Sharks/Killer Whales

Congratualtions to Alex Liang! 7/11/2010

Alex wrapped up his 9-10 year old career this past weekend by adding another Pacific Record to his tally.  He finally picked up the 50 back that he has been chasing all year.  He also set two PASA team records in the 50 free and 200 IM.

His Pacific Records went like this

Dec - 50 yd back

February - 50 yd back, 100 yd back, 50 yd fly

April - 50 yd fly, 100 yd fly, 100 yd back, 50 yd back, 50 yd fly again,

June - 100 m fly, 50 m fly, 100 m fly, 50 m fly, 100 m fly,

July - 50 m back

I make that 15 Pacific Swimming records - Outstanding!

SUNN 6/27/2010

BOTM is at it again!  Dropping an unbelievable 0.8 of a second and narrowly missing a National Age Group Record in the 50 fly, but lowering his Pacfic and PASA team records.  He also dropped into the realm of the 1:10s for the 100 fly, breaking his own Pacific and PASA team records for the third time in four weeks.  Congratulations!

BAC 6/25-27/2010

I wasn't feeling great after the DACA meet.  I thought everyone looked great technically, but the times weren't falling as we have grown accustomed to.  I suspected that we might be suffering from the speed of the meet and if this weekend was any evidence, my suspicions were right!  This meet was FANTASTIC!  I will again wait for the print out, but David Ma made his first ever Far Western Time.  Kelvin Tay (1), Lena Joseph (1), Elizabeth Wilkinson (2), Peyton Wang (2), Alex Yoo (1), Xander Beaudry (1), Jamin Beaudry (4), Illi Gardner (1) all added more JO times.  Max Ferenczy made new PRT times (3) and Alex Liang dropped his PASA team record in the 50 back. I was especially impressed with Katya Brownstein who was blazing fast and Aska Matsuda who continues to develop his frees and backs.  I thought Ayla Huhn, Katie Look and Bryan Look attempted a lot of new events and Michael Zhang and Ben Bender made some great strides in their development.  Katya Brownstein was my Swimmer of the Meet!

Sarah Brodbeck – first LC meet, and 3 nice swims.

Katya Brownstein – 7 best times and new A time in 100 back, nearly JOs in 50 free! – Fantastic Meet!

Charlotte Cheng – 3 best times, first time in 200 IM

Meredith Cummings – 3 best times and nearly JOs in 100 breast!

Illi Gardner – 3 best times and new A in 100 fly, new JOs in 100 back

Elyse Garreau – 5 best times and great freestyles!

Ayla Huhn – 6 best times – great 100 back!

Lena Joseph – 4 best times and new JO in 50 back – breast stroke is getting stronger too.

Katie Look – 6 new events – AND A TICKET TO HOLLYWOOD!!!!!

Peyton Wang – 6/7 best times and new JOs in 50 back and 100 fly, nearly FW in 50 free

Elizabeth Wilkinson – 6/6 best times – new JOs in 50 and 200 frees

Trisha Wittenbrink – 2/3 bests, big drop in 100 breast

Kendra Wu -4/5 best times, pretty good for a week in Mexico!!!

Xander Beaudry – 3 bests, 2 of them new JOs! 50 back and 100 free

Jamin Beaudry – 6 bests – 4 new JOs – 50 and 100 free, 50 and 100 back

Ben Bender – 2 for 2 best times and some great racing!

Max Ferenczy – 4 of 6 best times and 3 new PRTs – 50 and 100 free and 100 Breast

Noah Galper – 3 best times in 50 free and 200 IM, first time in 200 free

Bryant Ho – 5 best times and that freestyle is looking better and better!

Marcus Hong – 3 best times – big drops in 400 free and 100 breast!

AJ Johnson – great 400 free and a 27 second drop, just missing A time

Aaron Kuo – best time in 100 back and 100 breast

Daniel Li – 3 best times and new A times in 50 free and 100 back

Alex Liang – 2 best times, both new Team Records – 50 back and 400 free

Bryan Look – 6 best times and successfully completed his All Events T shirt!

David Ma – not feeling well all meet and saving it for the last event, he got his first ever FW time in 50 free!

