After the incredible success that Northwood had last season, the question became would there be a second act.  Obviously the legacy of consistency that the program has established still continues today .  Photos courtesy of Alex Tolkachev.  

With the entire bleachers filled by family, fans and friends, the Northwood Timberwolves dual meet against the University Trojans was a highly-anticipated match-up at the University High School Aquatic Center on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.  Through the 11 overall events, Northwood's boys swept the top spot in the final two relay races to widen their win 112 - 58.

The Lady T-Wolves made their mark against University's girls, 103 - 67, letting loose some very strong performances individually and demonstrating their superiority.  In what was a much tighter meet for the varsity girls than anyone could have predicted, the squads capitalized on putting together several top three places in the final four individual events to widen their winning margin.

After the incredible success that Northwood had last season, the question became would there be a second act.  Obviously the legacy of consistency that the program has established continues today.  While the Patriots seem to be one of two big obstacles the team has faced throughout the duration of the season, the Timberwolves never seem to let their guard down throughout today's action.

“I am very pleased on how much every single person contributed. Each swimmer did something that was their best, and owned whatever role they had," said Head Coach Alex Nieto. "Ours goals this season are all about taking care of the process and staying committed, so we saw that today."

While the Timberwolves will have a chance to continue their excellent performance against high schools with great lineups in two weeks against Capo Valley & Aliso Niguel and at Mt. SAC, they still have one last dual meet to finish out the regular season with the Laguna Hills Hawks .  The close of this season will be vital for the team as it builds up steam in preparation for the Pacific Coast League Championships on April 26th - 29th.

200 FREE

Norhwood's Open Girls Ahyun Lee fired off a third place going 2:54.70.  University's Quinne Davis and Sophia Whyel went 1-2.  JV Girls saw Ashley Huynh powering in a top time in 2:10.47.  University's Brooke Yeh touched for second in 2:10.79, while Mackenzie Lee took third (2:20.28).  JV Boys went out hard putting up a second and third with Northwood's Shervin Shahriary (1:59.69), and Dean Witt (2:01.04).  University's James Zhen took the first (1:58.65). Lady T-Wolves Carolyn Nguyen pulled in 1:57.47 for second in the Varsity Girls 200 Free.  University's Reina Gomez registered the win in 1:57.17, while teammate Alexandra Lindenberg rounded third (2:00.63).  Coming up big with a win was junior Christopher Leung who ruled the Varsity Boys 200 Free posting up a time of 1:42.61.  Second place went to senior Nolan Chomin with 1:46.40, while University's Adam Lee touched for third in 1:47.22.

100 IM

Northwood's Open Girls took the third spot in the 100 IM providing some momentum with Shreya Aithal (1:25.15).  Caprie Troccoli came out on top in 1:11.89, while Esther Tsabba delivered a second showing for University in 1:21.27.  

200 IM

JV Girls Vivian Guo pulled off a 31.14 backstroke split that led her through the last 150 yards of the race as the fastest performer in 2:26.58.   University's Halle Ewing checked in for second with 2:34.36, while Rachel Yokota sits third in 2:38.55.  In the JV Boys, William Chen had the fastest time of 2:11.30 by a couple body lengths over University's Chris Chou (2:09.08) and Ali Khalor (2:12.29).  Lady T-Wolves junior Taylor Inouye got out to an early lead and continued to build, so that she was virtually alone over the second half of the race winning in 2:15.97.  Kim Huynh was next in line with 2:16.03, while Addison Cadena rounded out the top three touching in 2:20.14.  Right in the thick of the battle freshman Derek Hitchens finished with the second fastest time in the 200 IM posting up a 1:55.74.  University's Matthew Lou prevailed for the win (1:54.77), while Ryan Connole closed third in 2:00.29.  

50 Free

Northwood Open Girls Nicole Karraa took second in 33.08.  University's Axelle Attey stopped the watch for the top time in 31.93, while teammate Ananya Karthikeyan closed third (39.90).  Freshman Gavin Dang blazed second for the Open Boys with 25.13.  Wesly Lu picked up the win in 25.04, while Mark Zakhanyan rounded third (25.33).  JV Boys Brandon Cho led the charge earning a top spot in the 50 Free with 23.30.  University's William Chen stayed close (23.96), while Evan Eich added third in 23.96.  In the Varsity Girls 50 Free, Lauren Kim showed her sprint talent accomplishing a title time in 25.15. University's Lauren Zhou grabbed the second spot in 25.54, while Annika Nie rolled in for third (26.12).  Senior Younghun Kim took second in the event for the Northwood Varsity Boys registering a 22.26.  University's Cyrus Mirsafian lead the way for first place with 22.25.  Sophomore Elson Lee rounded third (22.32). 

50 Fly

Open Girls Ayu Hayashi provided the win in 36.57.  University's Naomi Karchmer grabbed the second spot in 37.71, while Esther Tsabba rolled in for third (37.93).  Freshman Trevor Cheng charted a time of 28.63 for third in the Open Boys 50 Fly.  University's Kian Goshtasbi claimed the win in 27.43, while Sebastian Kogan placed second (27.47).

