Northwood Timberwolves combined to close out seven individual Top-16 placements, and broke three relay school records placing a very respectable third-place finish overall at the 2023 CIF State Swimming Championships. Photos courtesy of Alex Tolkachev.
Clovis Olympic Swim Complex Fresno, Ca.
After an evening of finals competition at the 2023 CIF State Swimming Championships the Northwood Timberwolves boy's swim team pulled out a third-place finish overall against 69 top high school swim teams in California. The overall weekend success shined for Northwood, and featured several strong swims on Saturday, May 15, 2023 at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex in Fresno, Ca.
The meet format is the same as the typical high school meet, though diving took place earlier in the meet.
During the meet finals, heavy weights like Santa Margarita, Loyola, and Palo Alto high schools provided fierce competition for Northwood. As finals came to an end, however, Santa Margarita (238) pulled away and widened the gap between two and three to 103 points. Loyola (222.5) managed to sustain a 86.5-point lead over Northwood (136), and accumulated a similar margin over Palo Alto (129).
The Timberwolves swam a very successful relay school record breaking campaign in all three events 200 Medley (1:31.38-school record), 200 Free (1:23.34-school record) and 400 Free (3:00.52-school record) relays. Northwood boys also had several Top-16 individual placements that provided the brunt of their point advantages.
“They all had individual outstanding moments" said Head Coach Alex Nieto. "They all had very individualized learning moments during their races as well. Definitely a good state meet for us going against some really fast high school teams from all over California. Mentally for us coming away with a third-place at this meet was really positive for our boys team."
Boys Top 5 Team Scores:
1. Santa Margarita 238
2. Loyola 222.5
3. Northwood 136
4. Palo Alto 129
5. De La Salle 119
TOP 16 FINALS:
| Event |
Swimmer |
Finals Rank |
Finals |
| Boys 200 Free |
Andrew Maksymowski |
12th Place |
1:39.97 |
|
Will Chen |
14th Place |
1:40.23 |
| Boys 200 IM |
Christopher Leung |
7th Place |
1:49.52 |
|
Elson Lee |
13th Place |
1:51.32 |
| Boys 100 Fly |
Derek Hitchens |
15th Place |
49.28 |
| Boys 500 Free |
Andrew Maksymowski |
7th Place |
4:29.26 |
| Boys 100 Breast |
Christopher Leung |
11th Place |
55.64 |
TOP 16 FINALS RELAY Event Winners & Statistics:
| Event |
Rank |
FINALS |
PRELIMS SEED |
Boys 200 Medley Relay Team
Derek Hitchens (back-22.61), Benton Cheng (breast-25.85), Ryan Xu (fly-22.07), Michael Abshier (free-20.85) |
3rd Place |
1:31.58
*New NHS Record |
1:32.66 |
Boys 200 Free Relay Team
Michael Abshier (21.42), Ryan Xu (20.78), Will Chen (20.65), Christopher Leung (20.49) |
5th Place |
1:23.34
*New NHS Record |
1:23.62 |
Boys 400 Free Relay Team
Will Chen (45.30), Andrew Maksymowski (46.22), Derek Hitchens (44.42), Christopher Leung (44.58) |
3rd Place |
3:00.52
* New NHS Record |
3:01.57 |