May News 2006
Seniors announce college commitments
Four more seniors have announced their college choices:
Peter Fishler - Franklin and Marshall
Eric Hamer - UC Santa Cruz
Ted Tomlinson - MIT
Brian Johnson - UC Irvine
All four are planning to swim for their schools. They join Chelsea Davidoff (Vermont), Katie Wong (UCLA), and Paris Hays (Brown) who all made fall commitments to swim for their schools.
Long Course Season Begins
Westside Aquatics started off their long course season in April with two meets, the COLA ABC in Van Nuys and TSM ABC at the Rose Bowl. Twelve year old Reyna Calderon placed first in the 50 Free and 3rd in the 50 Back, both in the A division. Twelve year old Catherine Wang placed first in the 100 Breast and 100 Fly.
The TSM ABC was moved to the Rose Bowl after the pool was shut down in Santa Monica because of a broken heater. Thirteen year old Danny Fujinaka placed second in the 400 Meter Free with a time of 4:41.44 making the Junior Olympic cut. Fourteen year old Ben Lewenstein went six for six (Achieving personal best in all six events that he swam) including an A time in the 50 Free. Fifteen year old Florencia Esteves placed first in the 50 Free barely missing her first Sectional cut.
Upcoming Meets
May 6-7 CALI ABC
May 13-14 LACS BC
May 26-28 CSA ABC
June 3-4 TBA ABC
June 17-18 SMOC@ Mission Viejo
June 24-25 COLA ABC
June 22-25 Summer AA @ Irvine
New Coach Evan Maczka
Because of our continued growth, Westside Aquatics is proud to announce the hiring of Evan Maczka. Evan is joining Maggie Nance and Adam Blakis on the coaching staff. Evan brings a wealth of knowledge to Westside Aquatics. A competive swimmer for ten years, he captained his high school team to their first divisional title. He also caoched the Amherst Triton Swim Team in his home state of Massachusetts. After moving to Santa Monica four years ago, he went on to acquire numerous community college All-American certificates while competing for Santa Monica College.
Evan volunteeered his coaching skills at Dos Pueblos High School and was an assistant coach for Southern California Aquatic Masters Swim Club. Evan is currently the Head Swim Coach at Santa Monica High School. He actively continues his swimming by competing in master's meets across the state.
Evan will be helping with Maggie's Novice Group as well as coaching our growing Age-Group Program.
Cara Davidoff Update
As some of you may have heard, Tulane University has dropped their swim program due to Hurricane Katrina. Cara Davidoff recently finished competing in her last meet for Tulane at the Conference USA Championships at Houston.. The highlight being her first Senior Spring National cut in the 50 Freestyle. Cara is currently searching for a new school. She is scheduled to go on three recruiting trips: Virginia, UCLA and Indiana. In addition Cara has been chosen for the 2006 U.S. Maccabiah Squad traveling to Australia July 2-10. We will keep you updated when she decides on her new school.