Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Gwennie McCusker – Gwennie is showing such dedication to her sport! Arriving to practice early, listening to her coaches, being eager to learn, and having an AWESOME attitude! As a result her strokes are improving! Great job, Gwennie! – Coach Jessie
Bee Cave: Carson Collins – Carson always comes to practice with a positive attitude. He is ready to listen and work hard. Whenever a coach corrects his stroke he immediately tries to fix it. This week with diving he put 100 percent effort into learning going off the block. Good job Carson! – Coach Meghan
Bronze
Cedar Park: Nathaniel Early – He continues to be a group leader. Always knowing what the set and intervals are. But more than that he makes sure that the rest of his lane and the lanes next to him also know what is expected in the practice. Keep being a leader. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave: Nidhi Thippana – Nidhi made great strides this week in the pool. She has really been honed in on every aspect of our training. Nidhi’s kick has improved so much over the past couple of weeks; the improvement has really put her on the coach’s radar. When the coaches ask for a volunteer to demonstrate a drill or focus, her hand is always waving in the air. Great work this week Nidhi! – Coach Adrian
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Priyanka Gupta & Hao Cui – Priyanka has really been having a good few weeks in the pool. She’s making her intervals and really having some great technique in her strokes. Hao has been with the T/F group for some years and yet he still has a great attitude every day that he’s in the water. He brings a great vibe to the group in addition to that a killer butterfly. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave: Annie and Leah Dawson – Annie and Leah show up to practice ready to work hard. They both give their all at practice and preform great when practice starts becoming tough. Way to go girls! See you at the pool. – Coach Clay
Silver
Cedar Park: Olivia Valdez – Olivia has been a bright spot in Silver 3 all season, but in the past few weeks has turned it up a notch when I ask the group to do something a bit difficult. She’s always been great about listening to her coaches and getting along well with her team mates, but as we start doing more test sets designed to push the limits of their abilities Olivia has shined. Keep up the great work Olivia! – Coach Dakota
Bee Cave: Riley Carrier – When Riley pushed off the wall for practice on Friday she showed the kind of heart I’ve seen in only a few swimmers, when she finished to the wall for her last swim in Saturday’s practice I saw a very tired young lady, now most swimmers might have stopped, many more would have never tried, what Riley did was swim back to back Gold practices, she charged at the turns, paced with the other swimmers, struggled some, got winded, tired and sore, but never stopped, she fought to keep up, she kept pressing, now in two days Riley has swam more yards than she would in a week at her regular Silver practice, this is the kind of desire and drive that sets a swimmer apart, Riley has taken a big step forward and I couldn’t be prouder of one of my swimmers! Well done Riley! – Coach Chuck
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Maya Lyles & Mackenzie Stewart – Congratulations to all the AAAA Alamo Cup swimmers! We had many best times from our Advanced Silver swimmersthis Saturday and Nitro is very proud. While they aren’t the only ones who achieved best times, Mackenzie Stewart and Maya Lyles killed it with 100% best times in four individual events! Mackenzie is rather new to the group but has worked hard every practice and performances like this prove it. Maya has recently turned on her competitive edge and it’s very exciting to see her transform herself from someone who loves to swim into someone who loves to be a swimmer. These two young women have a very bright future ahead of them in this sport and we look forward to their hard work. Great job, ladies! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Matthew Villagomez – Matthew had a really strong week. He approaches every practice with a great attitude and that attitude permeates throughout the rest of the group. He is a fantastic leader and encourages others around him through his actions. He takes advantage of every opportunity in a practice and makes himself better with each stroke, each turn, every push-off. I know he has a lot more to do in swimming. However, as his coach, it has been great watching him set the foundation to achieving so much more in the sport. Keep up the great work Matthew! – Coach Jeff
Gold
Cedar Park: Emma Moran – Since moving in the group she has been working very hard to make improvements. This weekend she was able to see the progress she has made. She had a great meet and I hope this will drive her to continue the hard work. Congratulations. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave: Teresa Luo – To watch Teresa in practice you would never know she was out of the water for nine weeks, her strokes are as strong as ever, the turns are fast and long, sure she gets tired, you know the knee must still bother her, but she never lets that get in the way of her training, had she not gotten the strained knee back in late October I believe she would have made more than one TAGS cut this season so I’m really looking forward to her long course season, now swimming in the 11 & 12 age group we will see some of her best swimming yet to come. Keep up the hard work Teresa! – Coach Chuck