Virtually deadlock in scoring several times throughout the meet as a shorthanded Northwood showed both fans and foes they're a force to be reckoned with. Photo courtesy of Tim Potvin, photographer.
The Northwood Timberwolves rippled the waters with their performances against storied rival two time defending CIF-SS Division I Boys Champion University High School on April 5, 2016 at the Northwood Aquatic Center. Virtually deadlock in scoring several times throughout the meet as a shorthanded Northwood showed both fans and foes they're a force to be reckoned with. Both Northwood boys and girls were able to hold the lost to only a 10 point scoring deficit (80-90) against University.
As the remaining season continues to shine the Timberwolves reloads with returning key swimmers strengthening the roster even more.
"Our University showdown presented to the Orange County swim community that Northwood High School should never be counted out in a league or CIF run this year," Head Coach Alex Nieto said. "We still have a lot of fight left on this team, and something that I know the coaching staff and athletes are all proud of."
200 FREE
In a very competitive race, Northwood Open Boys Calvin Lin picked up a third touching in the 200 free with a time of 2:08.93. That's a season best 1.63 second drop. University's Brad Nunamaker and Ian Rennie went 1-2 hitting the wall in times of 2:08.58 and 2:08.66. The first Northwood Girls victory went to JV Girls Hannah Roushdy who scored a swift time of 2:17.99 to blow away her entire heat. University's Angela Yan registered second in 2:18.37, while her teammate Anastasia Gomez went 2:21.35. On the JV Boys side, Northwood's Nick Huynh posted a second place time in 2:02.94. David Miller showed significant improvement with a 8.71 drop for third in 2:04.81. University's Luke Venzlaff took the top spot in 2:02.94. The Lady T-wolves took the lion's share of points coming away with a complete sweep in this event. Northwood's trio consisted of seniors Katya Burjakowsky (2:04.93) and Cristina Aramayo (2:05.67), along with junior Zoe Baick (2:09.66). For the Varsity Boys, junior Max Nesbit was a touch off his big 2015 1:44.49 time, but still able to finish third in 1:48.51. University's George Horvath (1:45.67) and Jarod Yoshihara (1:47.14) secured the two fastest times in the event.
100 IM
Northwood's Open Boy's produced encouraging performances with sophomore Ethan Abravanel setting the pace with a 30.43 followed by University's Daniel Yoo in 31.07, and senior Max Tsao (31.87). The duel proceeded with Yoo just out touching for the win in 1:05.40. Abravanel took the second spot in 1:08.61, and Tsao came in with a 1:09.91 for third.
200 IM
The JV Girls Amanda Nguyen took the top position with a solid 2:29.81. University's Monica Tang gave her enough opposition taking second in 2:34.46, while Sobyn Chung registered the third fastest time in 2:37.88. On the JV Boys side, Thomas Kim took it out in 1:01.43 at the 100 mark, and edged ahead of University's Eric Lin in the 200 IM. The first touch to the wall went to Kim in 2:11.23. Lin fell well short, thus placing second in 2:12.86, while his teammate Youssef Youssef rounded third with 2:14.07. University's Riley Lexvold lead the Varsity Girls 200 IM as she took the lead from Northwood's Nancy Zhu after the backstroke and breaststroke legs. Zhu had to work hard to get ahead of her own tenacious teammate Julia Gonik, as Zhu raced to a 2:13.16 with Gonik touching in 2:13.38. Riley's top time for winning the event was 2:07.83. Timberwolves Gabe Munoz set the tone for the Varsity Boys in the 200 IM hitting the wall in a time of 1:59.63. Munoz's high school best time is 1:54.93, which he put up at last year's Pacific Coast League Championships. He was followed by University's Stephen Yang who finished in second with a time of 2:04.68. Henry Wu recorded a 2:05.16 for third.
