The Southern California Swimming Winter Junior Olympics wrapped up in Long Beach this past weekend with Canyons Aquatic Club earning an impressive 3^rd place overall finish.  With the previous weekend dedicated to the 12 and under swimmers, this weekend’s competition featured the best swimmers in Southern California, aged 13 and older.  The Canyons swimmers did not disappoint with several team records broken and numerous top 8 and top 16 finishes earned.

RECORDS

As is the case when Canyons heads to a championship meet, no team record is safe and this weekend saw 6 individual records fall as well as 2 relay records.

Riley Mita led the as he recorded two team records.  The first was in the 1000 free where Riley lowered his own age group and open team record by a second in his silver medal swim for a 9:17.72.  Riley’s second team record came the next day as he earned another silver medal while breaking Matthew Jensen’s 2003 record in the 200 backstroke.  Riley’s 1:52.21 took almost a second off the 15-18 age group record.

Matt Jensen’s hold on the record books took another hit as Bob Hwang flew through the Belmont waters for a third place finish in the 100 butterfly.  Bob’s time of 50.38 is an exact tie for the age group (15-18) record in that event set by Matt in 2003. Bob’s time is 1/100^th off the team open record held by Olympian Gabe Woodward.

Maggie Hanson took her 400IM record down a few seconds as she powered he way to a 4:28.73 in finals, carving two seconds off her best and the team 15-18 record.

Matthew Johnson broke the boys 13-14 1650 record with his 16:22.51 swim, lowering Riley Mita’s 2008 record of 16:27.88. The record swim earned Matthew a bronze medal.  Another mile later, another team record fell as Nicole Antoniuk took her 1650 age group (15-18) and open team record down to 17:08.77 with her bronze medal swim.

Two relay records also fell this weekend as the relay team of Mita, Nui Harris, Konrad Antoniuk and Hwang lowered their 800 free relay record down by 3 second to a 6:50.86 good enough for a gold medal.  The mark is both the team open record and the age group record. The 13-14 girls 800 free relay team of Bryanna Waage, Augustina Hansen, Taylor Poliseno and Megan Schultz took down the team record set in 2000 by one of Canyons’s best foursomes: Nicole Shiflett, Maureen Farrell, Shannon Coskran and Amy Jones. The new mark is now 7:54.77.

GOLD MEDAL SWIMS

On the 4^th and final day of the meet, Canyons scored two gold medals with Bob Hwang winning the 100 freestyle (46.65) and Riley Mita winning the 1650 free style. Relay gold also came from the 15-18 year old boys 800 free relay.

TOP 8 FINISHES

Riley Mita led the team with 6 out of 6 swims earning a trip to finals.  Riley earned gold in the 1650, then scored silver medal finishes in the 1000 free, 200 backstroke and 400IM.  In addition, Riley finished 5^th in the 100 backstroke and 7^th in the 200IM.  Bob Hwang was Canyons second highest scorer with 5 top 8 finishes including the: 100 free (1^st), 100 fly (3^rd), 200 Butterfly (3^rd),  200 IM (5^th) and 200 free (6^th).

Megan Schultz (13-14) was the top medalist for the ladies with four visits to the finals taking 4^th in the 1650 free, 5^th in the 1000 free, 5^th in the 500 free and 6^th in the 200 free.  Also with 4 finals was Konrad Antoniuk(15-18) was who notched 4 top 8 finishes with a silver medal in the 500 free, 6^th in the 200 butterfly, 7^th place 200 backstroke, 8^th 400 IM.  Joining Konrad with 4 medal swims was Matthew Johnson (13-14). With his 3^rd place record swim in the 1650, Matthew also earned 2^nd place in the 500 free, 2^nd in the 1000 free and 8^th in the 200 free.

In addition to their team records swims, Nicole Antoniuk (15-18) and Maggie Hanson (15-18) each earned 3 championship final swims/medals with Nicole taking 3^rd in the 1650 free, 4^th in the 1000 free and 5^th in the 500 free. Maggie earned her medals with a 4^th place in the 200 fly, 5^th in the 200 IM and 6^th in the 200 back.

Augustina Hansen (13-14) earned three medals with her 3^rd place swim in the 400IM and an 8^th place finish in the 200 IM and 200 breaststroke.

Mitchell Johnson (15-18) was able to make finals twice with an impressive 3^rd place in the 1650 and 6th in the 1000 free.

Emma Osowski (13-14) in her first trip to the older Junior Olympics showed her distance strength with a pair of 7^th place finishes, one in the 1000 free and one in the 1650 free.

Michelle Duraj (15-18) earned double medals in both breaststrokes with a 3^rd place finish in the 200 breast and 4^th place in the 100 breaststroke.

Single medalists include Taylor Poliseno (13-14), who took 6^th in the 50 free, Bryanna Waage who took 4^th in the 200 breaststroke, Asia Antoniuk who took 7th in the 200 butterfly, and Kearsten Livingstone who took 5^th place in the 100 fly before leaving the meet early with a hand injury.

After two weeks, and hundreds of heats, races and finals, Canyons finished 3^rd behind Champion Mission Viejo and rising powerhouse Irvine Aquazots.  Canyons was able to over take both Irvine Novaquatics and Rose BowlAquatics while holding off a challenge from Swim Pasadena.

With the short course season almost over, the senior swimmers will turn their training toward high school competition with eyes on the Foothill League championships and the CIF championships in May. Canyons’s younger swimmers will head to Bakersfield for one last short course meet before preparing for the long course season.

For Junior Olympic younger results click:  HERE

For Junior Olympic olders results click:  HERE

Combined Team Scores

Younger and Older Junior Olympics 2010

1. Mission Viejo Nadadores            2261

2. AquaZot Swim                        1664

3. Canyons Aquatic Club          1385.5  

4. Irvine Novaquatics            1316.5

5. Swim Pasadena                1055.5  

6. The Claremont Club            961

7. Rose Bowl Aquatics                700  

8. Team Santa Monica              580.5

9. Boulder City Henderson           579.5 

10. West Coast Swimming           568

11. Rattler Swim Club             558 

12. Class Aquatics              529

13. F A S T Swim Team               381 

14. Brea Aquatics                    343

15. Orange County Waves               250 

16. Crescenta-Canada YMCA              236

17. La Mirada Armada                   139 

18. Elite Swimming                    129

19. Piranha Swim Team                 126 

20. Redlands Swim Team                  120

21. Conejo Simi Swim Club               109 

22. Royal Swim Team                    78

23. Monrovia AquatiX                    72 

24. Coto De Caza Coyotes                67

25. Riverside Aquatics Assoc            53 

26. Desert Storm Swimming              48

27. Mesa Aquatics                   36 

28. San Gabriel Sea Gulls            34

29. Orange Aquatics                32 

30. Santa Barbara Swim Club           27

31. Team Rebel Aquatics                26 

32. Ccat Swimming                     23

33. Swim Torrance                    19 

34. Bruin Swim Club                 18

35. Lakewood Aquatics                 17 

36. Whittier Aquatic Club              12

37. Swim Team OF Placentia            7

38. South Pasadena Sea Tigers          4

39. East Lake Eagle Rays              2