Aska Matsuda – 4 best times and the backs and free were looking really good!

Kelvin Tay – 2 best times and new JO in 400 free

Ethan Woo – no best times, but some good racing in the A division

Anthony Xie – 3 best times, first time in 100 fly and 200 IM

Alex Yoo – 6/7 best times and new JO time in 200 free!

DACA LC  6/18-20/2010

Alex Yoo became the latest addition to our ever growing Junior Olympic Team, picking up his first cut ever in the 50 free.  A huge breakthrough for him - congratulations Alex!  I haven't gotten the meet summary yet, so I will give a full update when I do.  I know that Alex Liang broke three team and 2 Pacific Swimming records this weekend and we had a bunch of new A times and B times.  I am also happy to say that the little yellow tickets were kept to a minimum.  Nice work guys!

Katya Brownstein – new A time in 100 breast and great 50 free swim!

Charlotte Cheng – new A time in 50 back

Illi Gardner – new LC JO in 200 free

Elyse Garreau – new A times in 50 and 100 free

Ayla Huhn – new A time in 100 back

Lena Joseph – 3 best times and her breast stroke is looking better!

Adee Newman – 4 beast times and new B times in 50 free and 100 breast

Nadia Paquin - 3 for 3 best times!

Peyton Wang – 3 best times and nice 100 fly!

Julia Whealan – 3 great looking swims.

Elizabeth Wilkinson – new JO time in 100 free

Trisha Wittenbrink – best time in 200 free

Michael An – LC FW in 100 fly

Xander Beaudry – best times in 200 and 400 free

Jamin Beaudry – 4 best times – phenomenal 400 free!

Yannick Bohbot-Dridi – 4 great swims!  Should do more meets!

Christopher Dong – First meet with full range of events – Fantastic!

Max Ferenczy – 4 best times and LC JOs in 100 fly

Noah Galper – 4 Best times – really nice backstrokes.

Bryant Ho – 5/6 best times – new B time in 50 breast.

Marcus Hong – new A time in 100 back

AJ Johnson – new B 100 back, new A 200 IM

Aaron Kuo – 3 new best times (first time 100 back and 100 fly!)

Daniel Li – 6/7 bests – new B 50 fly, new A 100 breast

Alex Liang – 3 bests – 3 new Team records, 2 new Pacific Records

Eric Liu – new best time in 50 breast

David Ma – new JO time in 50 back

Aska Matsuda – 4 best times and great backstrokes.

Scott Sun – 3 great swims

Kelvin Tay – 4 bests and new A time in 100 fly

Ethan Woo – 3 bests – new B times in 50 and 100 breast

Leon Xia – 4 bests – new A time in 100 back

Eric Xiao – 3 bests – really great 50 back!

Anthony Xie – 3 bests – nice drop in 50 fly

Wesley Yang – 2 bests and great job in 100 fly!

Alex Yoo – 4 bests and first ever JO time in 50 free.

Pleasanton Junior + 6/12-13/2010

Only one swimmer stood between me and a day off, but NO, I was denied!  Its okay - it was worth it.  This is a meet for mostly high school aged swimmers and I have one person qualified.  You guessed it!  BOTM!  He had a good day on Saturday, while I was torturing swimmers at Stanford LC practice.  Alex got a season best in the 100 free, and 3 bests in 100 back, 200 free and 200 IM.  He is just off the Team record in 100 back, and broke the PASA team records in 200 free and 200 IM.  Sunday I came to watch and we decided to drop the 400 IM since he already has 11-12 FW time in it.  So the focus was on the 200 fly, 200 back and 100 fly.  Neither the 200 fly or 200 back is a 9-10 event, so he is trying to swim them at JOs and FWs at the end of the summer.  The goals were simple - get 11-12 JOs at least in 200 fly, 11-12 FWs in 200 back and then try to end the day with a Pacific Record in the 9-10 100 fly.  Tall order, but he attacked the 200 fly and was way under JOs - just missing FW by less than a second.  We decided to cruise the 200 back and just sprint the last lap and he made FW easily and now all that was left was 100 fly.  He was out really strong and was getting pretty tired, but he made it by .07!  So mission accomplished and Pacific Swimming Record number 9 on the year.  Alex is currently ranked #1 in the nation in 100 fly and 200 IM and #2 in 100 back.

