Amanda Hsieh provided Varsity leadership for the Lady T-Wolves powerful freshman class locking down the 100 Free win with an All-American Consideration time of 54.50. Photo courtesy of Swim Staff.
It's still very early in March, but believe it or not, high school swim season is already upon us. The Northwood High School swimming team showed little rust as the Timberwolves started out the new 2016 season hot off the blocks against Mater Dei and Santiago High Schools at the Northwood Aquatic Center on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. The Monarchs' boys defeated the Timberwolves 87-83 and tied the Sharks 85-85, while their girls won 89-81 and 91-78.
The meet was still a tremendous showcase of talent for Northwood on both gender side of things as the entire Timberwolves team won 10 events on the afternoon in the pool. It was a balanced effort for the Timberwolves as four different boys and four different girls won events.
"I'm expecting a lot of close meets this year, hopefully as the season moves forward we can come out on top. We're in a rebuilding phase this season with some fast-rising talents that I have high expectations for in replacing some excellent alumni that have graduated on," said Head Coach Alex Nieto. "Our strength this year should be our depth. We have a lot of good sprinters who are very versatile swimmers. Based on the talent I'm seeing, we should be able to improve on what we did this past season." said Nieto.
200 FREE
The 200 freestyle saw a close finish where three JV girls were in the 2:15 range. Mater Dei's Kate Schmitt picked up the win, coming in at 2:15.14. Northwood's Hannah Roushdy finished 2nd in 2:15.28, and Brooke Stoman of Mater Dei was 3rd in 2:15.31. JV Northwood sophomore Michael Lee touched the wall for third in 1:59.04. Junior Mack Nesbit led the way in the 200 free for the Timberwolves Varsity boys. He took down Santiago's Henry Hyun, touching in 1:46.90 to Hyun's 1:48.83. Thomas Payton finished nearly four seconds back to secure third for Mater Dei in 1:50.93.
200 IM
Northwood's JV Girls Kiana Allen lowered her personal best by -3.88 seconds after a thrilling race with Mater Dei's Hannah Constandse. Constandse immediately resurfaced ahead from the backstroke starting wedge, but Allen stayed close through the first 100 mark separated only by .20, before Constandse pulled ahead winning 2:31.58. Kiana touched the wall for second at 2:37.47. In the JV Boys David Chang clocked in second at 2:20.54 in the 200 IM, while teammate Arthur Liu followed for third in 2:22.01. Northwood Varsity Girls Sophomore Julia Gonik (2:13.63) battled it out with Mater Dei Senior Aislinn Light (2:08.85) who took the win with Gonik pulling into second, and just behind her was Santiago Brooke Miles (2:15.65) rounding the top three. The Varsity Boys competition featured Northwood's Henry Wu, who was just behind Santiago's Trent Richardson at the halfway mark, 1:01.45 to 1:01.40. Richardson stayed underwater a bit longer on the turns, pulled ahead of Wu, and put it away over the final few yards, touching in 2:03.86. Wu finished second in 2:04.26.
50 Free
Linh Huynh jumped out to an early lead and never relented, with the fastest 50 free in the field for the Northwood Open Girls. Mater Dei's Caroline Lavayen (31.60) and Sophia Fanticola (31.77) rounded second and third respectively. Varsity Freshman Amanda Hsieh ripped a smooth 25.53 to capture the 3rd fastest 50 free time for the Timberwolves. Amanda's brother Varsity Senior Cameron Hsieh mirrored his sister's efforts placing third in 22.59.
100 Fly
The Varsity Girls 100 fly was a tight race, with the top 3 of 9 finishers clocking in the 1:00-1:01 range. Varsity sophomore Josephine Manuel garnered some 3rd place points for Northwood clocking in 1:01.42. Mater Dei's Brianna Buckle got the victory in 1:00.01, and Brooke Miles of Santiago was runner up with 1:00.06. Coming out of the diving break, Gabe Munoz and Northwood Varsity teammate Hwa Min Sim (52.79) dueled, but at the half way point Sim lost ground on the second half finish yet still turned in a personal best cutting three hundreths. Mater Dei's Kaikea Wilinski took third in 54.03.
100 Free
Varsity freshman Amanda Hsieh had a strong swim working her way to the front of the pack midway through her race to maintain control and win the 100 free for Northwood in 54.50. That time serves her entryway into the All-American Consideration category. Second place went to Kayla Constandse for Mater Dei in 54.55. Santiago's Mirai Adams touched third in 54.68. Varsity senior Shayan Shaikh took third for the Timberwolves, about a couple seconds back at 51.53. Shaikh tried to ride Santigo Jace Hong's wake in the inside lanes, but too big a lead to overcome. Hong in at 48.57 for second with Mater Dei's Christian Hockenbury holding off both of them finishing first with 48.16.
500 Free
The Lady T-Wolves JV Girls Hannah Roushdy put in a good race for the second spot this afternoon, touching in a 6:09.14, while Santiago's Talia Jeppson grabbed the top spot in a time of 6:06.73. Mater Dei's Kate Schmitt in third with a time of 6:09.41. As the team battle continued to heat up on the varsity side, Katya Burjakowsky came through for Northwood heading to wall in 5:30.29 for third. Mater Dei's Stephanie Su clinched the win in 5:08.62, while Santiago's Catherine Aguilera earned second with 5:24.14. Timberwolf Mack Nesbit continued his strong showing completing a double win with the 500 free on 4:48.88. Mater Dei's Kaikea Wilinski and Payton Thomas were locked in a race for 2nd, with Wilinski touching the wall to in 5:02.20 to Thomas's 5:02.25.
