SRST Invitational Meet Recap

Wave sent nearly 250 swimmers up to Snohomish for some FAST racing! Our athletes showed incredible determination and teamwork throughout the meet, achieving some remarkable milestones. The energy at Snohomish was nothing short of electric as personal bests and championship qualifications lit up the meet. Below are highlights from each group and their standout performances.

Black Group

This was one of the best meets we’ve had this year in terms of people arriving on time, athletes being prepared with their gear and E/H/L information and swimmers handling the warm-up.

We had tons of new swimmers at this meet too, so thank you to all those families for making this happen!

Black A

• Angadh Bhargava has lots to work yet, but that’s to be expected. What he did well was race with excellent effort and intensity and posted some strong first-time swims in the 25 Free and 25 Back.
• Julie Dong had an EXCELLENT meet. She puts in the work at practice, so this was fun to watch, including a big drop in her 100 Free and a B time as she completed her first-ever 100 Back. The swim we were most excited about was her 50 Breast as she has made huge improvements with that stroke.
• Clara Huang quietly works very hard at practice, and we enjoy watching her race and seeing her improve. She had standout swims in her 50 and 100 Free, and her butterfly keeps coming along, she had a nice swim there too.
• Conner Li is an awesome racer at meets and this meet was an example of that. He swam tough in his first successful 100 Back and posted some strong times in his 25 Fly and 25 Free. The latter was his first time breaking 20 seconds, which is really good at a facility where the kids are diving from the side and not a starting block.
• Angela Pan has improved her efforts at practice and it’s paying off with some vastly improved strokes, including first legal swims in her 50 Fly and 50 Breast, which was very exciting!

Black B

• Isaac Qin listens and works at practice so it’s no surprise to see some strong improvements for him at this meet.
• Oscar Wang has been steadily working to figure out strokes and skills, and we can see the progress he has made. He swam well at this meet in large part because of his efforts at practice.
• Emery Xie is new to the team and this was his first meet, but he did great with his races and was able to successfully complete his first breaststroke race, which is a big accomplishment.
• Aurora Zhou is also new to the group and she’s been excellent at practice, so it was no surprise that she had an excellent first meet with three legal races.
• Ethan Zhu has been working very hard at practices, and we are excited to see how he continues to work to develop. He had a strong first meet with a couple of solid first-time swims.

White Group

White Group had an impressive meet, but we’re not surprised by that after how hard they’ve worked the past month! Well done, everyone in White!

White A

• Claire Zhang made the group proud when she made a new BB time in her 50 Breast. She had 100% best times and zero excuses.
• Isaac Xie had a very good meet. He posted the fastest 100 Free time in the group with a 1:21.69. I’m also starting to see him on top in workouts.
• Bessie Jiang is tough. She dropped every time and has more to come. Her dryland elevates the entire group.
• Felix Henaire was impressive in his racing. He dropped 9.36 in his 100 Free, 8.22 in his 100 IM and he made a new B time in his 50 Breast. He is focusing more and increasing his discipline. I can't wait to see more.
• Poppy Covington had an amazing 100 Free. She dropped from a 1:56.58 to a 1:34.36. She also improved all her other times. I dare her to hold this improvement rate!

White B

• Arvaan Deshmukh raised the bar for White B when he made a new B time in his 50 Back. He brought his game and played everyone.
• Josh Lu had a great meet and dropped 32.24 seconds in his 50 Back. It was the largest drop in White group. Congratulations!
• Enya Zhu had an outstanding meet. Her best race was the 100 IM in which she dropped 16.44 seconds. She is getting stronger every day.
• Vladislav Kalyuzhin had a great 100 Free and 100 IM. He has many talents, and I hope to see more!
• Zhile Li had 100% best times. Every time she touches the water, she is faster. It is exciting to watch her grow.

Purple Group

Purple had an impressive showing at SRST. I was consistently checking meet mobile to see the results and was thoroughly impressed by the time drops and tons of new times gained legally by the swimmers this meet. Let's keep the intensity and fire going to finish this season just as strong. Great work swimmers!