Fresno Family Fun Meet!  Memorial Day Weekend 2010

There were families, we were in Fresno, and had lots of fun!  What a great turnout.  We took over the hotel and next year we have plans to spread into the neighboring hotel too.  For me, the Ronnie James Dio Memorial Skit Night was the best ever skit night.  Ben still thinks Arizona was better.  But Elf Idol was really creative and got the whole audience involved (always clever).  Thanks to all the parents who were great fun, and very helpful with the tents and dinner.  And thanks to Mrs Tay and Wu who organized our Pasta dinner and for David Ma having his birthday on Saturday so Mrs Ma could bring us all cake! 

Here's how the swimming went

Isabella Vejar Ricter - new A time in 50 free

Mary Wilkinson - new B time in 50 free

Charlotte Cheng - 4/6 bests, LC JO time in 50 breast

Meredith Cummings - 4/6 bests, new A times in 100 free, 200 free and 50 fly

Elyse Garreau - 5/6 bests, LC JO in 100 breast, new B 50 fly, new A 200 IM

Ayla Huhn - 8/8 bests, new B in 100 free, new A 200 IM and first ever JO time in 100 breast!

Lena Joseph - 4/8 bests, great relay anchor!

Fernanda Vejar-Richter - 6/8 bests, LC JOs - 100 back, 100 breast, FWs - 50 fly, 100 free

Peyton Wang - 8/8 bests, new JOs - 50 free, 100 back

Julia Whealan - 6/6 bests, new B in 50 free

Elizabeth Wilkinson - 8/8 bests, new JOs in 200 IM

Trisha Wittenbrink - 4/6 bests, new LC JOs 100 back, new FW 200 IM

Kendra Wu - 5/6 bests, new B in 100 free

Michael An - 5/6 bests, LC JO 100 fly, LC FW 200 IM

Xander Beaudry - 6/8 bests, JO 50 free

Jamin Beaudry - 7/8 bests, A 50 back, JO 200 free, 200 IM, first ever FW in 100 breast!

Christopher Dong - 2/3 bests, A 50 free

AJ Johnson - 3/8 bests, B 50 back

Alex Liang - 1 best time - 100 breast - High Point Winner!

David Ma - 5/8 bests, JO 50 free

Aska Matsuda - 6/8 bests, A 100 back

Yotam Ponte - 6/8 bests, A times 100 free, 50 back

Kelvin Tay - 6/9 bests, LC JO 200 free

Ethan Woo - 6/6 bests, A times 50 free, 50 back, 100 back, 200 IM

Alex Yoo - 9/9 bests, along with Kelvin swam ALL events!

Mavericks Sprint'O'Rama

We started out pretty fast with Alex Liang picking up a PASA team record in 50 free with a 30.48  We got a new member of the JO team as David Ma finally broke through and got his JO time in 50 fly.  Peyton Wang also added new JO times in 100 free, 50 breast and 50 fly.  In the A time department - Nadia Paquin picked up 100 free and 50 breast, Ayla Huhn picked up 50 free, Riya Matta got her 50 breast, Elizabeth Wilkinson picked up 50 fly and 50 back, Noah Galper picked up 50 fly, and Aaron Kuo jumped right into the 9-10 age group and got A times in 50 free, 100 free and 50 back.  New B times were turned in by Anthony Xie in 50 free, 50 back and 50 breast, Riya Matta and Nadia Paquin also picked up 50 back B times, and Noah Galper made his B time in 50 breast.  We ended with another team record as Izzy Ditzler, Fernanda Vejar-Richter, Alex Hartman, and Claire Lin shattered the 9-10 girls 200 Free Relay record and just missed the Pacific Swimming record.

DACA

LONG COURSE SEASON!!!

LAMVAC

PACSWIM 10 and under Championships 

23 Killer Whales spent a very long day at Lynbrook High in Saratoga on Saturday the 24th.  This is tough meet as it was about a 10 hour day, but at least the weather was fantastic!  Everyone was in good spirits and there were some great highlights.