50 Free
Northwood freshman Linh Huynh took the Open Girls 50 free in a time of 30.48 earning 6 points. University's Kelcy Rodriguez finished second in a time of 32.60 followed by her teammate Mabel Guo who posted a time of 33.27 good enough for third. Open Boys Sriteja Sadam for Northwood, and University's Cameron Bernardo faced off in the 50 free with Sadam coming away with the winning time in 26.56. Bernardo was 1.36 seconds back with 27.20, and his teammate Ryan Khalaf finished third in a time of 27.29. University's Anne Iwata cranked out a 27.47 in the JV Girls 50 free event for the top finish. Lady T-wolf Maily Nguyen not quite speedy enough but well performed with a best time of 28.29 for second. University's Anastasia Gomez rounded the top 3 in 29.80. University's Ian Du touched first to claim the win in the JV Boys 50 free, going 24.00. Northwood's Tae In Gu touched in 24.23 to clinch second, just off his personal best of 23.86. Teammate Alex Ra sneaked in for third in 24.78. Timberwolves senior Cameron Hsieh continued his great showing in the 50 free posting the top time in 22.55. University's Aaron Wonhee Lee (23.40) and Daniel Campanaro (23.62) finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
50 Fly
Northwood Open Girls Aarya Koppikar clocked in a third finish in a top-3 time of 37.07. University's Jasmine Choi (35.16) and Jessica Wong (36.82) took first and second respectively.
100 Fly
JV Girls Hannah Mcllrath charged to the wall with a top time in a quick 1:12.71, just ahead of University's Jessica Ahn (1:13.47) and Northwood's Ashley Tung (1:13.59). On the JV Boys side, freshman Spencer Sellwood was able to slice .33 hundredths off his previous best time to finish third with 1:05.35. University's Youssef Youssef and Andrew Li finished in the top two in this event with 59.58 and 1:00.17. Lady T-wolf Amanda Hsieh closed incredibly fast on the final 50 to pull into first producing a best time of 59.59 in the Varsity Girls 100 fly. She passed University's Anne Jang (1:00.77) in the final 15 yards, as another Lady T-wolf Josephine Manual scored points for third in 1:01.48. Varsity Timberwolves Hwa Min Sim completed a winning 100 fly for Northwood, touching first in a best time of 52.74, just off the CIF Automatic standard of 51.20. University's Aaron Wonhee Lee was second in 53.79, as his teammate Stephen Yang finished third in 54.58.
100 Free
University's Helen Wang and Northwood's Cindy Le had a close race in the Open Girls 100 free to both pull within .82 hundreds. Le was brave to lead out just on 34.16 at the halfway mark with Wang following closely until the final 20 yards where she then started to make her move away for the win in 1:09.71. Le clocked in at 1:10.53 with another University finisher Malia Duong with 1:12.51 for third. The top two Open Boys 100 freestylers came in with 1:01's, with Ethan Abravanel narrowly out touching teammate Aziz Abdulla for the top time in 1:01.25. Abdulla ended up with second in 1:01.42. The pair scored 10 points together for the Northwood Open Boys. University's Parsa Pakdel rounded out the heat for third in 1:02.34. Lady T-wolf Maily Nguyen took second in the JV Girls 100 free hitting the wall in 1:01.98. University's Anne Iwata (1:00.88) and Eve Carpenter (1:05.21) finished first and third respectively. JV Boys sophomore Justin Pyne, the only swimmer to crack under 55 for the JV Boys, took the win in the 100 free. He didn't quite hit his best time of 53.85, but swam a great race with University's Bennett Kidder. Kidder nabbed second with 55.54, while Northwood's Nick Huynh touched third with 55.90. Varsity Timberwolves Cameron Hsieh won the 100 free by 1.59 seconds, hitting the wall in 48.45. University's Sean Messer came up second in 50.04, followed by Northwood's Nick Thorson in 50.36.
