2023 NHSA CHAMPS MEET WRAP UP

Our Sailfish ended the season in fine fashion recently at the NHSA championship meet held at the UVAC pool. Although somewhat hampered by injuries and illness, we managed to once again score in the top 6 teams and take home a banner. This was a scored meet with the top 16 places being scored, so I will highlight those finishes as well as personal records (PRs).

We had our largest group of 8 & unders ever at this meet with 10 swimmers in the age group. They were: Chloe Adler, Charleigh Beaudet, Cecilia DeRego, Azar Emerson, Adele Green, Addison Larochelle, Moriah Longval, Lulu Swinehart, Kevin Ward and Josie White. Chloe had herself quite a meet swimming to 1st in all her events. She got 1st in both the 50 free & 25 breast and was part of the free relay that got 2nd and the medley relay that got 4th. She got a best time in the 50 free as well! Nice work Chloe! Charleigh grabbed 5th in the 25 fly, 9th in the 25 free and13th in the 25 breast with PRs in the free & breast. Way to go Charleigh! Cecilia took off over 6 seconds in her 25 free. Nice going Cici! Azar was part of the free relay that placed 7th and swam to 13th place and a PR in the 50 breast and a PR in the 50 free as well. Good job Azar! Adele showed her stuff with a 4th in the 25 fly, 11th in the 25 breast and 13th in the 50 free, with PRs in all 3 events, over 5 seconds each in the free & breast! Nice going Adele! Addison also had a pretty good meet, with a 3rd in the 25 breast, 5th in the 50 free, 7th in the 25 free as well as being part on the 2nd place free relay and 4th place medley relay. Good job Addy! Moriah did some fast swimming too, getting 6th in the 25 fly, 7th in the 25 breast and 13th in the 25 free. She was also part of the 2nd place free relay and 5th place medley relays. Great work Moriah!  Lulu took home hardware with 5 place finishes in both the 25 back & breast and 6th in the 25 free. She was also on the 2nd place free relay and 4th place medley relays. Way to go Lulu! Kevin had another great meet with 2 1st place finishes in the 25 back & fly and a 2nd in the 50 free, with PRs in all 3 events. He was also part of the 200 free relay that placed 7th. Congratulations Kevin! Josie swam to 4th in the 25 breast, 9th in the 25 back, with PRs in both events as well as in her 25 free. Nice going Josie!
Not only was this our biggest showing at this meet from our littlest Sailfish, but they put up 4 qualifications for B Champs and 8(!!) for AgeGroups, which I’ll mention in more detail later. Quite a day for the Sailfish guppies!

Our 9-10 swimmers were: Lucy Berg, Daniel DeRego, Taye Hall,  Chocorua Longval, Evelynn Maynard and Nithila Vimalraj. Lucy had some good swims, taking over 13 seconds off in her 50 free as well as a PR in her 50 breast. Nice work Lucy! Daniel was Mr. 7th pace, taking that spot in all 3 of his events, the 50 free, 100 IM and 50 fly. Daniel had a huge 30+ second time drop in his 100 IM, making him a “biggest loser” at this meet! Congrats Daniel! Taye grabbed a 5th in the 50 breast, 7th in the 50 back and 9th in his 100 free, with some pretty big PRs in all 3 events (over 14 seconds in the 100 free!) Way to go Taye! Chocorua also came to swim and showed her stuff with 2 1st place finishes (100 IM & 50 breast) and 5th in the 50 fly, with PRs in all 3 events. She was also part of the 5th place 200 medley relay and the 10th place free relay. Good job Chocorua! Evelynn took home a pair of 13th police finishes (50 back & 50 fly) and had PRs in all 3 of her events. Nice going Evelynn! Nithila swam to PRs in her 5 back & 50 breast events. Nice work Nithila!

The 11-12 swimmers were: Kate Binkoski, Maribel DeRego, Anshul Karri, Molly Key, Chael Smithson and August Swinehart. Kate followed the trend of the weekend with some very strong swims, With PRs in 3 out of her 4 events, including a huge almost 13 second drop in her 100 free! Good job Kate! Maribel followed in Kate’s foot steps with a similar performance, 3 out of 4 PRs, with two huge drops, 12+ seconds in her 50 fly and 16+ seconds in her 100 free. Way to go Maribel! Anshul was 3 for 3 with PRs with 10 + second drops in the 50 free and 50 back, and also a PR in the 50 breast. Nice going Anshul! Molly placed 11th in the 50 breast and took home PRs in her 50 & 100 free events. Good job Molly! Chael placed 3rd in the 50 breast, 5th in the 50 back and 7th in the 100 free, with a solid PR in the 100 free. Nice work Chael! August had himself a pretty good meet with 2 1st place finishes (200 Free & 50 Fly). He also grabbed 3rd in the 100 free. He had PRs in both his 200 IM (7+ seconds) and 50 fly. Nice going August!

