North Bay Aquatics - Youth Swim Team, 395 Doherty Drive, Larkspur, CA (2026)

02/24/2026

We will have a Celebration of Don’s Life Sunday, March 22 from 3pm-7pm at the Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley. Doors will open for arrivals at 2:30 pm

We are hoping and planning for a large turnout to honor Don.

Please spread the word and let other Tuna know. Our email list only goes back to the 2018-19 season, so hard to get in touch with everyone

To make this a grand tribute guests are encouraged to bring a story, remembrance or appreciation of Don to share.

02/13/2026

Calling all Tuna -

We created a short survey to capture and memorialize Don. Click in to share a favorite quote, memory or something Don Swartz taught you. Let’s build the ripple effect. We will compile and share back. Send on to others please!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeygo2TD283E5N8ElbQaQ4Q_RWKw2GKWtwNkAw18-wov7glHQ/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawP8YaZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeKoiCHOyLSSH3zsDjtIIS03F218v4C0dOOcvzMvF5YfKdX4TAMD773LCdINI_aem_sjkM7jxEGiesP94n0OxVIA

05/08/2025

2 New Cap Updates!!

🔹 Elsa Kastner made her first Sectional cut in the 50 Freestyle at Far Western’s the first weekend in April

🔹Jasper Feldman made his first Sectional cut in the 50 Freestyle at MCAL’s last weekend

Tuna are racing at NCS this weekend to get a ticket to Clovis next week for the State Champs meet…Tuna on 3!!

🥶 🦍

03/22/2025

Huge weekend at Age Group Champs in Pleasanton for North Bay. 18 (!!!!!) swimmers raced in individual events, up from 14 in December and 12 at 2024 Spring edition. Major Highlights:

🔷 Charlie Terrell made her first Futures qualifying time in the 50 Freestyle and tying Cat Watrous 13-14 team record

🔷 Gavin Schwartz made his first Far Western qualifying time in the 100 Backstroke

🔷 Best story of the weekend was Kaia Calabria Kent showing driving down for the relay Saturday night after a swimmer got sick in prelims and couldn’t race at finals. Way to step up for your teammates Kaia!

Congrats, Tuna!

🥶 🦍

03/18/2025

It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you all of the passing of Addie Fiscus. Addie was a member of North Bay from November 2020 until June of 2023 before heading off to college at Villanova.

I spent much of my Sunday talking with former teammates of Addie’s. I’m not sure if this post will help anyone, but sharing memories the past few days brought me comfort, so this might be more for me.

If I am being 100% honest with myself, the first thing I think of when Addie Fiscus comes to mind is her nails. She always had new nails. I saw a video one day of a 3D printer that would make fake nails for you. I showed Addie the video that night at practice and told her it would be a smart investment to save time and money. The design of the nails in the video was camouflage - to say that Addie was not impressed with that would be an understatement. Over the next year, anytime she came to practice with new nails, I would remind her of my idea to buy the printer. The first time she laughed at the joke, the next 50 times I got an eye roll.

I mentioned that story to a few teammates Sunday and someone brought up how she always had mascara on at practice. When I told Clarabelle Fields that she said, “Oh yeah, we were late to morning weights A LOT because she was putting it on in the morning!” Glad I didn’t know that was the reason at the time…

January 2022 we were racing at the Cal Invite. As warm ups started I remember seeing Addie hanging out in the bleachers, wearing jeans and not looking as if she was getting up to get in the pool anytime soon. We made eye contact and I waved. She looked at me like I was crazy, but waved back. I thought it was strange, so I went over to talk to her. As I was walking towards her I turned and noticed another Addie walking towards me, this time her waving to me, and me looking like I thought she was crazy. I spent the next 10 seconds looking back and forth between the two. That was how I was introduced to Addie’s identical twin, Maude. Addie made fun of me for quite awhile after that and the face I made that day looking back and forth between the two.

When I think of Addie and some of her close friends on the team, I remember the “hike” we went on in Colorado on our training trip in June 2022. 30+ swimmers on the trip and at some point 4 or 5 were lagging behind, Addie being one of them. The “hike” was maybe a few miles on a flat, dusty trail. Ask those girls to remember that day and you would have thought we climbed Everest.

