Skip To Main Content

Indian Hill Braves Athletics

Indian Hill Braves Athletics
Calendar
IH CHL Swim-Dive 2022

Boys Swimming

History Made at CHL Championships by Aquabraves

The Aquabraves made history at the CHL Championship this past Saturday, where, for the first time ever, the ladies' and men's teams both won the CHL title.  The men's team won comfortably for a staggering 6th straight time.  The men's team dominated the relays and individual events – their victory never in doubt.  The Lady Aquabraves, on the other hand, won in dramatic fashion – with swimmers finishing better than their seed times, an exciting relay comeback win and the divers just crushing it!
The Lady Aquabraves win also ended Mariemont's 8-year run as CHL champs, claiming their first title since 2012-13.  The Lady Aquabraves swimmers faced tough competition in the pool, and ended the swim competition down by 35 points to Mariemont.  Not to worry, the Lady Aquadivers performed phenomenally – claiming 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places – and beating Mariemont 46-9 in the dive portion of the meet, and delivering the Lady Aquabraves their first CHL title in nearly a decade!  Coach Matt said of the team's performance, "Having the Boys and Girls both win CHL's was one of our major goals this season and I am incredibly proud of this team for accomplishing that goal and continuing to make history."

Additionally, Coach Matt was selected as the CHL Coach of the Year for both the Men and the Women.  Gibson Holmes was voted the CHL Male Swimmer of the Year.  The CHL Female Swimmer of the Year was a three-way tie, with Indian Hill Seniors Isabella Pivor and Kathy Zhao were joined by Jacqueline Young from Mariemont!  Congratulations to all our CHL award winners!

Scores:
Women's:                                             Men's:
Indian Hill                     323                  Indian Hill         344
Mariemont                   321                  Madeira           233
Madeira                       257                  Mariemont       230
Wyoming                      205                  Wyoming          156
Taylor                           67                    Taylor               82
                                                            Reading                        16
Lady Braves recap:
The CHL Championship was a rollercoaster ride for the fans, coaches and swimmers on Saturday afternoon.  Some truly great performances, personal best swims and relay comebacks, but always looming in the next lane were the ladies of Mariemont, not letting the Braves take the title easily.  Now let's state facts, Mariemont has an unfair advantage in the CHL, they have a competition pool in their high school, and consistently have 2, 3 or 4 times the number of swimmers and divers that the Aquabraves bring to the pool.  This year, however, the Aquabraves had the secret sauce.  This year the Lady Aquadivers had the bigger, better and more dominant team.  In this meet, the divers entered the picture, bounced high, pointed their toes and entered the water with nary a splash – dominating the dive portion of the meet and bringing home the CHL hardware for the Lady Aquabraves.  Every performance was needed and necessary, and every point was critical throughout Saturday's and Sunday's meet.  Think how close this was – one false start, one unpointed toe, one disqualification or one incomplete twist, and we are discussing a different result. 

The Lady Aquabraves won only 1 relay event and only 3 out of the 9 individual events.  In the meet's first event, the 200 Medley Relay, the Lady Aquabraves team of Anna Palen, Kathy Zhao, Delaney Quinn and Zoe Castenson finished second behind Mariemont and faced an early 6 point deficit.  The 200 freestyle was next, and Kathy Zhao won comfortably, but just as important, Zoe Castenson finished fifth, Natalia Byer finished fifteenth and Hannah Kremmer finished sixteenth, cutting the Mariemont lead to 2.  Mariemont stacked the 200 individual medley finishing 1st and 2nd, but Anna Palen fought back to finish fourth and Isabelle Tindale finished seventh, picking up some valuable points.  Mariemont led by 19 points after the IM.  The splash-and-dash 50 freestyle gave the crowd a great race, with Isabella Pivor finishing second, Marina Oria third & Yvette Detweiler eighth, combining to cut 9 points into Mariemont's lead. 

