Kogan Excels at Swim Fest

She’s only been swimming competitively for four years, but Hannah Kogan is already making quite a name for herself in the pool. The 10-year-old Palisadian placed fifth in the 50 Freestyle event at the Southern California Swimming Festival January 24, held at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. Kogan swam the event in 29.79, just 15 hundreths of a second behind her personal-best time of 29.64. “I’d say the 50 Free is my best event,” said Kogan, one of 32 swimmers in her age group from California and Nevada invited to the annual SoCal Festival. “I swam for the Palisades-Malibu YMCA for three years but decided to try Team Santa Monica last year and I liked it.” The change has proved beneficial for both Hannah and her identical twin, Samantha, who joined Hannah at the Junior Olympics last summer in Mission Viejo. “She’s a good breaststroker,” Hannah said of her sister. In addition to placing fifth in the 50 Feestyle, Kogan finished ninth in the 50 Butterfly (34.22) and 12th in the 50 Backstroke (36.92) in Long Beach. She also swam Butterfly in the 200 Individual Medley and anchored her squad’s 200 Freestyle Relay team, swimming the final leg in 29.1 seconds. “It’s not officially a record, but that is the fastest I’ve done for that event.” Qualifying swimmers were placed on one of four teams: North, South , East and West. Kogan’s South Blue Division team accumulated the most points and finished in first place. “You have to be picked to go, so I was pretty excited,” said Kogan, a fifth-grader at Marquez Elementary who is excited to be graduating in June. “Each team is appointed a coach and they decide, based on the information they are given, who will swim what events.” This year will be a challenge for Kogan, who “ages up” next Thursday when she turns 11. “I’m moving up from the 10-and-under division to the 11&12s and that’s a big jump,” Kogan said. “It’s cool because most of my friends on the team are in the 11&12s, but it’s also harder because I’ll be competing against older swimmers.” As well as she has been doing, Hannah will only get better, faster and stronger and she looks forward to future successes. “I really like swimming and I like my team. It’s a lot of fun.”