Every Tuesday for the last 4 years the senior group has had a weekly “appreciations” meeting. We get in a circle and each swimmer stands up to say what they appreciated from the week before. Every time it got to Addie she would ask to skip past her so she could get extra time to think. It would eventually come back around to her, she would stand up, and slowly she would scan the face of each swimmer in the group. While most swimmers just share the first thing that comes to mind, Addie really tried to think of the one thing she appreciated most from that week.

February 2022 we were in Woodlands for the Super League Championship. It is the last chance for senior group swimmers to qualify for our March Sectional meet. On the last day was the 50 Free and Addie was really close to making her cut in prelims. The scoreboard at the meet was difficult. It was set up for 8 lanes but we were racing in a 10 lane pool, so once all the swimmers finished the race, it would instantly switch to show only lane 9 and 10. Addie was in the middle of the pool so when she turned to see the board her time wasn’t showing. This pool was in the middle of nowhere, wind and rain whipping down on us, but I remember huddling around my phone with Addie refreshing meet mobile over and over again until it popped up she had made the time. Didn’t matter how cold it was, her relief over qualifying for the meet was all she needed. I remember trying to take our picture with her new cap. Addie asked if she could go fix her hair first. She didn’t want to have “cap hair” for the photo.

The last time I heard from Addie was this past July. She was in town and wanted to see if there was practice so she could come say hello to the team. Unfortunately we had already started our summer break and I was out of town the next two weeks. Rereading that exchange Sunday gutted me, until I found out she had only been in town for a few days. Knowing that on her first visit back to the Bay Area in over a year, with limited time, and she wanted to spend a few hours saying hello to NBA meant a lot to me. She loved this team, her coaches, and her teammates very much.

It meant a lot to me by how many people reached out the past few days. It really speaks to who Addie was and the impact she had on our community. I’m thankful for this team and the support we have for each other.

I have been thinking about everyone who knew Addie, but I am especially thinking of her closest friends Julia Thompson, Annabelle Mullin, Alex Brubaker, Jordan Ash, and Clarabelle Fields, and of course Addie’s parents, Bruce & Kim.

To all the Tuna that knew her, if you need me, I’m available. Text, call, email, just get in touch.

Sending love to all of Addie’s friends, teammates, and to all of North Bay that were so lucky to have her as part of our community.

03/11/2025

“But it wasn’t a complicated formula. All it came down to was this: quantity plus intensity, multiplied by implacable persistence, equals steadily improving performance. And pain, endlessly repeated, becomes endurable.”

That is my favorite quote. It is from “Today We Die a Little!” the biography about running great Emil Zatopek. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since Saturday of Sectionals.

December 2023 in Indianapolis Nick Arinduque got 2nd in the B final of the 200 Breast at our travel meet. He was out way in front and fell apart in the last 75, but he kept himself in the race because of his pullouts carrying directly into his breakouts, something we worked on every Tuesday morning at 5:45 for the 3-4 months leading into that race. It was monumental in my mind seeing him do 8 great breakouts on his way to a 2:10

December 2024 at the Santa Rosa meet, Nick swam a 2:08.4 in the 200 Breast. I wasn’t there for the race, but dropping 2 seconds in a year seemed to be a good sign to me, especially being at an outdoor meet in 40 degree weather. According to the splits though, Nick had once again gone out “fast” and died.

So, when Nick dove in for prelims at sectionals last weekend and went 28.2, 32.2, 32.2, 33.1 for a 2:05, I was losing my mind. 3 second drop is great, but stringing together 3 really close 50s to close the race was something I didn’t know if I would ever see from Nick. I took a screenshot of the swim and sent it to Don with the text “1.5 more sessions to go but you can book this one as swim of the meet.” 6 hours later and I would have egg on my face

Nick dives in for finals and takes it out fast. His first 100 was 57.1 - for reference, I was a good breaststroker and my best 100 ever at a swim meet was 57.3. I thought Nick was just putting it out there with such a big swim in prelims already in the bank. Then he touched at the 150, and I saw on the board Nick was at 1:28, 4 seconds ahead of his pace from the morning. This is about when I lost my voice for the weekend.

