Cedar Park
High School Training: Ankita Rao – Ankita is a very interesting swimmer. She’s all smiles on deck, joking with her teammates with an ear to ear grin. The coaches sometimes explain a set, and she’ll poke fun at different things about it, but the moment she hits the water she’s a very different person. Ankita knows how and when to turn it on, and when it’s time to go fast, she pushes herself HARD. While more of a newbie of the group than a veteran, she’s already leading her teammates down the not-so-easy path of hard work and success. This coming season should be lights-out for Ankita. Keep that pedal to the floor! – Coach Alex
TAGS 2: Ana Herceg – Ana had a STAGS meet to remember, every event she swam and dropped time in during prelims, then she would come back at night and absolutely destroy her lifetime best time from prelims. Ana earned herself a 200 Backstroke TAGS cut with her STAGS effort and this in the first season where she turned 11 years old. Congratulations Ana very proud of you. – Coach Flo
TAGS 1: Conner Gamble – Connor has had an awesome February! Starting at BB champs he put up a number of lifetime bests. Then he went to stags and had even more! Then he just busted out at our Nitro President meet! All this was done in Conner’s first month in Tags 1. How did he do this during a transition? From day 1, he has led lanes, raced everyone in the group, and is the most focused swimmer at practice everyday! He wants to be the best and his actions everyday shows that. –Coach Elliott
Senior: Lucy Emmerson – Lucy is finishing off this season with a great STAGS and an opportunity to swim on a couple relays at TAGS! She has fully committed to making changes and getting better in the water and on land. Way to go Lucy!! – Coach Jeremy
National Development: Hayley Krebsbach & Josh Winn – These two individuals had an awesome training month and they capped it off with being the only two from the CP ND group to score points at the 2015 Speedo Sectionals Championships over the weekend at Texas A&M. Hayley was 16th in the women’s 1500m free. Josh placed 10th in the men’s 800m free and 16th in the men’s 1500m free. Great job in leading the group at Sectionals and now let’s build on this momentum into the LCM season. Whoo hoo!!! – Coach Rob
Bee Cave
High School Training: John Leeds – Becoming better at something is rarely simple and swimming is no exception. Exerting our bodies in the water helps to break down our muscles and makes us stronger. Focusing on our strokes makes us more efficient and proficient in our task. The interaction with our teammates helps to push us further than we could otherwise accomplish in isolation. Learning to balance these and many other challenges in our swimming career is part of what makes us the swimmers, and people, we are. John has always impressed me with his ability to engage his mind and body in his attempts to become better at something. He responds well to instruction and is eager for feedback. He is aware of and engages with the given set. He leads the group as a constant and unambiguous force for positive growth. These qualities, combined with his physical intensity in the pool, continue to accelerate and inform his growth as a person and an athlete. It is a fantastic way to train and allows for the little victories in practice to afford him continued renewal in the sport. Keep up the great work John! – Coach Jeff
TAGS 2: CJ Suarez – CJ has consistently been one of the hardest workers in the group. The first part of the season he wasn’t improving his times much at meets, but didn’t let that stop him from continuing to work hard. He’s been working a lot on his feel for the water and improving his distance per stroke. CJ had an incredible STAGS meet, dropping nearly six seconds in the 100 fly and over a second in 50 fly, getting his TAGS cut in both events! Great job CJ keep up the hard work! – Coach Scott
TAGS 1: Lauren Watt – Lauren has been consistently improving all season. During this past month she was very focused on both technique and racing. I could see her confidence growing as she approached STAGS! Lauren had a major breakthrough in the 100 free. She came into STAGS with a 1:01. She left STAGS with a 57.57 and a spot on a TAGS Relay!!! Congratulations on an amazing month! – Coach Jason
Senior: Katie Tuohy – Katie had an incredible short course season and ended it on complete fire!! I have enjoyed seeing her progress into a respected leader within the group. Katie was part of a qualifying state relay for her high school as a freshman. As we all know, this is a dream for all aspiring high school swimmers. Some swimmers never get to experience that atmosphere. Can’t wait to see what long course has in store for Katie, well done this season, the coaches are very proud of you. Its seasons like this that coaches live for. – Coach Adrian
National Development: Ali Andros – Ali had a great month of training! This all paid off with lifetime bests at both STAGS and her High School State Meet. Ali also achieved her season goal of attaining an NCSA Cut in the 200 Back with a 2:05.94!! Congratulations on an incredible month! – Coach Jason
National Group Swimmer(s) of February: Luke Gwin and Karli Hemstreet – This month Coach Mike received a few emails that we as coaches absolutely love! Both of these emails were from parents with swimmers in younger groups on Nitro. In them they praised both Luke Gwin and Karli Hemstreet for specific situations in which they were being great teammates, mentors and leaders and all of this without any prompting…just them doing what comes natural to them. We know that the Gwin and Hemstreet families as well as all the coaches at Nitro are very proud of the great example that Luke and Karli have set. We always talk about the poem “little eyes are upon us” and these were two situations where that was certainly true. Great job to Luke and Karli for creating the exact culture we all wish to have at Nitro! – Coach Tim & Coach Rob