Festival wrap-up---Congrats BLUE!

The 2017 All Star Swim Festival was a success:  loud and spirited from beginning to end. We would like to thank all of our volunteers from the Admin and Officials to the Coaches and individuals responsible for running the meet. This is truly an experience these swimmers will never forget. Please see the coaches’ reports below, and we will see you again in 2018.

SOUTH ALL STARS REPORT – BLUE TEAM

The South All Stars on the Blue Team smashed multiple meet records on the way to winning the 2017 SCS All Star Swim Festival. Personal best times and new friendships were happening at a furious clip. While every single swimmer on the Blue team contributed to our win, a few swims stood out as particularly incredible. In the first 10 minutes of the meet, our 13-14 Girls 400 Medley Relay (Samantha Nickell, Minnow Cason, Aileen Pham, Michelle Takawy) sent a message to everyone in the East LA College Swim Stadium that they were there for business. They broke the meet record with a scorching time of 3:58.78. 

Just in case everyone did not hear the older girls' warning during the relay, Michelle Tekawy, 13, and her teammate, Aileen Pham, 13, both stepped up again and battled in the 200 IM. Tekawy took the race by just .6 and broke another meet record with a blistering 2:08.27.

Not to be outdone, young Allison Mann, 10, heard talk of meet records and made up her mind early that she would grab one herself. In her first individual event of the meet, she did just that, and she broke the girls' 10&Un 50 Freestyle record in a race she made look effortless with a time of 26.97.

During the first meet break, the swimmers were reminded that they could score from any heat. Suddenly the athletes who placed in Heat 2 of their events seemed to come alive! Owen Grimaldi, 14, got that ball rolling with an event win from Heat 2 in the 13-14 Boys 200 Freestyle with a personal best time of 1:48.34. Caedon Ng, 14, followed closely behind in the 500 Freestyle, winning the event from Heat 2 as well with his own personal best of 4:55.80, and his first time under 5 minutes.

Speaking of the 500 Freestyles, rumor had it that Junie Carlos, 14, wasn't excited about being entered in the 500 Free. She, too, was a Heat 2 swimmer, and we could see she was nervous about the race. Despite her not wanting to swim it, Junie stepped up for her teammates in a big way and crushed the race. She fought hard against some tough competitors who gave her a serious run for her money throughout to 500 yards, but she wasn't going to let anyone beat her in that heat! She wound up touching first, getting second place overall in the event, and clocking a personal best time of 5:17.86, proving that putting one's own feelings aside for the team when it counts pays big dividends.

As if that wasn't enough in the Meet Records category, another 13-14 girl from the earlier medley relay still had something to say. Samantha Nickell, 14, also put a record down in the 100 Backstroke and made it clear she's number one with a blazing time of 58.47.

And finally, in their final team victory and message to all that they couldn't be beat, our 13-14 Boys 400 Freestyle relay (Jason Kim, Owen Grimaldi, Caedon Ng, Dylan Hong) didn't just win, they also destroyed the meet record to boot! In a nail-biter to the end, everyone on the deck was on their feet and Meet Organizer Jeremy Anderson's traditional playing of  The William Tell Overature in the background felt oh, so appropriate, as our boys' arms and legs seemed to never touch the water. As Dylan Hong raced the final leg to victory, the crowd's cheers were deafening, and the Blue Team win was a surety.

While swimming fast and breaking records is always fun to watch, the more lasting effects of the Annual SCS All Star Swim Festival come from something very different. The experience of working together with athletes from different teams, of banding together with strangers and calling them teammates for a day, and of forging new friendships that then become a dynamic-changer on future pool decks at future meets...those are the bigger and better effects of Festival. The newfound confidence and the knowledge that the athletes take away from this meet and bring back to their own teams and their own lives is always amazing to watch. Festival athletes tend to be able to reach out easier, to stand a bit taller in their suits, to assume leadership positions on deck and off, and to find new levels of confidence with themselves and their sport. That's the magic of Festival, and why we love seeing and coaching our athletes at this event each year.

To all of our families who made the sacrifice to come out to East LA and cheer and allow their kids to compete, your coaches thank you and bow to you. We encourage all our families to keep in touch with their Festival coaches in the future, and be sure to say hello when you see us on deck at future meets!

