Apologies for the delay in this report! Would you believe me if I said “my dog ate my notes that I wrote up Friday night?” I promise that’s what happened! It could NOT have been a more beautiful day on Friday, March 8 as Acalanes prepared to take on a very strong Northgate team at their home pool. It was 71 degrees outside at the start of the meet, and not a cloud in the sky. PERFECT swim weather (until the sun went down at least)! The Northgate team is very strong, with very fast swimmers, some of whom already have NCS Automatic (AUTO) times! But there were some exciting races, and achievements by our swimmers that deserve major shout outs!
Swim meets always start off with the 200 Medley relay – each swimmer races 50 yards of back, breast, fly and free. AHS had two girls teams and one boys team in the Varsity races and all three teams swam NCS consideration (CONS) times! The A team of senior Taryn Veronda, frosh Anna Motes, frosh Tess Veronda and senior Sophie Hendrickson went 1:55.42 (CONS cutoff is 2:04.99, AUTO is 1:52.62), and the B team of frosh Kendall Lee, sophomore Audrey Martin, senior Liv Hoppe and senior Brooklyn Plomp clocked 1:58.32. The boys A team of sophomore Mason Schlehr, frosh Jayden Hwang, junior Jace Carter and senior Will Dreyer went 1:49.58 (CONS cutoff 1:52.99).
Frosh Mila Ellis won her second consecutive 100 IM for the JV Girls – she won on 2/28 at College Park as well! The varsity girls 200 IM race was very exciting as Taryn Veronda and Anna Motes finished 1st and 2nd with CONS times – Taryn improving on her time by a full second, and Anna earning her second CONS time (she already holds 100 breast) with a huge time improvement of 3.97 seconds! On the boys side, Mason Schlehr also had a significant time pop of 4.27 seconds in his 3rd place finish!
Frosh Caroline Tumilty won the 50 Free race for the JV girls with a time of 28.02 seconds! Sophomore Ella Del Rosario finished 2nd in the varsity race, shaving 0.78 seconds off her time (25.78). She is now 0.12 sec off the CONS cutoff! She earned her 2nd CONS time not much later in the 100 free, winning the event in 56.41 (CONS cutoff 56.55). Brooklyn Plomp had a huge time improvement of 1.3 seconds, finishing 3rd, and is now 0.98 seconds away from the CONS cutoff.
Frosh Andrew Tanimura swam the boys varsity 500 free – a favorite of everyone else for the recovery time it affords! HE IMPROVED HIS TIME BY 24 FULL SECONDS! He went from 5:41.16 to 5:17.42! Incredible!
Both Varsity teams swam CONS times in the 200 Free Relay – frosh Adelyn Horciza, Ella Del Rosario, Sophie Hendrickson and Brooklyn Plomp clocked 1:46.43 (CONS is 1:51.99 and AUTO is 1:42.29) and senior Parker Etnyre, Will Dreyer, Andrew Tanimura and senior Toby Brock-Utne swam a 1:34.96 (CONS is 1:39.99, AUTO is 1:30.28).
Parker Etnyre finished 2nd in the boys varsity 100 back with a time of 55.56 (CONS is 57.99, AUTO is 53.67). Taryn Veronda, Brooklyn Plomp and Kendall Lee finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the girls varsity 100 back, all with CONS times. Brooklyn and Kendall improved on their times as well!
Anna Motes swam a fierce race in the girls varsity 100 breast, winning by over 4 seconds, and improving her time to 1:09.67 (CONS is 1:12.99, AUTO is 1:07.37. She is 1.19 seconds away from a spot on the AHS Top 10 All-Time list – in her first high school dual meet ever!
The meet ended with the 400 Free Relay teams – both AHS varsity girls teams finished with CONS times, and the boys A team swam a CONS time as well. Taryn Veronda, Ella Del Rosario, Adelyn Horciza and Kendall Lee clocked a 3:58.83 (CONS is 4:10.99, AUTO is 3:46.63) while junior Juliet McIlwain, sophomore Sara Williams, junior Fiona Roux and junior Kate Roberts swam a 4:09.16. The boys team of Parker Etnyre, senior Cale Hanson, Andrew Tanimura and Mason Schlehr went 3:29.05 (CONS 3:37.99, AUTO is 3:18.38).
GO DONS! Next meet is Wednesday, 3/13 at home versus Miramonte.
