Tuesday night was our annual end of year BBQ. We recognized our graduating seniors:

Dean Gustavson, Dartmouth
Cameron Aryanpour, Amherst
Harry Parsons, Dennison
Chloe Firmage, San Diego State
Lila Heffernan, Stanford
Coco Quill, UCSB
Carter Albee, Chapman

Thank you to the 7 of you for your commitment to character and excellence!

We also recognized our recipients of the Theo Award. The Theo award recognizes the swimmer(s) that demonstrate similar qualities as Theo.

Commitment, resilience, stick-to-it-ivness, & in his own words, the desire to make a positive contribution to North Bay’s culture every day.

For the first time in the awards history, we recognized 3 athletes: Cameron Aryanpour, Lila Heffernan, and Coco Quill.

Congratulations to the recipients of this years Theo Award and to everyone on another amazing swim year. Tuna on 3…

I was watching some 50 free time trials at sectionals and saw a swimmer breathe every 4 strokes the entire way. She probably took 35-40 strokes over 27 seconds of racing, so about 9-10 breaths. She swims for a team that preaches “toughness” and watching that swim I found myself thinking about what it means to be “tough.” Every weekend swim meet we attend, coaches complain about “kids these days” not being tough enough. There is some coded language in there – kids are “different” nowadays, don’t want to do the yards, don’t want to do the “hard events,” kids are softer now, or that they aren’t committed enough. Yada, yada, yada…

​That gets me thinking every time if I’m watching a different sport or if toughness just means something different to me. I couldn’t define toughness for you, but I sure know it when I see it:

Marre Gattnar winning the 100 back Friday night then 30 minutes later starting off our 400 medley relay with a lead is tough

Coco Quill in the 100 back last night in her words, “Didn’t feel great, but when I flipped at the 50 I told myself I’m getting my hand on the wall first.” That’s tough.

Rhys Garroway Myers diving in for his 100 Free and his goggles sliding down to make a chinstrap, but still following his race strategy perfectly is tough.

Henry Manning getting a frustrating DQ after dropping 2.5 seconds and still showing up the next day to time trial an event is tough.

Lila Heffernan going 17 meters no breath to finish a 100 Free when she isn’t swimming her best is tough.​

Addie Everage doing the 200 Back/100 Fly double in prelims AND finals in one day is tough.

I feel bad for these other coaches because either North Bay has tougher athletes, North Bay coaches are better at coaching athletes to be tough, or they are missing out on appreciating all the times their swimmers are demonstrating toughness.

If you feel like coming down to IVC tomorrow to watch the toughest swimmers in the area, racing starts at 8:30am. They will be the ones with the Wavy N’s on their caps.

​We have 2 swimmers racing the 200 IM, 1 racing the 1500 Free, and 16 doing the 50 Free tomorrow. I’ll bet our swimmers take less than 16 breaths cumulative in the 50 Free. That’s tough

Hello Team NBA

Sometimes swimmers want numbers…try these on for size

26.30/28.90/29.57/29.91/30.14/29.84/29.93/28.80 = 3:53.39

Ivan Kurakin’s splits in Indy at the Olympic Trials in the 3rd heat of men’s 400 meter freestyle.

His goal was to win his heat…he was second and if the race had been another 10 meters he might have pulled it off…of the 60 swimmers in the event he was one of 23 to record a personal best.
His previous best was 3:54.43…Ivan has swum 4 × 400 meters in Olympic Trials competition…2 in the “b” Olympic Trials in June of 2021…1 in the “a” Trials in 2021 and then this one today…4 times in 3 years in the toughest meet in the swimming world (yes that’s what most consider the USA Olympic Trials to be) and each swim got faster…

Put that on a resume and you’ll get a second interview and maybe (haha) get hired…

Ivan came to Marin 12 years ago in the days after Christmas as a 6th grader…only English word he knew was “No”…strange he did know all the lyrics to a ton of heavy metal songs…go figure

Went to Hall Middle and then RDWD High…then UC San Diego swimming for Coach Marko (same place where another Tuna legend Sophia Bell is swimming today) …learned English…graduated, then got his Masters both in Structural Engineering with a focus on aerospace structures…kept racing…got a job…keep racing…special favorite of Geoff Spellberg’ s (gave Geoff a few lessons )

His name is on the Record Board at RDWD – see for yourself next time to are there – like all summer!

