The Northwood High School contingent of qualified athletes during their final evening at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championships.  The Timberwolves placed 11th overall garnering 62 points and closes out the 2021-2022 high school swim season.  Photo courtesy of Swim Staff.

After two full days of prelims and finals competition at the 2022 CIF Swimming & Diving Championships the Northwood Timberwolves boy's swim pulled out an 11th-place finish against 249 high school swim teams, and 938 athletes at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex in Fresno, Ca. (May 12-14).  The state meet brings together 10 sections that make up the high school sports in California.  Swimmers qualified to compete at the meet by virtue of their performances at their respective Section Meets, based on qualifying time standards.

           Clovis Olympic Aquatic Complex                                    Fresno, Ca.

Northwood opened the swimming events with a solid 1:33.61 in the 200 medley relay from Derek Hitchens, Eric Zhu, Younghun (Jason) Kim, and anchor Ryan Xu seizing 12th place.  Hitchens led off the race with a 23.29 backstroke effort, then Zhu split 26.10 on breast, followed by Kim with a 22.60 fly split.  Usually, we'd see Christopher Leung on the freestyle anchor, but today the Timberwolves opted for Xu, who brought the relay home with a 21.62. 

Junior Christopher Leung and freshman Derek Hitchens carried Northwood through the individual prelims and finals swims with stellar performances. During meet finals Leung claimed 7th place in the 200 IM with a time of 1:51.75.  In prelims, the junior was phenomenal posting a new personal best in the event, and lowering the school record by .03 in 1:48.54.  Leung ended the session with a 7th place in the 100 breast with a time of 55.57, rattling the school record from 2018 and coming within .57 of it.  Hitchens led the boy's 100 fly for Northwood clocking a 50.07.  That time comes in just off the 49.84 he clocked at the CIF-SS Division 1 finals last Friday.  He would then go on to swim a 50.26 in the 100 back, again posting a time just off his personal best of 50.04 school record.

Several other Northwood swimmers, however, impressed in their final showing of the season. Northwood's 200 free relay sprint crew of Younghun (Jason) Kim, Ryan Xu, Elson Lee, and anchor Christopher Leung placed 17th in the prelims session posting a time of 1:26.07.  

The boys saved the best for last at finals, and finished the night with a 5th place, this time in the 400 free relay, featuring two of Northwood's prior individual event swimmers, Derek Hitchens, third leg split 45.29, and Christopher Leung, anchor split 44.43 as the last two legs of the relay.  They were joined by Younghun (Jason) Kim, (46.94 leadoff) and Will Chen (46.94 2nd leg) was within a second of the school record.

Looking to the future, this relay could threaten the school record again next year, as 3 of the members return.  This relay now moves into the territory where it's not just about combining two really good legs with two great legs: each leg of this relay is incredibly impressive, and in combination creates a great school record.  Replacing will prove difficult, since sub 46 splits are hard to come by, but, if the other 3 members are a little faster, that will ease the burden.  

Here is a split comparison between Northwood's 400 Free Relay tonight, and the former 2018 school record-holding Northwood State Champions relay:

“I'm happy with the times we swam," said Head Coach Alex Nieto.  "We never define it with a first-, second-, third-, fourth-place finish.  If we're swimming fast, that's what we want to do.  We certainly can't control what other high school teams do, how they swam, and how they perform.  What we wanted to do at State Champs was go in there and swim fast and our guys did a phenomenal job of that from prelims to finals."

Northwood didn't win one individual or relay event en route to its eleventh place overall finish, a testament to the level of accomplishment it took to even be as close as the Timberwolves were.

“There are still opportunities for us to improve as we go from this year to next.  I'm just happy with how we did, and that says a lot," Nieto said.  

TOP 16 FINALS Event Winners: