastha was a man on a mission. The mission he chose to accept was to swim fast and achieve new best times. He has been working on his short axis strokes and that work showed in his racing as he was very successful in his fly and breast events. He put on an awesome performance in the 200 Breast, playing to his strengths utilizing his walls and pullouts well that, along with staying long and holding his glide, earned him a huge 4-second drop.

Senior Epic

We stepped up and raced well in our first meet of the year. After three strong weeks of practice with high volume and high intensity workouts, their main focus was to work on the swimming skills they have been practicing while also challenging themselves mentally to race hard when tired. Here are some highlights from our group:

Bianca Bensen did a great job swimming different events and looked really strong in her 50 Fly and 100 Breast where she dropped time in both events. She also had a best time in the 100 IM where she was able to push hard in all strokes, especially the backstroke, which is her strongest, and dropped almost 2 full seconds.
Anton Mazepa went five best times and demonstrated great improvement in his breaststroke events. He dropped 3.56 seconds in the 100 Breast and another 5.46 seconds in the 50 Breast to break the 30 second barrier for the first time. His new breaststroke also helped him to swim a strong 100 IM where he blasted all four strokes and swam a great race.
Henry Geitz had a good start to the season and went best times in both butterfly events he swam. In the 100 Fly he felt fast and dropped 0.80. In the 200 Fly he was able to keep a good rhythm for the entire race and finished strong, dropping 10.22 seconds.
Samantha Merriam went four best times in her first meet of the year. She has been working on her breaststroke technique and it showed in her 100 Breast where she dropped 1.12 seconds. She also dropped 0.87 in the 50 Breast, demonstrating an important consistency with her new technique.
Logan Downing was challenged by me to swim the 200 Fly and he thrived on the task! The last time he swam this event was a few years ago and he crushed it. He managed his speed, looked great the entire race and finished strong his last 50 yards. He dropped more than a minute in the race (no kidding) and it was fun to watch him swim!