Preview | Free | Back | Breast | Fly | Relays | Recap
In a week that featured many close meets with championship implications, including two ties (D6 and D12), the Ninjas were fortunate enough to find themselves on deck at Fair Oaks this Saturday (FO). The Sharks narrowly topped the visiting Oakton (OAK) Otters by a final score of 211.5-208.5 to improve their record to 4-0. Fair Oaks is now one win away from clinching the D4 championship outright.
The meet got off to a fast start for Oakton, going up 15-3 after the first 2 races, Fair Oaks was able to climb back to close the deficit to only 2 points after freestyle. After Freestyle, the Otters and the Sharks traded blows before the Otters took a 183.5-176.5 lead heading into relays.
FO had 5 double-winners on the day: Ian Kang (10), Connor Tain (12), Ryan Seo (14), Ava Jones (15), and Anthony Grimm (16). OAK also had 5 double-winners on the day: Abigail Limkin (8), Gracie Whittington (10), Taryn Knepper (12), Leena Knepper (14), and Catherine Lim (14).
This meet featured some big performances from individuals on both sides. Points were scored from all lanes; Nick Highman (18) scored a win from lane 6 in the backstroke for the Otters. Shoutout to Leena Knepper, who, as a 14 y/o, swam up in the 15-18 girls fly and still managed to score first place for her squad. Additionally, it was a historic day for the Sharks–Anthony Grimm blazed his way to two NVSL records. In the 50 breast, he broke his own record with an unseen performance of 27.57, making him the first athlete to ever go under 28 in breast in the NVSL. In Grimm’s second swim of the day, he broke Andrew Seliskar’s 50 fly record with a 23.63 seconds–only .12s slower than his league-leading 50 free time. Another Shark with a notable day was teammate Ava Jones who set team records in the 15-18 girls back and breast.
Oakton was cruising at the start of relays: winning the first 3 out of 4. After getting knocked down, Fair Oaks responded by winning 6 of the next 7 and clinching the meet with the boys mixed age relay. While only 2 of the 12 relay races were within a second of each other, demonstrating each teams’ dominance in particular age groups, there were still a few relays to highlight on the day. The 13-14 girls from Oakton broke a 26 y/o team record! One event earlier for Fair Oaks, the 13-14 boys broke their own team record.
All in all, it was a fantastic meet by both teams. Huge amounts of time were dropped by both sides heading into the last week of the season, putting them in position to win their final matchups as well as stay competitive at All-star relays. Good luck to both teams and thanks for allowing the Ninjas to stop by!
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