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Boys Swimming 2/17/2022 9:30:00 AM

Solid Sectionals by Aquabraves

The Aquabraves continued their strong performances in the sectional meet this past weekend. This meet marked the end of the season for many Aquabraves, but just the beginning for others. The Lady Aquabraves now move on to try to defend their 2021 District meet title. The men's team will attempt to win an astounding 5^th straight title. For those of you unfamiliar with the sectional, district and state meet format – each individual and relay competitor must qualify for the next level of competition. The sectional dive meet is limited to 4 divers and the sectional swim meet only allows 4 individuals per event.

#IHPromise #BeBRAVE pic.twitter.com/8zKDxwYfGN
— Brian Phelps (@bphelps_IH) February 12, 2022

This year there were 7 sectional sites, and only the top 24 relays and 32 individuals qualify for the district meet. Each sectional winner receives an automatic qualification to districts, and the remaining individuals and relays qualify by having the fastest times or the top points compared to all the other competitors from the 7 sectional meets. To qualify for districts is incredibly difficult and quite an accomplishment. Congratulations to all those who completed their outstanding seasons and to those who qualified for the district meet!

Coach Matt stated, "sectionals was an absolute success! 17 of our 25 swimmers advanced to Districts, and those who didn't all swam best times! Some ended their season on a great note, while others are just getting started. The coaches are VERY proud that we made it through both Sectional meets without a single DQ!"

Lady Braves recap:
The sectional meet took place at Mason High School on Saturday afternoon. The following line needs to be repeated for this meet, following on the heels of CHLs, there were some truly great performances, personal best swims and close relay races against great competition. Since this meet was not scored, this article will review the performances event by event.
In the 200 medley relay, Indian Hill and Mariemont resumed their rivalry. While CHCA pulled away, the Lady Aquabraves and Mariemont battled for second place. Mariemont took an early lead in backstroke, and held that lead in breaststroke, Isabella Pivor came back strong in the butterfly leg, and Marina Oria left no doubt in the freestyle leg. The Lady Aquabraves finished in second place at the Mason sectional and advanced to the district meet based on their strong qualifying time of 1:52.80. That time was good enough to qualify as second seed for this week's district meet.

In the 200 freestyle, sophomore Zoe Castenson and junior Natalia Byer competed for Indian Hill. Natalia swam a solid time of 2:44.83, finishing eleventh at the sectional meet. Zoe swam a season best time of 2:10.62 to finish sixth at the sectional meet. Zoe's time qualified her for the district meet, as the 21^st seed in the 200 freestyle. The 200 individual medley was next, with Isabelle Tindale swimming a season best time of 2:30.36, and qualifying for this week's district meet as the 20^th seed. The splash and dash, 50 freestyle, final heat was one heck of a race! The Braves had four competitors in this event, seniors Jessie Chan and Isabella Pivor, sophomore Marina Oria and freshman Yvette Detweiler. Jessie finished in twelfth place in a time of 29.12, and Yvette swam a season best time of 27.66, finishing sixth. The race for sectional champion was a great one, with Marina and Isabella going head-to-head with one of Mariemont's swimmers, all finishing within a couple tenths of a second within one another, and both advancing to this week's district meet. Isabella is seeded 2^nd and Marina is seeded 4^th this week in the 50 free.

Detweiller, Oria, & Pivor in 100 Free #IHPromise @ihbravesad pic.twitter.com/ojIPD19evw
— Amy Epperson (@AP_IHHS) February 12, 2022

Next up was the 100 butterfly with 3 Lady Aquabraves competing – seniors Kathy Zhao and Anna Palen and sophomore Delaney Quinn. All 3 had solid swims, with Kathy finishing second, Anna third and Delaney fifth, and all 3 advancing to the district meet, with Kathy seeded 9^th, Anna 13^th and Delaney 20^th. The Braves entered 4 in the meet's next event, the 100 freestyle, junior Grace Wang, freshman Yvette Detweiler, sophomore Marina Oria and senior Isabella Pivor. There were great swims across the board in the 100 free, with Grace finishing twenty second, Yvette finishing fourth, Marina finishing third and Isabella finishing second. Yvette, Marina and Isabella advanced to the district meet based on time, with Yvette seeded 30^th, Marina seeded 5^th and Isabella seeded 3^rd.

The Lady Aquabraves put up some season best performances in the 500 freestyle, featuring 3 sophomores - Zoe Castenson, Isabelle Tindale and Delaney Quinn. Zoe finished seventh, Isabelle fifth and Delaney fourth in a time of 5:46.64. All 3 competitors qualified for districts, based on their performances. This week Zoe is seeded 20^th, Isabelle 18^th and Delaney 17^th. The crazy 200 free relay was next. Crazy because anything can happen at any meet! Crazy at this sectional meet because IH and CHCA were neck-and-neck throughout the entire, exciting race. The team of Kathy Zhao, Anna Palen, Marina Oria and Isabella Pivor ended up in 2^nd place at the end of the race, and are seeded 2^nd at the district meet this week. Be prepared for another exciting race!