EAST ALL STAR REPORT – RED TEAM

Red Team Finishes with a splash for second place:  The fight for second came down to the final relay of the day. The boys 13-14 400-yard freestyle relay decided the fate of both the red and yellow teams. Before the relays began, red team had fallen down into third place. Luckily, we had a break before the relays started and as a team we came together to motivate our relay swimmers. Knowing that the relays would decide the outcome of the meet, we got our kids excited and ready to race. Our 10 and unders started us off right with both the boys and girls relays winning their events. This performance gave our whole team a big burst of energy that it really needed to pump up the remaining four relays. The 11-12 boys and girls did everything in their power to stay within striking distance of the yellow team, leaving everything they had left in the pool. After each event they announced the scores, so going into the 13-14 girls relay they heard we were still in 3rd and realized we needed a big win. All the girls did an amazing job and swam with their teammates in mind, using the fate of the overall team score to push them to a first place finish. The final event of the day, the boys 13-14 400-yard freestyle, was preceded by one final score update. The boys knew that second place was on the line and it remained completely within their reach. The boys dove in with a splash, all 4 teams giving it everything that they had. Although yellow out-touched red’s A relay, the red B team sprinted to the finish and was able to place before the yellow B team. Thanks to an incredible effort by the Red Team B relay, the scores offset and the red team took 2nd place over yellow by just 2 points.

Highlights:
Red team had several multiple event champions with Lily Dormans leading the way in both the 100 and 200 freestyles. Emily Wooden followed suit, with dominating performances in both the 50 and 200 freestyle. Henry Horvath was an incredible asset to the red team with great performances in all of his races, including a new meet record in the boys 5-10 100IM with a 1:06.09. Audrey Hughes proved to be the fastest girl by taking the girls 13-14 50 free by storm. Asia Kozan won the 11-12 girls 100 fly and Derek Hitchens swam lights out in the 5-10 boys 50 backstroke to take his own first place. Chloe Wendlandt and Ethan Umpornpuckdi took the distance events for the red team with each finishing first in the 13-14 division of the 500 free. Gabriela Icheva showed a great effort winning the 100 breaststroke.

NORTH ALL STAR REPORT – YELLOW TEAM

Congratulations to the North All Stars on the Yellow Team for a great Festival meet and third place finish!

Coach Iman, Coach Joe and I were proud to coach all of you and be a part of the Yellow team with you.  It was a fun day, everyone swam well, and we hope you met some new swimming friends.  Thank you to all the swimmers for supporting each other and cheering on your teammates!! We do think the Yellow team was the loudest!!

Thank you to all the parents for bringing your swimmers to spend the day with us.  And thank you for your spirit in your yellow shirts and loud cheering! We felt your support!

Our SWIMMERS OF THE MEET are:

Each Scoring 27 points:

Brian Lou

Keller Morgan

Each Scoring 23 points:

Angelica Benitez

Claire McClean

Good luck to all of you in your swimming careers.  We hope you will do the Festival meet again! 

Coach Joanna

Head Coach Yellow NORTH Team

WEST ALL STAR REPORT - GREEN TEAM

         The green team had a rough start, and a rough finish, but we are proud to be the only team to be exactly one point out of third place for the entire meet! Our swimmers fought their hardest to make up the points during the meet. There were some fierce swims within the Green team including a meet record for the 11/12 boys 200 Freestyle -  Jeffrey Chen-Jin (CERR), Donovan Hess (MVN), Aidan Sales (CSSC), Christopher Kim (HOLY). Congratulations to those boys for getting the SCS Festival Meet record. Even though we had a tough start, all the kids swam from their heart! They had team spirit and were independent as swimmers to where we had no issues with missed events, delays, or medical issues. The Green Team staff included myself, Coach Sharif, and Coach Daniel which were all professional in handling their events and kids at the meet. If I had to do it all over again, I would be honored to have the same kids and staff on my team for a second shot at the title. Overall I feel we had more leaders on the team than followers, and at the same time the older kids looked after the younger kids like they were family. Our sport needs meets like this to have that family feel and help keep our sport growing. Great job to the Green team swimmers and parents for making it all happen. GO GREEN!

Respectfully,

Coach Tyson Ormonde