A Group

• Yifan Xu got two new B times in his 50 Fly and Free with tons of other times drops. However, his most impressive race was his 200 Fly. He had a smooth form that held strong and was able to shatter the 3:00 mark by dropping 20 seconds and earning a 2:52!
• Keira Spitze has been a great addition to Purple group this season. She has lots of fun with her teammates and works hard in the pool. She transformed that hard work into real results at SRST getting under 1:30 in her 100 Back and earning a new B time.
• Jonah Lynn had a smashing meet with tons of new B times while also racing his first time in the 500 free and going way under 7:00. His standout race was his 100 Free where dropped under the 1:05 mark and got ever closer to breaking the minute. I’m excited to keep seeing the growth and hard work!
• Rayona Saraswat is one of the most consistent swimmers I’ve seen in any practice. She’s dedicated to coming to practice and trying her best. This paid off at this past meet where she dropped time in every single event and legally completed her first 200 Fly. Very impressive Rayona!

B Group

• Mudit Singh had such an amazing 400 IM that was described as awesome with beautifully performed race strategy. He kept a strong tempo with both his arms and legs and easily broke the 7:00 mark, earning a 6:53!
• Julia Bouianov might have had our most successful meet for Purple. She raced extra hard and earned five new B times! She had a big mix of lots of breaststroke (her favorite) and lots of backstroke (not as much her favorite). She did great in both and even placed 5^th in her 200 Back, which was the first time she had raced that event!
• Anika Arvan had a crushing performance at SRST! She totaled about 40 seconds of time drops and gets special recognition for completing the 500 free. She had been very nervous beforehand but had the goal of under 8:00, which she completely obliterated by going 7:39!
• Yulin Cen has been more frequent and focused with his practices the past few months, which showed with no DQs and tons of time drops! His standout swim would be the 200 IM where he got his first legal time and placed 8^th. Nice work Yulin!!

High School

The SRST meet was a fast meet for many and we as a group, had fantastic swims. Good job to everyone that swam this meet.

• Dylan Vu gets recognition for his 100 Free. He has been trying for so long to drop time, and he finally broke the 51 and almost the 50!
• Roshni Padmanabhan had a fantastic meet, the best she has had in a long time, dropping in 4/5 events!  Her standout was the 100 Back where she dropped -4.96! She was able to hold on strong that last 50 and go fast! The best race she has swam in maybe the whole year.
• Paolo Villanueva swam his first meet in six months. He’d had some PBs in practice, so we knew that he was going to have a good meet, and he did not disappoint, going 6/6! His standout swim was in the 200 IM where he dropped -10.36! He was a beast there!
• Carlo Villanueva had a great swim in his 200 Breast. He has been working on every aspect of his race to help perfect it. He was able to swim that race holding on to his speed and power on the back half! He dropped -10.59 for a BB time! 

Age Group 1

AG1 had a busy single day of swimming at the meet. They had several events in a quick and short session and crushed it with some great racing. It was awesome to see the fast swimming and new cuts raining in from the group. Great job to the whole group. Shoutout Swims of the Weekend:

• Aaradhya Bharadwaj had a tremendous swim meet and crushed her 100 Free with a great start and strong flip turns for a 10-second drop.
• Arifin Capiral had a very strong weekend of swimming with a great 100 IM. It was awesome to see his improvements in all four strokes showing up with a 5-second+ drop.
• Yuna Ma rocked the weekend with some great swimming and some great times. Her standout swim was her 200 Free where she had some great turns and some great kickouts for a 12-second drop.
• Alexander Bouianov had a great meet with a fantastic 50 Back, where his kick was strong for the full swim and dropped more than 1 second. He also picked up a Champs cut in his 200 Free.
• Sophie Liu had an amazing weekend of swimming with some fast racing and big time drops. Her standout swim was her 200 Free where she kept her stroke long and consistent and dropped more than 8 seconds.

Age Group 2

20 members of AG2 took the short ride up to Snohomish where we saw our hard work and attention to detail during workout really pay off with several new cuts. A shout out to Anika Lichtenberg, Maksim Nikitenko, and Rinat Maksyutov, who all broke the :30 mark in their 50 Free for the first time!

• Anika Lichtenberg had possibly her best meet ever as a Wave swimmer, blasting out best time after best time. Her standout swim came on day 1 where she destroyed her previous best 500 Free time by 56 seconds. She went out fast, held her stroke together, and descended her final four 100s to easily pick up her first freestyle Champs cut and just miss an A time. But that wasn’t all! In her first-ever 200 Fly, she won the event!
• Benji Ovendale has worked very hard on improving all his strokes and it showed big time in his first-ever 400 IM where he swam strong on each stroke and finished fast and hard to earn a B time.
• Dan Sun had several excellent swims, with his standout swims being the 200 and 500 Free races. In both, he dropped nearly 6 seconds by applying excellent strategy and great kick in the back halves. In the 500, he broke 7:00 for the first time.
• Aman Bhatt works extremely hard every day and came out firing for his 500 Free, built his race beautifully, and finished strong to drop nearly 6 seconds in the race.
• Max Sun is one of the hardest workers in the group and it showed big time at the meet. He not only crushed his first-ever 200 Fly by easily breaking 3:00, he also dropped more than 9 seconds in a near-perfect 200 Breast to shatter the 3:00 mark in that event as well.

