Powerful relays and team depth proved to be the difference maker as Northwood High School ends the dual league season in third place.  Photo courtesy of Tim Potvin, photographer.

The Northwood Timberwolves wrapped up the regular dual meet swim season on Wednesday, April 29th at the Northwood Aquatic Center with only its second loss 187 - 153 Varsity Girls and Boys combined for the entire season to Corona del Mar High School.

"This tells us where we're at in a lot of ways," Timberwolves coach Alex Nieto said after Wednesday's loss against Corona del Mar.  "You've got to look at it in a positive way.  Great competition makes you a better team.  It's all about moving on and trying to find improvements."

200 FREE

Open Girls Seren Smith was first out of the gates with a win in the 200 free turning in 2:46.49, and six points for the Timberwolves.  Smith's time was an 8.18 second drop from her personal best.  Third place went to Brian Fu in the Open boys clocking a 2:10.25.  JV Girls Madeline Smith picked up a second place win with a 2:24.02, followed by her teammate Rochelle Child who finished third in 2:31.29.  Daniel Bae got things rolling for the JV Boys with a top time of 1:54.30 in a close matchup with Corona del Mar's Davis Wong (1:54.54).  Varsity Girls Cristina Aramayo powered away with a third placing in the 200 free going 2:05.48.  Then in the Varsity Boys, freshman Gabe Munoz went 1:45.40 to win by a narrow margin - .27 - over Corona del Mar's junior Tim Hanson 1:45.67.

100 IM

In the Open Girls Corona del Mar's Dana Kadifa's front half of 36.96 was the difference maker in the battle with Northwood's JJ Hopper.  Kadifa won with a 1:20.20, with Hopper about two seconds away in 1:22.04.  Teammate Daniela Llaguno Garcia pulled in third (1:26.40).  In the Open Boys Arthur Liu took the top spot in the 100 IM after swimming a 1:04.89 over Corona del Mar's Tobyn Pulice (1:06.38).  Teammate David Chang was third in 1:06.42.

200 IM

A good matchup in the JV Girls division between Corona del Mar's Isabella Mesiwala and Northwood's Maika Beatrice Marin took place.  The two were neck and neck the entire way but Mesiwala was able to touch her hand on the wall first with a 2:33.25 to Marin's 2:33.43.  Lady T-Wolves Hana Roushdy turned in third with 2:39.59.  On the JV Boys side it would be another fingernail dual as Corona del Mar's Ryan Schildwachter (2:11.49) was able to hold off Northwood's Darrel Choi (2:11.51) making it close all the way to the wall.  Varsity freshman Julia Gonik provided a second place showing in the 200 IM finishing with a 2:15.02.  The Varsity Boys 200 IM was a thrilling matchup featuring Northwood's senior Billy Monjay and Corona del Mar's seniors Justin Hanson, and Taylor Cortens. Hanson's first two legs gave him a .70 hundreds lead over Monjay, and .39 hundreds over Cortens.  When the breaststrokers kick it in, everything can change.  Monjay's 31.27 breast split pulled him in front by 1.61 seconds going into the free and held on to the final 50 to win in 1:53.14.  Hanson was second with 1:54.55; Cortens third with 1:54.70.

50 Free

Northwood Open Girls Emy Kory wound up placing third, though, as she dug in was able to keep pace with the leaders with just a tick behind in 33.10.  On the Open boys side, Drucker Drucker tacked on a second place in the 50 free with a 26.78.  That was about .77 hundreds off of his personal best.  In the JV Girls, Sian Davis and Ashley Lee not only pulled in a 1-2, but they black-and-blued it bringing in 10 points for the Timberwolves.  Davis went under 28 with a 27.86 another personal best, with Lee finishing just behind her in 29.23.  The Timberwolves continued the momentum with the JV Boys in Peter Ko and Collin Press locking up in a great battle during the race with Ko clocking in a 24.22 for second, while Press finished third in 24.25.  Varsity senior Alyssa Tong came through with a second placing in 26.73.  Varsity senior Peter Zhu snatched the victory ahead of Corona del Mar's Ashton Jajonie with both boys going under 22.  Zhu needed every inch of the big lead and he got it ripping a 21.65 over Jajonie's 21.84.  Teammate Cameron Hsieh rounded third in 22.62.

50 Fly

Lady T-Wolves Jessica Serrano swam a strong second place in 39.37 for the Open Girls.  Teammate Amina Tawfik finished in 43.82 for third, also under her personal best from the Fountain Valley Invite.  Open Boys Arthur Liu surged to the finish to touch the wall in 29.63 for third in the 50 fly, while teammate Woo Young Kim recorded third in 30.77.