For me - the boys 100 IM, heat 4. KTay in 4, Jamin in 6 and Xander in 8.  The finished 1-2-3 and pulling away, and all three of them got their JO times!  Then 4 heats later BOTM and MANGO went 1-2 in the final heat of the event - both doing best times!.

For the girls, it was heats 5 and 6 of the 100 breast.  Elyse and EW were in heat 5 and both made their first JO time ever!  Heat 6 had AH and BBuddy - AH raced really well and narrowly missed her best time, and Peyton got her first JO time ever!

Two other standout swims - Yotam got his first JO time ever - in 100 fly and JD got his first FW time in 100 back!

Relay highlight - KTay went 29.66 anchoring the C relay!

Alex Liang won all four of his events, setting a new meet record in the 100 IM, and won the High Point Trophy for 10 year old boys!

Katya Brownstein – great relay leadoff in the 200 Free Relay!

Charlotte Cheng – JO time in 50 breast!

Illi Gardner – great job cheering for teammates and great attitude throughout the day. (The very long day)

Elyse Garreau – First ever JO time in 100 breast!

Claire Hu – Last 10 and under meet (boohoo) and came back to swim the Medley relay (Nice!)

Ayla Huhn – New to our groups and I am learning how she swims and what we need to work on.

Lena Joseph – new JO time in 100 IM!

Peyton Wang – Frist ever JO time in 10o0 breast! ‘Nuther one in 100 back! And again in 50 fly!

Elizabeth Wilkinson – First ever JO time in 100 breast! Just missed another in 100 IM – drat!

Trisha Wittenbrink – big drops in 50 breast (new JO!) and 50 fly (just missed FW!)

Michael An – just missed FW in 100 IM

Xander Beaudry – Huge drop and new JO time in 100 IM!

Jamin Beaudry – Huge drop and new JO time in 100 IM! ‘Nuther JO in 50 breast!

Jack Devine – First ever Far Western time in 100 back!

Noah Galper – beautiful  100 back and a nice huge drop!

Marcus Hong – Nice time drop in 100 breast!

Aaron Kuo - 25 Back Champion for 8 and under Boys and a New PRT!

Alex Liang – dropped into the 1:04 zone in 100 IM! Shocking News – won all his events and High Point!

David Ma – Best times in 100 back and 50 breast!

Aska Matsuda – First meet with me and I’m learning what he knows how to do and what we need to work on.

Yotam Ponte – First ever JO time in 100 fly!

Alex Song – great time drop in 100 IM!

Kelvin Tay – Huge drop and new JO time in 100 IM!  New FW in 50 free!

Far Western Age Group Championships

Please see article posted at Palo Alto Online:

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=16424

 You can also watch videos of the finals at:

http://www.swimmingworld.tv/2010-far-westerns-archive/

Junior Olympics 3-26-2010

JOs start this Friday in San Ramon and we have a big crew of 9-10s representing PASA from Rinconada - Lena Joseph, Charlotte "CC" Cheng, Trisha Wittenbrink and Illi "Sicko" Gardner for the girls - and Jack "JD" Devine, Michael "Mango" An, Alex "BOTM" Liang, Alex "Xander" Beaudry, Ben "Jamin" Beaudry and Kelvin "KTay" Tay for the boys.  Hmmm - looks like Boys win again!

Results

We had some pretty great results!  Illi and Kelvin started us off on Friday night with really nice 200 frees - Illi dropped 5 seconds and narrowly missed FWs. Kelvin dropped an amazing 13 seconds to make his first ever FWs!    Kelvin was done for the meet, but Illi came back and had two more best times in the 50 and 100 breast.  Jamin also had only one swim and had a great 2 second drop in his 100 breast! Charlotte had one event - 100 breast - and had another 1.5 second drop, just missing her first FW time. Lena also swam one, and she dropped a full second in the 50 back!  JD went 3 for 3 best times and had a really beautiful 100 back.  Xander also went three for three.  Mango went 4 for 4 best times and picked up 2 more FW times in 100 breast and 100 IM (finally).  But Trisha was definitely the swimmer of the meet for me - with 6 for 6 best times.

