The Northwood Timberwolves displayed quite the fireworks show in the relay events at the Irvine City Relay Championships. Photo via Alex Nieto.
There was excitement all around at the 2016 Irvine City Relay Championships on Friday, March 4, 2016 at the William Woollett Aquatic Center. While the Northwood Timberwolves boys captured their second consecutive title, the girls claimed 2nd place overall. There was great jockeying for position along the ladder from , Irvine, University, and Beckman high schools. The championship meet included 28 relay event performances.
The Timberwolves boys scored 456 points, followed by Irvine with 444, University 368 and Beckman completing the finishing order with 316.
On the girl's side, Irvine captured the title with 460 points. Our Lady T-wolves came home second at 404, followed by University with 368, and Beckman rounding out the scoring with 316.
"We've been focusing on the process, having fun at meets and remembering to compete everyday at practice so that when we do come to events like today, the result isn't a surprise," said Head Coach Nieto. "This allows us to be confident in our process as a team," said Nieto.
400 IM Relay
The JV Lady Timberwolves opened with a very tight win in the 400 IM relay (100 IM/per swimmer), as Kiana Allen split a 1:14.81, Sobyn Chung (1:12.96), Emy Engineer (1:18.87), and Hannah Roushdy (1:11.42) put up a combined 4:58.06. They were followed by Irvine's 5:00.81 and University's 5:12.24. The JV Northwood Boys led early in the 400 IM, getting a 1:02.04 from Conner Budka, and David Chang (1:05.29), but the Timberwolves vaulted their team into the lead on the third leg with Sean Doan (1:03.59) and Arthur Liu anchoring a field-best 1:01.97 to seal the win of 4:12.89. Beckman touched in at 4:27.02, while Irvine rounded out the top three in 4:35.15. Northwood Varsity girls put up some very fast times, quite comparable to the ones they did last year, and came away with a second place win with Julia Gonik (1:02.84), Jacquelin Chen (1:06.68), Olivia Chen (1:05.60), and Josephine Manuel (1:04.93). Irvine won the event in 4:14.11, and Beckman rounding third in 4:31.24. Northwood Varsity boys Henry Wu turned in a 58.04, but Irvine took the advantage of a 56.12 split over Shayan Shaikh's 58.68 heading into third leg. Kevin Chen moved nearly even at the wall, but Irvine powered in a 57.75 split touch out over Daniel Vo's 59.13. Irvine took the event 3:51.62 to 3:53.80. University swam to a third place finish with a 3:54.88.
300 Free Relay
The Northwood JV girls managed to finish second with the team of Katrina Loye (29.46), Michelle Tran (31.18), Madeline Smith (28.07), Samantha Hornyak (31.52), Amanda Nguyen (28.89), and anchor Hannah Roushdy (28.57) combining a 2:57.69. Irvine finished (2:54.89) with University third (3:01.60). Northwood JV boys put in third with a 2:35.37 from Nick Huynh (25.03), Rahi Dakwala (26.77), Thomas Kim (25.33), Parker Mallough (26.03), Spencer Sellwood (26.24), and anchor Luke Balding (25.97). On the Varsity side, the Lady T-Wolves were able to put together a second place showing in 2:38.71 with their team of Amanda Hsieh (25.38), and Maily Nguyen (27.17) propelling to a 52.55 at the 100 mark. Following were Nancy Zhu (26.14), Sian Davis (27.21), Cristina Aramayo (26.68), and anchor Josephine Manuel (26.13) were just off the win by .61 hundreds. Irvine finished ahead in 2:38.10 with University in third (2:38.72). Northwood's Hwa Min Sim jumped to an early lead on a 22.36 leg, Nick Thorson split 23.00 and Collin Press 23.43 before Cameron Hsieh blasted a 21.88 to help put the race on ice pulling ahead with teammates Ethan Lan (23.35) and anchor Ryan Lee (23.24) to follow in winning 2:17.26. Northwood finished over 4 seconds ahead of the second place Irvine A-team (2:21.26). Irvine B-team rounded third in 2:26.42.
200 Breast Relay
In the 200 breast relay, Northwood's Connor Budka lead off the JV boys, powering the team to a 30.97 flat start leg with members Shi Leon (32.61), Sean Doan (31.71), and Sean Gao (31.39) closing out the relay in 2:06.68 for the win. The Beckman JV squad stopped the clock 10 seconds behind Northwood in 2:16.71, while University finished third in 2:17.06.
