Northwood's Derek Hitchens, above, locked in a 24.02 backstroke split to help lead the Timberwolves varsity victory in the 200 Medley Relay against cross town rival University.  Photo courtesy of Alex Tolkachev.  

Regular season dual meet competitions rarely mirror the intensity of higher-stakes CIF or State championship competitions, but when Northwood and University High Schools are competing against each other they don't need points as an incentive to give it their all.  On top of that, the white, navy blue and silver garnered extra motivation today with a varsity boys decisive 115 - 55 win against the across town rival on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at the University High School Aquatic Center.

Northwood has been progressing through its pre-season with a solid record and fiery competitive edge.    The Timberwolves' boys victory today over University in "Lights Out" fashion indicates they are hitting their stride at precisely the right moment.  The varsity boys brought the heat in a back-and-forth showdown winning (3) three relays, and all (8) eight individual title wins over University.

The Lady T-Wolves for this afternoon's individuals took 5 of the top 8 spots respectively, while 1 for 3 in relay placements.  Northwood's girls lost in the tight match up 76 - 94.

Overall, Northwood came out of this week with a 3-0 Boys / 2-1 Girls record, and today marks one of the more difficult stretches in the Timberwolves' season thus far.  That said, the team managed to defeat its archrival University, which ended this week on a high note.

“I'm really proud of how hard the team competed," said Northwood Head Coach Alex Nieto.  "An effort like this is collective, but sometimes leaders emerge and set the tone which is what we saw today with University."   

The Timberwolves season excitement continues, however, at home next Wednesday against Woodbridge High School giving them another taste of fierce regular season competition in Southern California's Southern Section juggernaut, the Pacific Coast League.

200 FREE

University's Open Girls got the meet started with a win with Carson Cruz touching in 2:28.89, while Elle Heale finished second with 2:32.02.  Northwood's Katrina Estrada touched third (2:45.23). The JV Girls was a tight race throughout, with Samin Shahrabian putting in a strong 2:20.98 for second.  University's Brooke Yeh took the victory in 2:12.95, while Ruby Danner (2:23.38) was third.  The 200 Free belong to Unversity's JV Boys Kazuma Okada in 1:54.63.  (1:55.81).  Northwood sophomore's Nathan Kang (1:56.76) and Shervin Shahriary (1:57.65) placed 2-3 respectively.  Varsity Girls junior Katerina Tolkachev took third in the 200 Free punching the wall with 2:08.44.  University's Reina Gomez won the event in 1:58.79, while her teammate Zoe Lee followed with 2:01.06.  The Varsity Boys went lights out showing real depth finishing in the top three in this race with Andrew Maksymowski (1:42.60), Derek Hitchens (1:45.13) and Michael Abshier for third 1:48.48.  

100 IM

Open Girls freshman Sophia Xiong jumped out to an early lead and never relented at the 50 turn (37.74), then touched for the win in 1:20.29.  University's Diana Rahmani checked in for second with 1:21.69, and Addison Gregory 1:33.39 for third. Timberwolves freshman Kamron Jamali came through for the Open Boys for third in the 100 IM (1:24.69).  University's Ryan Nguyen put down a 1:07.24, good for the win with Tyler Kitajima taking second (1:13.85).

200 IM

The JV Girls Claire Cho earned the third spot in the 200 IM coming in with 2:37.59.  University's Mackenzie Lee won the event 2:31.89, while Jocelyn Tsai turned in second (2:36.23).  JV Boys junior Evan Fu got out to an early lead and continued to build, so that he was virtually alone over the second half of the race.  Fu won the event with 2:11.45.  Second was Noah Villanueva in 2:12.26.  University's Jackson Cruz rounded out the top three touching in 2:17.28.  Lady T-Wolf Taylor Inouye launched a quick start and opened up a sizable advantage in the Varsity Girls 200 IM.  Inouye stretched to the touch in 2:17.02 for the win.  Teammate Tiara Schechinger registered the second fastest time in 2:21.90, while University's Lucy Zhou took third in 2:24.03.  Timberwolves Elson Lee went out fast in the Varsity Boys 200 IM fly segment, clearing a half body length lead into the backstroke finishing 1:54.14 for the title win. Teammate Benton Cheng gained quickly on his breaststroke splitting 31.87 pulling closer, but finally touched in for second 2:01.21.  University's Matthew King rounded third in 2:03.83.

50 Free

The Open Girls lead the charge with Madison To giving the Timberwolves a title victory in 30.22.  University's Samauri Johnson took second (35.40), while Anna Park touched third (35.86).  In one of the tightest Open Boys races in the afternoon, Kasara Zandpour clocked in a top-3 time of 32.06 for third (26.47).  University's Ryan Huang won the event in 28.47, while Daniel Cho finished second with 25.92.  In the JV Girls event, Nur Yildiz and University's Clarisse Facredyn dueled down the final stretch, with Yildiz finishing first in 28.92 and Facredyn in 28.94.  Ruby Danner placed third with 29.14.  JV Boys Evan Eich touched first in 23.15 followed on his heels by Christian Thorpe (23.90). University's Darren Wahidi rounded third (24.33).  The Varsity Girls 50 Free belonged to Gabrielle Lan who went 25.84. University's Camellia Zandpour was next in line with 26.14, while Lauren Zhou just behind registered third (26.21).  Senior Christopher Leung led the Timberwolves Varsity Boys 50 Free from start to finish winning the event in a time of 21.02.  Gavin Lai put up a time of 22.51 for second, Ryan Xu finished third (22.71).