The highlight came at the very end of the third day when the 100 flys rolled around.  First Trisha picked up her first ever FW time.  Then Mango and Xander were up in the same heat - right next to each other.  Mango went out hard and Xander finished really strong. Xander picked up his first FW time ever!

With BOTM being out sick, this was a group of JO Rookies.  Only Mango and Illi had been before, and only in one event each.  Everyone stepped up really well and handled the new situation with great determination.  I was very proud of how everyone swam.  Great Job Guys!  WOOT!

Montclair Open 3-20-2010

Lena Joseph traveled over to the East Bay to swim her second to last 8 and under meet and had two great swims.  In 50 free, she just missed JOs by .08 and in the 100 IM she set a new PASA team record.  Congratulations Lena!

Monster Swim! 3-20-2010

We had lots of participation from both the Sharks and Killer Whale groups and more 9-10s swam all 200 laps!  Here's who I saw - Sharks - Leon Xia, Marcus Hong, Christopher Dong, Kendra Wu, Quinn Knoblock, Meredith Cummings, Michael Zhang, AJ Johnson, Julia Whealan, Katie Look and Bryan Look - Killer Whales - David Ma, Kelvin Tay, Kaitlin Nakamura, Charlotte Cheng, Peyton Wang, Claire Hu, Alex Liang, Yotam Ponte, Jamin Beaudry, Xander Beaudry, and Alex Yoo.  And then we had the Adult brigade!  Mr Hong (Marcus's Dad), DD Roberts (Jamin and Xander's Mom) Mrs Vort (Alec's Mom) and Tish da Fish (Kid torturer).

http://pasamonsterswim2010.shutterfly.com/pictures

Thanks Melissa for taking some great photos on the day!

SOLO CBA+ 3-13-2010

I was away in Texas for a USA Swimming Clinic, that it turns out, I didn't need to be at!  But I left everyone in Dave Marzoni's capable hands and everyone swam really fast!

Lena Joseph - 3 best times, new PRT in 25 fly, and new JO in 50 back

Sarah Brodbeck - 2 for 2 best times!

Katya Brownstein - 3 best times, new B time in 200 free

Charlotte Cheng - 2 best times, first JO time in 100 breast

Abigail Clarke - 3 for 3 best times!

Meredith Cummings - 3 for 3 best times, new As in 50 back and 50 breast, new B in 100 free

Caitlin Fotsch - 3 for 3 best times!

Elyse Garreau - 4 best times and first time swimming 100 fly!

Claire Hu - 6 for 6 best times! New B in 200 free, new A in 50 free!

Quinn Knoblock - 3 for 3 best times and new B in 50 breast!

Katie Look - 3 best times and first time swimming 200 IM!

Adee Newman - 2 best times  and new B  in 50 back!

Nadia Paquin - Best time and new B in 50 breast!

Peyton Wang - 5 best times - new A in 100 fly!

Julia Whealan - 2 for 2 best times!

Elizabeth Wilkinson - 3 for 3 best times and new A times in 200 free and 100 fly!

Trisha Wittenbrink - 4 best times - new JOs in 100 free, 100 breast, 100 fly!

Kendra Wu - Best time and new B in 50 back!

Lynette Xu - Best time and new A in 200 free!

Kaleb Bates - Best time and new B in 50 breast!

Xander Beaudry - 6 for 6 best times, new A in 200 free and new JO in 100 fly!

Jamin Beaudry - 3 best times and first ever JO in 100 breast!

Jack Devine - 2 best times and new JO time in 100 breast!

Christopher Dong - 3 best times!

Ilia Dzotsenidze - 3 best times!

Noah Galper - 4 best times, 3 new A times in 100 free, 50 back, 200 IM!

Bryant Ho - 3 best times!

Marcus Hong - 2 best times!

AJ Johnson - Best time in 50 free, and first time swimming 200 IM!

Daniel Li - 2 best times and new B in 50 back.

Alex Liang - 4 best times - new PRT in 50 breast (WHAT?!)!

Eric Liu - 2 best times and new B in 50 free!

Bryan Look - best time and big drop in 50 back!