100 Back
Shannon Lee cleared 1:08.79 in the JV Girls 100 back placing first, while teammate Kiana Allen went 1:11.82 completing the 1-2 finish for Northwood. Santiago's Payton Holland picked up third in 1:12.42. In the JV Boys, Kyle Pendleton made a move in the back half to move up a few positions locking down third with a 1:02.72. Mater Dei picked up the event win with Joe Inoue taking control early spitting a 28.87, and finishing on top 1:00.54. Santiago's Tristan Anderson produced a second place showing with 1:02.33. Varsity Girls Josephine Manuel captured second place in 1:03.54 with Mater Dei's Aislinn Light leading down the entire stretch for a winning finish in 57.50. Santiago's Catherine Aguleria rounded third in 1:04.95. On the Varsity Boys side Cameron Hsieh took second in the 100 back, going 28.17 at the 50 before dropping off a bit, though he was still right in the hunt for the second place win (57.26). Mater Dei's Gunnar Hauser grabbed first in 56.26 with the fastest 27.90 split in the field. Santiago's Andrew Kucenas touched third in 58.74.
50 Breast
A pair of Northwood freshman dazzled in their debuts, each earning a spot in the top three Open Girls. Ayse Oztekin ended her 50 breast swim in second place with a mark of 41.56, and on her heels to give the Timberwolves the 2-3 finish was Tara Esfahani posting a 41.81.
100 Breast
In the JV Girls Sobyn Chung went out fast, hitting the pad at 39.00 to her feet at the 100 mark. She dropped off some in the back half but held off Santiago's second place challenger Talia Jeppson (1:22.81). Chung outsplit Jeppson by over a second on the last 50, but leader Sydney Castille of Santiago built too big a lead to be overcome winning with a 1:19.40. Chung wound up second at 1:21.99, still a personal best. Northwood Varsity sophomore Julia Gonik saw her win of the day in the 100 breast. Her battle was extremely close with Mater Dei's Brianna Buckle who put together a faster front end spllit with both pacing together pretty well, but Gonik pulled ahead at the first turn, and managed to hold the lead stopping the clock in 1:09.15. Buckle touched second in 1:09.39, while Santiago's Riley Smith closed for third in 1:10.50. On the Varsity Boys side Henry Wu had the lead by .35 at the 50, but the field was very tight as the top three were all together. The race was relatively close at the turn, but Wu blew away the final 50 with a 31.90 split to win the race at 1:01.09. Mater Dei's Ryan Declan set himself up for a second place finish at 1:02.99. Santiago's Garrett Almeida touched the wall in 1:03.45.
Relays
JV Girls 200 Medley - 3rd place 2:08.32 Shannon Lee (31.59), Sobyn Chung (37.52), Hannah Mcllrath (30.63), Hannah Roushdy (28.58)
JV Boys 200 Medley - 3rd place 1:52.26 David Chang (30.21), Budka Conner (29.74), Parker Mallough (28.05), Tae In Gu (23.33)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley - 3rd place 1:54.65 Nancy Zhu (29.99), Julia Gonik (32.11), Josephine Manuel (27.47), Amanda Hsieh (25.08)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley - 1st place 1:39.85 Nick Thorson (26.87), Henry Wu (27.76), Gabe Munoz (23.23), Cameron Hsieh (21.99)
Open Girls 200 Free - 3rd place 2:08.46 Huynh Linh (31.20), Yalda Assemi (32.71), Danny Llaguno Garcia (31.87), Cindy Le (32.68)
JV Girls 200 Free - 3rd place 1:57.00 Hannah Mcllrath (29.15), Amanda Nguyen (28.94), Katrina Loye (29.47), Shannon Lee (29.44)
JV Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:38.51 David Miller (26.40), Nick Huynh (24.98), Tae In Gu (23.78), Alex Ra (23.35)
Varsity Girls 200 Free - 3rd place 1:49.39 Jenny Morley (28.17), Sian Davis (27.58), Olivia Chen (27.09), Nancy Zhu (26.55)
Varsity Boys 200 Free - 3rd place 1:32.15 Nick Thorson (23.56), Collin Press (23.49), Ryan Lee (23.23), Cameron Hsieh (21.87)
JV Boys 400 Free - 3rd place 3:49.55 Luke Balding (1:01.04), Nick Huynh (55.69), Michael Lee (53.97), David Chang (58.85
Varsity Girls 400 Free - 2nd place 3:48.33 Amanda Hsieh (54.47), Josephine Manuel (58.18), Julia Gonik (56.88), Katya Burjakowsky (58.80)
Varsity Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 3:19.94 Mack Nesbit (49.64), Hwa Min Sim (49.57), Gabe Munoz (48.87), Shayan Shaikh (51.86)
Tri-Meet Scores
Men
Mater Dei High School 87.00 vs 83.00 Northwood High School
Mater Dei High School 85.00 vs 85.00 Santiago High School
Women
Mater Dei High School 89.00 vs 81.00 Northwood High School
Mater Dei High School 91.00 vs 78.00 Santiago High School