Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park:Jordan Phillips – Jordan loves a good challenge during practice and always rises to the occasion. Often being called on to demonstrate for the group she is happy to help. She pushes herself to get better each practice which in turn pushes the swimmers around her to swim to the best of their ability all the while having fun and learning about each other. Don’t stop being Awesome Jordan!!
Bee Cave:Sofia Wesbecher– The last two weeks the Intro’s have really been working hard to tackle the timing of the breaststroke. Sofia did an excellent job of listening to the instructions and using those drills to her advantage. Great Job Sofia! Keep that smile on!
Bronze
Cedar Park: Julia Rautaneva – Julia joined the Bronze group just a few months ago and she has already taken full advantage of all the technique drills and hard work we put in. Julia has some of the best under waters in the group and she always tries to work on exactly what the coaches are asking of her no matter how hard it is. She is a great swimmer to have in practice because she is always smiling and never down about anything. Keep up the great work Julia!
Bee Cave:Autumn Forgey– Autumn is always excited about being at practice and that energy and a positive attitude have been paying off. She has been improving both in terms of her conditioning and her technique. This past week I saw her really focus and make a breakthrough with her butterfly incorporating a back-kick during her breath. This is such a fundamental part of the stroke and yet so difficult to grasp. Keep up the great work Autumn! It is always a pleasure to see your smiling face!
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park:Audrey Wu & Tijim Fauver – Audrey has a quite nature about herself and her concentration and focus shows in the pool. Her technique has improved over the past few months and last week she showed improvement in her breaststroke. Tijim has really come along. Even though he still has hesitation about entering the pool at the beginning of practice his positive attitude brings great energy to the group. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool.
Bee Cave:Connor Hawkins– Connor has been making huge strides of improvement. His breast stroke looked completely different last week than it is now. His constant want of feedback has my attention. Connor has improved his timing, technique, pull outs, and turns all in a weeks work. I am very proud of you Connor. Keep up the great work.
Silver
Cedar Park:Reagan Price– Recently Reagan has begun to realize her potential and has learned you can push your limits, become exhausted, and still have fun. She is leading her lane and now knows what we mean when we say “earn your rest” (Push so hard through the pain that those extra seconds of rest count for so much more in relation to resting and lowering the heart rate). Great job Reagan. We can’t wait to see what you do next week!
Bee Cave:Alec Meyer– Alec has just stepped up his training this past week, not only do you find him leading his lane but you also find him setting a new standard for the Silver #2 group at Bee Cave. I can’t think of a time when I didn’t see him body wave out past the flags, or ever find the need to remind him about “no breath first stroke up”. not to mention the intensity he is showing on his red zone finishes. Great job Alec keep raising the bar for your team mates.
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park:Adam Micek– Not only has he been swimming really well at the BB meet in San Antonio, he’s been a model teammate. Keep up the great cheering and team spirit Adam! Great job to all of the Advanced Silver swimmers at the meet. Lots of new best times as well as A times!
Bee Cave:Olivia Mazzei– After being out sick for about a week Olivia came back to us as strong–and focused–as ever. Despite her statements that she was “getting back in shape” Olivia really showed us what she could do. This intensity and determination is what I have come to expect from her. The wisdom she showed, however, had more to do with her attitude about recovery. Olivia is a very competitive swimmer but she doesn’t let setbacks get in her way. I’ve seen swimmers much older than she get upset with themselves and beat themselves up when they were having trouble with a set or a workout the way Olivia did earlier in the week. At age 10 Olivia has figured out how to let a less-than-stellar practice(I’ve never seen Olivia have a “bad” practice) go and get back to the business of making herself better the next time. By the end of the week Olivia had reclaimed her usual intensity and was helping to lead the group together with Mason Wong on a Saturday Challenge set. Keep up the great work Olivia!
Gold
Cedar Park: Caitlin Murphy– Caitlin had an amazing BB Championship meet, she went 6 for 6 in making A times, and she did not just barely make the A times she blew every A time out of the water and put herself in prime position to have a great meet three weeks from now. Very proud of Caitlin and all of the other GOLD group swimmers, they cheered for everyone, and all around were just having a blast the entire meet.
Bee Cave:Ethan Hammond– Ethan had a very good week, finding his pain threshold then pushing through it while challenging himself to maintain his stroke mechanics, a broken set of sprints that simulated the pain of a 200 freestyle in particular made Ethan a group leader as well as increasing his confidence to race at a higher level, which he displayed at the BB Championships, making the A finals several times while achieving a handful of A times in doing so. I look forward to seeing him swim at A Championships.