David Ma - 4 best times and new A in 200 IM!

Yotam Ponte - 6 for 6 best times, new A in 50 free!

David Shau - 3 for 3 best times!

Sahil Srivastava - 2 best times!

Kelvin Tay - 3 best times!

Ethan Woo - 5 best times and new B in 50 back!

Leon Xia - 5 best times - new B in 50 free, new A in 50 back, first time swimming 100 fly!

Alex Yoo - 4 best times, new As in 50 back and 200 IM!

Zone All Stars 3-7-2010

Congratulations to Lena Joseph and Michael An who represented Zone 1 North in the Zone All Stars last weekend in Morgan Hill.  They were selected to the team based on their performances at Zone Championships. They both swam three individual events and two relays.  Lena bettered two times and was under the meet record for the 25r free, unfortunately, she got second.  And Mango went three for three best times and got a new FW time in 50 fly.  Great Job guys!

PASA CBA+ 2-20-2010

This meet was crazy!  I had 55 swimmers entered in the meet, YIKES!  But everyone swam really well.  We had a number of disappointing DQs - like one hand touches and rolling onto tummies in backstroke - silly ones.  That we are going to go back to practice and work on for the next meet.

Lost Dutchman, Arizona Travel Meet 2-13-2010

We all travelled on different planes, but we arrived in Arizona and headed off to a Team Dinner at BJs Brewary.  After the yummy food, the parents went shopping and I took the six Killer Whales - Alexander Beaudry, Benjamin Beaudry, Illi Gardner, Alex Liang, Yotam Ponte and Kelvin Tay - over to the competition pool for a light workout and warmup to settle the nerves and prepare for the long weekend.

As with any meet, there are highs and lows.  Learning experiences and triumphs.  Remember, the only way to make a tough situation better, is to learn from mistakes and not make the same mistake again.  Most of the kids learned from an early mistake, some were a little more stubborn!

Overall, we had a fantastic meet.  Tons of best times and new achievements.  Everyone had at least one best time.  Yotam, Jamin and Xander were all on their first travel trips.  Jamin and Xander both made finals and had huge drops.  Jamin nearly made his first JO time - missing by just .21!  Kelvin made finals in two events, his first JO time and a PHENOMINAL Relay anchor leg to give PASA the win in the 200 Medley Relay.  Illi made multiple finals and her first Far Western time in 50 breast on the last night of the meet!  And then there is Alex Liang who made every final and won every event that he swam in.  We left early, and even without swimming two events, he placed second in the high poiint race by only two points!  He set meet records in 50 and 100 fly, and 50 and 100 back.  And three new PASA Team and Pacific Swimming records in 50 and 100 back and 50 fly.  With his swim in the 50 back, he became the first 10 and under boy in Pacific Swimming history to break 30 seconds in the event with a blazing 29.63! 

I owe lots of ice cream!

BAC Distance Meet aka Worry Wart Meet! 2-6-2010

Two Sharks (Byran Look and AJ Johnson) and six Killer Whales (Peyton Wang, Alex Liang, David Ma, Yotam Ponte, Kelvin Tay and Alex Yoo), braved the cold, wind and rain to swim a 500 free.  For everyone except Alex Liang, it was their first time.  And if there wasn't anything to worry about, they invented things!  I kept telling them to relax and once they have swum it their first time, that they would wonder why they worried in the first place.

Bryan was under 9 minutes - great! and he completed his final event for his All Events T shirt!  AJ - new B time! nearly broke 8 minutes!  Yotam - new B time!  under 8 minutes!  David - new B time! under 8 minutes!  Peyton - new A time! and great racing!  Alex Yoo - new A time! and very nice and aggressive race!  Kelvin Tay - new A time! andunder 7 minutes!  Alex Liang - new 11-12 Far Western time, 11-12 AA and 17-18 BB - just cuz he checked!

I am extremely proud with how well everyone did, not just in the water, but out as well.  Swimming distance is a team effort and the kids helped each other out by lap counting and cheering for one another.  It was a great display of team unity and  fantastic swimming!

