Northwood took to the pool for its last home matches beating the Laguna Hills Hawks, 123-43 boys, followed by a 125-43 victory for the girls on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Photo courtesy of Alex Tolkachev.

The words "consistency" and "tradition" are part of the vocabulary of the Northwood Timberwolves swim team.  This spring regular season, the Timberwolves reigned in the Pacific Coast League.  The team's talent has been ever-growing, with senior swimmers maturing and a freshman class providing glimpses of promise.  This kind of consistency and depth was evident today against Laguna Hills High School by every statistical measurement.  Northwood looked like a well-oiled machine so balanced, so team-oriented, so focused meshing together from the swimmers to the coaching staff with success rubbing off in a big way.

Northwood took to the pool at the Northwood High School Aquatic Center beating the Laguna Hills Hawks, 123-43 boys, followed by a 125-43 victory for the girls on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

This home meet will serve as the natural end point of the regular season as the post season begins next week at the Pacific Coast League Championships at William Woollett Jr. Aquatic Center.  The season thus far has been another successful chapter in Northwood's thriving swim program, a source of pride for Northwood High School and Head Coach Alex Nieto, who values having not only fast swimmers but moreover swimmers who can handle a sense of maturity in and out of the pool.

“We don't necessarily look for performance markers, but it's more of looking at things as a whole to see if we're doing the little things right," said Northwood Head Coach Alex Nieto.  "Are we doing well in the water?  Are we doing well in and outside the classroom?  And the answer to that is definitely yes."   

For the Timberwolves this season, the road to the Pacific Coast League Championships next week is inching closer with conviction.  Overall, the team has high confidence with their main goal of securing another PCL Championship, and trying to qualify as many swimmers as possible to receive that golden invite to the CIF Southern Section D1 Championships beginning May 25th. 

The post-season is the most difficult challenge for the Timberwolves, the Championships will be a new experience for Northwood's freshman swimmers.  With technical suits, incomparably stronger competition and the different formatting, swimmers have no choice but to prepare better and swim faster than they ever have before.  The stronger the competition, the better the performances must be.  Northwood's mentality is to succeed, so let's get going!!

 

Note:  Laguna Hills High School is without a JV squad, thus Northwood's JV swam Varsity.

200 FREE

The Open Girls got off to a great start by sweeping the top three with Katie Ho (2:15.71), Sarah Hsu (2:17.01), and Melissa Lam (2:17.39).  That followed a triple placement on the Northwood Open Boys side from Andrew Zhang (2:00.96), Evan Eich (2:02.11), and Gavin Lee (2:07.67).  Anyone who was overly surprised by the outcome of the Varsity Girls hasn't been paying attention to Northwood's overall team depth.  In the first Varsity Girls individual heat of the afternoon, with teammates from Northwood cheering them on, Acile Jammoul (2:05.91), Yosra Elseifi (2:07.95) and Addison Cadena (2:08.89) snagged the top three spots.  Northwood's freshman Elson Lee highlighted the Varsity Boys side, blasting a 1:49.25 to pick up the win in the 200 free.  Teammates Michael Abshier (1:49.58) and Benton Cheng (1:49.94) also contributed in triple placement scoring points for Northwood.

100 IM

Northwood dominated the top three spots in the Open Girls 100 IM with Charlotte Waddell touching first in 1:13.38, Ella-Blue Wilmot placed second in 1:14.59.  Samin Shahrabian picked up third in 1:15.69.  The Timberwolves Open Boys showed real depth in the 100 IM providing some momentum with William Chen (1:01.42), Aditya Harri (1:05.37) and Andrew Kim (1:09.88).

200 IM

Sophomore Kim Huynh topped the Varsity Girls 200 IM clocking in at 2:13.91. Vivian Guo placed second in 2:29.68, while Laguna Hill's Sophia Massa rounded third in 2:32.36. Freshman Ryan Connole surfaced to finish third for the Varsity Boys touching in 2:02.36.  Laguna Hill's Tona Zinn (1:55.63) and Cole Sumino (2:01.03) went 1-2. 

50 Free

Open Girls action saw Northwood's Kacy Kesler (28.22), Emilie Harper (29.59) and Ainsley Zapata (30.16) almost simultaneously hit the wall in sweeping the 50 free.  Aaron Kim turned in a strong time for the Northwood Open Boys leading the way with a 24.17.  Junior Brandon Cho placed second in 24.58, while Laguna Hill's Evan Figueroa claimed third in 29.04.  Varsity Lady T-Wolves Lauren Kim snared the top spot in 25.37 against Laguna Hill's Sydney Kennedy (27.41).  Kaitlyn Kong followed up with third in 28.16.  Varsity Kenneth Duong shined in the 50 free registering in a top time of 22.50.  Laguna Hill's Lucas McKee pulled in for second (23.01) with Kendrick Pham third with 23.84.

50 Fly

Open Girls Katie Ho registered the fastest time for the Timberwolves with a 32.01.  Ainsley Zapata too second in 32.20, followed by Samin Shahrabian earning third (32.59).  Freshman William Chen charted a time of 27.56 for the victory in the Open Boys 50 Fly.  Mengshu Zhang grabbed second (30.23), while Laguna Hill's Sam Lindelof rolled in for third (30.24).

