SCS Spring Age Group Championships
- March 12-15, 2026
- La Mirada Splash! Regional Aquatics Center, La Mirada, CA
- SCY (25 yards)
- “2026 SCS Spring Age Group Champs @RMDA – cop” on Meet Mobile
Several age-group talents gathered in La Mirada for the SCS Spring Age Group Championships; among the top performers were Irvine Novaquatics’ Sahiel Pai and William Zhu, who each set several lifetime bests.
Pai, 13, earned a pair of individual wins at the meet, taking both sprint breaststroke races, clocking his fastest-ever times in the 50 breast (26.62) and the 100 breast (57.37). Both of these swims marked big-time drops for him, especially in the 100 breast, as that time is more than a full second faster than his former best of 58.43 from the Speedo Sectionals in Walnut in late December.
He also added a runner-up performance in the 200 breast in 2:08.40, dropping a full second from his previous best time of 2:09.42 from early November.
Pai’s largest timedrop came in the 200 fly, where he finished 8th in finals (2:02.79) but was even faster in prelims, touching in 2:01.87, a near two-second improvement over his previous best from December’s SCAT Winter Age Group Invitational of 2:03.62.
Zhu, 9, demolished his best times in every race he swam, with his largest time drops coming in the 200 IM, where he finished 2nd in 2:21.27, a more than six-second improvement over his pre-meet best of 2:27.29 from December’s SCAT Winter Age Group Invitational. He also shaved nearly five and a half seconds off his 100 breast PB of 1:20.80 to finish 4th here in 1:15.36.
Though Zhu didn’t earn an individual win on the meet, he added a 2nd place finish in the 50 breast, swimming more than a full second faster than his previous fastest time of 35.73 in 34.62. He also touched 2nd in the 50 fly, in 28.89.
Other Notable Performances:
- Brea Aquatics’ David Li, 10, earned himself five wins on the meet, clocking lifetime bests in three of those races; he swam his first-ever sub-28-second 50 fly to touch first in 27.98. He added the 100 fly to his win total in 1:00.36, more than eight tenths better than he had ever been prior. He also dropped over three and a half seconds in the 200 IM for the win in 2:18.96.
- Grace Wang, 11, was another Irvine Novaquatics swimmer who saw big improvements in La Mirada; notably dropping mote than a second and a half in the 200 fly to finish 5th in 2:09.09, and earning a 2nd place finish in 2:13.32 (despite being even faster in prelims in 2:13.30, both faster than her pre meet best by more than six tenths of a second.)
- Wang’s teammate Annabelle Hayes, 11, won the 100 backstroke in 59.60, a massive timedrop, from her pre-meet best of 1:01.17 from the Pacific Coast All Star Meet in January. She bested that previous mark three times at this meet, swimming 1:00.99 as the leadoff in the 400 medley relay, 1:00.93 in prelims of the 100 back, and her 59.60 in the finals.