Zone 1 North Championships (Z1N) 1-23-2010

Crummy weather, cold and rainy.  But HOT swimming!  PASA won the meet and the Killer Whales came to RACE!

We had Michael An, Alexander Beaudry, Benjamin Beaurdy, Charlotte Cheng, Caitlin Daley, Jack Devine, Illi Gardner, Alex Liang, David Ma, Kaitlyn Nakamura, Yotam Ponte, Kelvin Tay, Peyton Wang, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Trisha Wittenbrink, Lynette Xu and Alex Yoo all qualified to swim at the meet.

Charlotte - 2/3 best times  Caitlin D - 1/2 best times  Illi - 4/6 best times - all four were new JO times!  Kaitlyn - 2/5 best times  Peyton - 4/4 best times  Trisha - My SWIMMER OF THE MEET!  6/6 best times - 4 new JO times - first time qualifying for JOs!   Lynette - 3/5 best times  Michael - 5/6 best times - 1 new Far Western Time, 2 new JO times - first FW time ever!  Xander  - 3/3 best times - 1 JO time - first ever JO!  Jamin - 1/1 best time  JD - 2/5 best times - both new JO times  Alex  - 2/6 best times - under 29 in 50 fly!  David - 3/4 best times - and officially 2   new A times  Yotam - 2/2 best times - and officialy 2 new A times  Kelvin - 3/4 best times - and officially 1 new A time  Yoo - 4/6 best times - and officially 2 new A times

Great Job!  Go PASA!

Holiday Training! December, 2009

What a tremendous accomplishment!  To make a goal and to stick to it.  We had 10 swimmers from both groups make 100% at Holiday Training.  FANTASTIC!

Front Row - Katya Brownstein, Michael Ma, Ethan Woo, David Ma, Leon Xia

Back Row - Echo Hansen, Andrew Jozefov, Albert Ford, Kelvin Tay, Caitlin Daley

Ice Cream Party! December, 2009

I owed lots and lots of ice cream.  How does that happen?  When we go to a trials and finals meet (JO's, FW's, Quad, or travel meet) and a swimmer does a best time in prelims, makes finals, and then does a best time in finals, therefore double dipping their time, then I owe an ice cream cone!  I make every attempt to do it at the meet itself, but sometimes those logistics were too tough to figure out.  I did take Bert and JoJo out during JO's, but I still owed Brittany, Bert, JoJo and Botm a bunch.  So we met at Cold Stone Creamry and I paid up. 

I did take pictures, but I can't find them, so if someone could send me theirs!

Junior Olympics  December, 2009

Our Winter Junior Olympic Team was made up of Illi Gardner, Irene Choi, Echo Hansen, Brittany Nguyen, Supriya Sharma, Caitlin Daley, Michael An, Albert Ford, Andrew Jozofov, Alex Liang, and Jack Devine.

It was a pretty cold weekend, but the kids managed to handle the cold and step up really well.  We had a lot of best times, the highlight of prelims was Mango's DOMINATION of heat 1 in the 50 back.  He won by 2-3 bodylengths and nearly made Far Westerns!

JoJo and BOTM made finals, with BOTM winning all 9 events - 50, 100, 200 free, 50 and 100 back, 50 and 100 fly, 100 and 200 IM.  Needless to say he won the High Point for 9-10 Boys at the meet.  He also set a new Pacific Swimming record in the 50 back, breaking teammate Tank's record!  Tank is currently swimming for UCSB.

As a team, we had really strong representation for the 12- and unders, but we had most of our 13-14's getting ready for Winter Sectionals and Nationals, so they didn't participate.  So we were very excited to finish in second place overall!

Candy Pentathlon Championships  November 7th, 2009

What a great job everyone did getting to their races and swimming with all their efforts!  We had a couple of last minute scratches due to illness and injury, but we had (in order of appearance) Kendra Wu, Claire Hu, Meredith Cummings, Abigail Clarke, Quinn Knoblock, Leon Xia, David Shau, Eric Liu, Yotam Ponte, AJ Johnson, Randy Tang, David Ma, Meera Santhanam, Julia Whealan, and Alex Song (I count 15) who participated.

