Swimmers of the Week/Month
Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park:Connor Silva– Connor is one of our newer swimmers but if you saw him in class you would never know. He listens and learns quickly, already picking up and understanding the hand signals for the sets and all the lingo. Connor is not afraid to try anything either, always ready for whatever we have to challenge Intro with. Welcome, way to go and keep it up Connor!
Bee Cave:Blythe Rhodes– Blythe is an amazing little girl and she had some really awesome practices these last few weeks in which she really stepped up to the plate as a leader. This last week we were focusing on everything breaststroke. Blythe is always one to listen well, but this last week she has not only been listening well but also been really focusing on doing each and every drill exactly as we describe. Because of this her breaststroke looks phenomenal. She is also a great team player, always helping out her fellow “Intro’s” to understand what we are doing and encouraging them to do their best. Keep on smiling Blythe, we love having you in our group!
Bronze
Cedar Park:Emily Williams– Emily has been with the Bronze group for a while, but recently turned a corner. Emily has noticeably started taking constructive critiques on technique and form in stride. She is learning the value of doing things the right way the first time and focusing on the task at hand. We love to see her smiling and moving up in her lane – which is much to the credit of her increased focus and attention to detail. Thanks for applying yourself Emily! We’re excited to see you continue to improve!
Bee Cave:Paige Liverman– Paige impresses us time and again. She is a tough swimmer with a real zeal for swimming. Paige does a great job listening and we can really tell that she wants to be here. Keep up the great work Paige!
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park:Alyson Jia & Shashank Kashyap – Leading a lane requires some extra effort from the swimmers. Not only do they have to swim, they need to watch the clock, listen to directions, do the right workout, make sure they don’t do something incorrectly, because at times, the others follow. Shashank did all of the above and stepped up his game this week. Alyson walked into practice on Saturday, and noticed that the pool was set up 50 long course meters. It’s not an easy distance to swim, if you’re fairly new to the sport. She did a great job with her endurance today. Nice job you two, thanks for being a part of NITRO, and we’ll see you at the pool.
Bee Cave:Carolyn Dunlap– Carolyn is one of our lane leaders in the older kids group on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm. Not only does she lead by example but is very reliable. She is developing into a very mature swimmer who comes in with a smile every day, even if she does get pushed to her limits in practice by Coach Megan, Carlye and I. This past Thursday we had a competition day with our TF group. We sent our four older kids to lanes with the younger children as team leaders. On every drill and 25 Carolyn was making sure her teammates were listening to the coaches, guided, and cheered on every single swimmer in her lane. Way to step it up Carolyn. You deserve the recognition.
Silver
Cedar Park:Jasmine Cho– Jasmine has done a great job over the last week of improving her kicking, backstroke, and butterfly. She’s taken a great approach to learning how to swim the strokes properly. Looking forward to upcoming meets to see how she will do. Great job Jasmine!
Bee Cave:Mason Wong– Mason is always excited to be at swim and comes early every day. He has a competitive spirit and shines on “competition day”, excelling at all he does to show off his awesome technique! His breakouts are outstanding! Keep up the great work Mason.
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park:Addie Armistead – She’s had a fantastic week of practices, always has a great smile on her face and is a joy to coach. Great job this week Addie!
Bee Cave: Jessica Gillman– Jessica hasn’t been with us long, but she is already showing that she belongs with Advanced Silver. She listens and responds well to stroke correction. Jessica always has a smile on her face and it is obvious to the coaches that she wants to be here. Keep up the great work and attitude Jessica!
Gold
Cedar Park: Melissa Bartlett– Melissa “Melish the Fish” has shown incredible work ethic for quite some time now, even though we all week we worked on strokes that were not her favorites, she continued to push herself to become better. Of course she is always smiling during practice and is a great friend to many in the Gold group. Keep up the great work!
Bee Cave:Keren Makhervaks– Keren is not only a sweet soul, but an extremely hard worker. Always striving to do better & improve, her work ethic & discipline is second to none and she is an absolute joy to coach. Keep up the great work Keren!
Swimmer of the Month – March
Cedar Park
High School Training:Joel Gibson– Joel has done a great job over the last few weeks of improving his stroke as well as enjoying tough workouts. He goes for the harder intervals and rocks the sets. He is a easy going guy who brings the group up. Looking forward to seeing some good results in the future for Joel. Keep the hard work up man!
TAGS 2:Cole Perley– This month’s swimmer is someone who as re-dedicated himself to the sport and has been enjoying the results of his higher level of fitness. Cole also acts as a mentor to some of the newer swimmers and is making big improvements in his swimming technique as well. It’s been a great month, we’re looking forward to this summer!
TAGS 1:Karli Hemstreet– Karli had an outstanding TAGS meet, winning high point for 13-14 girls. She finished up the month with some great swims at the Canadian Olympic Trials.
Senior: Emily Severe– Emily took a four month hiatus this winter to focus on school work, but returned to us this past month and we could not be happier. We want to affirm her dedication to getting back in the water and her commitment to improving. As anyone that has taken time off knows, getting back into the groove can be rough! But Emily has been steady in her attendance and diligent in her work. Keep it up Emily! Your hard work will pay off.
Sectional:Christian Carroll & Alexandra Manasso– “I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep lead by an LION, than an army of 100 lions lead by a sheep.” TALLEYRAND.” A new coach with a new group of kids needs leadership and the first task is trying to find the people who are going to create the culture that will be productive to the group and in a larger sense the team. Since I’ve been on the deck with S1 these two kids have said to me with their attitude and work ethic, “Coach, IT WILL BE ME”. TO BOTH OF YOU, “IT’S AN HONOR TO BE YOUR COACH’.
Bee Cave
Senior 2:Amanda Burton– Amanda is new to the group and her infectious smile and personality has won over both her coach and her teammates. Keep it up Amanda!
Senior 1/TAGS:Fey Matamoros– Fey has started off the new season where she left off the end of the Short Course season – swimming well! A multi-sport athlete, it is great to see Fey take her athleticism into the water as we do a lot of technique work. She starts off the new season with outstanding practices, and is always open to stroke adjustments. Keep it up Fey!
National Group Swimmer of the Month ( March )– Unbelievable work ethic plus a passion to get better helped make Christina Jonsson both the Most Improved NG swimmer for the year as well as the NG swimmer for March. CJ is a tone setter for the group, is becoming a vocal leader and has an unquestioned work ethic. It has been fun watching her improve so rapidly but that improvement is in conjunction with her training habits as well. Way to go CJ!!!!