Nick finished the race in 2:01.7. A coach came up to me after and said, “when he touched the wall I tried to find you immediately and wish I took a picture.” Jaw on the floor, hands on my head, probably didn’t blink for 5 straight minutes. I wouldn’t stop talking about the swim all night, using the word “unbelievable” repeatedly

I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what led to a 7 second drop in 3 months. What could we take from that swim and apply to our training to get more like it. Better weather, sure. We added some aerobic work on Thursday afternoons, but 1500 yards once a week for a few months isn’t making huge changes. We raced a little more this block than normal, but again, nothing drastic.

Then I remembered a set of 50s we did two or three times this block. 3x50s @ :50. #3 is all out and you try to keep #1 and #2 within half a second of #3. Put a better way, set a goal time for #3. Try to swim that on #1 and #2, then go all out on number 3. If you go faster than you did on #1 and #2, you set too easy of a goal time. If you go slower, you either need to adjust your tactics or slow down the goal time. Usually it ends up just ahead of 200 pace but not quite 100 pace. The goal is to learn to divide up your energy throughout some 50s to keep them close together

We have done this set every 4-6 weeks in the senior group since I got here, usually about 4-6 rounds in a night. I don’t let breaststrokes do the set because only 1 breaststroker has ever done it successfully, Jonah Lee, current team record holder in the 100 and 200. I made an exception when Nick joined the team. In the last 2 years, Nick has failed at this set over and over again, probably close to 15-20 times. Then, in November 2024 he did a “perfect” round - all the 50s within half a second of each other. In January he did a few perfect rounds. Early February he made four rounds in a row.

It isn’t some magical set that automatically makes you figure out 200s. It’s an opportunity given to our swimmers to step out on the ledge of discomfort and learn about themselves. Nick could have taken the easy road. Set easy goal times, switched to freestyle, cruised along, just failed again and again with no adjustments. That’s just not who he is though.

More simply put, that set is a demonstration of Nick’s “implacable persistence,” that multiplier of steadily improving performance.

I’m mad at myself for using the word “unbelievable” to describe that swim that night. Unbelievable is something you can’t wrap your head around, as if a fairy came down that night and sprinkled magic dust on Nick before he dove in. 2:01.7 isn’t unexplainable, it’s just taken some time. Trusting the process. Showing up and doing the hard stuff. 2:01.7 is actually what I should have expected all along, because Nick does it EVERYDAY in practice.

A big thank you to Nick for doing the hard stuff, trusting what we do at practice, and being coachable. Can’t wait to see more believable “unbelievable” swims from him soon!

03/04/2025

Quite the weekend for North Bay at the Roseville Spring Sectionals 🌹

A big thank you to the 10 swimmers that went to meet - Raf Estimo, Nicholas Arinduque, Owen Pritchard, Ari Blacher, Nate Johnson, Paul Falzone, Addie Everage, Ali Kosmowski, Fiona Bell, and Emerson Wunderlich. I had so much fun watching you all be a team. Racing hard, cheering for each other, timing for each other at time trials, filming each other’s races, hanging out at the tent, supporting my end of day FIVE BIG BOOMS compliment button, or hanging out in the lobby for team dinners.

Congrats to our three swimmers that earned new caps this weekend:

🔷 Nicholas Arinduque, Winter Junior Nationals (100 & 200 Breast)

🔷 Addie Everage, Winter Junior Nationals (100 Back)

🔷 Owen Pritchard, Futures (100 Breast)

🥶 🦍

12/16/2024

Impressive couple weekends of racing for the Tuna. Our 14 & Unders crushed it last week in Morgan Hill with 28 swimmers, including 15 in individual events. Then this week, Fiona Bell put up a strong representation in Austin at Junior Nationals. Wrapped things up with nearly 100 swimmers in Santa Rosa.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world in Budapest, the fastest swim meet in history is going on. Last count I saw was 27 world records broken over the 8 or 9 days of racing.

My favorite race, however, was one where a world record wasn’t broken, the men’s 50 backstroke.

I met Shane Ryan August of 2012. Room 107, Hartranft Hall at Penn State. He was my first roommate and the biggest recruiting PSU swimming history.

In our sophomore year, Shane won 2014 Big Ten Swimmer of the year after becoming the 4th person to ever finish a 100 back in 44 seconds, later representing the US at world university games that year.

For the next decade though, Shane wouldn’t have a “good” swim season

2015 he didn’t have good performances. He moved to Ireland after that to reclassify himself to represent Ireland at the 2016 games. The training in Ireland was “old school” and didn’t work for Shane. Shane made a semi final at the games in the 100 back but was well off his best time.

