Nova Back to School Meet Recap
The Novaquatics Back to School Meet was held last weekend, September 21st-22nd. This meet is always interesting with unique events and many different goals from new and continuing Nova swimmers. While some swimmers attend hoping to drop time after not having swum short course yards in about 6 months, others hope to start the new season not too far off their season best after the August hiatus. One of the awesome aspects of this meet is that new swimmers and families get to experience their very first Nova meet.
The Back to School Meet is always marked by fun events such as 25's of all 4 strokes offered to 9-12 year olds, 50's of all strokes offered for 7-14 year olds, kick board races for 7 and olders, and broken 200 IM's for 11 & Overs. This year a very unique and spectator friendly race was introduced, the Elimination 500 Freestyle. Ten swimmers entered the water in a heat of the 500. After the first 100, swimmers would be eliminated one by one if they were the last swimmer into the wall until there were 2 swimmers battling it out on the last 50. The last swimmer standing received an iTunes gift card. Heat winners were Courtney Mykkanen, Kate Lee, Josh Graves, and Cameron Hsieh.
We also had an outstanding turn out from our volunteers. Thanks for all the great help at the meet, you are always appreciated!
Many swimmers dropped time in at least one event, but there were several swimmers who actually dropped 10 or more seconds in at least one event. They were:
Evan Abdollahi
Mason Chavez
Andrew Choi
Kyle Cross
Ellie Davis
Kenneth Duong
Keona Fernandes
Claire Fu
Grant Hitchens
Ethan Ho
Felicity Holdsworth
Kevin Hong
Brynna Hsia
Rebecca Jacobs
Kasey Karkoska
Nathaniel Ko
Grant Kramer
Alexandra Law
William Le
Katie Lightle
Natalie Luu
Emily Miyamoto
Zaina Nasr
Caedon Ng
Austin Nguyen
Ethan Ongkeko
Brendan Pham
Brian Pham
Katherine Pham
Mitchell Schott
Ryan Shattuck
Sophia Riley Sim
Colman Sun
Ethan Teano
Alexia Thornberry
Ashley Tuley
Isabella Wall
Deven Wilson
Makenna Wilson
Calista Wong
Danica Wong
Henry Wu
Owen Zhu
Congratulations and Welcome to the following swimmers who competed in their first Nova Meet:
Salah Abdallah
Youssef Afifi
Daniel Bae
Shijoon Bae
Kevin Bae
Natalie Bautista
Conner Budka
Max Cervera
Grace Dawson
Sarah Dawson
Raef Dulay
Holden Egdorff
Summer French
Yagiz Guner
Gavin Hardison
Jasmin Hashemi
Kenta Hayakawa
Katelyn Ho
Nicholas Huynh
Abigail Isaly
Niki Jalali
Josephine Kang
Gasia Karakesis
Mira Kincaid
Nathaniel Kirk
Rylie Klenke
Matthew Ko
Arista Kusuma
Andrea Laliena
Seo Yeon Lee
Maya LePedroza
Nyah Lin
Santiago Ludwig
Sebastian Ludwig
Lucas Morgan
Justin Ng
Kevin Obrien
Emily Ollendorff
Lindsey Palmquist
Ashley Pham
Hayley Pham
Michaela Phan
Amber Reid
Bryce Shirata
Grant Shirata
Dylan Spencer
Brandon Sumino
Ethan Tauber
Katerina Tolkachev
Andrew Vu
Megan Vu
Elijah Wen
Crystal Wu
When asked what the coaches felt was the highlight of the meet for their swimmers, they had the following to say:
Coach Alex Nieto (Northwood, Senior Silver):
So this weekend, I had a Back to School Meet Challenge...
I scored each event according to how they swum and ranked within the group and then totaled the points each day for winners. The winners get their choice of slurpees or a small ice cream cone on our next running day. The Saturday winners were Kate Mayeda and Jailey Reeves (tied) for the girls and Jonathan Peng for the boys who won by 1 point over veterans Kevin Chao and Cameron Hsieh. On Sunday, Jailey Reeves took a commanding lead early on to win the day and Tyler Keith snuck by Kyle Kao for the title on Sunday.
Coach Wendy Theders (Soka, Age Group Bronze and Developmental):
The 8 and unders swam like sharks this past weekend
At the back to school meet! John Dix earned 2 more
(9-10) Winter Invites in the 50 and 100 Breaststroke.
Cole Sumino earned 2 more (9-10) Blue times in the
50 free and 50 Back. Ellie Davis achieved 2 more (9-10)
Blue times in the 50 and 100 Breaststroke.
Coach Asami Uzawa (Woollett, Age Group and Senior Bronze):
Congrats to the following athletes moving from Bronze to Silver!:
- Connor Budka
- Rohan Chava
- Benjamin Du
- Amber French
- Garrick Ho
- Yoojun Kim
- Kevin Lee
- Renee Li
Coach Leslie Tomlinson (Northwood, NovaIntro):
It's alway awesome to see new swimmers join the team and experience their very first Nova Meet. Some of the NovaIntro swimmers are continuing Nova swimmers, but most are brand new to the team. Swimmers in NovaIntro have been working on body position and technique for all 4 strokes for this meet, and will continue the season working on the details of racing (turns, starts, under waters, and finishes) for the October meet. The following swimmers did a great job of representing the NovaIntro group:
Salah Abdallah
Luke Balding
Natalie Bautista
Raef Dulay
Holden Egdorff
Gasia Karakesis
Mira Kincaid
Rylie Klenke
Victoria Leguizamo
Emily Ollendorff
Ethan Ongkeko
Lindsey Palmquist
Bryce Shirata
Grant Shirata
Andrew Teh
Katerina Tolkachev
Ashley Tuley
Andrew Vu
Megan Vu
Mikayla Yang
Go Nova!!!
-Nova Coaching Staff
***If you noticed a mistake, please send an email to Coach Leslie at latomli28@gmail.com so that we may make the correction.