100 Fly

Lady T-Wolf Helena Zhou just out-touched Laguna Hill's Avery Barkhouras for in 1:03.12.  Lauren Eng placed third (1:05.05).  Varsity sophomore Ryan Xu took the second spot with a 55.36 punch to the wall. Touching just behind him was Ethan Chen with 55.59 for third.  Laguna Hill's Lucas McKee was the top finisher in 53.90.

100 Free

Northwood's Kacy Kesler left nothing to chance, surging for the win with a 1:03.34 on a finger nail finish that was .24 hundredths from second place Sarah Hsu who clocked 1:03.58.  Rachel Yokota touched in for third with a 1:04.64.  Long-axis strokes and strong flutter kicks provided Acile Jammoul in taking the 100 free in 56.56 for the Varsity Lady T-Wolves.  Junior Avery Liu took second in 58.44, while Laguna Hill's Alaina Stapf claimed third in 59.47.  After building a lead heading into the first turn Northwood junior Younghun Kim provided the win for the Varsity Boys in 48.93.  Kevin Hong took second with 49.54, while Justin Chung picked up third in 53.01.

500 Free

On the Varsity Girls side, Tanya Ahmed won the 500 free in 5:31.84 with a very close second from Northwood's Addison Cadena.  Ahmed was only .02 hundreds ahead of Cadena, who went 5:31.88 while making a late charge back into contention on the last 100.  Victoria Nguyen took third, going 5:43.55.  Zach Waddell completed his individual event with a lifetime best, consistently powered away from the field, controlling the race from the get-go to win in 4:56.43.  Michael Abshier took second in 5:03.03.  Third place was Benton Cheng who went 5:06.27.

50 Back

Northwood Open Girls Charlotte Waddell won by a full second with her first-place finish of 35.09.  Teammate Emilie Harper went 36.11 for second, while Laguna Hill's Leore Tal rounded third (40.25).  Open Boys each pushing one another landed three solid Northwood performances for a triple win. Teammates Jalen Hsia (29.56), Joshua Bonode (29.65), and Andy Kim (32.59) gave another reason to celebrate in the afternoon. 

100 Back

Varsity Girls Helena Zhou pushed through and got the win in 1:01.67 for the Timberwolves, but she was challenged the entire way by teammate Genevieve Chomin for second (1:01.80).  Avery Liu went 1:02.18 for the third-fastest performance in the event.  On the Varsity Boys side, Junior Danny Kim continues to impress locking down a second in 56.04 for the Timberwolves.  Just behind Laguna Hill's Cole Sumino rounded the top-3 in 57.07.

50 Breast

Northwood's Open Girls took control and fired off a triple win in the 50 Breast with Rachel Yokota (39.60), Melissa Lam (41.06), and Sanjana Vendatesh (42.14) all having successful swims.  On the Open Boys side, Northwood put in another triple sweep Gavin Lee (32.03), Michael Li (32.58), and Andy Gao who held on to a third in a time of 33.48.  

100 Breast

It was a positive end to the meet for Varsity Girls Lauren Eng (1:08.72) and Taylor Inouye (1:09.41), who not only placed 2-3 for Northwood, but both getting new times for the season.  Laguna's Lauren Eng posted the top time in 1:08.72.  Northwood's Varsity Boys shaped up with some speed and depth sweeping the 100 Breast. They lead a field that includes Ben Liu (59.33), Eric Zhu (59.33) and gunning to the wall just behind for the touch was freshman Josue Olague.

Relays

Open Girls  200 Medley -  1st place  2:11.30  Emilie Harper (33.17), Sarah Hsu (28.90), Ainsley Zapata (31.26), Kacy Kesler (27.97)

                                       -  2nd place  2:14.28  Claire Cho (34.32), Charlotte Waddell (37.79), Samin Shahrabian (39.77), Rachel Yokota (22.40)

Open Boys 200 Medley  -  1st place  1:51.97  Jalen Hsia (29.68), Michael Li (31.77), Christian Thorpe (26.71), Aaron Kim (23.81)
                                        -  2nd place  1:56.52  Aditya Harri (29.05), Andy Gao (33.15), Joshua Bonode (27.61), Mengshu Zhang (26.71)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley  -  1st place  1:54.77  Genevieve Chomin (29.04), Taylor Inouye (32.16), Helena Zhou (27.86), Acile Jammoul (25.71)
                                         -  3rd place  2:01.25  Avery Liu (29.38), Zoe Liu (34.19), Galia Diaz-Montoya (29.67), Kaitlyn Kong (28.01)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley -  1st place  1:37.30  Jeremy Mah (25.23), Ben Liu (27.13), Younghun Kim (23.75), Christopher Leung (21.19)
                                         -  2nd place  1:42.21  Elson Lee (26.44), Eric Zhu (27.96), Ryley Yoo (24.67), Colman Sun (23.14)
                                        -  3rd place  1:45.08  Kendrick Pham (26.17), Josue Olague (30.11), Ryan Xu (24.64), Andrew Harper (24.16)