The 100 backstroke was next with juniors Grace Wang and Courtney Wenker and seniors Jessie Chan and Anna Palen. All four had solid swims, with Grace finishing seventeenth, Courtney finishing twelfth, Jessie finishing sixth and Anna finishing third. Anna qualified for districts and is seeded 13^th. The last individual event was the 100 breaststoke, and featured juniors Courtney Wenker & Natalia Byer and senior Kathy Zhao. Courtney dropped a whopping 7 seconds, after just racing in the backstroke, and finished fifteenth. Natalia had a solid swim and finished twelfth, and Kathy finished fifth. Kathy's time qualified her for the district meet, where she is seeded 7^th. The final event was the 400 free relay with Yvette Detweiler, Delaney Quinn, Isabelle Tindale and Zoe Castenson. The relay finished in second place and qualified as the 12^th seed at districts.
The diving sectionals took place Friday night and featured senior Maggie Overberg, junior Marisol Mason, sophomore Josie Festa and freshman Merrie Leder. The Aquadivers performed per their high standard, with all 4 divers qualifying for districts. In the sectional meet, Josie finished 2^nd, Maggie finished 4^th, Marisol finished 9^th and Merrie finished 11^th.
Congratulations to all Lady Aquabraves!! An outstanding season by those who concluded their season at sectionals and best of luck to those district qualifiers this week!!!

Lady Brave District Qualifiers:

200 Freestyle: Zoe Castenson (21^st seed)
200 Individual Medley: Isabelle Tindale (20^th seed)
50 Freestyle: Isabella Pivor (2^nd seed) and Marina Oria (4^th seed)
100 Butterfly: Kathy Zhao (9^th seed), Anna Palen (13^th seed) and Delaney Quinn (20^th seed)
100 Freestyle: Isabella Pivor (3^rd seed), Marina Oria (5^th seed) and Yvette Detweiler (30^th seed)
500 Freestyle: Delaney Quinn (17^th seed), Isabelle Tindale (18^th seed) & Zoe Castenson (20^th seed)
100 Backstroke: Anna Palen (13^th seed)
100 Breaststroke: Kathy Zhao (7^th seed)
1 Meter Diving: Josie Festa, Maggie Overberg (3^rd place), Marisol Mason and Merrie Leder

Lady Brave Relay Qualifiers:

200 Medley Relay (2^nd seed)
200 Free Relay (2^nd seed)
400 Free Relay (12^th seed)

This was an amazing performance for the Lady Aquabraves and a solid start to be in contention for the District team title. Best of luck to all District meet qualifiers!!!

Men's Braves recap:
The sectional meet took place at Princeton High School on Friday night. Friday night left the Men's team with a real opportunity to compete for a fifth straight district team title. To complete that goal, Friday's efforts will need to have many lifetime bests by the Aquabraves at the district meet. At sectionals, there were some great performances and personal best swims against some of the best competitors in Cincinnati. Since this meet was not scored, this article will review the performances event by event.

In the 200 medley relay, Indian Hill pulled away early and were the Princeton sectional champs, automatically qualifying for the district meet. There were some good splits within the relay, but all strokes will have to be improved to compete for a top spot at districts. The medley is seeded 7th for this week's district meet. In the 200 freestyle, the Aquabraves featured freshmen Reid Pontius and Jason Zhao, and sophomore Issac Scott. All 3 men swam very well, with Reid finishing ninth, Issac finishing third and Jason winning the sectional championship and automatically qualifying for districts. Isaac's time also qualified for districts and is seeded 14^th, while Jason ends up as the 4^th seed for this week's meet.

The 200 individual medley was completely controlled by the Indian Hill men, with juniors Gibson Holmes and Pranav Rastogi, sophomore Jeffrey Wenker and freshman Arjun Velayutham having outstanding swims. Gibson was the sectional champion, automatically qualifying for the district meet as the top seed, behind him were Jeffrey finishing second and qualifying as the 10^th seed, Arjun finished third and is the 14^th seed, and Pranav finished fourth, qualifying as the 15^th seed. This is obviously a strong event for the Aquabraves, but one where all will need to push themselves to finish on the podium next week.

The 50 freestyle had four competitors in this event, freshmen Hollis Chan and Logan Bass, sophomore Arjun Verma and junior Jack Edmonson. Arjun finished in tenth place, Logan finished eighth, Hollis finished sixth and Jack finished third. Jack is the only Aquabrave to advance to the districts in the splash and dash, and is seeded 19^th. The 100 butterfly had junior Gibson Holmes and freshman Logan Bass in a small field of contenders. The men finished 1^st and 2^nd, respectively, with both qualifying for the district meet this week, Gibson is the 4^th seed and Logan is the 15^th seed. The 100 freestyle featured four Braves – freshmen Reid Pontius, Ian Kincaide and Jason Zhao and junior Jack Edmonson. Ian and Reid had season best swims, finishing in ninth and tenth place. Reid dropped over 4 seconds and Ian dropped almost 9 seconds! Jack finished fourth and Jason was the Princeton sectional champion. Both Jason and Jack qualified for districts, seeded 4^th and 18^th, respectively, this week. In the 500 freestyle, sophomore Issac Scott and freshman Arjun Velayutham had strong performances, both advancing to districts. Issac finished second and is seeded 15^th, while Arjun finished third and is seeded 16^th.

