The TITANS swimmers competed for the third time in the CEESA Swim Championships - this time at the American School of Warsaw in Poland. The tournament rotates between three CEESA schools with a swimming pool on campus, AAS Moscow, AIS Budapest and ASW in Warsaw. The TITANS have now done a full circle and are familiar with all three pools. The competition is the biggest CEESA competition held, with more than 230 swimmers competing from nine different schools! It is a huge undertaking for the hosting school to host all the swimmers and as always the host families went all out to make our swimmers feel welcome.
The meet ran like clockwork, each day started with preliminaries, followed by finals in the afternoon and finished with exciting and fun team relays. Swimmers are allowed to swim in four events and can choose to swim two exhibition events.
Middle School Girls
Teah (M3), Aria (M1), Maria (M3), Millie (M1), Alicia (M1), Kolyn (M1), Freya (M1), Layla (M1) and Elisa (M1) represented the TITANS MS Girls Team. Impressive seconds were shaved off their personal bests while the team cheered them on from the side of the pool. We were lucky to be able to make two relay teams. One of the teams swam exhibition, but our A Team won the Silver Medal on the 4x50 Freestyle relay. A huge accomplishment! Layla showed commendable sportsmanship, swimming a leg in the ISP Falcons HS girls relay team! The Middle School girls are developing strong techniques in their strokes and we are looking forward to see them grow in the years to come. Millie placed herself in the 100m Backstroke final and took the 4th place. Elisa swam in the top 10 in all the events she swam. She placed in the finals for three events, and proudly took the bronze medal on the 50m Breaststroke. Kolyn took bronze on the 200m Freestyle and 200m Backstroke, Silver on the 100m Freestyle, and Gold on the 50m Backstroke! A promising performance knowing she still has two years to grow in this competition.
Middle School Boys
The MS Boys team was formed by Pedro (M1), Gene (M1), Oliver (M1) and Menno (M3). As you are allowed 8 swimmers in a team, with only half a team scoring points and facing some challenging competition against strong boys often two to three years older, they managed to place 6th overall. The boys all swam their PB’s and Pedro placed himself in the finals for the 200m Freestyle and just missed the medal finishing 4th with a time of 3:00:56.
High School Girls
Rest me to proudly share with you the results of our supreme HS Girls Team; Giovanna (M5), Annamaria (M4), Isabella (M4), Emma (M5), Komie (M5), Komay (DP1), Julia (DP2) and Anoushka (DP2).
With Komie on the fly, Emma on the back, Komay on the breast, and Anoushka on the free, the girls swam themselves to the first place in the Medley Relay with a new CEESA record. On Saturday afternoon they finished the competition with another CEESA record and first place on the 4x50 Freestyle. These girls train together all year round and with a strong team spirit are unbeatable and impressive!
Emma has grown ‘several seconds’ this season and broke all her PB’s, and swam in the finals for 3 of her 4 events. The powerful Komie and Komay took the podium for all events they entered. Komie with Bronze on the 100 Individual Medley, Silver on the 50 Backstroke and Gold on 50 and 100 Butterfly, and a new CEESA record of 1:10:01 on the 100 meter Butterfly making a total of 23 points for her team! Komay, who celebrated her birthday at the pool, won gold on the 100m IM, Silver on the 50 Free and 100m Free and bronze on the 100m Fly. Anoushka confidently swam the 400m Free for a gold medal, and took the podium with a silver on the 100m Freestyle and bronze on the 100m Fly.
All these amazing results lead to our HS girls taking home the champions trophy for the second year in a row in their category!
High School Boys
Swimming in the HS Boys division is of a whole other caliber! Strong, powerful young men make for a tough and challenging competition. Rory (M4), Rayane (M5), Niels (DP1) and Alejandro (DP1) stood their ground. Niels placed in the finals for all of the events he swam, but just missed the medals on hundreds of seconds. He took it with pride as he was proud to finally swim his 50 Free under 27 seconds, and his 100 Free under a minute.
With the true TITANS team spirit they placed 4th in the Medley Relay and 5th in the Freestyle
TISA is looking back at a memorable four days. It was a joy to travel with these young athletes, who showed impressive sportsmanship, camaraderie and respect for all.
