Varsity sophomores provided the needed boost for Northwood boys to win, scoring in the top-3 six times in individual events over the course of the meet. Photo courtesy of Tim Potvin, photographer.
The Northwood Timberwolves had nothing but good vibes coming into their first dual league meet on the road against Irvine High School at the William Woollett Aquatic Center on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The Timberwolves are coming off several tri-meet non-league wins this 2016 season. Add that to a lineup return of several CIF Championships qualifiers, and NHS has placed expectations upon itself to be a driving force in the Pacific Coast League.
The Timberwolves defeated the Vaqueros 111-59 on the boy's side, while the Lady T-wolves lost in a tight match up 74-96 against the Lady Vaqueros.
Varsity sophomores provided the needed boost for Northwood boys to win against Irvine, scoring in the top-3 six times in individual events over the course of the meet.
200 FREE
The Timberwolves got off to a start by claiming third in the Open Girls with Keona Fernandes improving her season best time by 4.13 seconds (2:50.15). That followed a 2-3 placement on the Northwood Open Boys side from Ethan Abravanel (2:15.37) and Noah Pendleton (2:22.05). Irvine's Chris Grillas took the 200 free event in 2:13.65. JV Girls sophomore Hannah Roushdy managed to touch for third in 2:15.50. Irvine's Julia Hahn won the event in 2:08.74, while her teammate Giulia Hidalgo followed with 2:10.99. Northwood's JV Boys struck back with a 2-3 punch on junior Michael Lee's 1:55.69, and freshman Nick Huynh's season best 2:03.36. Northwood Varsity Girls Cristina Aramayo and Katya Burjakowsky both had successful swims, recording a second (2:05.94) and third (2:06.31). Irvine's Julia Wright topped the event in 1:58.00. Northwood's Matt Nesbit highlighted the varsity boys side, blasting a 1:47.73 to pick up the win in the 200 free. Teammate Shayan Shaikh also contributed in scoring points by virtue of a second (1:51.38). Irvine's Tomer Moss took third in 1:51.79.
100 IM
Northwood dominated the top three spots in the Open Boys 100 IM with Jay Kim touching first in 1:08.25, while Max Tsao placed second in 1:09.32. Sriteja Sadam picked up third in 1:10.06.
200 IM
JV Girls Amanda Nguyen clinched the 200 IM (2:30.65) in a battle with Irvine's Mailynh Nguyen clocking second in 2:32.66, while freshman Sobyn Chung took third in 2:37.97. On the JV Boys side, Sean Gao charted a time of 2:16.52 for second. Irvine's Dustin Nguyen and Justin Kim earned first and third times of 2:13.55 and 2:17.30. Freshman Amanda Hsieh topped the Varsity Girls 200 IM clocking in at 2:09.36. Irvine's Kate Lee placed second in 2:11.28, while her compatriot Camille Ross rounded third in 2:14.66. Sophomore Gabe Munoz surfaced to a winning finish for the Varsity Boys touching first in 1:57.50. Following second was Irvine's Tedd Pham with a time of 2:01.92. Sophomore Henry Wu placed third putting in a personal best of 2:03.17.
50 Free
Open Girls action saw Northwood's Linh Huynh and Irvine's Kate Fong simultaneously hit the wall in the 50 free bothing touching a 30.02. Isabelle Lin cruised to a second place with 31.58. Calvin Lin turned in a strong time for the Northwood Open Boys leading the way with a 25.57. Irvine's Matt Nguyen placed second in 28.16, while the Timberwolves Noah Pendleton claimed third in 28.22. JV Boys Tae In Gu snared the second spot in 24.17 away from a very close race against Irvine's Kia Sowlati who set a time of 24.13 for first. Isaiah Baker completed the top three with 24.24. Meanwhile Olivia Chen held on to second clocking in a 26.47 for the Varsity Lady T-wolves. Irvine's Kaitlyn Tsou grabbed the top spot in 25.65, while her teammate Lannhi Nguyen came in third with 26.84. Varsity sophomore Hwa Min Sim shined in the 50 free registering in a top time of 22.51. Irvine's Jacob Lee and Justin Hatch followed up with 22.72 and 22.95.