500 Free
Junior Wen-Whei Chen took the third middle lane this evening in the Open Girls 500 free, as she clocked a new personal best time of 6:27.07 for third. University went 1-2 in the event with Angela Yan (6:12.25) and Anna Campbell (6:21.88). JV Boys Thomas Kim picked up his double win of the meet in the 500 free, touching in 5:25.97. That swim lowered Kim's personal best time by 2.98 seconds. University went 2-3 with Andrew Li (5:26.33) and Luke Venzlaff (5:33.74). The Northwood Lady T-wolves dominated the 500 free with a 1-2-3 sweep consisting of Amanda Hsieh (5:16.77), Katya Burjakowsky (5:23.70), and Zoe Baick (5:48.99). Those three swims alone registers within the top 5 times this season for the Northwood Varsity Girls. In his second swim of the evening junior Mack Nesbit put up a second in the Varsity Boys 500 free in a time of 4:55.64, well of his season's best of 4:48.88. University's George Horvath had the fastest time in 4:33.88 followed by teammate Alex Hao who touched in a time of 4:58.98.
50 Back
A couple fantastic time improvements came in from the Northwood Open Girls 50 back event. Danny Llaguno Garcia came in just behind University's Fiona Nieto-Simons with 38.33 for second. Simons took the event in 37.92. Only .41 hundreds of a second separated first from second. Garcia bettered her best time significantly by 1.6 seconds. Northwood's Margaret Wang also narrowed the gap between her and the two others posting a 39.29 for third. The talent pool in Northwood's Open Boys is deep and it showed with Max Tsao (32.04), Mohamed El Shazly (33.74), and Nicholas Parker (34.05) significantly outpacing the competition with a triple sweep in the event.
100 Back
Northwood's Shannon Lee lead the challenge out on the JV Girls 100 back as she took top position with a solid 1:07.34. Her teammate Katrina Loye rolled in a second, going 1:11.37. University's Nancy Wu registered third in 1:13.37. Northwood put another second into the top 3, with David Chang going 1:04.04. University's Teddy Horvath (1:02.87) and Derick Cheung (1:04.04) took first and second respectively. University's Varsity Girls and Boys remained stable, though Northwood made up a little ground producing third places on Nancy Zhu's 1:01.95, and Nick Thornson's 57.42. When the results of the afternoon heats factored in the team battle was extremely tight. The point margins were in the single digits several times.
50 Breast
Two Northwood Open Girls freshman book ended their meet individuals with 1-2 victories in the 50 breast. Lady T-wolves Tara Esfahani (37.95) and Ayse Oztekin (39.44) swam in a field where no other University Open Girls swimmer was under 40. University's Ashley Yang marked third in 40.48. On the Open Boys side, Jinwoo Park finished the evening with his second individual just slipping in third in the 50 breast with 34.21. University's Jake Bova (33.28) and Daniel Yoo (33.44) captured 1-2 in the event.
100 Breast
Two JV freshman that produced double top-3 placements on the day struck again with Lady T-wolves Sobyn Chung and Amanda Nguyen. Chung contributed a second place in 1:17.93. That swim got Chung a notable 1.13 personal best time drop. Amanda Nguyen after capturing her 200 IM victory wound up third in 1:20.19. University's Monica Tang, winner of the 100 breast came out on top of the field in 1:16.26. University's biggest JV Boys challenger in the 100 breast came from Nelson Tello clocking a 1:07.11 for the win, but the Timberwolves Conner Budka and Sean Doan teamed up to leverage some quick front halves to earn a pair of respectable second and third place JV finishes in 1:08.22 and 1:08.56. Sophomore Julia Gonik was the final individual event winner on the day for the Northwood Varsity Girls with a 1:08.41. University's Bella Khamseh finished second in 1:10.94. Another Northwood sophomore Jenna Morely closed hard to edge out her competition touching third in 1:11.79. On the Varsity Boys side, Gabe Munoz returned to blast a 1:00.77 to take the win for the Timberwolves, followed with teammate Henry Wu who put up a 1:01.94. Both Northwood sophomores flew under the CIF Consideration time. University's Aidan Yong rounded third in 1:04.25.
