Finishing in the top 15 out of 90 swim clubs at the Southern California Swim 14 and Under Short Course Junior Olympic Championships held on March 15-18, Paseo Aquatics is proud of their accomplishments.
Led by Teia Salvino Chris Dahowski, who finished top-five in total points for the 11-12 girls, 22 Paseo Aquatics’ swimmers represented the Valencia club in one of the most competitive Southern California swim meets.
Breaking Paseo records in the 50-yard butterfly (26.64 seconds), 100-yard butterfly (59.85 seconds) and the 100-yard individuals medley (1:02.21) Salvino was one of the fastest swimmers of the day.
“Paseo Aquatics is a team made up of under 175 swimmers and we proved that coaching supersedes numbers when it comes to building success,” said Paseo Aquatics Head Coach Chris Dahowski. “Some of the other 90 clubs had teams as big as 600 to 1,100 swimmers in their program.”
He added: “The meet this year dropped their qualifying time standards five percent faster than last years’ cuts but Paseo Aquatics was still able to qualify 22 swimmers while these larger clubs are bringing 60-100 swimmers. So coming in 15th was a huge accomplishment and nothing short of a miracle unfolded in front of our eyes.”
The 11-12 boys relay team also put on a show, headlined by Adam Meldrum, Luke Bezanilla, Nolan Hill and anchor Daniel Jo, by winning the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.43) and 400-yard freestyle relay (3:42.47), setting a new Paseo Aquatics record.
“When athletes go to practice because they are invested into their teammates and their teammates are invested into them, something magical is bound to rise up,” Dahowski said. ”However, this doesn’t just happen. It starts with the coaches providing the athletes with the tools to be successful.”
Swimmers representing Paseo Aquatics included: Daniel Jo, Luke Bezanilla, Alyssa Hamilton, Riley Botton, Andy Park, Bryant Lee, Viktoria Paragas, Dean Bezanilla, Teia Salvino, Nolan Hill, Adam Meldrum, Sydney Zancanaro, Colin Gebhardt, Matthew Chan, Heather Ostic, Audrey Chen, Ariel Kellum, Amelia Tisdale, Anika Sta. Maria, Helena Salvino, Cameron Snowden and Sadhbh O’Dwyer.
As reported by Steve Pratt of BZA.