50 Fly
Open Girls Aarya Koppikar registered the second fastest time for the Timberwolves with a 36.32. Irvine's Tony Masangkay pulled ahead in 34.29, while Kaily Gattenyo touched third in 39.01. Northwood's Open Boys Jay Kim earned a double win coming off the 100 IM to capture the victory in the 50 fly in 28.89. Irvine's Chris Won took second in 31.22, while Northwood freshman Jinwoo Park claimed third in 32.77.
100 Fly
JV Girls Ashley Tung finished in the 100 fly clocking in at 1:14.02 for second, just out touching teammate Hannah Mcllrath 1:14.57. Irvine's Julia Hahn took the event in 1:08.35. Junior Esteban Torres raced to third in 1:03.51 for the Northwood JV Boys. Zachary Bird (1:00.04) and Hewey Nguyen (1:03.11) put in a 1-2 for Irvine. On the Varsity Girls side, Irvine's Camille Ross was the top finisher in 59.53. Lady T-wolf Josephine Manuel just out-touched Irvine's Kristine Nguyen for second in 1:01.41 to 1:01.87. Timberwolves sophomore Gabriel Munoz brought a bit more to the plate in terms of firepower in the 100 fly as he prevailed for the win in 52.13. Joining Munoz was another sophomore, Hwa Min Sim marking his time of 53.93 for second. Irvine's Sydney Begley was right behind for third with a 54.95.
100 Free
Northwood's Cindy Le left nothing to chance, surging to third in the field with a 1:10.02 on a finer nail finish that was .01 hundredths from second place Sarah Shattuck from Irvine who clocked 1:10.01. Irvine's Rachel Rookard won comfortably in 1:04.63. Open Boys Andrew Wraith launched a quick start and opened up a sizable advantage then hung on to the lead winning in 1:00.46 for the Timberwolves. Irvine's Chad Colbert (1:01.30) and Chris Grillas (1:10.92) clocked second and third respectively. Northwood JV Boys Tae In Gu posted a second place showing in 53.65, while Justin Pyne followed on his heels with 53.85 for third. Irvine's Austin Barbrick was the top finisher in 52.11. Long-axis strokes and strong flutter kicks provided Amanda Hsieh in taking the 100 free in 54.91 for the Varsity Lady T-wolves. Irvine's Kaitlyn Tsou took second in 55.25, while her teammate Jessica Thompson claimed third in 57.67. After building a lead heading into the first turn Northwood senior Cameron Hsieh provided the win for the Varsity Boys in 48.27. Irvine's Justin Hatch took second with 51.58, while senior Shayan Shaikh picked up third in 51.76.
500 Free
Northwood teammates Thomas Kim and Sean Doan didn't disappoint as they produced a 1-2 win for the JV Boys. Kim put up a 5:28.95 to lead the eight, and dropping 6.72 seconds for a personal best. Doan, who occupied the outside lane one finished second to Kim clocking a 5:43.33, while Irvine's Andy Almeida produced the third fastest time in 5:47.10. Although Irvine won the Varsity Girls 500 free on Julie Wright's 5:13.42, the Lady T-wolves were still able to make a run at the 2nd and 3rd placement with senior Katya Burjakowsky (5:33.42) and junior Zoe Baick (5:40.43). Junior Mack Nesbit finished nearly a full pool length ahead of the field in the 500 free with no one but the clock to pace him with 4:51.73, ahead of Irvine's Robertson Nicholas (5:04.63). Irvine's Nicholas Robertson was third in 5:06.51.