Senior Prep

The SR Prep kids have been training hard and pushing it hard in the water and in dryland over the past few weeks. Despite being tired from training the kids had an awesome meet with best times, new cuts, and some fast swimming. Great Job to whole group on a fast and fun weekend of swimming.

Shoutout Swims of the Weekend:

• Henry Cheng crushed the weekend with some great swimming and best times in every event. He kicked off the weekend with a dominant 500 Free, dropping 24 seconds. He did an excellent job of kicking out of all the walls and keeping his kick strong through the whole swim.
• Ally Yuan has been working hard at practice since moving up and crushed this weekend with six best times. Her standout swim came in her 4-second drop in her 200 IM where she did an excellent job of treating each 50 like a 50 sprint.
• Andy Yang had a dominant weekend of swimming going 6/7 in best times and showing his hard work leading the fast lane at practice. His standout swim was his 6-second drop in the 200 Free, where he blew past the 2:00 threshold and went 1:57!!!
• Yuzuki Ishizuki had a tremendous weekend of swimming with a bunch of best times. Her standout swim was in her 200 Fly where she has been working on heavily in practice to improve and develop stamina and dropped almost 5 seconds in the event.
• Anika Razdan has been increasing her intensity at practice and working hard to get faster in meets over the long course season and that hard work really showed up this weekend with a great meet. Her standout swim came in her 200 IM where her improvement in all four strokes showed up.

Senior 1

The Senior 1 Group had 11 swimmers compete at the Meet. It was a great showing for the group. Everyone who competed did a great job of stepping up and racing well. There were a bunch of huge time drops. It was exciting to see the results come in and see the group performing so well. I was very impressed with how well they all raced and am very excited to see them all suit up and do it all again at the Seattle Senior Open!

• Daniel Chen dialed in for this meet and the results speak for themselves as he went best times in all his events. He has been training incredibly hard lately and it was awesome to see his hard work pay off in such a big way. He has been working hard on his breaststroke lately and he saw some huge payoffs in those events. He showed his increased speed by blasting his way to a huge 2-second drop in the 50 Breast.
• Evan Deng had a very successful meet as he was either right at or better than his best times in all his races. He has been working hard to improve his ability to carry his breaststroke speed for longer distances. He showed off his great improvement with a stellar 100 where he had a huge drop and was able to split the back 50 very well.
• Victor Lyakhovitski returned to competition for the first time since an injury earlier this year. He has been working hard at practice to build his strength back up and he made the most out of competing for the first time in a while and turned in some very impressive swims. He had an awesome swim in the 50 Back showing off his sprint speed, earning himself a 2-second drop and breaking :30 for the first time.
• Max Smagley very much enjoys competing and swimming fast. He did both of those things over the weekend as he raced his way to best times in every event he competed in. He turned in a huge swim in the 100 Fly. He used his great opening speed and a strong back 50 to break the 1:00 barrier.
• Lasya Viswanadham turned in some very solid performances in all her races and earned herself a slew of new best times. She has been doing a great job with her aerobic freestyle training and was eager to take on the 500. Her training came through for her as she had a fantastic swim crushing her previous best by 14 seconds.

Senior Epic

Epic had a small crew and great swims for the SRST Meet. Enjoy some highlights below:

• Anouk Balog had excellent swims during the weekend. She felt strong in both her butterfly events, especially in the 200 Fly where she had a great swim and was able to drop almost a full second to get a best time in her favorite event.
• Bennett Geitz went three best times at the meet and got an AA Time in the 100 Fly going out fast and doing solid underwater dolphin kicks the entire race to drop 2.27 seconds.
• Sophia Gorveatt has been working on her freestyle and had solid swims in all her free events. She found her speed to swim her fastest 50 Free ever where she shaved off another 0.11 from her previous time.
• Henry Geitz’s outstanding swim was the 200 Breast where he felt good and dropped 5 full seconds. He has been dedicating more time to work on his breaststroke and was satisfied with his race.
• Jaiden Sreenivasan was extremely happy to swim his last meet for Wave before going to college and he did what he knows best: he had fun swimming all his races! He went within half a second or less off his best times in all his three events.

