NEWSLETTER // DECEMBER 30, 2025

TEAM UPDATES

Congratulations to all of our athletes who raced at the 2025 Katie Ledecky Invitational in College Park, MD! AGUA swimmers had a historic competition with records, medals and more.

Jeffrey Qian led our record streak by setting a new Metropolitan Swimming mark in the 9-10 Boys 50 Breaststroke. His time of 32.77 broke the previous record set in 1991. His swim was also an AGUA Team Record, and the team broke six more throughout the meet as well:

• Milly Birch - 13-14 Girls 1000 Freestyle
• Milly Birch - 13-14 Girls 1650 Freestyle
• Jeffrey Qian - 9-10 Boys 100 Breaststroke
• Xan Randolph - 13-14 Boys 1650 Freestyle
• Henry Tong, Jeffrey Qian, Morgan Dasilva & Flip Smit van Riel - 10 & Under Boys 200 Medley Relay
• Flip Smit van Riel, Cooper Chen, Morgan Dasilva & Jeffrey Qian - 10 & Under Boys 400 Freestyle Relay

Milly's mark in the 1650 was historic in more ways than one! Milly raced the event in finals right next to Katie Ledecky, who broke the American record as the first woman ever under 15 minutes. Want to hear about Milly's first-hand experience racing the greatest of all time? Check out the SwimSwam podcast here!

The AGUA coaches were also proud of the following swimmers for standing out as R.A.D. teammates throughout the meet: Selom Ahouandjinou, Aitana Almandoz, Alexander Argeros, Emma Bratu, Logan Bratu, Eamonn Hynes, Max Paltridge, Will Rankin, Flip Smit van Riel, and Lena Watts. 

Extra shoutout to our individual medalists:

• Spyros Argeros - 200 breaststroke
• Milly Birch– 200 butterfly; 200 backstroke; 200, 500, 1000 and 1650 Freestyle
• Derek Cox - 200 butterfly
• Morgan Dasilva - 100 freestyle
• Atticus Fogarty - 1000 freestyle 
• Chloe Fu - 200 breaststroke 
• Dennis Hauser - 100 breaststroke
• Olivia Kim - 100 butterfly; 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke; 100 and 200 IM
• Mason Kostov - 50 freestyle
• Jolie Loghmanee - 50, 100 and 200 backstroke
• Jonathan Packles - 100 and 200 backstroke 
• Jeffrey Qian - 50 and 100 breaststroke; 100 and 200 IM
• Xan Randolph - 1000 and 1650 freestyle
• Flip Smit van Riel - 50, 100 and 200 freestyle 
• Henry Tong - 50 butterfly
• Chloe Yang - 100 and 200 butterfly

UPCOMING SWIM MEETS

TYR LC INVITATIONAL

• Who // Invited Athletes 

• When // Friday, January 16 through Sunday, January 18, 2026 

• Where // Rutgers University

• Hotel Block // 
  
  • Delta Hotels Somerset
    • Start Date: Friday, January 16, 2026
    • End Date: Sunday, January 18, 2026
    • Reservation Deadline: Tuesday, January 6, 2026
    • Room Rate: $139/night before tax

AGUA MLK INVITATIONAL

Preliminary Entries; Correction deadline: Friday, January 2, 2026

• Who // All swimmers not racing at the TYR LC Invitational

  • Morning Sessions - 12 & Under
  • Afternoon Sessions - 13 & Over

• When // Saturday, January 17 through Monday, January 19, 2026

• Where // Asphalt Green's Upper East Side campus

• Service Hour Sign Up // Will open at 9am on Tuesday, January 6

LIE LAST CHANCE MEET

Register Here; Deadline: Friday, January 2, 2026

• Who // AG1, AG2, AG3, Senior Prep and Senior I 

• When // Friday, January 30 through Sunday, February 1, 2026

• Where // Hofstra University 

2026 TYR SENIOR METROPOLITAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Who // All Qualifiers

• When // Thursday, February 12 through Sunday, February 15, 2026

• Where // Nassau County Aquatic Center

• Job Sign-Up // Now Available
• Hotel Block // Long Island Marriott

  • Start Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026

  • End Date: Sunday, February 15, 2026

  • Reservation Deadline: Friday, January 16, 2026

  • Room Rate: $219/night before tax

Click here to view the full 2025-2026 short course meet calendar.

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

January 3

Alex Bannasch

Sage Kidder

Landon Yang

January 4

Camille Cruz

Isabella Fakhouri 

Ashy Milam 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SAVE THE DATES: DIGITAL DIVE IN SERIES

GET INVOLVED: BECOME AN OFFICIAL

REMINDERS

LOCKER ROOM REMINDERS

As we kick off the 2025-2026 AGUA season, we want to remind our athletes of locker room policies and best practices:

• Locker rooms are shared spaces at both Asphalt Green's Battery Park City and Upper East Side campuses. All AGUA swimmers should speak and behave in alignment with our team values of respect, accountability and discipline.
• There are absolutely no photos or videos permitted inside locker rooms, both on campus and during travel meets.
• Swimmers should lock their belongings in a locker during practice. 
• Only swimmers who are Asphalt Green members are permitted to use the member locker rooms at Asphalt Green. There are no exceptions. 

REQUIRED ID CARDS

All swimmers must use their ID cards to access our facilities. Swimmers are not permitted to enter the facilities without their ID cards.

ACCESS AGUA'S SWIMOUTLET PORTAL

You can shop for team gear and the entire SwimOutlet catalog at our AGUA team store using the link below:

Click here for the link to the new AGUA Team Store. You may use your normal SwimOutlet account login. No additional instructions or details are required. 

AGUA TEAM TYR DISCOUNT CODE

Looking for additional TYR gear? Be sure to use our AGUA Team Discount Code: TYRSWIM6NV directly on the TYR website. 

COACH COMMUNICATIONS

To streamline communication, please do not reply to this newsletter. Instead, please use the following email addresses for all questions:

Andy Ross // UES AG1 + Private Lesson Booking Assistance

Jeff Chen // UES AG1 + UES AG2

Evan Banciella //  BPC AG1 + AG2

Hailey Hewitt //  UES AG3

John Alaimo // Senior Prep

Youngho Kim // Senior I

Diana Ross // Senior II

David Rodriguez //  National

FOLLOW US ON INSTA

Follow us @aguaswim for announcements, shoutouts, and more!

PRACTICE

SCHEDULE UPDATES

Now through Thursday, January 1, 2026

• Adjusted schedule for all groups (BPC & UES)

Friday, January 2, 2026

• National // 3:30pm-5:30pm swim (UES campus)
• Senior I // 3:30pm-5pm swim (UES campus)
• Resume normal winter practice schedule for all other groups