Club Olympia Opens Long Course Season With 2 Nd Place Finish At Franklin Meet

Columbus, Indiana’s Club Olympia Swim Team, with just under 50 athletes competing, opened the 2022 Long Course Season (all events are competed in a 50 meter pool during the Long Course Season) with an impressive 2^nd place finish at the “Early Summer Slam” Meet hosted by the Franklin Regional Swim Team (FRST) at Franklin Community High School this past weekend.  The much larger host team easily outdistanced all other clubs for first place in team scoring.  Club Olympia took a closely contested 2^nd place by scoring more points than teams from Bloomington, Indianapolis and Noblesville in the 12 team event. Top performers and event winners for Club Olympia included Connelly Furnish, Tony Machavariani, Joshua Pendleton, Todd Hundley, Aashka Shah, Ashley Freel, Misha Machavariani and Shreyan Kulkarni.

The 10&U age group was led by Tony Machavariani, Aashka Shah, and Shreyan Kulkarni.  Machavariani, just 9, finished second in the 10&U Boys highpoint scoring with 140.5 points, getting eight top 10 finishes, including 1^st in the 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 100 Fly and 200 IM.  He also placed 2^nd in the 100 and 200 Free.  Shah finished in second place in highpoint scoring in the Girls 10&U with 135 points by getting eight top 10 finishes, including 1^st in the 200 IM and 200 Free, and 2^nd in the 50 Free, Breast and Fly.  Kulkarni, also just 9 like Machavariani, placed 5th in the 10&U Boys highpoint scoring with 120 points, placing 1^st in the 100 Breast, 2^nd in the 100 Fly and 3^rd in the 50 Fly as part of his eight top 10s. Arjun Agarkar, Aahan Gupta, Lily Pendleton, Vivan Shah, and Xavier Zhang combined for eight top 10 finishes on the weekend.   Also competing in the 10&U age group were Aarush Datar, Sarthak Deshmukh, Aahana Ingole, Myra Jaryal, Adir Joshi, Teddy Machavariani, Shourya Malviya, Emily Meek, Chad Pendleton and Bella Zhang.

Joshua Pendleton, on a limited weekend schedule in the 11-12 division, took 1^st in the 100 Free, 200 IM, and 400 Free,   2^nd in the 50 Fly and 100 Back, and 4^th in the 100 Breast in the 11-12 group.  Nandini Kondhare placed 8^th in the 200 IM.  They were joined by 11 year olds Aubrey Hernandez and Vidita Keskar.

Connelly Furnish, Todd Hundley and Zoie Chandalkar were top performers for the 13-14 group. Furnish was the top point scorer for the Girls 13-14 with 182 points, placing 1^st in the 200 Free, 200 Fly, 400 Free, and 400 IM.  Furnish also took 2^nd in the 50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Breast and 100 Fly, and in the 200 IM.  Hundley finished top 5 in six events on a limited schedule including three 1^st place finishes in the 100 Back, 200 Fly, and 400 Free, two 2^nd place finishes in the 200 and 400 IM, and a 4^th in the 100 Free.  Chandalkar had 9 top 10 finishes including 4^th in the 200 Back and 5^th in the 400 IM.   Sanaa Kulkarni and Cassidy Furnish combined for five top 10 finishes.  Others competing in the 13-14 age group were Saya Hauser, Saanvi Vibhuti and Lovely Panda.

As a recent transfer to Club Olympia, 14 year old Lane Mellencamp’s 157 points were not considered part of the teams’ total as he was required to compete “unattached”.  However, Mellencamp did place top 5 in all 10 Boys 13-14 events for the weekend including 2^nd place in the 100 Fly and 200 Free, 3^rd in the 100 Free, Back, Breast and 200 IM, 4^th in the 50 Free, 200 Back and 400 Free and 5^th in the 400 IM, and he was the high point scorer for his age group with 157 points.

In the Senior Open Division, Ashley Freel had 10 Top 5s winning the 200 Fly and Back, placing 2^nd in the 100 Free and 400 IM, 3^rd in the 100 Fly, 200 IM and 400 Free and 5^th in the 50 Free, 100 Back and 200 Free.  Freel was the top point scoring female in the Open Division with 106 points.  Misha Machavariani claimed 10 top 10 finishes to finish second in highpoint scoring with 104 points, winning the 200 Breast, taking 2^nd in the 200 Fly and 200 Back, and 4^th in the 200 Back, 400 Free and 400 IM.   Hope Westphal had nine top 10s including 3^rd in the 400 IM and 4^th in the 400 Free and 200 Back.  Dathan Wolf finished in the top 10 in four events which included a 3^rd in the 200 Back and a 5^th in the 100 Back.  Maggie Johnson swimming only 2 events on the weekend placed 4^th in the 400 IM and 6^th in the 400 Free. Cole Ehara, Pratt Badve, Ty Mayer, and Cavan Stilson combined for seven top 10s.  Ehara finished 6^th in the 100 Breast and Badve placed 6^th in the 200 IM.  Luke Miller, swimming his first meet for Club Olympia had two 11^th place finishes.  Others competing in the Open Division for Club Olympia were Hannah Dean, Ethan Hall, Eli and Jesse Isaacs, Annie Murer, Judah Nickoll, Rylan Perkins and Ali Trueblood.

Club Olympia will compete next in the Annual “FAST 500” invitational in Fishers, Indiana, May 13-15.