New US Motivational Times

 AAA 

• Evan Deng – 50 Breast

 AA 

• Bennett Geitz – 100 Fly
• Yuzuki Ishizuka – 50 Fly
• Olivia Liu – 200 IM, 50 Fly
• Irene Qu – 100 Back
• Max Smagley – 50 Fly

 A 

• Daniel Chen – 400 IM, 100 Breast, 200 Free
• Leo Chen – 100 Fly
• Bennett Geitz – 100 Breast
• Abby Gray – 500 Free
• Maria Kokhan – 100 Free, 200 Back, 200 IM
• Olivia Liu – 200 Free
• Victor Lyakhovitski – 50 & 200 Back
• Anton Mazepa – 200 Breast
• Albert O – 50 Breast
• Irene Qu – 200 Free
• Max Smagley – 100 Fly, 100 Free
• George Ursulenko – 50 & 100 Breast
• Lasya Viswanadham – 500 Free
• Andy Yang – 50 & 200 Free
• Ally Yuan – 500 Free, 200 IM
• Grace Zhang – 50 Breast

 BB 

• Aaradhya Bharadwaj – 100 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly
• Adele Bokach – 100 Fly
• Alex Bouianov – 200 Free
• Arifin Capiral – 100 IM
• Aaron Chakraborty – 50 Back
• Leo Chen – 200 Fly, 50 Free
• Henry Cheng – 50 Breast
• Lucas Deng – 50 Fly
• Fiona Herman – 50 Breast
• Yuzuki Ishizuka – 200 Fly, 50 Back
• Kirill Kadach – 200 IM
• Anika Lichtenberg – 50 & 500 Free, 50 Back
• Lydia Liu – 50 Fly
• Sophie Liu – 50 & 200 Free
• Yuna Ma – 100 & 200 Free
• Rinat Maksyutov – 50 & 500 Free
• Maksim Nikitenko – 100 Free
• Albert O – 50 Free
• Siena Stahlkopf – 50 & 100 Breast
• Bianca Stanciu – 50 Free
• Dan Sun – 50 Free
• Han Sun – 100 Fly, 100 & 200 Free
• Vedah Tuladhar – 400 IM, 50 Fly
• George Ursulenko – 200 & 500 Free
• Claire Zhang – 50 Breast
• Grace Zhang – 200 IM, 50 Back
• Maggie Zhou – 100 Back

 B 

• Arya Bhatt – 200 Breast
• Adele Bokach – 200 Back, 200 Breast
• Julia Bouianov – 50 & 100 Back, 100 & 200 Breast, 100 Free
• Katelyn Chen – 200 Breast, 200 IM, 50 Free
• Miley Chen – 100 IM
• Henry Cheng – 500 Free
• Lucas Deng – 100 IM
• Arvaan Deshmukh – 50 Back
• Julie Dong – 100 Back, 50 Breast
• Ella Gao – 50 Breast, 50 Free
• Theodore Gerber – 50 Breast
• Felix Henaire – 50 Breast
• Arvin Kandiah – 500 Free
• Melanie King – 100 Back, 100 Free
• Anika Lichtenberg – 100 Fly
• Lydia Liu – 200 Free
• Jonah Lynn – 50 & 100 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly
• Naomi Lynn – 50 Breast
• Miya Ma – 100 IM, 50 Breast
• Rinat Maksyutov – 100 & 200 Breast
• Albert O – 100 & 200 Free
• Claire Olsen – 100 Free
• Andrew Ouyang – 50 Fly
• Benji Ovendale – 50 Breast
• Roshni Padmanabhan – 100 Back
• Charles Page – 100 Free
• Rahul Purkayashta – 200 IM
• Anika Razdan – 50 Back
• Shatadru Roy Choudhury – 50 Free
• Annika Spitze – 50 Free
• Keira Spitze – 100 Back
• Kaitlyn Spooner – 100 IM, 50 Free
• Siena Stahlkopf – 50 Fly
• Dan Sun – 500 Free, 100 Breast
• Nika Svirydovich – 500 Free
• Margaret Ursulenko – 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Yifan Xu – 50 Fly, 50 Free
• Owen Yan – 100 Free, 50 Breast
• Alex Yang – 100 & 200 Free, 200 IM
• Claire Zhang – 50 Back
• Naomi Zhao – 50 Breast
• Michael Zhou – 50 Fly

WAVE ON 3!!