400 Breast Relay
The Varsity Lady T-Wolves took second out of lane three, touching in 4:57.15 with the foursome of Olivia Chen (1:15.73), Jacquelin Chen (1:17.93), Jenna Morely (1:14.40) and Julia Gonik with 1:09.09. Irvine won the event in 4:52.99 with University trailing third in 4:57.95. Jason Wong, Northwood Junior, wasted no time in this race, getting out in 1:07.60. Teammate Kevin Chen also made his way with a quick 1:04.04 with Gabe Munoz coming hard with a 1:00.42, providing Henry Wu (1:00.64) to bring in the top spot for Northwood in 4:12.70. Irvine grabbed second with 4:16.49, and University rounded third in 4:22.80.
200 Fly Relay
In the 200 fly relay, JV Northwood and University girls dueled early, with Northwood's Erie Monroe just outpacing University's Sophia Abdfathi 32.72 to 32.87. Northwood's Ashley Tung (32.40) outsplit University's Gauvri Nathwani (34.27), but University's Jessica Ahn put together a 31.77 split that pulled ahead of Northwood's Emy Engineer (35.23) with just not enough pool for anchor Kiana Allen (31.44) to over take them with a combined time of 2:11.79. University won the event in 2:10.68 with Irvine touching in for third in 2:13.60. Northwood's JV boys went 2-3 in the event, with Thomas Kim in 26.83. Anchor Jonathan Phan was 26.60, and junior leadoff Rahi Dakwala 31.87. Senior Parker Mallough also helped the relay place second, putting in a 29.02. Their team 'B' was the closest challenger, who finished third in 2:03.71. Anchor Luke Balding had the best split of 29.84 on that relay, with Arthur Liu and Sriteja Sadam both putting up identical splits of 30.36 with Morgan Choi clocking in at 33.14. The Irvine crew came in with the top time of 1:51.65.
400 Fly Relay
Northwood Varsity boys provided a big win for the Timberwolves tonight in the 400 fly relay, where Mack Nesbit (56.49), Shayan Shaikh (58.03), Hwa Min Sim (53.92) and Gabe Munoz (52.30) went 3:40.74. Munoz's 52.30 split topped the entire field. University (3:45.21) took second spot in the event. Irvine finished third in 3:51.65.
200 Back Relay
The Northwood JV girls blasted a solid time on the 200 back relay around Kiana Allen (33.16), Madeline Smith (33.29), Michelle Tran (35.94), and their strongest leg Katrina Loye (30.94) ripping a 2:13.33 over Irvine's team (2:24.00). Irvine swam to a third place finish with a 2:25.50. The JV boys delivered a third place showing of 2:17.48 for Northwood. Luke Balding started off with a 34.83 split followed by Earnest Wang who joined forces on a 39.26. Sanghoon Oh clocked a 31.64 with anchor Jay Kim stretching to the wall for a split of 31.75. Irvine took top honors in 2:01.01 with University stopping the clock at 2:13.75 in claiming second.
400 Back Relay
Northwood's Varsity girls staged an exciting come from behind 400 backstroke duel with University leading by .21 hundreths at the 200 mark, but Shannon Lee and Lauren Hitchens managed to seize control for the overall win in 4:28.81. The Lady T-Wolves team of Nancy Zhu (1:04.26), Hayley Pham (1:09.44), Shannon Lee (1:08.41) and anchor Lauren Hitchens clocked an average of 33.10 per lap. University followed in 4:25.93 for second place, while the Irvine quartet finished third in 4:26.31. The Northwood Varsity boys had the home crowd on its feet with a come-from-behind win by 8.22 seconds over Irvine. Mack Nesbit (58.31), Kyle Pendleton (1:01.92), Cameron Hsieh (54.51), and Nick Thorson (56.47) combined for 3:51.21, with Irvine going 3.40 seconds faster at the 200 mark. Irvine had led after both the first two legs of the relay, but Northwood's Hsieh split a 54.51 backstroke and moved the Timberwolves out front with their anchor Nick Thorson holding off a hard charging Irvine for the top honors. Irvine was in at 3:59.43 for second, and University touched third in 4:00.74.