Relays
Open Girls 200 Medley - 1st place 2:20.50 Danny Llaguno Garcia (37.21), Tara Esfahani (37.40), Aarya Koppikar (35.06), Linh Huynh (30.83)
Open Boys 200 Medley - 2nd place 2:02.43 Max Tsao (31.65), Jinwoo Park (33.78), Jay Kim (28.56), Aziz Abdulla (28.44)
JV Girls 200 Medley - 2nd place 2:08.15 Shannon Lee (32,09), Sobyh Chung (38.34), Hannah Mcllrath (29.29), Hannah Roushdy (28.43)
JV Girls 200 Medley - 3rd place 2:10.76 Katrina Loye (32,66), Amanda Nguyen (36.30), Ashley Tung (31.56), Madeline Smith (30.24)
JV Boys 200 Medley - 2nd place 1:50;.35 Justin Pyne (29.48), Conner Budka (31.01), Esteban Torres (26.64), Alex Ra (23.22)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley - 2nd place 1:54.20 Nancy Zhu (29.92), Julia Gonik (32.30), Josephine Manuel (27.11), Amanda Hsieh (24.87)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley - 1st place 1:39.92 Nick Thorson (26.50), Henry Wu (27.89), Gabe Munoz (23.40), Cameron Hsieh (22.13)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley - 3rd place 1:46.33 Kyle Pendleton (28.54), Jason Wong (29.38), Nick O'Neil (25.49), Ryan Lee (22.92)
Open Girls 200 Free - 2nd place 2:08.24 Yalda Assemi (33.95), Danny Llaguno Garcia (32.37), Cindy Le (31.57), Linh Huynh (30.35)
Open Girls 200 Free - 3rd place 2:16.13 Aarya Koppikar (33.64), Ayse Oztekin (41.33), Margaret Wang (27.74), Tara Esfahani (33.42)
Open Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:49.08 Aziz Abdulla (27.83), Nathan Ree (27.79), Emerson Connolly (28.39), Calvin Lin (25.07)
JV Girls 200 Free - 1st place 1:54.49 Amanda Nguyen (28.68), Shannon Lee (29.19), Hannah Roushdy (28.83), Katrina Loye (27.79)
JV Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:39.46 Alex Ra (26.65), Nick Huynh (24.89), Esteban Torres (23.94), Tae In Gu (23.98)
Varsity Girls 200 Free - 2nd Place 1:48.87 Katherine Monjay (28.03), Cristina Aramayo (27.75), Sian Davis (26.98), Olivia Chen (26.11)
Varsity Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:31.82 Collin Press (23.20), Nick Thorson (22.67), Hwa Min Sim (23.29), Cameron Hsieh (22.66)
Varsity Boys 200 Free - 3rd place 1:34.72 Ryan Lee (23.96), Shayan Shaikh (25.00), Nick O'Neill (23.93), Ethan Lan (22.83)
Open Girls 400 Free - 2nd place 4:52.06 Cindy Le (1:10.54), Yalda Assemi (1:17.03), Danny Llaguno Garcia (1:11.08), Linh Huynh (1:13.41)
Open Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 4:06.64 Aziz Abdulla (1:02.38), Noah Pendleton (1:05.32), Ethan Abravanel (1:02.24), Calvin Lin (56.70)
JV Girls 400 Free - 2nd place 4:18.83 Hannah Mcllrath (1:05.06), Shannon Lee (1:08.08), Hannah Roushdy (1:02.68), Katrina Loye (1:03.01)
JV Girls 400 Free - 3rd place 4:26.62 Ashley Tung (1:06.53), Sam Ibasitas (1:10.47), Sobyn Chung (1:04.72), Alejandro Aramayo (1:04.90)
JV Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 3:40.99 Justin Pyne (56.04), Sean Doan (56.76), Thomas Kim (53.98), Nick Huynh (54.21)
Varsity Girls 400 Free - 1st place 3:45.08 Olivia Chen (58.19), Nancy Zhu (56.02), Julia Gonik (No Data), Amanda Hsieh (No Data)
Varsity Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 3:18.21 Shayan Shaikh (No Data), Henry Wu (No Data), Hwa Min Sim (49.33), Gabe Munoz (47.56)
Varsity Boys 400 Free - 3rd place 3:32.18 Kevin Chen (54.09), Ryan Lee (53.06), Collin Press (53.68), Mack Nesbit (51.35)
Tri-Meet Scores
Men
Northwood High School 80.00 vs 90.00 University High School
Women
Northwood High School 80.00 vs 90.00 University High School