Depth carries the Northwood Timberwolves in a winning formula against Pacific Coast League high schools at the Irvine City Relay Championships. Photo via Mitch Mallough.
The Northwood Timberwolves proved it's ready for the 2018 high school swim season as their team's depth of young talents shined at the 2018 Irvine City Relay Championships on Friday, March 2, 2018.
The depth of the Timberwolves has been their calling card behind young talents that impressed during a meet that featured a unique set of relays, each of which alternated male and female competitors.
With a chunk of its roster missing, the Northwood boys team managed to earn 364 points for the title, while the Lady T-Wolves scored runner-up with 350 points in the combined girls divisions.
The meet certainly provided plenty of promise for the Timberwolves as they approach their league season, but work remains to be done for Northwood to reach its goal of making noise a top of scoreboards at end of season championships.
As the preseason league competition continues to shine Northwood reloads with returning key swimmers strengthening the roster even more at next Tuesday's triangular meet against Fountain Valley & L.B. Wilson High Schools.
400 IM Relay
The JV Girls opened with a very tight race in the 400 IM relay (100 IM/per swimmer), as Alejandra Aramayo split a 1:15.81, Joyce Kim (1:16.74), Charlotte Waddell (1:16.70), and Whitney Maynard (1:13.96) put up a combined 5:03.21 for second. Top time went to Irvine's Team A with 5:00.83, while their Team-B rounded third in 5:04.81. The JV Northwood Boys led early in the 400 IM, getting a 1:04.89 from Jack Liu, and Justin Chung (1:05.43), but the Timberwolves vaulted their team into the lead on the third leg with Orlando Olague (1:06.21) and Benjamin Chun Chen anchoring a field-best 1:03.48 to seal the win of 4:20.01. Portola touched in at 4:20.02, while Beckman rounded out the top three in 4:27.94. 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 Jenna Morley (1:09.06), Sarah Buting (1:09.50), Malak Hassouna (1:09.30), and Nancy Zhu (1:03.44). University won the event in 4:30.41, and Beckman rounding third in 4:31.75. Northwood Varsity boys Connor Budka turned in a 58.99, but University took the advantage of a 58.12 split over Enoch Li's 59.00 heading into third leg. Nick Huynh moved nearly even at the wall, but University powered in a 57.21 split touch out over Emiliano Olague's 57.58. University took the event 3:52.71 to 3:55.09. Beckman swam to a third place finish with a 3:55.64.
300 Free Relay
Northwood JV Boys hit the wall first with a 2:29.82 from Adrian Fontao (24.71), Noah Pendleton (24,14),Gautam Chaudhri (24.73), Ed Suh (25.52), Austin Wang (26.78), and anchor Max Abravanel (23.94). Portola finished (2:30.59) with Northwood Team-B touching in for third with a 2:34.78 from Alec Overbaugh (25.30), Matthew O'Neill (25.29), Dylan Green (25.72), Austin Kenyon (26.17), Grant Walker (26.98), and anchor Benjamin Liu (25.32). On the Varsity Boys side, the Timberwolves were able to put together a third place showing in 2:23.55 with their team of Sean Gao (24.08), and Thomas Kim (24.93) propelling to a 49.01 at the 100 mark. Following were Andrew Wraith (24.54), Justin Pyne (23.93), Calvin Lin (23.84), and anchor Collin Press (22.23). University finished first in 2:17.07 with Irvine in second (2:23.46).
200 Breast Relay
In the 200 breast relay, Northwood's Paige Mortenson lead off the JV Girls, powering the team to a 39.86 flat start leg with members Kylie Kenyon (38.30), Kate Jensen (40.54), and Whitney Maynard (39.13) closing out the relay in 2:37.83 for the second. The Irvine JV squad stopped the clock 1.41 seconds ahead of Northwood in 2:36.42, while Irvine Team-B finished third in 2:45.87. The Northwood JV Boys managed to finish second with the team of Orlando Olague (33.81), Grant Lai (33.90), Noah Pendleton (30.91), and anchor Ed Suh (30.41) combining a 2:09.03. Portola finished (2:08.10) with University third (2:17.94).
400 Breast Relay
The Varsity Lady T-Wolves took second out of lane three, touching in 5:04.86 with the foursome of Jenna Morley (1:14.07), Maika Marin (1:19.26), Sarah Buting (1:18.16) and Olivia Chen with 1:13.37. University won the event in 4:58.49 with Irvine trailing third in 5:16.85. Connor Budka, Northwood Junior, wasted no time in this race, getting out in 1:02.99. Teammate Henry Chen also made his way with a quick 1:04.11 with Emiliano Olague coming hard with a 1:02.80 to bring in the second spot for Northwood in 4:17.39. University grabbed first with 4:16.80, and Beckman rounded third in 4:22.44.
200 Fly Relay
In the 200 fly relay, JV Northwood and Beckman boys dueled early, with Northwood's Jack Liu just outpacing Beckman's Patrick Hajali 26.55 to 28.25. Northwood's Gautam Chaudhri (27.12) outsplit Beckman's Darren Sohn (28.26), but Alec Overbaugh put together a 26.28 split that pulled way ahead of Beckman's Brandon Chen (28.19) with quite the lead for anchor Noah Pendleton (27.40) to take the top combined time of 1:47.35. Beckman turned second in 1:52.29 with Portola touching in for third in 1:55.92.
