Wave Brings the Heat with New Cuts at VAST!

Jay Pearson

VAST Sprint & Distance Meet Recap

Our Select Team traveled to the King County Aquatic Center for our second long course meet of the season. This meet featured sprint races on Saturday and longer races on Sunday. We saw a huge number of new Champs cuts as well as a boatload of new US Motivational Times. Clearly, all our hard work is paying off, and the team is showing impressive progress so early in the long course season. Well done, Wave!

Age Group 1

The AG1 kids had a great weekend of swimming meet. The kids predominately raced the 50s on Saturday and the 200 Free on Sunday. It was a great weekend of racing, and many kids picked up new time standards in either motivational times or in Champs cuts. I am excited to see where the group goes in the next few weeks heading into the SRST and Montana Meets!!! Standout Swims of the Meet:

Akira Andhare had a dominant weekend with four best times and more than 30 seconds of dropped time!!! Her standout swim was their 50 Fly where they kept their kick strong on the second half of the 50 and finished strong for an 11-second drop.
Arifin Capiral also had a dominant weekend with 4 best times over the weekend. His standout swim was his 200 Free on Sunday, where he kept his kick going through the whole swim for a great 14-second drop.
Ann Ding had a tremendous weekend of swimming. She only swam on Saturday and had two best times (with 8-second drops in both events!). Her standout swim was her 50 Breast where she kept her in-sweep quick and kick strong for a great race and great time drop.
Yuna Ma had a tremendous weekend at the meet going 3/4 in best times. She had an amazing Saturday in the 50s, dropping 25 seconds between the three swims. Her standout swim was her 50 Fly where she kept her arms smooth and consistent for the full 50 for a 13-second drop.
Steven Wang crushed the meet weekend with some great swims over the weekend. He had a wonderful 50 Fly, where he kept his kick consistent and kept his breathing rhythmic for a 13-second drop.

Way to go AG1 athletes!!!

Age Group 2

We’ve been crushing it in workout with a lot of challenging training and saw all 39 swimmers who attended drop large amounts of times, make loads of new motivational and Champs cuts, and come out of the meet with happy smiles. What a great reward for all their hard work! Here are some of our standout swims:

Hayley Chou was 3/3 in best times and swam her first 200m IM. She dropped about 7 seconds in both of her 50s and more than 17 seconds in her standout swim, her 200 Free, where she set herself a challenging tempo on the first 50, built beautifully during her middle 100, then gritted her teeth and use her kick to bring her home.
Rhea Dawani puts in work like nobody’s business day in and day out, including in dryland. She had a great meet with three best times, highlighted by her amazing 200 IM where she paced her first half just like we practice then blasted her breaststroke leg before turning on the juice for her freestyle leg, resulting in an 18-second drop and a new motivational cut.
Vivian Hu is new to the group and is showed off how hard she’s pushed herself since moving up. She went 4/4 best times and 4/4 new motivational cuts. Her standout swim was her 100 Free where she went out fast and showed off her powerful flutter kick for the entire race, dropping 11.55 seconds and earning 2^nd place.
Elaina Jiang is also new to AG2 and has really pushed herself as she adjusts to the new workout load. She had a fantastic first day, destroying her best time in all three races and earning new motivational cuts in both. Her standout swim was her 50 Fly, where she put all her hard work we do on our dolphin kicks to great use and broke out in first place, which she never relinquished to not only win the event, but drop 5.4 seconds and a new AAA time.
Albert O has been the most improved swimmer in AG2 since last fall and has turned into a real leader in practice. He’s no longer just a breaststroker, and he showed it at the meet, going 4/4 best times and his first-ever 200m Free. His standout swim was his 200 IM where he proved how well he’s developed his other strokes as he paced his fly and back legs beautifully, sprinted his breaststroke leg, then also sprinted his free leg to drop more than 24 seconds.

Congrats to all the AG2 swimmers for their hard work and outstanding performances!

Senior Prep

We have been working hard and really pushing their training over the past few weeks heading into the meet. We took it a little easy on Thursday and Friday heading into the meet, so the kids were poised for a fast weekend of swimming. They took advantage of the hard work and had a fantastic weekend of swimming, crushing both the sprint swims on Saturday and then turning around and having some great distance swimming on Sunday. Standout swims of the meet:

