Club Olympia coach Jennifer Brinegar, from left, and swimmers Misha Machavariani, Connelly Furnish, Ashley Freel and Josh Pendleton participated in the Team Indiana Elite Swim Camp at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
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During the month of June, several Club Olympia swimmers have spent time participating with Indiana Swimming in clinics and training camps and competing in Central Zones meets for Team Indiana.
Last week, 13 current and one former “unattached” Club Olympia swimmer traveled to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, to compete as members of
Team Indiana at the 2022 Central Zone Open Water Championships. Two weeks ago select Club Olympia athletes competed as members of Team Indiana in the Central Zones Multi-Cultural Swim meet in Evansville, while other Club Olympia swimmers were invited to attend the Indiana Swimming/Team Indiana Elite Swimmers Training Camp at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Club Olympia’s, from left, Lane Mellencamp, Vivan Shah, Aahan Gupta, Tony Machavariani, Shreyan Kulkarni, Emily Meek, Lily Pendleton, Aashka Shah and Nandini Kondhare competed in the Central Zones Multi-Cultural Meet in Evansville.
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The Multi-Cultural meet is a Central Zones Event that includes Teams from Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin who come together for a one day “training camp” and two days of competition. Team Indiana easily outdistanced the other teams and took first place for the weekend competition with more than 5,000 points. Team Indiana included nine Club Olympia Age Group swimmers, led by Tony Machavariani, Shreyan Kulkarni, Lane Mellencamp and Vivan Shah, who combined for more than 375 points in individual events and contributed to several successful Team Indiana relays.
Machavariani set personal records in all eight of his individual events and placed first in the 10-and-under boys 50 butterfly, 50 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Machavariani took second in the 50 freestyle and 50 breaststroke.
Kulkarni personal records in seven of eight 10U boys events, placing second in the 100 butterfly, third in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 50 butterfly, 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke, along with a fourth in the 50 backstroke.
Mellencamp PR’d in all six of his individual events, finishing third in the 13-14 boys 200 freestyle; seventh in the 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and 11th in the 50 freestyle and 200 individual medley.
Vivan Shah, competing in the 10U girls division, placed top 10 in three events, including the 50 butterfly, 50 backstroke and 100 backstroke with an 11th-place finish in the 50 breaststroke and 12th in the 100 freestyle. Lily Pendleton, competing in a limited schedule, placed eighth in the 50 butterfly, 12th in the 100 freestyle and 14th in the 50 backstroke.
Aahan Gupta, competing in the 10U division, took ninth in the 50 buttefly, 10th in the 100 freestyle and 12th in the 50 backstroke. Emily Meek placed top 20 in three events, with a best finish of the 13th in the 100 breaststroke. Club Olympia swimmers also competing included Nandini Kondhare and Aashka Shah who both achieved several PR’s and contributed to Team Indiana relay teams.
Club Olympia’s Aashka Shah, left, and Nandini Kondhare, right, are pictured with Olympian Cody Miller.
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At the Open Water Zones Championship, Swimmers from those same Midwestern states came to Wisconsin to compete in various events on a course set up in the reservoir at Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex. Team Indiana placed second to Team Illinois by only 25 points, drastically reducing the 182-point loss to Team Illinois in 2021.
Club Olympia swimmers accounted for nearly half of Team Indiana’s point total. Swimmers 15-and-older competed in a 5K race, while younger swimmers competed in either a 2.5K or 1.25K event.
Brady Beyer, currently training in Indiana as a club unattached swimmer, took seventh in just over 57 minutes. Misha Machavariani also medaled in eighth place, just 3.5 seconds behind Beyer. Other Club Olympia 5K swimmers were Ty Mayer (22nd), Cole Ehara (31st), Todd Hundley (40th) and Luke Miller (46th).
In the women’s 5K, Ashley Freel medaled in eighth place and was joined by Hope Westphal (11th) and Annie Murer (48th). In the 13-14 2.5K division, Connelly Furnish medaled and finished fifth among the girls, and Lane Mellencamp was 25th among the boys.
Josh Pendleton won the 11-12 boys 2.5K division. Tony Machavariani was second and Shreyan Kulkarni fourth in the 10U boys 1.25K division.
Freel, Beyer, Furnish, Pendleton, and Tony Machavariani were all top placing swimmers for Team Indiana.
During the first week of June, Freel, Misha Machavariani, Furnish and Pendleton, who had previously received invitations from Indiana Swimming, joined about 100 other top Indiana Age Group and Senior swimmers at the Team Indiana Elite Swim Camp at the US Naval Academy. The camp, led by top coaches from around the state of Indiana, including Club Olympia head coach and founder Jennifer Brinegar, was an intensive week-long camp focused on physical training, long course swimming technique and classroom instruction.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS
BBJ athletes win medals
Four Bartholomew Brown Jennings athletes competed in the Indiana State Games for track and field in Terre Haute.
Bartholomew Brown Jennings athletes Chaz Rothrock, from left, Josh Holley, Joe Cox and LZ Gotoh competed in the Special Olympics Indiana State Games in Terre Haute.
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Josh Holley won gold medals in the 400 meters, 800 and 1,500. LZ Gotoh won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 and a silver in the 800.
Chaz Rothrock won gold in the 200 and running long jump and a silver in the 100. Joe Cox won a gold medal in the 50, a fourth-place ribbon in the javelin, and a fifth in the shot put.
“I’m very proud of all of them, considering I was the head coach and could not attend,” BBJ coach Andy Hunnicutt said. “Mike Cox, Carlyn Cox and Deana Holley, my assistant coaches, stepped up and took care of everything for me and did a wonderful job. We had a very small contingent but we were highly successful in all of our events.”