400 Fly Relay
Northwood Varsity Girls provided a third placing for the Timberwolves in the 400 fly relay, where Jacquelin Chen (1:10.21), Sydney Inuoye (1:07.92), Josephine Manuel (1:01.46) and anchor Fiona Fan (1:04.99) went 4:24.58. Irvine (4:05.95) took first place, while University finished second in 4:11.54.
200 Back Relay
The JV Girls delivered a third place showing of 2:24.64 for Northwood. Charlotte Waddell started off with a 38.88 split followed by Kate Jensen who joined forces on a 36.17. Emilie Harper clocked a 34.97 with anchor Jenny Han stretching to the wall for a split of 34.62. Irvine took top honors in 2:18.08 with their Team-B stopping the clock at 2:22.51 in claiming second. Northwood's JV boys went 1-3 in the event, with sophomore Max Abravanel (29.72), Adrian Fontao (29.22), Justin Chung in a 3rd (29.76), and anchor Nicholas Miceli (28.03) combing for first place in 1:56.73. Beckman raced to second in 2:04.44, while Northwood's Team-B holding third with Orlando Olague (32.91), Benjamin Chun Chen (29.48), Mohamed El Shazly (31.12), and Justin Kenyon hitting the wall in 32.74.
400 Back Relay
Northwood's Varsity Girls staged an exciting 400 backstroke duel with University and Irvine with the crew of Lauren Hitchens (1:06.73), Katrina Loye (1:07.27), Josephine Manuel (1:03.37) and Nancy Zhu (1:03.27) controlling for the overall win in 4:20.64. University managed second in 4:32.15, while Irvine rounded third in 4:33.16.
400 Free Relay
The Northwood JV Girls earned third in 4:35.19, which was achieved with the combination of Cindy Le (1:10.26), Jenny Han (1:07.85), Molly Mcllrath (1:09.16), and Rachel Kang (1:07.92). Irvine took first in 4:30.23, while Portola picked up second with 4:33.22. JV Boys produced a 2-3 finish in a tight with Portola touching in 3:51.97 for second with Dylan Green (57.85), Benjamin Liu (57.43), Noah Wilmot (1:00.17) and anchor Niko Honda (56.52). Northwood's Team-B was just a body length behind with Gautam Chaudhri (56.31), Austin Wang (1:01.36), Nicholas Miceli (57.20), and Matthew O'Neil (58.38) locking down a 3:53.25. Portola took the top honors in 3:47.11. The Varsity Lady T-Wolves came roaring out of the blocks in the 400 free relay with Sydney Inuoye (1:00.79), Fiona Fan (59.65), Malak Hassouna (58.20), and Olivia Chen (57.01) who left the rest of the field in their wake with a 2.01 second advantage over University's 3:57.66. Irvine rounded third in 3:58.85. The Varsity Boys had a good match-up with University, but their second half was tough to beat (3:20.52). Emiliano Olague (51.01), Jeremy Mah (52.08), Sean Gao (51.71), and Collin Press (50.60) combined to touch second in 3:25.40. Irvine's followed in for third 3:27.40.
200 Medley Relay
The Northwood JV Girls owe their 2-3 success to enormous depth. The squad of Joyce Kim (37.76-back), Whitney Maynard as the fastest breast split (39.89), Aarya Koppikar (34.84-fly), and anchor Cindy Le (30.77-free) registered a time of 2:23/26. The Team-B foursome came together leading off with Molly Mcllrath (39.65-back), Kylie Kenyon (38.45-breast), Kate Jensen (35.35-fly), and Grace Schweizer (31.83-free) coming home to ice things for third in 2:25.28. University took top honors in 2:18.19. The JV Timberwolves boys proved to be a force as they delivered a strong 1-2 showing of 1:50.81 for the win, and 1:56.28 for second place. Max Abravanel started off with a 30.05-back split followed by Ed Suh who joined forces on a 30.16-breast. Jack Liu clocked a 26.10-fly with Adrian Fontao stretching to the wall for a winning event split of 24.50. Team-B went out hard in coming together as a team to hold onto a second place lead all the way down the stretch with Justin Chung (30.92-back), Grant Lai (34.60-breast), Alec Overbaugh (26.36-fly), and anchor Benjamin Chun Chen (24.38). Portola rounded out the top three in 1:56.28. End of day competition saw the Varsity Girls give the crowd a third in the 200 medley relay with Nancy Zhu (33.18-back), Jenna Morley (34.31-breast), Josephine Manuel (28.19-fly), and Olivia Chen (26.02) bringing it home in 2:01.70. Irvine placed first with 1:54.83, while University clocked 1:57.12 for second.
In the last event of the Irvine City Relay Championships the Northwood Varsity Boys turned in a second place 1:45.06, but it wasn't easy. Nick Huynh (27.88-back), Conner Budka (28.87-breast), Thomas Kim (26.37-fly), and Collin Press (21.94). Top time went to University with 1:44.24, and Beckman rounded out the top-3 in 1:45.77.
Irvine City Relay Championships-Meet Combined Scores
Men
Northwood High School 364.00 vs 355.00 University High School
Northwood High School 364.00 vs 327.00 Beckman High School
Northwood High School 364.00 vs 289.00 Irvine High School
Northwood High School 364.00 vs 115.00 Portola High School
Women
Irvine High School 391.00 vs 350.00 Northwood High School
Northwood High School 350.00 vs 347.00 University High School
Northwood High School 350.00 vs 285.00 Beckman High School
Northwood High School 350.00 vs 89.00 Portola High School