2017 Shane returned to school to finish his degree but the swimming was just okay. He ended up winning his first world champs medal with a bronze in the 50 backstroke at the short course edition, though it wasn’t in a best time.

2018-2019 he was roving between training sites, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Penn State, only to be told by Ireland he needed to come back and train with them if he wanted to receive funding.

2020 Shane started having shoulder problems, bad enough he required surgery. Even after the surgery though he couldn’t swim backstroke. So instead of representing Ireland in an individual event at the games he just swam freestyle on the medley relay. After the Olympics he needed another surgery and would be out of the pool for 6 months.

Back in the pool Shane trained in Ireland for a bit and was the farthest off his 2014 best times since he swam them. He tried bouncing around training sites, until he landed in Charlotte with queens university for a few months. 2 shoulder surgeries, closing in on a decade without a best time, seemed like this was the final lap for Shane’s pro career.

Then something cool happened.

At a practice, Shane got close to a best time in the 100 Free. It was the end of 2023 and he didn’t have his qualifying time for the games yet with only a few months to spare.

Shane started going to meets and started getting really close to best times, eventually cracking one at a meet in 2024, a full decade after his mega 2014 performances. He still hadn’t qualified for the games but had a few chances left

At his last chance to make it, Shane missed the 50 Free, 100 Free, and 100 Back times by hundredths of a second. Once again, he would go to the Olympics and only represent Ireland in relays.

One week after the qualifying period however, Shane swam a big best time in the 50 Free, smashed the Irish national record, and went under the Olympic qualifying time. They put in a request to get him in the event, but despite already attending for relays, Ireland swimming said no. Might seem like a small thing, but when your livelihood depends on sport, big deal to miss out on racing individually at the Olympics.

So, Shane went to the Olympics, watched a teammate break his national record in the 50 Free, and waited until the last day of the meet to swim freestyle on the medley relay. In the prelims of the event, Shane had the fastest split of anyone in the field and after finals was the second or third fastest swimmer of the event.

A few more months of training gets us to this past week and the men’s 50 backstroke at world champs. After qualifying 8th and half a second off the fastest swimmers, Shane put together one of those magical swims, touching the wall in third just a few hundredths behind the winner.

7 years between world championship medals. 2 shoulder surgeries, one putting him out of the pool for 6 months. Missed out representing his country at the Olympics in individual events TWICE because of injuries and a late qualifying time. Doesn’t matter. He keeps showing up.

Swimming is changing rapidly. Seems like every meet is dubbed “fastest (insert name of meet here) in history.” Training is changing. The racing style for every event is changing. Technique is changing. The coverage is changing.

One thing remains the same though. The most surefire way to get better is keep showing up and swimming fast at practice, no matter how crummy things get, the obstacles you run into, or the frustration you may feel. Resilience gets you farther in this sport than any other quality out there by a mile and a half.

Next time you feel like you “haven’t gone a best time in forever” or are stuck in the sport missing a cut over, and over, and over again, think of Shane. Many of you haven’t swam competitively for 10 years, same amount of time Shane didn’t swim a best time.

I texted Shane congrats the other day and told him how proud he should be of himself, not for a medal but for sticking to things. His response was classic Shane.

“I’m getting that world record.”

Half a second to go. Anyone feels like betting against him, I’ll happily take your money.

11/29/2024

Late November of 2020 there was another Covid surge coming on. I was coaching in Seattle and the team I worked for had a rule that if you left the state you would need to quarantine for 2 weeks before returning to practice. 3-5 days at home in Napa + 2 week quarantine wasn’t in the cards, so no Thanksgiving at my parents house for me. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, why I couldn’t tell you, but it is, so staying home was a bummer. A month or so later I decided to start looking for a new job closer to home. Here I am 4 years later, “coaching” in Marin this morning, family dinner in Napa in the afternoon. Not much better than that

This morning at the 25 Freestyle World Championship was quite the show. It started with alumni Cat Watrous and Jane Thompson in the smack talk room getting a little “physical.” Believe I heard of a broken shelf. Long time best friends, haven’t swam a lap in at least months, came in to spend time together and race a 25.

Best friends Kallen W**k (Wisconsin) and Adeline Turner (Colorado College) faced off next for the second year in a row. Kallen saved her smack talk for the blocks. “Can you give Adeline a head start?”