100 Fly

Northwood's Maika Beatrice Marin won the JV Girls 100 Fly in a time of 31.72.  Her teammate Ashley Tung seized second in 32.90 both girls way ahead of the field.  JV Boys Jonathan Phan came out on top with a time of 59.74 over Corona del Mar's Elijah Speier (1:00.49).  Varsity Girls Josephine Manuel swept the 100 fly event finishing with a 1:00.85.  Jacquelin Chen helped the Timberwolves by finishing second in 1:03.69.  Corona del Mar's Camila Vincent rounded third in 1:05.84.  Varsity senior Peter Zhu followed up his individual victory in the 50 free with a second place showing in the 100 fly with a 51.76 ending the day with 10 individual points for the Timberwolves.

100 Free

The Northwood Open Girls tallied 1-2 finishes in the 100 free.  Sophomore Seren Smith won the event in 1:11.01, followed by freshman Cindy Le (1:13.04).  JV Boys Daniel Bae took home the top spot in the 100 free in 51.96, while Corona del Mar's Davis Wong (51.96) was second and his teammate Timonthy Morton was third in 52.43.  Senior Judson Balding closed out his individual event posting a first place finish in 48.36.  Junior Cameron Hsieh was the runner-up in 48.56, while Corona del Mar's Tanner Roletter was third in 49.49.

500 Free

The Northwood JV Girls opened the 500 free duels in dominating fashion, posting a 1-2-3 finish with freshman Ashley Lee (6:00.37), freshman Hana Roushdy (6:23.43), and sophomore Rochelle Child (6:23.43).  Among other notable performances on the JV Boys side included Darrel Choi, who placed second (5:14.70).  Corona del Mar's Varsity Girls Bridgett Storm and Northwood's Cristina Aramayo had a very competitive duel going on in the 500 free.  It looked early in this race like Aramayo might run away with the title; she was out very close to Storm on the first 100 yards, and even ahead at the 200 turn in 2:08.87 to 2:09.00, but may have taken her pace too hard too early as Storm came from behind into the final back half to win in 5:29.49 to Aramayo's (5:33.61).  Teammate Zoe Baick stopped the watch for third in 5:40.80.  On the Varsity Boys side, Daryl Wang turned in a second place in 4:48.46.

50 Back

Northwood Open Girls went 1-2 in the 50 back when Yu Hsuan Chen and Daniela Llaguno Garcia touched in 38.69 and 39.89, respectively.  Corona del Mar's Leora Kalili came in at 40.45 for third.  Garcia's efforts culminated 7 points on the day as she produced an earlier third place in the 100 IM.  In the Open Boys David Chang sealed up his double third place win of the meet touching in a 30.76.

100 Back

 The JV Lady T-Wolves Kiana Allen (1:15.65) and Teresa Tran (1:18.43) posted the second and third fastest time in the 100 back.  Northwood JV Boys Kyle Pendleton finished second with a 1:01.79 clearing more than a body length between him and third place finisher teammate Justin Pyne.  Pyne finished with a 1:03.37.  Varsity Girls Shannon Lee picked up a second place finish in the 100 back with a 1:06.17 dropping 3.48 seconds off her personal best.  Corona del Mar seem to have a stronghold on the Varsity 100 back with senior Taylor Cortens (52.88) and sophomore Ethan Archer (53.43), but Northwood freshman Shawn Lou was just off their times holding pace throughout the race stopping the clock in 54.77.

50 Breast

In the 50 breast Northwood Emy Kory established herself as the fastest Open Girls 50 breast swimmer of the day clocking in a 40.99 in her individual swim, while Corona del Mar's Heidi Ritner placed second with a time of 46.01.  With a loaded field of eight breaststrokers Open Boys Leon Shi had a strong swim recording a 32.74, which shaved .77 from his personal best in March, 2015.

100 Breast

The Timberwolves put two in the final top three places for the JV Girls 100 breast with Hanna Kim posting in a big personal best time drop of 1.72 seconds.  Kim's winning time was 1:22.12.  Corona del Mar's Sabrina Burkholder took second in 1:24.30.  Lady T-Wolves Madison Choi kept it close with Burkholder pressing out to behind only to a seven-hundredths deficit at the 50-mark and holding on, but unable to put together the margin yet still held third in 1:26.43.  Northwood's Kevin Chen, a sophomore blew away the field in 1:04.71 to cap off a win for the JV Boys.  His teammate Andy Tran who is a sophomore as well roared in a second place only one hundredth from Chen at the wall with a time of 1:04.82.  Corona del Mar's Ryan Schildwachter rounded third in 1:05.55.  The Varsity Girls got some breaststroke points from freshman Julia Gonik clinching third in 1:10.64.  That event saw another 1-2, with Varsity senior Billy Monjay taking second in 57.54, just 1.37 behind from Corona del Mar's Tyler Lin (56.17).  Monjay swam a tough double with the 200 IM claiming first as an earlier event.  Teammate freshman Henry Wu touched in at 1:03.38 for third.