50 Back
Northwood Open Girls Danny Llaguno Garcia improved her personal best by a full second with her second-place finish of 38.76. Teammate Margaret Wang went 40.07 third in the heat overall. Irvine's Valeria Ferrufino won the event in 36.41. In a great show of depth by the Open Boys each pushing one another landed three solid Northwood performances for a triple win. Teammates Max Tsao (31.20), Andrew Wraith (33.14), and Mohamed El Shazly (34.42) gave another reason for the home crowd to celebrate in the afternoon.
100 Back
JV Girls Shannon Lee pushed through and got the win for the Timberwolves, but she was challenged the entire way. Lee lowered her own personal best by over a second with 1:07.69. Irvine's Kayla Yamamoto touched in 1:09.04. Kathrina Loye went 1:09.43, bettering her personal best by .58 for the third-fastest performance in the event. Another wave of Northwood 2-3 finishers came in from David Chang (1:04.08), and Sean Gao (1:04.50) with the 100 back. Irvine's Hewey Nguyen won the event in 1:03.09. Lady T-wolf Nancy Zhu went out in 29.92, and came home in 1:011.91 to clench the victory adding more varsity points for Northwood. Irvine's Jessica Thompson finished second in 1:03.61, just ahead of Northwood's Josephine Manuel who went 1:03.73. Senior Cameron Hsieh continued to impress with another win this time dropping 1.51 seconds for the Timberwolves. Just behind Hsieh was senior Nick Thorson (57.21), while Irvine's Tedd Pham rounded the top-3 in 57.47.
50 Breast
Anyone who was overly surprised by the outcome of the Open Girls 50 beast hasn't been paying attention to Northwood's overall team depth. In the last Open Girls individual heat of the afternoon, with teammates from Northwood cheering them on, Tara Esfahani (37.66), Ayse Oztekin (39.64), and Margaret Wang (40.04) snagged the top three spots. On the Open Boys side, Jinwoo Park finished second with a time of 34.00. Irvine's Jedi Wang (33.98), and Gavin Jiao (34.44) placed first and third, respectively.
100 Breast
It was a positive end to the meet for JV Girls Sobyn Chung (1:19.06) and Amanda Nguyen (1:20.41), who not only placed 2-3 for Northwood, but both had improvements of 2.93 and .18 over their seed times. Irvine's Mailynh Nguyen was first in 1:19.04. Meanwhile Northwood freshman Conner Budka went 1:07.26 to take second, getting a new time for the season. Irvine's Dustin Nguyen (1:06.48), and Andrew Ton (1:08.37) posted a first and third. The Varsity Girls 100 breast finally came down to Lady T-wolves Julia Gonik (1:10.04), and Jenna Morley (1:11.56), who capped off a 2-3 finish within the top 3. Irvine's breaststroker Kate Lee won the event in 1:06.79. Northwood sophomore Henry Wu smashed his way back into the limelight in the 100 breast, going 1:00.13, which is a personal best. Teammate Kevin Chen also had a huge swim, moving into the top 3 for third with a 1:04.16, another personal best. Irvine's Micah Kamai battled for second with 1:04.16.