Arjun Yadav had a great weekend going 4/5 in best times and dropping some serious time in each swim. His standout swim was his 100 Fly where he kept his stroke long and smooth and raced hard on the second 50 with a great kick for a nearly 11-second drop.
Anika Razdan had a strong weekend of swimming with great races and big time drops. It was awesome to see her hard work at practice showing up in the pool racing. Her standout swim was her 400 Free where she kept her kick consistent for the full length of the swim and dropped 8.5 seconds.
Ilia Maksumchuk had a great weekend of swimming going 5/5 in best times and not just a few tenths but big drops all around with his smallest drop being 8 seconds. He has been focused up and training very well since the start of long course and it paid off in his racing. No standout because the hard work he has put in stands out and it showed in all five swims!!!
Yuzuki Ishizuka had a great weekend going 4/5 in best times and dropping major time. Her standout swim was her 400 IM where her growth in both ability and confidence was seen in the longer swim and how poised she was before getting in the water to race. She dropped 24 seconds and had four 100s of quality strokes.
Aaron Chakraborty had a great weekend of swimming dropping time over the weekend and having some great races. His stand out swim was his 100 Back where the hard work in getting better at kicking is showing up and his kick powered him through the back half of that 100 for a 2.5-second drop.

Great Job to all the Senior Prep kids!!!

Senior 1

We had 31 swimmers compete at the meet. Our group has been training very hard and they were feeling the effects of the training. Despite not feeling at their best, they did an incredible job of stepping up and racing. They all did a fantastic job executing their race strategies, particularly some of the more sprint-focused swimmers who showed increased endurance during the longer races. We had several best times and very exciting races. I was pleased with the performances and am excited to see what they can do as we continue to work hard through the remainder of the season. Our highlights:

Phoebe Anderson has really showed improvement in her training recently. It was fun to see the hard work she’s put in pay off, and she was rewarded with best times in all her races. She’s really been working on her underwater dolphin kick and that helped her big time in her 50 Fly as she was able to get off to a great start then hold the momentum through the race dropping almost a full second and putting her very close to the Champs cut.
Kamilla Bugaitsova has been incredibly consistent with everything she does since joining the group. She is always at practice and always working hard. Thanks to all her hard work, she swam away from the meet with best times in all her events. She turned in an absolutely fantastic 1500. She was able to find the pace early on and lock in, splitting evenly throughout the race then finding her finishing speed for the last 200. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a monster 45-second drop in the race.
Vien Pogue enjoys the sprint events a lot but has worked hard to push outside of her comfort zone and take on some longer events. This meet was a perfect opportunity for her to do both of those. She dropped time in all her races showing her sprint skill and her improving distance abilities. Her most impressive performance was in her 400 Free. She got off to a great start and held strong during the middle before sprinting home for the finish. It was a fun swim that resulted in a huge 7-second drop and another Champs cut.
Roman Byelykh likes to come in and work very hard at every practice. His positive attitude towards training has really started to show in his racing as he was another member of the all best times club over the weekend. He turned in a stellar performance in the 400 Free. He did a wonderful job of going out aggressively and was able to pretty much even split the event, giving himself a massive 45-second drop and putting him very close to the Senior Zones qualifying time.
Kennedy Tremblay always has a great attitude when she is at practice and is always willing to push herself and work hard. She was rewarded over the weekend with some big swims and best times in all her races. In the 200 Free, she executed the race strategy incredibly well, started out strong and was able to hold on during the middle of the race, setting herself up to sprint home the final 50 and give herself an amazing 10-second drop.

Excellent work last weekend, Senior 1 swimmers!

Senior Epic

We had a very solid meet last weekend! The meet also marked the end of the heavier phase of our training program and I was pleased with our group's swims. We had lots of fast swims and many best times showing all the work we have put in so far. Enjoy some highlights from our group:

Jaiden Sreenivasan was very excited with his first 200 Free in the long course pool this season. He dominated the event, going strong the entire race and swimming right at his current time, which was a Junior Nationals cut that he achieved last summer. Of special note, this was his last long course meet with Wave. He will be leaving to college at the Naval Academy in late June. He has been a dedicated athlete and a real team leader. He holds many team records and has swum in multiple national level meets. Best wishes to your career in the Navy, Jaiden!
Amelia Pletosu crushed her 200 events and earned an AA Time in both the 200 Fly and 200 IM. She has been working on her butterfly lately and it showed in both races where she did a great job keeping her rhythm and managing to drop 5.13 seconds in the 200 Fly and another 8.77 seconds in the 200 IM.
Amaris Rus had an excellent weekend and swam 4/5 best times. His outstanding swim was the 100 Fly where he went out fast and came back strong to crush his old time dropping almost 2 full seconds. A shout-out for his underwater dolphin kicks and a new AA Time.
Maya Surugiu had a great 400 IM and broke the 6:00 barrier by dropping almost 10 seconds from her previous time. Her second half of the race was her strongest part where she was able to swim a solid breaststroke and freestyle to close her race strong.
Henry Geitz was happily surprised when he saw a best time on the scoreboard when he finished his 1500 Free. He looked good the entire race, held a consistent pace until the end and was able to sprint the last 150 meters, which was the strategy planned for his race.

Well done, Senior Epic! I’m proud of you all!