28 FAST swimmers raced to 84 best times and an impressive 48 new USA Swimming National Age Group Times at the Winter Age Group Championships this past weekend at Golden West College. As a reminder, Southern California Swimming has replaced the Blue-Red-White qualifying times system with the nationally-recognized USAS NAG times (FAST athletes recorded the following new standards: 1 "A", 24 "AA", 19 "AAA" and 1 "AAAA" times). Three FAST swimmers also qualified for the CA/NV Sectional Championships for the first time. This event, which is the first step up...

This past weekend four FAST swimmers competed with 1,200 swimmers at the Junior Nationals West event. Matthew Chai, Kailee Chow, Skyler Kao, and Alex Min traveled to Austin, TX to race against the best 18 & Under swimmers west of the Mississippi River. Kailee, Skyler and Alex all competed well in their first Juniors meet, and Matthew made his mark in his second trip to the event. Chai swam to an impressive win in the 1650-yard freestyle. With his time of 14:45.37 Matthew won the event by over 10 seconds...

At his first US Open Matthew Chai finished the last long course meet of 2021 with two Top 8 finishes. This last long course meet of the 2021 season was held in Greensboro, NC and attracted multiple Olympians including USA Gold Medalists Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke. In the 800-meter freestyle Matthew swam a second-best time of 8:09.74 to finish in 8th place. Notably, Matthew raced to the second fastest final 100 split in the field (56.88), bettered only by Finke's (56.86). In the 400-meter freestyle Chai swam a personal...

FAST athletes represented themselves well in and out of the pool this past weekend. 105 swimmers posted 260 personal best times and established 71 new National Age Group Motivational times, but more importantly, FAST -- including the Masters Team and Lap Swimmers -- also helped contribute 455 items (weighing 1/4 of a ton!) to the OC Food Bank. Thanks again to Kailee Chow and Cera Mallory for organizing the food drive and to our sponsor ARENA for providing the items raffled off. What a great way to start the Thanksgiving...

Our next FAST home meet on November 19-20 will keep the holiday spirit in mind with a food drive for the OC Food Bank. A raffle ticket will be awarded for every three items donated and a prize drawing will be held at the conclusion of prelims on Saturday. Sign ups for the event close on Friday, November 11 at 5:00 PM. This meet will also have a number of interesting elements to spice up the competition, including: All entrants will be competing together in prelim events Finals will feature...

This past weekend at the Kevin B. Perry Invitational Meet 81% of FAST swimmers raced to lifetime bests. Leading the way with swims in the finals (Top 24) from a competitive field of 1,200 athletes were: Matthew Chai -- 1st Place: 1000/1650 Freestyle; 2nd Place: 500 Freestyle; 7th Place: 200 Freestyle; 17th Place: 400 Individual Medley Kailee Chow -- 6th Place: 200 Butterfly; 12th Place: 50 Freestyle; 22nd Place: 200 Freestyle; 23rd Place: 100 Butterfly Sean Kao -- 4th Place: 100 Freestyle Skyler Kao -- 8th Place: 1650 Freestyle Ayden...

High School seniors Kailee Chow and Matthew Chai posted seven all-time performances for FAST this past weekend at the Kevin B. Perry Invitational meet. Three of their four record-breaking swims were both new 17-18 and Open team marks. Kailee Chow -- 200 Yard Butterfly: New Record -- 2:01.50 Previous 17-18 Record -- 2:02.40, Maya Lee (3/2/2019) Previous Open Record -- 2:02.40, Maya Lee (3/2/2019) Matthew Chai -- 500 Yard Freestyle: New Record -- 4:17.62 Previous 17-18 Record -- 4:22.63, Isaac Howell (5/6/2008) Previous Open Record -- 4:20.10, Robert Margalis (12/2/2010)...

This week will be the first major competition this season as we attend the SCS Kevin Perry Invitational meet. Kevin Perry was the long-time coach of FAST who passed away from cancer in 2008. Coach Kevin was the club coach for FAST’s last homegrown Olympian, Tyler Clary (2012 London – Men’s 200 Meter Backstroke Gold). Tyler trained at FAST again with Coach Jon Urbanchek when he was a post-grad and if you watch the end of that race on the internet you will see Tyler point to the skies when...

Thanks to all of our Spooky Halloween Contest participants! It was definitiely scary seeing some of you... Hey, is that kid in blue supposed to be one of the coaches?!

One hundred and five FAST athletes competed in the October Invite this past weekend at the Janet Evans Swim Complex. Despite the drizzle on Saturday, the early season meet was a great success with FAST swimmers compiling 44% improved times (42% for girls and 45% for boys). A total of 285 improved times were recorded (136 for girls and 149 for boys). FAST athletes also achieved 25 new 2021-2024 USA Swimming National Age Group Motivational Times (19 "A" times, 2 "AA" times, 4 "AAA"). NAG Times will be replacing the...