Club Olympia Swimmers Spend Month of June Competing as Part of Team Indiana

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.   This past week, thirteen 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, Indiana while other Club Olympia swimmers were invited to attend the Indiana Swimming/Team Indiana Elite Swimmers Training Camp at the United States Naval Academy. 

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 that highlight and celebrate the many cultures and ethnic backgrounds that make up the sport of swimming in the Midwest. Team Indiana easily outdistanced the other teams and took first place for the weekend competition with over 5000 points.   The Missouri Valley Team placed second and Team Illinois was third. Team Indiana included nine Club Olympia age group swimmers led by Tony Machavariani, Shreyan Kulkarni, Lane Mellencamp and Vivan Shah who combined for over 375 points in individual events and contributed to several successful Team Indiana relays.

Machavariani (9) set personal records in all eight of his individual events and placed 1st in the 10U 50 Fly and 50 Back as well as the 100 Free, Breast, Fly and Back.    Machavariani took 2nd in the 50 Free and 50 Breast.    Kulkarni (10) had personal records in seven of eight 10U events taking 2nd in the 100 Fly, 3rd in the 50 & 100 Free, 50 Fly, 50 & 100 Breast, 100 Back along with a 4th in the 50 Back.  Mellencamp (14) PR’d in all six individual events placing 3rd in the 13/14 200 Free, 7th in the 100 Free, 100 Fly and 100 Back, and 11th in the 50 Free and 200 IM.  Eight year old Vivan Shah, competing in the 10U division, placed top 10 in three events including the 50 Fly, 50 Back and 100 Back with an 11th place finish in the 50 Breast and 12th in the 100 Free.

Lily Pendleton (10), competing in a limited schedule placed 8th in the 50 Fly, 12th in the 100 Free, and 14th in the 50 Back.  Eight year old Aahan Gupta competing in the 10U division took 9th in the 50 Fly, 10th in the 100 Free and 12th in the 50 Back. Emily Meek (8) placed top 20 in three events with a best finish of the 13th in the 100 Breast.  Club Olympia swimmers also competing for Team Indiana included Nandini Kondhare and Aashka Shah who both achieved several PR’s and contributed to Team Indiana relay teams.

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 2nd to Team Illinois by only 25 points, drastically reducing the 182 point loss to Team Illinois in 2021.   Club Olympia swimmers accounted for nearly ½ of Team Indiana’s point total.   Swimmers 15 years and older competed in a 5K race while younger swimmers competed in either a 2.5K or 1.25K event.  The 5K took the top swimmers just under an hour to complete.  Brady Beyer, currently training in Indiana as a club unattached swimmer, took 7th place in just over 57 minutes.  Club Olympia’s Misha Machavariani also medaled in 8th place a mere 3.5 seconds behind Beyer.  Other Club Olympia 5K swimmers were Ty Mayer (22nd), Cole Ehara (31st), Todd Hundley (40th), and Luke Miller (46st).  In the women’s 5K, Ashley Freel medaled in 8th place and was joined by Hope Westphal (11th) and Annie Murer (48th).   In the 13/14 2.5K division, Connelly Furnish medaled and finished 5th among the girls and Lane Mellencamp was 25th among the boys.  Josh Pendleton took 1st place in the 11/12 boys 2.5K division.  Tony Machavariani was 2nd and Shreyan Kulkarni 4th in the boys 10U 1.25K division.   Freel, Beyer, Furnish, Pendleton, and Tony Machavariani were all top placing swimmers for Team Indiana.

During the first week of June, four Club Olympia swimmers, 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 United States Naval Academy.    The camp, led by top coaches from around the state of Indiana, including Club Olympia’s head coach and founder Jennifer Brinegar, was an intensive weeklong camp focused on physical training, long course swimming technique, and classroom instruction on the beautiful campus of the Naval Academy at Annapolis Maryland.   Those attending from Club Olympia were Ashley Freel, Misha Machavariani, Connelly Furnish and Josh Pendleton.