Back to Archive List The Strawberry Seals stormed into Lucas Valley to face the Lighting on Saturday. The forecast was cloudy for the Seals as the Lucas Valley team had beaten our neighbors, Scott Valley, earlier in the season; however, our team kept it respectably close with the Lightning winning 332 to 227.

Plenty of Rays of Sunshine
Although the Seals lost, there were plenty of rays of sunshine as many of our young swimmers appear to be sprouting like flowers after rainfall. Sabrina Ciauri has steadily improved throughout the year and she broke through twenty seconds in the 25 yard free winning her heat in the process. She doubled her winnings with a breaststroke victory and shaved two seconds off of her personal best in that stroke. Sensational six year old, Shannon Watridge, followed up in heat three of the 25 yard freestyle eclipsing the nineteen second barrier and almost achieving a Q time. Sisters Adrina Andrews and Arista Andrews also had noteworthy days. Amazing six year old Adrina cut ten seconds off hear breaststroke and almost seven seconds off her butterfly. She capped the day off with three best times. Big sister, Arista, improved her butterfly by almost 3 seconds. Lauren Terry is another six year old that is blooming towards the end of the year improving her freestyle and backstroke by six seconds and two seconds, respectively. Lauren harvested her improvements to capture two blue ribbons.

For the most part, the Seals field of eight and under boys are as unpredictable as the San Francisco summers. Each week it seems a different boy has a huge day. Seaver Dahlgren, Kyle Mortimer, and Luke Klopfer delivered this week's surprise performances. Seaver hit the trifecta with three best times with a Q time in backstroke and breaststroke. Kyle shined brightly in Lucas Valley bettering his freestyle and backstroke by four seconds and almost sixteen seconds, respectively. Luke Klopfer has been consistent leader for the eight and under boys, but the surprise came in the breaststroke where he posted one of the best times in the league with a 22.33 lowering his personal best by ten seconds and landing a Q time in the process.

Newcomers Maia Asiano and Thalia Greenberg are also growing nicely as the seeds planted after weeks of practice are blossoming into faster times. Maia stripped almost seven seconds off her butterfly and five seconds in freestyle. She picked up another three best times this week. Thalia made considerable improvements in freestyle and breaststroke and finished with three best times.

Makin' It Rain Strawberry Seals Points
The eight and under girls brought both the thunder and the lightning sweeping victories in all of the events anchored by wins by Kimi Wu in freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke and Hannah Rose Grant in Butterfly and Individual Medley. The girls were dominant in freestyle and backstroke sweeping first, second, and third. In Freestyle, Kimi Wu, Annelie Miller, and Olivia Cooke all broke seventeen seconds. The girls repeated in backstroke again led by Kimi Wu and Annelie Miller and further supported by Hannah Rose Grant. The rain kept pouring in backstroke for the 8 and under girls as Olivia Cooke, Jada Andrews, Lily Chambers, and Gwen White won their respective heats. It was really Kimi's day as she won the breaststroke too, but was also supported by Alex Schwarz who finished third in her heat. Jada Andrews exhibited her versatility swimming breaststroke this week finishing with a win and a Q-time.

Points were also abundant in the 8 and under girls butterfly as Hannah Rose Grant led coming even closer to Armani's record missing out by under a quarter of a second; her friend Annelie Miller pushed her throughout the race. The girls in Heat 2 also brought the heat as Nora Riedinger, Kyra Carney, and Shannon Watridge swept the event.

Winds of Change
The Beatles' lyric, "you say its your birthday, its my birthday, too" applies this week to two of last years High Point Queens, Kimi Wu and Armani Roots. Armani turned thirteen before the meet but didn't seemed phased by it too much as she continued to compete at a very high level achieving Q times even at the new level. Kimi seized the day on Saturday going out on top in all of her events. She will be a good addition to the 9-10 next week, but will be missed by the 8 and unders.