Relays
Open Girls 200 Medley - 1st place  2:29.30  Daniela Llaguno Garcia (38.47), Emy Kory (40.42), JJ Hopper (42.29), Yu Hsuan Chen (28.12)
                                      - 2nd place  2:42.75  Jessica Serrano (38.30), Amina Tawfik (45.30), Cindy Le (37.77), Sidney Yang (41.38)
Open Boys 200 Medley - 2nd place  1:59.38  David Chang (33.88), Leon Shi (29.64), Arthur Liu (29.52), Matthew Drucker (26.34)
JV Girls 200 Medley -  1st place  2:09.22  Ashley Lee (33.64), Maika Beatrice Marin (35.10), Teresa Tran (32.08), Sian Davis (28.40)
                                 -  2nd place  2:12.62  Kiana Allen (33.53), Kim Hanna (36.41), Ashley Tung (32.17), Samantha Hornyak (30.51)
JV Boys 200 Medley -  1st place  1:48.32  Kyle Charbonnet (29.34), Kevin Chen (29.46), Esteban Torres (26.00), Alex Ra (23.52)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley  -  2nd place  1:57.44  Nancy Zhu (30.27), Julia Gonik (32.77), Josephine Manuel (27.54), Alyssa Tong (26.86)
                                         -  3rd place  2:03.65  Shannon Lee (30.64), Erika Marin (34.72), Mia Choy (30.58), Katherine Monjay (27.71)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley -  2nd place  1:37.41  Shawn Lou (25.35), William Monjay (26.44), Peter Zhu (24.11), Judson Balding (21.51)
Open Girls 200 Free -  2nd place  2:10.40  Yu Hsuan Chen (33.04), Emy Kory (32.78), Cindy Le (33.19), Julianne Hopper (31.39)
                                  -  3rd place  2:12.79  Seren Smith (33.04), Jessica Serrano (34.24), Daniela Llaguno Garcia (34.91), Amina Tawfik (31.43)
Open Boys 200 Free -  3rd place  1:46.22  Woo Young Kim (26.87), Sriteja Sadam (25.78), Luke Balding (27.59), Brian Fu (25.98)
JV Girls 200 Free -  2nd place  1:56.39  Maika Beatrice Marin (28.72), Hana Roushdy (29.46), Madeline Smith (30.30), Sian Davis (27.91)
JV Boys 200 Free -  2nd place  1:35.55  Daniel Bae (24.10), Peter Ko (23.91), Darrel Choi (24.02), Collin Press (23.52)
                             -  3rd place  1:37.39  Kiwon Yun (25.25), Michael Lee (24.33), Tae In Gu (24.13), Alex Ra (23.68)
Varsity Girls 200 Free -  1st place  1:45.88  Nancy Zhu (26.86), Jacquelin Chen (26.76), Josephine Manuel (26.06), Alyssa Tong (26.20)
Varsity Boys 200 Free -  2nd place  1:28.89  Cameron Hsieh (22.41), Billy Monjay (22.28), Judson Balding (22.44), Shawn Lou (21.76)
Open Girls 400 Free -  1st place  4:49.40  Yu Hsuan Chen (1:14.48), Cindy Le (1:12.36), Seren Smith (1:08.62, Julianne Hopper (1:13.94)
Open Boys 400 Free -  3rd place  3:56.84  Brian Fu (58.82), Luke Balding (1:02.13), David Chang (58.84), Arthur Liu (57.05)
JV Girls 400 Free -  2nd place  4:17.74  Ashley Lee (1:02.38), Kiana Allen (1:07.62), Hana Roushdy (1:03.38), Sian Davis (1:04.36)
                             -  3rd place  4:34,09 Ashley Tung (1:05.96), Teresa Tran (1:11.75, Smantha Hornyak (1:07.23), Wen-Whei Chen (1:09.15)
JV Boys 400 Free -  2nd place  3:30.85  Daniel Bae (51.62), Peter Ko (52.75), Darrel Choi (53.74), Collin Press (52.74)
Varsity Girls 400 Free -  1st place  3:50.83  Nancy Zhu (57.36), Josephine Manuel (57.87), Julia Gonik (58.25), Alyssa Tong (57.35)
                                    -  3rd place  4:03.72  Katherine Monjay (1:01.40), Cristina Aramayo (59.33), Zoe Baick (1:01.43), Christine Weyers (1:01.43)
Varsity Boys 400 Free -  1st place  3:11.57  Judson Balding (47.60), Cameron Hsieh (48.03), Gabe Munoz (48.45), Peter Zhu (47.49)

                                                                   Dual-Meet Scores

                                                                                                     Men

                                                           Northwood High School 78.00   vs   92.00  Corona del Mar High School

                                                                                                   Women

                                                          Northwood High School   75.00   vs   95.00  Corona del Mar High School