My favorite event is the 200 free relay because of the chaos and speed. Our men took care of business at the sectional meet, finishing as sectional champion an advancing to the districts as an automatic qualifier. The team of Jason Zhao, Jeffrey Wenker, Jack Edmonson and Gibson Holmes performed well enough to be seeded 2^nd at the district meet this week. This event should be an amazing watch, as the top 4 seeds are within 2 seconds of one another. The 100 backstroke was next with freshmen Ian Kincaide and Hollis Chan and sophomore Jeffrey Wenker. All had solid swims, with Ian finishing eleventh, Hollis finishing third and Jeffrey finishing second. Jeffrey and Hollis both qualified for districts. Jeffrey is seeded 9^th and Hollis is seeded 13^th.

The last individual event was the 100 breaststoke, and featured junior Pranav Rastogi and sophomore Arjun Verman. Arjun had a good swim and finished eighth. Pranav led from the beginning and earned the sectional champion's automatic berth to the district meet. Pranav is seeded 11^th this week. The final event was the 400 free relay with Issac Scott, Jeffrey Wenker, Arjun Velayutham and Jason Zhao. This relay completed the clean sweep of Indian Hill sectional champion relay teams and is seeded 6^th at districts.

Congratulations to all Aquabraves!! An additional congratulations to those who concluded their season at sectionals and best of luck to those district qualifiers this week!!!

Men's Individual District Qualifiers:

200 Freestyle: Jason Zhao (4^th seed) & Issac Scott (14^th seed)
200 Individual Medley: Gibson Holmes (1^st seed), Jeffrey Wenker (10^th seed), Arjun Velayutham (14^th seed) and Pranav Rastogi (15^th seed)
50 Freestyle: Jack Edmonson (19^th seed)
100 Butterfly: Gibson Holmes (4^th seed) & Logan Bass (15^th seed)
100 Freestyle: Jason Zhao (4^th seed) & Jack Edmonson (18^th seed)
500 Freestyle: Issac Scott (15^th seed) & Arjun Velayutham (16^th seed)
100 Backstroke: Jeffrey Wenker (9^th seed) & Hollis Chan (13^th seed)
100 Breaststroke: Pranav Rastogi (11^th seed)

Aquabrave Relay Qualifiers:

200 Medley Relay (7^th seed)
200 Free Relay (2^nd seed)
400 Free Relay (6^th seed)

The Men performed well, and as expected. How the men perform at districts will go a long way to see how many season goals they can check off.

In summary, the IHHS Swim & Dive Team performed well at the sectional meets and qualified a number of individuals and all their relays to the district meet. Districts is where the rubber meets the road. Can the Women's and Men's teams improve upon their sectional swims and outperform their seed times to compete for district team titles? Substantially outperforming their seed times is the only way the Aquabraves will bring home either of the district titles in 2022. This year, the competition is very close for both teams. There are several teams that will challenge the Aquabraves grip on the district crown. According to Coach Matt, "for the girls, the Lady Aquabraves main competitors will be Alter, Seven Hills, Mariemont and CHCA. For the boys, the main challengers come from Kenton Ridge, Oakwood, CHCA and Bishop Fenwick." First up are the Lady Aquadivers on Monday evening. Next up the men swim team heads to Miami University on Friday morning. The Lady Aquabrave swimmers get to rest up during an off school day to compete at Miami on Friday night. See you then Aquabraves!

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Players Mentioned

Logan Bass: Freshman

Hollis Chan: Freshman

Jack Edmonson: Junior

Gibson Holmes: Junior

Ian Kincaide: Freshman

Reid Pontius: Freshman

Pranav Rastogi: Junior

Arjun Velayutham: Freshman

Arjun Verma: Sophomore

Jeffrey Wenker: Sophomore

Jason Zhao: Freshman

Natalia Byer: Junior

Players Mentioned

Logan Bass
: Freshman

Hollis Chan
: Freshman

Jack Edmonson
: Junior

Gibson Holmes
: Junior

Ian Kincaide
: Freshman

Reid Pontius
: Freshman

Pranav Rastogi
: Junior

Arjun Velayutham
: Freshman

Arjun Verma
: Sophomore

Jeffrey Wenker
: Sophomore

Jason Zhao
: Freshman

Natalia Byer
: Junior

Indian Hill Braves Athletics

Solid Sectionals by Aquabraves

Players Mentioned

Logan Bass

Hollis Chan

Jack Edmonson

Gibson Holmes

Ian Kincaide

Reid Pontius

Pranav Rastogi

Arjun Velayutham

Arjun Verma

Jeffrey Wenker

Jason Zhao

Natalia Byer

Players Mentioned

Logan Bass

Hollis Chan

Jack Edmonson

Gibson Holmes

Ian Kincaide

Reid Pontius

Pranav Rastogi

Arjun Velayutham

Arjun Verma

Jeffrey Wenker

Jason Zhao

Natalia Byer

Scoreboard