Relays
Open Girls 200 Medley - 2nd place 2:20.77 Danny Llaguno Garcia (38.22), Tara Esfahani (36.87), Aarya Koppikar (35.36), Linh Huynh (30.32)
Open Boys 200 Medley - 1st place 2:04.66 Ethan Abravanel (32.30), Jinwoo Park (33.72), Calvin Lin (30.38), Earnest Wang (28.26)
Open Boys 200 Medley - 3rd place 2:05.92 Peter Ho (33.15), Kavi Mathur (33.15), Max Tsao (31.99), Mohamed El Shazly (27.63)
JV Girls 200 Medley - 1st place 2:06.22 Shannon Lee (31.37), Sobyh Chung (36.15), Hannah Mcllrath (30.59), Hannah Roushdy (28.11)
JV Boys 200 Medley - 1st place 1:48.65 Justin Pyne (29.32), Conner Budka (29.96), Esteban Torres (25.88), Alex Ra (23.49)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley - 2nd place 1:54.22 Nancy Zhu (29.39), Julia Gonik (32.52), Josephine Manuel (27.35), Amanda Hsieh (24.96)
Varsity Girls 200 Medley - 3rd place 2:00.60 Lauren Hitchens (31.04), Jenna Morley (33.83), Jacquelin Chen (28.70), Sian Davis (27.03)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley - 1st place 1:39.80 Nick Thorson (26.33), Henry Wu (28.08), Gabe Munoz (23.14), Cameron Hsieh (22.25)
Varsity Boys 200 Medley - 3rd place 1:47.33 Kyle Pendleton (28.39), Jason Wong (30.34), Kevin Chen (25.52), Nick O'Neill (23.08)
Open Girls 200 Free - 3rd place 2:07.70 Danny Llaguno Garcia (31.66), Cindy Le (32.38), Yalda Assemi (32.87), Linh Huynh (30.79)
Open Boys 200 Free - 1st place 1:50.44 Nathan Ree (28.86), Mohamed El Shazly (28.58), Sriteja Sadam (27.12), Jay Kim (25.88)
Open Boys 200 Free - 2nd place Ethan Abravanel (28.81), Jinwoo Park (29.59), Emerson Connolly (28.97), Noah Pendleton (27.48)
JV Girls 200 Free - 2nd place 1:53.56 Hannah Roushdy (29.08), Shannon Lee (29.01), Amanda Nguyen (27.73), Katrina Loye (27.74)
JV Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:38.41 Esteban Torres (25.64), Nick Huynh (24.86), Alex Ra (23.68), Tae In Gu (24.23)
JV Boys 200 Free - 3rd place 1:42.24 Luke Balding (26.27), David Miller (25.52), Sean Doan (24.98), Thomas Kim (25.47)
Varsity Girls 200 Free - 3rd Place 1:50.36 Fiona Fan (28.20), Katherine Monjay (28.29), Sian Davis (26.95), Olivia Chen (26.92)
Varsity Boys 200 Free - 1st place 1:31.55 Nick Thorson (22.86), Collin Press (23.43), Hwa Min Sim (22.85), Cameron Hsieh (22.41)
Varsity Boys 200 Free - 2nd place 1:33.28 Ethan Lan (23.14), Ryan Lee (23.05), Daniel Vo (23.94), Nick O'Neill (23.15)
Open Girls 400 Free - 3rd place 4:49.65 Yalda Assemi (1:10.41), Danny Llaguno Garcia (1:10.96), Cindy Le (1:14.04), Linh Huynh (1:14.24)
Open Boys 400 Free - 1st place 4:09.08 Mohamed El Shazly (1:01.96), Emerson Connolly (1:05.63), Peter Ho (1:04.47), Jay Kim (57.02)
Open Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 4:12.14 Andrew Wraith (1:00.34), Noah Pendleton (1:07.36), Ethan Abravanel (1:01.23), Edward Suh (1:03.21)
JV Boys 400 Free - 2nd place 3:39.90 Justin Pyne (54.42), Nick Huynh (55.63), Sean Doan (55.78), Thomas Kim (54.07)
Varsity Girls 400 Free - 2nd place 3:52.15 Josephine Manuel (58.09), Nancy Zhu (59.70), Julia Gonik (59.33), Amanda Hsieh (55.03)
Varsity Boys 400 Free - 1st place 3:21.23 Shayan Shaikh (51.30), Mack Nesbit (49.98), Hwa Min Sim (50.02), Gabe Munoz (49.93)
Varsity Boys 400 Free - 3rd place 3:25.71 Henry Wu (50.66), Nick O'Neill (51.21), Ryan Lee (51.99), Collin Press (51.85)
Tri-Meet Scores
Men
Northwood High School 111.00 vs 59.00 Irvine High School
Women
Northwood High School 74.00 vs 96.00 Irvine High School