Jackson Mason, Tuna Alum & 2024 UCSB grad, raced his cousin Adrian Atherton. Jackson was over at Adrian’s house the other day fixing some plumbing issues and Adrian went to talk some smack. Jackson got last laugh getting his hand on the wall first

More and more alumni showed up; Leo Collins (North Carolina), Olivia Greenberg (UCDavis), Augusta Lewis (Claremont), Mia Solomon (Tufts), & Zoe Wortzman (Dartmouth) all stopped in to say hello. Some got in the water, some just wanted to say hi and watch the action. We had kids who currently train at Bowdoin, UCSB, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, American, Berkeley, & Colorado College race in a 25 today.

Alena Sharp, started at Penn State, transferred at Loyola to swim on the varsity team, then the team got cut, so now a Junior at Pitzer, on the varsity team, was there taking photos for us. Check them out at the end of our Instagram story.

I got to sit down with Sydney Brakebill for a few minutes and hear her plans for next semester in Portugal. Current junior at USC, Sydney is the team record holder in the 50 Free, 22.5. Asked her to think of us and send recommendations for our training trip this summer

Holly Tarantino, formerly San Diego’s swim team, now at TCU, hung out for a few hours and said this was the biggest Tuna Reunion ever. She is coming to practice Saturday and promised me she was getting in the water.

Coco Quill gave me a full life update after everyone left. How much she loves UCSB, the teammates, what other sports she is fans of at school, the swim team dog, how happy she is with her decision.

My favorite moment though was when Johanna Bush walked up to Emma Keith Brown to compliment her nails, which turned into a full conversation. Johanna reminds me of Emma - that’s quite the compliment - so them naturally finding each other was a fun moment to witness.

In the pool today was alumni stretching from 2009 to 2024. I was overwhelmed with how crowded it was on deck. Wished I could have sat down with everyone and gotten life updates, but a hello, hug, and 25 freestyle madness will have to do.

I’m thankful for my job that lets me run free with whacky ideas that turn into glorified alumni meets, our families and swimmers that support those ideas, and getting to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my family right after.

Happy Thanksgiving, Tuna!

Thank you,

Max Byers

(MOST) photos courtesy of

🥶 🦍

10/31/2024

Congratulations, Tuna, Silver Medal status once again!

USA Swimming announced the top 200 clubs recognized as Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal clubs in the 2024-25 Club Excellence program. The program annually recognizes the highest-performing clubs in developing athletes aged 18 years and younger.

🔷 North Bay finished 90th in the country out of 3000 clubs, putting us in the top 3% of clubs in the country

🔷 North Bay was the 5th highest ranked team in Pacific Swimming

🔷 90th in the country is our second highest finish ever, but 8499 points is our highest point total ever

Good day to be a Tuna!

10/28/2024

Parent & Swimmers Weekend Meet Challenge

Every now and then after asking swimmers what they thought of a race at a meet, we get an answer like “The time was slow so it was bad.”

If the time was the only factor dictating whether a swim was good or bad, our staff wouldn’t attend meets. Instead, we would sit at home, check meet mobile, then text swimmers “Good swim!” or “Bad swim.” depending on the time. But we don’t do that. We watch races, comment on turns, talk about breathing strategy, and discuss other things we notice.

This upcoming weekend might feel “stressful” being one of the last chances to qualify for champs/juniors, first time putting on a tech suit for the senior group, or whatever other reason. In reality it is just another swim meet.

So, here is my challenge for the team - parents included!

Swimmers: for at least one race this weekend, swim your race, and after you finish, don’t look at the scoreboard or ask the timer your time. First, go talk to your coach, tell them what you thought, maybe even give yourself a grade, get feedback from your coach, then find out your time.

Parents: for the entire weekend, watch your child race, don’t look at the scoreboard ever, let your swimmer speak to their coach first, then when your swimmer finds you, say some combination of the below phrases:

Great swim, what did coach say?
Great swim, what did you think of your race?
Great swim, what do you want for lunch/dinner?
Great swim, I’m so proud of you

Things you shouldn’t mention after your child’s race:

Their time
A technical “flaw” you noticed

Do that the rest of their career and I promise your swimmer will get more out of this sport and you will enjoy the process much more.

North Bay Aquatics - Youth Swim Team

02/24/2026

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