100 Fly

JV Girls Yosra Elseifi raced to a top finish in the 100 Fly with 1:08.79, staying close was Galia Diaz-Montoya for second in 1:09.32.  University's Chiara Rignot touched for third in 1:10.76.   Junior William Chen highlighted the JV Boys, blasting a 59.76 to pick up third.  University's Chris Chou won the event in 58.66 over teammate Max Pang closing second (58.94).  Varsity Girls Carolyn Nguyen marked second in the 100 Fly with 59.33, while Gabrielle Lan touched in for third (1:01.62).  University's Reina Gomez got out to an early lead and continued to build winning in 58.45.  Varsity senior Younghun Kim took the top spot with a fast 100 Fly to win a 52.07 punch to the wall.  Touching just behind him was Ryan Xu with 53.98 for second.  University's Adam Lee picked up third place in 55.54.

100 Free

Northwood's Open Girls blasted a commanding sweep in the 100 Free event with Chloe Tsai finishing well ahead in 1:16.13.  Second went to University's Tracy Le in 1:21.90, the third fastest swim was locked down by Malaika Mateli with 1:25.08.  In the Open Boys race, Northwood put in title win with Gavin Dang (55.44).  University's Mark Zakharyan claimed second in 56.09, while Charles Yates was right behind for third with a 56.21.  On the JV Girls side, freshman Ashley Huynh closed out her individual event posting a double title win 59.56.  University's Caitlyn Morales tracked behind closing second in 1:00.42, and Sarah Hsu (1:01.11) prevailed with a third.    Teammates Brandon Cho (51.38), and Evan Eich (51.90) gave another reason for the Northwood fans to celebrate with a 2-3 placement for the Northwood JV Boys.  University's Jaden Chen took the top time in 51.27.  The Varsity Girls put two in the top three with Kim Huynh putting in a strong 55.12 for first.  University's Lauren Zhou took second in 55.93, while Lauren Kim (56.72) was third.  Timberwolves Christopher Leung ended the evening on a high note as he blew out the Varsity Boys 100 Free in 46.04.  Leung produced a second turn in 22.18, which extended his lead to two body lengths over teammate Kevin Hong (49.37).  Third place went to Benton Cheng who check in at 49.59.

500 Free

In the JV Girls 500 Free, Yosra Elseifi (5:44.50) showed her distance talent touching in for the title win.  University's Brooke Yeh touched for second (5:57.00), while Nina Elias rounded third (6:04.09).  Northwood freshman Shervin Shahriary posted a 5:16.73 for second in the 500 Free.  University's Oleg Shatskikah (5:13.34) and Kazuma Okada (5:22.58) placed 1-3.  It was a positive end to the meet for Varsity Girls Yufei Chen (5:40.37) and Addison Cadena (5:27.59), who produced two top-3 individual swims going 2-3.  University's Alexandra Lindenberg posted the top time in 5:20.09.  Varsity Boys Nolan Chomin raced to a quick title win touching the wall in 4:46.09.  Will Chen charted second in 4:50.57, while Michael Abshier finished third in 4:51.17.   

50 Back

Northwood's Open Girls shaped up with some speed putting two top-3 for the 50 Back. They lead a field that includes Henna Cook (36.04), and Ahyun Lee (41.60) taking first and third placements.  University's Clarisse Facredyn produced second (39.09).  Northwood Open Boys took the top spot when Stephen Dee touched first in 29.42.  University's Connor Riley snagged second in 29.79, while Andrew Gao rounded third (30.44). 

100 Back

Junior Jocelyn Tsai battled throughout the JV Girls 100 Back finishing second in 1:10.50.  University's Jocelyn Tsai edged out Tsai for second (1:07.80).  University's Halle Ewing was third in 1:11.88.  On the JV Boys side it was Gavin Lai producing a first place in 59.68.  Jimmy Chen took second in 1:00.82, while University's Kavin Greaser rounded third in 1:02.20.  Freshman Avery Liu raced to a quick first place finish touching the wall with 1:01.77 for a Varsity Girls.  Genevieve Chomin claimed second in 1:04.66, while Helena Zhou round third in 1:05.51.  Timberwolves freshman Derek Hitchens was dialed in with an impressive 100 Back for the Varsity Boys finishing the event in 51.56.  Teammate sophomore Elson Lee (54.58) for second, and University's Ian Sun  (1:00.67) third respectively.   

50 Breast

Northwood teammates Shreya Aithal and Katrina Estrada didn't disappoint as they produced two in the Top-3 for the Open Girls.   Aithal put up a 41.37 for second.  Estrada, who occupied two lanes over finished third in 43.16, while University's Caprie Troccoli touched the wall for the win in 40.67.

100 Breast

Northwood's JV Girls Nina Elias jumped out to an early lead and never relented at the 50 turn (37.71), then stretched out for the touch winning in 1:18.67.  University's Leah Schulman touched second in 1:20.51, while Rachel Yokota took third in 1:20.81.  Timberwolves Andy Gao was able to close out the individual events for the JV Boys with a first place in 1:07.09.  Unversity's Ryan Villadelgado leveraged a second place touch with 1:07.19, while teammate Jadan Chen rounded third (1:09.70).  The Varsity Girls 100 Breast finally came down to Lady T-Wolves Taylor Inouye (1:08.50), who capped off a first place finish. University's Annika Nie turned in a second (1:12.74), while Ai Taguchi rounded third in 1:14.15.  Varsity Boys were able to close out their individual events with a second place finish from Ryan Connole (1:01.56).  University's Matthew Lou won the event in 55.81, while Matthew King rounded third (1:02.47).