2023 Mountain Club Short Course Season

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on March 27, 2023
- 4:11 pm

Mountain Club Swimmers 8 & under at the 2023 NM Winter B Championships. Courtesy/Anna Zhang

Mountain Club Swimmers 9 & older at the 2023 NM Winter B Championships. Courtesy/Anna Zhang

By ANNA ZHANG
Swimming Coach
Mountain Club

With support of our parents, Mountain swimmers participated in two important meets during 2023 short course season:

2023 New Mexico Swimming Short Course (Winter) B Championship Meet Feb. 25 to 26;
2023 New Mexico Swimming Short Course State Championships March 2 to 5.

For the 2023 New Mexico Swimming Short Course (Winter) B Championship Meet:

Mountain Club entered 49 swimmers with 13 relays, and our swimmers finished 1st place as a team with 3728 points.

The rest of the top six teams were Beast (3276.5 points), Charger (2764.5 points), Mako (1458 points), Roadrunners (1361 points), and Artesia (913 points).

The Los Alamos Aquatomics team also participated in this meet with 25 swimmers and 7 relay teams.

Here were our relays placed the top 3 in the meet:

The first place for Mixed 6 & Under 100 Free Relays:
Freja Arbuckle, Elizabeth Wang, Leo Ma, and Jiadong Guo;
The first place for Mixed 10 & Under 200 Medley Relays:
Leia Lin, Melia Arbuckle, Jimmy Haroz, and Benjamin Minko;
The first place for Mixed 12 & Under 200 Medley Relays:
Rachel Bowlan, Magnus Leitner, Emilie Daligault, and Julian Ortiz;
The second place for Mixed 8 & Under 100 Free Relays:
Avery Snapp, Eleanora Minko, Daniel Certik, and Owen Herring;
The second place for Mixed 8 & Under 200 Medley Relays:
Preslee Robinson, Eleanora Minko, Daniel Certik, and Owen Herring;
The second place for Mixed 12 & Under 200 Medley Relays:
Angelina Goodman, Kevin Zou, Javier Chacon, and Olivia Haroz;
The third place for Mixed 10 & Under 100 Free Relays:
Jimmy Haroz, Leia Lin, Melia Arbuckle, and Benjamin Minko;

All of our swimmers put their best efforts, dropped their times, and supported each other during this meet.

Special thanks to Abby Gellis, Natan Svyatsky, Simeon Capolungo, Rachel Bowlan, and Julian Ortiz for helping our youngsters during their relays.

Let us meet our champions in this meet:

Elizabeth Wang (6), a daughter of Min Wang and Jingchao Jiang, was the winner of 25 Free and 25 Fly in the Girls 6 & Under age group;
Freja Arbuckle (6), a daughter of Jeffrey and Nora Arbuckle, was the winner of 50 Back and 100 Free in the Girls 6 & Under age group;
Jiadone Guo (6), a son of Fan Guo and Ting Chen, was the winner of 25 Fly and 50 Fly in the Boys 6 & Under age group;
Miles Chen (6), a son of Aiping Chen and Pei Huang, was the winner of 50 Breast in the Boys 6 & Under age group;
Eleanore Minko (7), a daughter of of Yury Minko and Tatyana Elkin, was the winner of 25’s (Free, Back, Breast, and Fly) and 50’s (Free, Back, Breast, and Fly) in the Girls 7 age group;
Alicia Chen (7), a daughter of Bailian Chen and Jiajia Wang, was the winner of 100 IM in the Girls 7 age group;
Daniel Certik (7), a son of Ondrej and Michelle Certik, was the winner of 25 Back, 50 Free, 100 Free and 100 IM in the Boys 7 age group;
Preslee Robinson (8), a daughter of Jacob and Jessica Robinson, was the winner of 25 Back in the Girls 8 age group;
Melia Arbuckle (9), a daughter of Jeffrey and Nora Arbuckle, was the winner of 50 Breast, 100 Breast and 200 IM in the Girls 9-10 age group;
Leia Lin* (10), a daughter of Shizeng Lin and Xi Yang, was the winner of 50 Free, 100 back, and 50 back in the Girls 9-10 age group;
Benjamin Minko* (10), a son of of Yury Minko and Tatyana Elkin, was the winner of 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 free, 100 IM, and 200 IM in the Boys 9-10 age group;
Jimmy Haroz (10), a son of Erik and Ellaine Haroz, was the winner of 100 Fly in the Boys 9-10 age group;
Emilie Daligault* (11), a daughter of of Jerome and Hajnalka Daligault, was the winner of 50 Fly and 200 IM in the Girls 11-12 age group;
Kevin Zou (11), a son of Nan Zou and Ying Xiong, was the winner of 50 Breast in the Boys 11-12 age group;
Magnus Leitner (11), a son of Thomas and Laura Leitner, was the winner of 100 Free in the Boys 11-12 age group;
Javier Chacon (11), a son of Luis Chacon and Isabel Cuesta, was the winner of 200 IM in the Boys 11-12 age group;
Damian Scammell (12), a son of Nik Allen and Sarah Downs, was the winner of 50 Free and 100 IM in the Boys 11-12 age group.

Leia L, Benjamin M, and Emilie D also participated in the 2023 New Mexico Swimming Short Course State Championships. Without their selfless contribution to our club, we couldn’t have won first place in this championship.

For the 2023 New Mexico Swimming Short Course State Championships:

First, we needed to congratulate the Los Alamos Aquatomics team, who sent 15 swimmers with 16 relay teams to this meet and earned 126 individual points and 60 relay points (total 186 points) with 8th place overall during this meet.

Mountain Club entered 7 swimmers without any team relays, and earned 159 individual points with 9th place overall:

Justin Lei placed the first for the high point award in the Boys 10 & Under age group;
Leia Lin placed the third for the high point award in the Girls 10 & Under age group.

Here were 7 swimmers representing our Mountain Club in this meet:

Thomas Daligault (13), a son of Jerome and Hajnalka Daligault, finished 4th @200 IM (2:10.87), 100 Breast (1:08.27), and 200 Breast (2:26.91), 5th @200 Free (1:56.26), 6th @100 Free (51.95), and 7th @50 Free (24.49) in the Boys 13-14 age group;
Soyna Pakin (12), a daughter of Scott Pakin and Anna Matsekh, finished 4th @200 IM, 5th @200 Breast, 6th @100 IM, 7th @100 Free and 100 Breast, and 11th @200 Free in the Girls 11-12 age group;
Emilie Daligault (11), a daughter of Jerome and Hajnalka Daligault, finished 9th @100 Breast, 11th @100 IM, and also swam 200 Breast and 200 Fly in the Girls 11-12 age group;
Leia Lin (10), a daughter of Shizeng Lin and Xi Yang, finished 2nd @100 Fly, 3rd @100 Breast and 200 IM, 4th @50 Breast, 50 Fly and 100 IM, and 5th @200 Free in the Girls 10 & Under age group;
Benjamin Minko(10), a son of Yury Minko and Tatyana Elkin,finished 4th @100 Fly, and 5th @50 Back, 100 Back, and 50 Fly in the Boys 10 & Under age group;
Justin Lei (10), a son of Zhou Lei and Yaping Huang, finished 1st @50 Free, 50 Breast, 100 Breast, 50 Fly and 100 IM, 2nd @100 Back, and 3rd @200 IM in the Boys 10 & Under age group;
Z Certik (10), a son of Ondrej and Michelle Certik, finished 5th @200 Free, and 8th @100 Free and 200 IM in the Boys 10 & Under age group;