Words that describe him include humble, self-assured, encouraging to others, loves and appreciates his Mom (Elena swims on our masters team!)…never late to wkot…(hard working, duh)

Oh, fun fact…Ivan and brother Yaroslav (actual Russian rocket Scientist – grad of Cal Poly and works at Space X) rode their bicycles from their apartment in Larkspur to Com and RDWD and school every day…rain or shine…winter or summer…no complaints, never

Though Ivan was known to poach a ride now and then his senior year, but we won’t tell

He started with NBA when he was 12 and he is now 24 years old…been a solid 12 years (most folks would love to have a 12 year run like that)…once a TUNA always a TUNA

Tuna on 3…

Thank you,

Don Swartza

2 weeks ago, we took our national group down to Morgan Hill to the George Haines International meet. There was at least 2 swimmers in each event trying to make last minute Olympic Trials cuts. One of those swimmers was Anna Shaw, a rising senior on the Stanford women’s varsity team. Anna was swimming the 50 Free and 100 Free at the meet and in both events she was seeded within tenths of the Trials qualifying times.

The second night of the meet she swam the 50 free, went around her best time, and finished .28 off the qualifying time. The next day was in the 100 free. At finals she went out like a mad woman – 26.75 for a first 50. Seemed like a trials cut was imminent, until the last 15 meters came and she paid a price for that opening 50. She got to the wall in 55.86, just .07 off a trials cut.

This weekend Anna was in Roseville at the Summer Sanders meet. She had no teammates at the meet and no coaches. Entries for trials are due Monday at 11:59pm, so this is truly the last chance to qualify.

Again, her meet started with some 50 freestyles and to no avail. Sunday was the 100 free though and she went out fast again, 26.97, but just like 2 weeks ago, those last 15 meters came around and Anna missed the time by a few tenths again

Anna had one more shot. 1 hour after that final 100 free there was a time trial offered to swimmers VERY close to trials cuts. 3 swimmers took part. 2 were NBA alumni in Gavin Green and Jackson Mason. Anna was the third in a heat with Gavin for a 50 free

Empty pool deck, 2 swimmers in the pool, all her coaches and teammates 3 hours away in Palo Alto, and Anna gave it one more go. She touched the wall and the clock had a delay, until the time on the board popped up. 25.67. Anna qualified for Olympic Trials by 2 one hundredths. As she walked down the pool deck back to her stuff, people she never met before congratulated her, but she didn’t hear them. She was just repeating “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…” over and over again.

I’m very appreciative I got to see that swim, but even more appreciative we had about a dozen young athletes there watching Anna go for one more chance. Next time you get annoyed with Don saying “just one more!” you can think of Anna.

The story is awesome, but hardly unfamiliar. This happens every 4 years. 4 years from now, someone reading this is going to be doing a last minute time trial to have an opportunity to race at the 2028 Olympic Trials. That journey doesn’t start when they release the updated qualifying times for 2028, that starts this week. It starts in how you show up to practices. It shows up in how you sleep. It shows up in what you do when things get tough. It shows up when you fail at a goal and have to get back up, dust yourself off, and try again the next day. If you want this opportunity, show up to practice this week with the same kind of determination of Anna Shaw

North Bay Aquatics Youth Team open house dates will be July 10, 15th, and 17th from 8-9:30am at Redwood High School! All athletes 6th grade and above interested in joining the team this fall are welcome to come down to a practice, meet our coaches, learn more about the team or USA Swimming, and are welcome to hop in and try a practice out themselves!

Interested families can email Head Coach Max Byers at max@northbayaquatics.org.

Looking forward to see everyone at the pool soon!