This is both a meet recap and a travel trip recap as I know our
parents don't always hear all the trip details so I will do my best
to give all the flavor of this trip. Before I begin I want to thank
our parents for allowing and paying for their swimmers to
participate on this trip as not only was the meet very
important---- but the education with regards to the college visits
and meeting with coaches was invaluable. As important as thanks to
our parents I also wanted to thank Coach Doug and Coach Greg as
they took a week away from their families to spend with our
swimmers. This is 24-7 duty and involves everything from
chauffeuring and chaperoning to coaching and being a psychologist.
They were both amazing and made all the logistics of transporting
28 swimmers to 4 universities in 2 states and 2 different time
zones very easy or as easy as that can be. On top of that they were
their usual super coaching selves both at the meet and in our
training sessions. Thank you does not cover it but will have to do
for the purposes of email:
1) We arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday the 22nd and after eating
lunch at the airport and getting our 3 x 15 passenger vans, headed
off to Athens ( 90 minutes ) and the University of Georgia. Checked
into the beautiful Hotel Indigo and then the swimmers ate in
downtown Athens. We then met up with University of Georgia
and USA Olympic Head Coach Jack Bauerle who spent a little over an
hour speaking with the swimmers about everything from UGA and the
campus to college swimming and beyond. He spoke to the swimmers on
the steps of the famous UGA Chapel which was a beautiful setting.
Afterwards back to the hotel for some needed rest.
2) Weds am I took a few swimmers on an AM campus run before we ate
a Panera breakfast outside on the Hotel Indigo deck. Then off to
the UGA Student-Athlete Academic Center where we met with 2
counselors who gave a presentation on college curriculums and the
services their center provides for student-athletes. Great info not
just UGA related but for all future college students. Toured both
that facility and then the Olympic weight room where the swimmers
lift weights at UGA. Training session LCM at UGA and then
lunch in the amazing dining hall where the UGA athletes eat.
3) Visited the Athletic Heritage Hall and then departed for
Atlanta and Emory University. Coach Jon Howell of Emory then spent
time giving our group a nice talk on both Emory and college
swimming in general. He gave each swimmer a hand out to help them
with recruiting ( ask your child if that made it home? )as well as
his personal contact info to help with recruiting. Swam SCY at
Emory then ate dinner at Everybody's which is legendary in those
parts. Drove 30 minutes to Alpharetta and the Holiday Inn Express
to be near the Swim Atlanta pool for am practice the next day.
4) Thursday am we trained LCM from 6-8 with Swim Atlanta. A great
experience for our swimmers to mix in with one of the better teams
in the country. Breakfast at either Panera or hotel and then off
for the 2 hour plus drive ( and time change back to cst ) to
Auburn.
5) Arrived midday at Auburn and checked in to the amazing College
Gameday Center. These are condos owned by Auburn boosters who use
them on gameday's and then rent out. Each room had nice kitchens,
great living rooms with couches and a few bed rooms of varying
sizes. Each condo is also decorated with Auburn paraphernalia to
the hilt which made Coach Greg very happy! Lunch at Chappy's Deli
and then grocery shopping at Kroger. After getting settled at the
Gameday center the swimmers got naps before heading over to the
pool for warm-up. Some swimmers ate in and a few swimmers went out
to eat afterwards. The common room at the gameday center had a nice
area for the swimmers to gather socially with some flat screens, an
eating area and an area for all our card sharks!
5) Am wup at AU pool followed by full meet schedule of prelims and
finals for the next three days. The coaches did a ton of shuttling
to make sure the swimmers were never at the pool too long and had
the best opportunities to eat, rest, and swim fast. Can't thank
Doug and Greg enough for making the meet so logistically easy on
the swimmers which showed in their performance. Auburn Head Coach
and 2 time Olympian Brett Hawke met with our swimmers in the Auburn
Team Room before Saturday's session and had a few stories to tell
as well as q and a session.
6) I will do a meet recap below with specifics but a few of the
nice thing we heard from others:
a) The Swim Atlanta coaches were very impressed with both the
quality of our team and their race toughness.
b) The meet referee and head timer both sought me out to lmk that
our swimmers were very polite and well mannered as well as left the
cleanest team area daily. This is the first time in a long this has
happened with the NG swimmers so much kudos to the swimmers and
their parents on this and a positive impression was definitely
left!
c) Lastly the head of the Gameday Center said that we left this
condos cleaner then any sports team they have ever had so again
well done to the swimmers with an assist to the coaches who stayed
up past 1 am on Sunday night helping to "motivate" the swimmers on
their cleaning.
7) We left Auburn at 4:15 am on Monday and dropped 2 swimmers at
the Atlanta Airport ( we lost that hour as we went back to est )
and then headed over to Georgia Tech where we met their Head Coach
and Olympic Gold Medalist Courtney Hart as well as one of their
swimmers who had a presentation about Georgia Tech. We trained SCY
at Tech and then met with their Asst Coach Marty in the Yellow
Jackets Team Room. He was awesome in talking not just about Tech
but really breaking down the entire college recruiting process for
all our swimmers. Just amazing info for each swimmer to move
forward with. Lunch at GT and then quick driving tour of Centennial
Olympic Park, CNN Center and off to Atlantic Station ( similar to
the Domain ) for 3 plus hours of fun for the group. Afterwards we
headed to the ATL Airport and back to Austin.
Overall a very fun and spirited trip for our swimmers. The college
visits and talks from the coaches alone made the trip
worthwhile---on top of that throw in a great meet and then some fun
and team bonding and building, it was a super week for Nitro!
Thanks again to all who helped make this trip possible! Tim
ps---I will have another email coming this week with a preview of
meets and training schedule as well as travel info for Nats and
Junior Nats.
Meet highlights:
New ST record in the 100 breast breaking the previous record by
Olympian Scott Spann was Zach Gunn with his 1:04.26
New USA Senior National Cuts:
Zach Gunn- 100 breast 1:04.26
Megan Onstott- 400 im 4:55.53
New USA Junior National Cuts:
Tera Bradham 200 back- 2:19.98
Annika Jonsson 200 im- 2:22.50, 400 im- 5:00.16, 400 free-
4:24.34
Manny Mendoza 400 im- 4:38.90
**** all of those cuts as well as Lauren Davis's 200 back and
Megan Onstott's 200 breast and 400 im are Gold Medal Club time
standards!!!!
Top 3 finishes at Richard Quick Invite:
1st places- Lauren Davis- 200 back
Zach Gunn- 50 and 100 breast
Annika Jonsson- 400 free
Megan Onstott- 200 breast and 400 im
Maddie Tarantolo- 50 fly
2nd Places- Tera Bradham- 200 back, 200 im and 200 breast
Rachel Hobbins- 400 free
Annika Jonsson- 400 im
Manny Mendoza- 400 im and 1500 free
Maddie Tarantolo- 50 free and 100 fly
3rd Places- Josh Anderson- 100 fly, 200 im and 400 im
Tera Bradham- 400 im
Lauren Davis- 100 back
Manny Mendoza- 200 back
Megan Onstott- 100 breast and 200 im
Tiffany Sudarma- 50 fly and 50 back
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