50 Fly

Junior Katrina Estrada earned the third spot in the Open Girls 50 fly for the Lady T-Wolves coming in with 44.15. University's Xingyue Huang (40.15) to took the top first placement.  Joining her was teammate Hazel Dahl in at second (40.82).

100 Fly

Sophomore Chloe Kiso helped the JV Girls effort surging for first touch to the wall in 1:13.81.  University's Deea Gandotra posted the second place finish with 1:17.96 with Melissa Lam rounding third (1:18.86).  Varsity Girls Gabrielle Lan put in a third for Northwood, going 1:00.25.  University's Reina Gomez won the event in 58.23, while Haasini Prabhakar rolled in for second (58.82).  Sophomore Derek Hitchens had the lightning-fast touch, winning the varsity race in 51.37.  A full body length behind was University's Ian Sun (52.39), with junior Ethan Chen for third (55.77).  

100 Free

Open Girls Angelina Kocar-Ying won the event in a time of 1:09.68.  Just on her heels was Sophia Xiong finishing second in 1:12.24.  University's Naomi Karchmer rounded third (1:17.86).  On the JV Girls side, Ella Wong closed out her individual event posting a second place finish in 1:02.02.  University's Julia Shabanie turned in the top time of 59.36, while Rachel Park posted third (1:02.06).  Sophmore Ella Wong raced to second in 1:02.02 for the Northwood JV Girls.  Julia Shabanie  provided the win for University in 59.36, while Rachel Park picked up third in 1:02.06.  The afternoon saw a tight field of JV Boys in the 100 Free that included Evan Eich (51.62) joined by Gavin Dang (53.91), and University's Efe Sozeri (54.06) for third.  Lady T-Wolf senior Acile Jammoul had a strong swim working her way to the front of the pack midway maintaining control and winning the Varsity Girls 100 Free for Northwood in 56.40.  University's Zoe Lee in at 56.79 for second, while Camellia Zandpour right behind with 57.02 to secure third.  The Northwood Varsity Boys added a triple win of excitement in the 100 Free with Will Chen off the block guns-hot taking victory in (46.95) with teammates Benton Cheng (49.66) and Ryan Xu (49.74) rounding out the top three positions. 

500 Free

Lady T-Wolves Chloe Tsai went 6:40.33 to take third in the JV Girls 500 Free, while University's Brooke Yeh (5:58.61) and Quinne Davis (6:39.79) went 1-2.  Shervin Shahriary captured second in 5:21.17 in the JV Boys 100 Free.  In the JV Boys competition, Shervin Shahriary is second for Northwood going 5:21.17, while University's Jackson Cruz sits first in 5:20.91.  Andrew Gao rounds third (5:30.11).  The impressive part of the Varsity Girls 500 Free race was how dialed in Addison Cadena got in her pacing.  From the 150-mark to the 450-mark, Cadena put each of her splits in the narrow window between 32.40 and 33.99. That's six different 50 splits she posted all within a hundredth of one another for helping her win in 5:27.86.  Katerina Tolkachev finished second in a time of (5:39.43), and University's Ashley Wallin put herself third with 5:56.54.

50 Back

Northwood Open Girls Aanya Kumar clocked a 38.95 to win the event while teammate Allison Lao took second in 40.70.  University's Lauren Dornbos in for third (44.09).  

100 Back

JV Girls Claire Cho posted third in the 100 Back (1:13.95) in a battle with University's Mackenzie Lee who went 1:10.14 for the win.  Jocelyn Tsai was second in 1:12.64.  Sophomore Jimmy Chen leveraged a quick front half to earn a respectable second for the JV Boys 100 Back (1:01.10) followed with teammate Stephen Dee (1:01.61).  Elias Pariser took the win for University in 1:00.99.  Lady T-Wolves Acile Jammoul was the second quickest competitor in the Varsity Girls 100 Back this afternoon.  She was out in 31.26 at the 50, and held off a charging Sofia Leonardo (1:05.38) to the wall for third.  University's Haasini Prabhakar took the win in 1:01.38.  Junior Elson Lee raced out to a 25.85 split at the first turn of the 100 Back, then slicing his back half to finish in 27.13 for the win (52.98).  University's Ian Sun hit the wall second in 53.80, while Dylan Mac touched third (55.57).

50 Breast

The Open Girls Neeki Ettefagh took the second position with a solid 44.46 putting in a season best.  University's Jiwoo Park gave him enough opposition taking first in 43.51, while her teammate Sarena Hung registered the third fastest time in 48.74.  Northwood's Open Boys once again put in a top three finish with Larry Lee touching in a 29.89 for third. University's Oliver Puig clocked the top time in 33.35, while Ryan Nguyen took second (33.96). 

100 Breast

In the JV Girls competition, Shreya Aithal is third for Northwood going 1:27.61, while University's Clarisse Facredyn sits first in 1:18.36.  L.B. Leah Schulman for second in 1:18.72.  Lady T-Wolf Taylor Inouye turned up the heat in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:09.92 for the win. University's Lucy Zhao surged to a 1:14.38 for the second spot, while Sarah Xiong touched in 1:14.54 for third.  

On the Varsity Boys side, senior Christopher Leung took it out in 26.36 at the 50 mark, and completely blew away the entire heat coming away with the winning time under a minute (55.94).  University's Matthew King finished second with a time of 1:00.77 followed by Anthony Foo posting 1:03.24 for third.