Armani's birthday represented a huge loss for the 11-12 age group, but several 11-12 swimmers stepped up in her absence. Armani's age up led to the reunion of buddies Annie Whalen and Alexa Zener in the medley relay team as the duo helped lead the 11-12 age group to the only relay win. Alexa seemed reinvigorated this week swimming with great intensity her breaststroke in both the relay and individual event. Annie Whalen is easing into her role as a leader for the 11-12 girls with victories in the IM and backstroke. She also swam a wonderful leg in the freestyle relay. Micaela Robinson-Duran filled in admirably for Armani in the butterfly for the 11-12 girls. Micaela appeared to welcome the challenge and should be given serious consideration for swimmer of the week. She won her backstroke heat and landed a Q time in butterfly as she was barely touched out for the victory in that event.

The 11-12 girls picked up a lot of points in backstroke and breaststroke. Annie Whalen, Micaela Robinson-Duran, and Yvonne Larocca all won their heats. Emelia Michel, Anika Chambers, and Abigail Hasset provided much needed support in their heats. In breaststroke, Alexa Zener, Sophie Ellison, Madeline Hess, and Anika Chambers won their heats. Anika Chambers has been on the Doppler Radar every week chipping away at her best times; she is a steady performer in the meets and a hard worker at the six o'clock practices.

In addition to Armani and Kimi, Jimmy Thomas, Charlotte Rosenfield, Robert Hoffman, and Yvonne Larocca celebrate birthdays this week.

Dropping the Hammer
In Norse Mythology, Thor, the God of Thunder, carried a mighty hammer that could level mountains. Riley Sikes and Nicky Chan dropped the hammer on the competition in the backstroke and butterfly respectively. Riley blew away the field by five seconds in backstroke. He also won the Individual Medley. Nicky won by a similar margin in the fly for the 11-12 boys.

Instead of the hammer, "nails" come to mind when it comes to races with Nicky as he always finds himself in nail biting finishes. He always fights to the finish, but he was just touched out in the IM by a half second this week. The Individual Medleys were uncharacteristically close this week. Annie Whalen won her heat by five hundredths of a second. Riley Sikes won his by a half second. Kristen Sato trailed the winner by less than two tenths of a second in her event.

One of the better races of the day was the 13-14 boys fly where Zach Cohen touched out Riley. Five out of the six swimmers in the 13-14 boys' butterfly swam below Q times within a second and a half from each other. Another highlight in the 13-14 age group was Alex Takeshita who improved her fly by almost five seconds.

Success Snowballs
Kate Miekley has been on a roll of late as she finished the Lucas Valley Meet with three best times with the most notable improvement in the IM where she swam eleven seconds faster. Hunter Juarez, Sofia Kashefi, Monika Knox, Emma Ellison and Ranae Jabri also finished with three best times. Like Kate, Sofia and Monika have been on a tear at the end of the year.

Weather Changes But Kristin Sato Is Constant
The 15-18 roster fluctuates week to week as the teenagers often have conflicts due to busy schedules; however Kristin Sato has been a consistent source for big points for the Seals and this week was not an exception. Kristin bettered all three of her personal bests this week winning the backstroke and breaststroke. Katherine Takeshita and Nicole Ezcurra have also been steady contributors and they both won backstroke heats.

A constant in the weekly meet writeups has been some press on Ethan Zener as he has performed well each week meriting some mention. This week he did not disappoint. His near three second improvement in the butterfly allowed him to capture an All-star pin in that event. He swam a solid breaststroke leg in the medley relay and won the individual breaststroke event. He also broke eighteen seconds in the freestyle resulting in a 3 best time day.

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
One of the best highlights of the day was Chloe Carney's plunge into competition this week. The usually reluctant Saturday Swimmer surprised us happily finishing her freestyle. Congratulations Chloe!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
The Strawberry Seals open the first week of summer with a lot of activity including Raging Waters and Photos at the beginning of the week resulting in a shortened practice week. The coaches will likely step it up on Wednesday Morning to prepare for Swimarin.