Kathy Zhao picked up her second individual title of the CHL meet by winning the 100 butterfly, with Anna Palen finishing fourth, Delaney Quinn finishing fifth, before any of the Mariemont swimmers touched the wall.  After the butterfly, the Aquabraves led by 11 points.  Isabella Pivor got out to an early lead and held off the competition in the 100 freestyle for the win, Yvette Detweiler finished seventh and Jessie Chan finished ninth, allowing the lead to grow to 30.  Strong swims by Delaney Quinn, who finished fourth, Isabelle Tindale, fifth, and Zoe Castenson, sixth, mitigated some great swims by Mariemont, and the Aquabraves carried a 24 point lead into the latter part of the meet. 

The 200 freestyle relay team of Marina Oria, Anna Palen, Delaney Quinn and Isabella Pivor swam a heck of a race, winning a very close race over Mariemont.  Isabella Pivor, the anchor of the relay, entered the water trailing the Madeira swimmer by almost 1 ½ seconds, nearly caught the Madeira swimmer on the turn and finally pulled ahead as she touched the wall a mere 0.30 seconds ahead of the Madeira team.  That win pushed the Aquabraves lead to 32 points, with only 3 events to go.  However, Mariemont stacked the last 2 individual events, and picked up lots of points.  In the 100 backstroke, Marina Oria swam a great race, finishing second, with Jessie Chan finishing sixth and Hannah Kremmer finishing fifteenth.  The Braves lead was down to 14 after the backstroke.  Mariemont crushed the 100 breaststroke, going 1, 2, 3, but Natalia Byer swam her season best time, finishing tenth, and kept the Braves in the meet.  The Braves now trailed 31 heading into the 400 freestyle relay.  In a true classic back and forth race between Mariemont and Indian Hill's team of Marina Oria, Kathy Zhao, Zoe Castenson and Isabella Pivor.  However, Isabella Pivor's attempt at a second come-from-behind finish fell a half second short.  After the swimming events, the Lady Aquabraves trailed by 35 points.

Enter the Lady Aquadivers on Sunday morning.  The team of Josie Festa, Maggie Overberg, Courtney Wenker, Marisol Mason, Merrie Leder and Emily Ryan knew where the team stood, but let none of that phase them.  Their approaches, flips, twists and entries were their best of the season.  Josie Festa finished second with a score of 220.0 points.  Maggie Overberg finished third with 173.85 points.  Courtney Wenker finished fourth with 160.55 points.  And Marisol Mason finished fifth with 154.35 points.  Mariemont entered only one diver who finished sixth.  Everything fell into place, and the Lady Aquabraves picked up 37 points in diving.  Those 37 points pushed the Lady Aquabraves back in front by 2 points, beating Mariemont 323 to 321, and capturing the CHL Title.  As stated earlier, this accomplishment could not have been done without everyone's contributions, there were no extraneous swims or dives, only the collective effort, performances and contributions led the Lady Aquabraves to victory.
Congratulations to all Lady Aquabraves, each and every one of you were critical and necessary for this win!!

Lady Brave CHL Individual and Relay Event Champions:  
CHL Individual & Relay Event Lady Brave point scorers:  
In summary, this was an amazing meet for the Lady Aquabraves and a solid start to the Championship season, as they continue on to Sectionals next week!  Best of luck!! 
 


Men's Braves recap:
The Men's Aquabraves had no overall team drama and dominated their CHL competition.  That said, there were some strong performances, personal best times and lots of standouts.  The Men won 3 of 3 relay events and 7 out of the 8 individual events, showing the strength and depth of the Men's team in defense of their run of CHL titles!  Four of those seven individual CHL titles were won by freshman – Jason Zhao, Logan Bass & Arjun Velayutham!!! 

The 200 Medley Relay team of Arjun Velayutham, Pranav Rastogi, Gibson Holmes and Jeffrey Wenker kicked off the winning ways for the men, winning by a 6 second margin.  Jason Zhao won the 200 freestyle in very comfortable fashion, and the Braves also saw strong swims by Issac Scott, who finished fourth, and Reid Pontius, who finished eleventh.  The 200 individual medley showed how strong the Aquabraves team is in 2021-22, with the team going 1,2,3 in this event.  Jeffrey Wenker brought home the CHL title in the 200 IM, beating teammates Arjun Velayutham, who got second, and Pranav Rastogi, who finished third – and all of whom finished well ahead of the other individuals swimming this event. 