Our 13-14 crowd was: Tim Dodd, Maisie Emerson, Megan Gerardi, Xindi Thomas and Lanee White. Tim swam to 3rd in the 100 fly, 4th in the 100 back and 10th in the 100 free. He posted PRs in both the 100 fly and 100 back. Good job Tim! Maisie took 5th in the 500, 12th in the 100 breast and 15th in the 200 free, with PRs in all 3 events. Nice going Maisie! Megan swam to an almost 12 second drop in her 100 fly. Nice work Megan! Xindi found her freestyle form at this meet and put up some nice freestyle swims with strong PRs in both her 50 & 100 free events. She also got a PR in her 100 breast. Nice going Xindi! Lanee was 2 for 2 with PRs including a 13+ second drop in her 100 back. Great work Lanee!

Our 15-18 group was: Lauren Green, Sabine Karanouh, Lily Peterson, Margaret Rivard, Thanida Thomas and Ella & Madeline Wineriter. Lauren took home 6th place honors in the 500 with a nice 14+ second drop and followed that up with a 7th place in the 100 back and 12th in the 100 breast, with PRs in both events. Good job Lauren! Sabine swam to an 11th place in the 100 back, 12th in the 50 free and 15th in the 100 free. Nice work Sabine! Lily took 3rd place in the 2 IM and the 500, where she swam a terrific race and set a new Sailfish team record by over 14 seconds! Congratulations Lily! She also placed second (just barely!) in the 100 breast. Way to go Lily! Margaret took home 7th place honors in the 500, 9th in the 100 fly and 10th in the 100 back. Nice going Margaret! Ella grabbed 6th in the 100 breast, 13th in the 100 free and 15th in the 50 free, with a PR in the 100 free. Good job Ella! Madeline snagged 7th and a PR in the 100 breast 8th in the 200 IM with a 12 + second PR in that swim, and a 31 + second drop in her 100 fly that earned her  "biggest loser" honors for this meet! Way to go Maddy!  

As you can see, this was great meet for the Sailfish with many big time drops and fast swims, showing the results of all of the hard work in the pool over the season. This was a scored meet with descending point values given to each place finish. A 1st place finish was awarded 20 points, with 18 for 2nd and decreasing sequentially to 1 point for 16th place. Relay points are double the value of the individual events. Each swimmer would collect points based on their event finishes and then the individual swimmer’s scores were added up at the end of the meet to give total team scores. Despite having no boys relays for the afternoon session, we placed 6th over all at the end of the meet, something the coaches are very proud of. So, big congratulations to all of the Sailfish swimmers who went to this meet for a job well done!
While we had most of our Sailfish score points for us, our top 3 scorers at this meet were Kevin Ward (57), August Swinehart (56) and Chocorua Longval (54). This is the 2nd year in a row that Kevin has been our scoring leader! Way to go Kevin!

The “biggest loser’ honors at this meet were actually shared by 2 of our Sailfish. Normally we just have one swimmer win this award, but at this meet, there were 2 Sailfish who dropped over 30 seconds in one event, so we’ll award the “Biggest Loser’ to Madeline Wineriter for her 31 second drop in her 100 fly and Daniel DeRego for his almost 31 second drop in his 100 IM. Congrats to Maddy & Daniel for their excellent swims!

As you might guess, all of this fast swimming produced some championship meet qualifying times so I’ll list those here.
Our new B Champs qualifiers for the 8 & unders were: Adele Green in the 25 breast, Addison Larochelle in the 25 fly, Moriah Longval in the 25 free and Josie White in the 25 back. For the 12 & unders August Swinehart in the 200 IM.
We had even more Age Group qualifiers. For the 8 & unders we had Chloe Adler in the 50 free, Charleigh Beaudet in the 25 free, Adele Green in the 25 fly, Moriah Longval in the 25 fly, Lulu Swinehart in the 25 breast & free, Kevin Ward in the 25 fly & back and Josie White in the 25 breast. Congratulations to all of these speedy Sailfish!

Finally, I want to thank all of you parents who stepped up to help us with our meet job responsibilities. All of this great swimming wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have volunteers do these jobs at meets. We are very grateful for those who help out with our job obligations so we can continue to have our kids swim at fun, well run meets. Big thank yous to Kim Emerson, Kim DeRego, Scott Key, Minhui Nie, Adam Beaudet and Jim Binkoski for their cheerful help at this meet.  
I also need to thank our stellar coaching staff, Liz, Jill, Brad & Matt for their support and coaching over the weekend. We are very lucky to have a great group of dedicated and supportive coaches to coach our swimmers.

We will be announcing the date and location of our team awards night very soon, so keep a lookout for that email and come and help us celebrate a terrific season.