It was a pretty cold morning, even though the sun was out.  And our times were a little off in the first couple rounds, but once it started to warm up, the times started dropping.  I was really impressed with the number of the Sharks who tried all 5 events - Meredith Cummings, Claire Hu, Quinn Knoblock, Kendra Wu, AJ Johnson, Eric Liu, Randy Tang and Leon Xia - all competed in the whole Pentathlon - great job guys!

Yotam Ponte (Killer Whale) also swam 5 and David Ma really wanted to, but he went too fast at the Burlingame meet and got his A time in 50 back, so he couldn’t do all 5.

Special Thanks to Mrs Cummings, Mrs Knoblock, Mr Santhanam, Mrs Burrows, Mr Xia, Mrs Li, Mrs Qin and Mrs Zhou for timing during the meet.  We only had one lane to time, but you guys stepped up when other sites didn’t have their timers and a huge thanks to you!

Thanks to LAGCC for hosting the meet.  The hospitality was yummy!

BAC Spooktacular October 31 and November 1, 2009

It was a misty cold morning, perfect eerie Halloween weather! And since I couldn’t make it, I got Teletubbie, Po, to coach for me (last second conflict). I was very warm since I was pretty much wearing fleece pajamas! Sorry if you didn’t see me, and please let me know if anyone took a picture as I am trying to head off all blackmail attempts!

I would like to remind everyone of how to go to a "Real" swim meet.

I want you to arrive at a meet one hour before the meet starts, so if the meet begins at 8:30 am, please get there by 7:30 am. Once you get to the meet, immediately get into the check in line and check in for your events. As you know we enter meets about a month (or more) ahead of time and this lets them know that you are there. Then come find me.

I will be under the coaches’ tent, usually writing split sheets for the day. Just say hi and I will point you to where the team is sitting and then you can get in and warm up. You should already know your events and what you should do for warm up. After warm up, get out, get dressed and stay WARM.

The event’s heats and lane will be posted right before you swim. Once you get them, you need to come and tell me what heat and lane you are in. Just tell me two numbers - heat first, lane second. I don’t need to know the event number or the event, just the heat number and the lane number. Remember I am old and blind and pretty nearly deaf when there is background noise (none of that at meets) - so speak up loud and proud!

Then you should get your cap and goggles on and head behind the blocks to your lane. Sometimes the heats and lanes get put out at the last second, so you might have to get to the blocks without telling me (this is rare - so don’t use this as an excuse!) If you are standing behind the blocks, and you hear your name being called out by the officials, JUMP in front of the timers, WAVE your arms overhead, and YELL that you are there. If they see you, they will wait for you. But if you are quiet and polite and take your time, they won’t.

After you swim, warm down in the warm down area by doing about 100 frankenstein - more if you swim a longer race. Get dressed and be warm and then come and see me. Please be patient as I have to watch all my swimmers before I have a chance to talk to you. But I want to talk to you about what went right and what went wrong. Also, you might get a duckie! Reminder - you need to get your heat and lane and go behind the blocks BY YOURSELF!!! No parents to earn duckies!

Sometimes your heat and lane are up for your next event while you are heading over to talk to me, so kill two birds with one stone, and tell me your heat and lane after I tell you about your event. Sometimes the meet is running so fast that I want the Killer Whales to skip the "talk to you after" part until the meet slows down. I ALWAYS want the Sharks to come over. Again, this is rare, but it does happen (think DACA LC last summer - CRAZY!)

Candy meets (and the QUAD meet) are pre seeded meets. Meaning there is no check in, and the heats and lanes are available right when you get to the pool. So you need to write them on your hand, and I will already have them, so you don’t need to tell me. Just pay attention to how the meet is running and get to your heat and lane on time.

Even with the very cold morning on Saturday, and our practice Challenges we are continuing to experience (no backstroke since we have no backstroke flags), I thought the meet went pretty well. We had a lot of best times, a bunch of new time standards and even one new Team Record!

Supriya Sharma became our second swimmer to finish her ALL EVENTS T Shirt on Halloween day!

Great Job everyone, and thanks to all the Parents who helped time and to our Officials who helped run the meet!  See you at the pool.

DACA C/B/A+ October 14-15, 2009