Junior Olympics Open Water

This weekend, a small band of 19 intrepid NOVA swimmers took to the lake and competed in the first ever Open Water JO.  With the increasing popularity of open water swimming, Southern California Swimming is beginning to offer more opportunities for age group swimmers to compete in the growing sport.  The race was held at Castaic Lake, just north of Valencia on Monday morning, July 29^th.  10 and under swimmers raced 1 kilometer, 11 and 12 years olds competed for 2 kilometers, and everyone 13 and older did 3 kilometers.  Though a fairly easy loop to navigate, the swimmers that competed tested their knowledge of maneuvering in packs of swimmers, turning buoys efficiently, and swimming races in a smart and competitive way.  Coach Ken Lamont commented that “the open water events allow for us to offer more race opportunities to swimmers wanting to take this sport to outside the pool and into an atmosphere like lakes and oceans.  This truly is an amazing event that I hope will continue on from year to year.”
 

The overall team scores placed the Irvine NOVAquatics 3^rd in competition just behind the host Canyons Aquatics and team local, FAST.  The competing team consisted of:

·         Bradley Spees – 10 and under 2^nd

·         Brett Ennen – 10 and under 6^th

·         Kyle Cross – 10 and under 8^th

·         Felicity Holdsworth – 10 and under 8^th

·         Nicolas Theders – 11/12 10^th

·         HwaMin Sim – 11/12 11^th

·         Alyssa Watson – 11/12 4^th

·         Carly Yasko – 11/125^th

·         Shayla Erickson ­– 11/12 10^th

·         Jenna Alvstad – 11/12 18^th

·         Amelia Garrard – 11/12 26^th

·          Taylor Bartlett – 11/12 27^th

·         Chistopher “Kai” Pierce – 13 and over 2nd

·         Jack Hamamoto – 13 and over 9^th

·         Mo Bourdi – 13 and over 19^th

·         Nicolas Ruoff – 13 and over 25^th

·         Erik Alvstad – 13 and over 28^th

Congratulations to all of our competitors!