The 50 freestyle saw all 4 Aquabraves swim great races.  Gibson Holmes won the 50 free in a new CHL record time of 21.90!  Jack Edmonson swam a personal best and finished second, Logan Bass tied for sixth and Ian Kincaide dropped over 1.5 seconds and finished thirteenth, all adding to the Aquabraves growing lead over the rest of the CHL.  Brave dominance continued in the 100 butterfly, where freshman Logan Bass won the event by 4 seconds and Arjun Verma swam a personal best time to bring home third place.  The 100 freestyle almost saw another CHL record fall, as Gibson Holmes cruised to a win in a time of 47.3, missing this record by a mere 0.2 seconds.  Despite tough competition, and a slip on a turn, Jack Edmonson finished fourth, Hollis Chan finished sixth and Reid Pontius finished fifteenth.  The 500 freestyle was the only event that the Aquabraves did not win on Saturday.  However, Issac Scott nearly swam his personal best time to finish third in the event and pulled ahead and away from a strong competitor in the last 100 yards of the race!

The 200 free relay team of Arjun Velayutham, Jack Edmonson, Jeffrey Wenker and Jason Zhao won one of the closer races of the meet.  Jason pulled away in the anchor leg after an early charge from Mariemont and Wyoming.  The 100 backstroke race saw freshman Arjun Velayutham leave the competition in his wake and win the CHL title in a time of 59.44.  Hollis Chan swam a great race, dropped nearly a second and finished third, and Ian Kincaide swam a personal best time, dropping nearly 11 seconds and finishing fourteenth!  11 second drop, OMG!!  The final individual event featured Jason Zhao winning his 2nd CHL title, with Pranav Rastogi finishing third, Jeffrey Wenker seventh and Arjun Verma eleventh.  The Braves closed the formal meet with a dominant 400 freestyle relay by Logan Bass, Issac Scott, Jason Zhao and Gibson Holmes.  The final event was a mixed 200 medley relay, in which the team of Gibson Holmes, Jason Zhao, Kathy Zhao and Isabella Pivor won very comfortably – breaking the old CHL records by over 5 seconds!!!
Congratulations to all Men's Aquabraves on bringing home an unprecedented 7th straight CHL title!!!

Men's Brave CHL Individual Event Champions:  
Men's Brave CHL Relay Champions:  
Other individual Brave point scorers:  
CHL Swim-Dive 2022
 
In summary, the IHHS Swim & Dive Team performed at the CHL Championships and created history by having both the women's and men's teams winning in the same year!  Next up are sectionals, the first step in the state tournament.  First up are the Lady Aquadivers and men's swim team on Friday night.  While the Lady Aquabrave swimmers get back to Mason's pool on Saturday morning.  See you then Aquabraves!

 
Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Marisol Mason

Marisol Mason

Sophomore
Emily Ryan

Emily Ryan

Junior
Logan Bass

Logan Bass

Freshman
Hollis Chan

Hollis Chan

Freshman
Jack Edmonson

Jack Edmonson

Junior
Gibson Holmes

Gibson Holmes

Junior
Ian Kincaide

Ian Kincaide

Freshman
Reid Pontius

Reid Pontius

Freshman
Pranav Rastogi

Pranav Rastogi

Junior
Arjun Velayutham

Arjun Velayutham

Freshman
Arjun Verma

Arjun Verma

Sophomore
Jeffrey Wenker

Jeffrey Wenker

Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Marisol Mason

Marisol Mason

Sophomore
Emily Ryan

Emily Ryan

Junior
Logan Bass

Logan Bass

Freshman
Hollis Chan

Hollis Chan

Freshman
Jack Edmonson

Jack Edmonson

Junior
Gibson Holmes

Gibson Holmes

Junior
Ian Kincaide

Ian Kincaide

Freshman
Reid Pontius

Reid Pontius

Freshman
Pranav Rastogi

Pranav Rastogi

Junior
Arjun Velayutham

Arjun Velayutham

Freshman
Arjun Verma

Arjun Verma

Sophomore
Jeffrey Wenker

Jeffrey Wenker

Sophomore

Scoreboard