Martin County Swimming and the North Palm Beach Swim Club hosted the 2022 14 & Under Long Course Junior Olympics Swimming Championships held Thursday, July 14 to Sunday, July 17 at the Sailfish Splash Waterpark in Stuart.
Teams from Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties competed at this prestigious championship event. The grueling four-day event consists of preliminary qualifying races during the morning and early afternoon session, followed by finals held each evening of the four-day event.
The Wahoos of Wellington Swim Team has been hard at work over the summer, with early morning training practices six days a week, along with strategic afternoon practices on certain days. The Wahoos fielded a team of 27 athletes that pre-qualified for the event, led by head coach Rich Whalen and head age group coach Becky Richey. Over the course of the meet, the team had many swimmers who made finals and placed inside the top eight finishers, including Chole Abinuman, Allison Connors, Andreas Dasilva, Nikolina Dengerud, Julian Granison, Luca Gray, Emma Han, Katerina Malyshev, Dillon Metz, Veronica Metz, Aria Mindley, Ares Rilo and Sage Shach.
In addition to the many swimmers who earned individual podium finishes and personal best times, Dillon Metz earned an individual age group division High Point Award in the men’s 13-14 division, and Veronica Metz earned an individual age group division High Point Award in the women’s 11-12 division. In addition to multiple podium finishes for the relay teams, the Wahoos also earned a second place overall team high point in the women’s division, and a third place overall team high point award for the combined women’s and men’s team efforts as well.
Congratulations to all 27 Wahoo athletes who qualified for the 2022 Long Course Junior Olympics: Chole Abinuman, Uliana Antonyan, Alejandro Bahos Andrade, Allison Connors, Andreas Dasilva, Nikolina Dengerud, Vincent Elliott, Oliver Fergus, Jolie Gabriel, Julian Granison, Luca Gray, Neylin Gultepe, Emma Han, Natalie Honzik, Aleksey Kaladzinski, Steven Lee, Katerina Malyshev, Vlad Malyshev, Dillon Metz, Veronica Metz, Aria Mindley, Yogi Patel, Ares Rilo, Athena Rilo, Gabrielle Rivarola, Ivan Rodriguez and Sage Shach.