400 Free Relay
The Northwood JV girls came roaring out of the blocks in the 400 free relay with Sobyn Chung (1:05.89), Katrina Loye (1:02.69), Michelle Tran (1:08.51) and Hannah Roushdy (1:02.11) left the rest of the field in their wake with a 1.53 second advantage over Irvine's 4:20.73. Roushdy had a 1:02.11 split coming home on the end of Northwood's relay (4:19.20), and showed they have two sprinters capable of going 1:02 with Loye. University was third in 4:27.54. Northwood's JV boys led wire to wire, and crushed the field with their swim of 3:45.08. University began to make their move, but junior Rahi Dakwala (1:00.42) held on to keep things close at the turn. Sean Doan, a freshman at Northwood, kicked it into another gear, however, and spoiled University's plans to move up to the top spot with a 58.57 split. Senior Jonathan Phan had a strong finish of the third leg with 54.12, that allowed freshman Nick Huynh with several body lengths lead to touch the wall first with his split of 54.52. The rest of the top three consisted of University (3:50.91), and Irvine (3:55.46). The Varsity Lady T-Wolves had a good matchup with Irvine's A-Team, but Irvine's second half was tough to beat (3:41.36). Amanda Hsieh (54.55), Zoe Baick (58.89), Cristina Aramayo (59.48), and Nancy Zhu (57.21) combined to touch second in 3:50.13. Irvine's B-Team rounded third in 4:00.91. Northwood Varsity boys won the 400 free relay in 3:22.69, and maintained the momentum with Shayan Shaikh (51.81), Collin Press (51.26), Hwa Min Sim (49.68), and anchor Mack Nesbit (49.94). Irvine placed second with 3:26.10, while both teams' rival University finished third place, 5.10 seconds back from 1st at 3:27.79.
200 Medley Relay
Northwood JV girls capped their meet off to a 2-3 finish. Irvine JV girls won the 200 medley relay in a tight race by a narrow margin (.29 hundredths). They touched in 2:12.25 for the win, just ahead of Northwood, who were 2nd in 2:12.54. The second place Northwood A-Team consisted of Madeline Smith (33.98-back), Amanda Nguyen (36.98-breast), Ashley Tung (32.25-fly) and anchoring Laura Valencia (27.66-free). The key leg for the Timberwolves was Tung throwing down a 32.25 fly. It was the fastest in the field. Northwood also had a third runner up with 2:18.21 by the B-Team, when Alejandro Aramayo touched in first in the back (35.02), with Madison Choi just behind in 39.45-breast. Monroe Erie closed the gap on the fly with a fast 32.75, and Linh Huynh getting the second-best freestyle leg with 30.99. The Northwood JV boys swimmers owe their 2-3 success to enormous depth. The A-Team squad of David Chang (30.47-back), Conner Budka as the fastest breast split (30.00), Thomas Kim (26.50-fly), and anchor Sheer Karny (27.11-free) registered a time of 1:54.08. The Timberwolves B-Team earned third in 1:57.06, the only sub-2:00 time in the entire field. This was achieved with the combination of Sean Gao (29.56-back), Leon Shi (31.56-breast), Parker Mallough (28.49-fly), and Andrew Wrath (27.45-free). The Lady T-Wolves foursome came together leading off with Lauren Hitchens (29.80-back), Julia Gonik (31.74-breast), Olivia Chen (27.95-fly), and Cristina Aramayo (26.98-free) coming home to ice things for second in 1:56.47. Northwood came from seemingly out of nowhere to win the Varsity boy's 200 medley relay. Senior Nick Thorson led off with a 26.55-back, second only to Jaron Yoshihara of University (25.45-back). sophomore Henry Wu followed with 27.80. Sophomore Gabe Munoz went 23.46-fly in the third position to hand off to senior Cameron Hsieh (21.71-free) with a cumulative 1:39.52. University came in with 1:43.80 for second, while Irvine took third with 1:44.03.
Irvine City Relay Championships-Meet Scores
Men
Northwood High School 456.00 vs 444.00 Irvine High School
Northwood High School 456.00 vs 368.00 University High School
Northwood High School 456.00 vs 316.00 Beckman High School
Women
Irvine High School 460.00 vs 404.00 Northwood High School
Northwood High School 404.00 vs 370.00 University High School
Northwood High School 404.00 vs 352.00 Beckman High School