Cedar Park
High School Training: Shishtaa & Srishty Pareek – Shishtaa and Srishty have their first month in HST under their belt, and they’ve already made a big impact. Both are hard workers and are very receptive to challenging sets. We coaches haven’t heard a single complaint from either of the sisters, so they both have the respectful and competitive attitudes to boot. We look forward to the coming season, where they will be competing in meets and representing Nitro. Keep it up, ladies! – Coach Alex
TAGS 2: Joshua Louie – Joshua’s training has been phenomenal these past few weeks, nothing showed that better than results of his racing at Pearland meet few weeks back. Josh miss the 50 Fly TAGS cut by a few hundredth in prelims but comes back to get the time in Long Course during finals. Very proud of this young man and excited to see what the coming few meets will have in store for him. – Coach Flo
TAGS 1: Anna Kate Benwell, Michael Shay & Summer Fullwood – It was very hard to pick a single Swimmer of the Month for January, as all three swimmers are very deserving. All three swimmers had very successful meets at Pearland two weeks ago when they won the High Point Awards for the meet! Anna Kate improved in many of her swims, but more importantly began to take huge steps forward in some of the technical aspects of swimming. Summer stayed resilient the entire meet as she had many close calls with achieving Tags Cuts. Michael finally really broke through on some time drops this season on barely any rest! Congrats! – Coach Elliott
Senior: Viktoria Haide – Viktoria has had a season full of ups and downs but this last month she has been able to compete in swim meets, which she hasn’t been able to do in almost a year. She has continued to push herself in practice and work through her knee pain and was able to compete at BB Champs this last weekend and had a phenomenal swim meet with time drops and making it back to Finals as well! WAY TO GO VIKTORIA! – Coach Jeremy
National Development: Emilie Parks – Emilie has done every thing we have asked of her this month and more. She has stepped up her level of training, swam really well at Pearland and been a great teammate. Emilie comes to practice every day with a smile on and works as hard as she can with out even thinking twice. She went to Pearland and got lifetime bests in everything she swam, whether it was in short course in the morning or long course at night. She was determined to swim well and it paid off. At the meet she was very vocal and cheered her teammates from her group and from all other groups as well. It always makes coaches happy when an older swimmer cheers on their teammates of all ages and levels. Nicely done Emilie, now keep it going into STAGS and hopefully Sectionals. – Coaches Robert & Elliott
Bee Cave
Middle School & High School Training: Ka’inoa Lee & Pooja Reddy – Both Pooja and Ka’inoa show up to practice ready to swim and that is not to be overlooked. It is very easy for swimmers to fall into a habit of complacency whereby they just put one arm in front of the other and limit the benefit they can get from a practice. Showing up being ready to swim means that your mind and body both are present and in the moment from the very start. Three of the requests I make of my swimmers involve respect: respect the coaches and what they are saying, respect your teammates and what they are doing, and respect yourselves and the commitment you have made to get better at something. The act of showing up ready to swim exemplifies the challenge of respecting yourself and demonstrates a confidence and since of purpose beyond their years. Keep up the great work you two! – Coach Jeff
TAGS 2: Joe Gillett – Joe has really stepped up his training over the past month and it is beginning to show in his racing at meets. Joe’s last two meets (Pearland and BB Champs) have really showed what hard work can do. BB champs was a real test for the kids since there was no warm down pool. He was able to overcome the less than ideal situation and got some new A times. Having success at meets and obtaining goals makes it a little bit easier to push yourself through the tough sets in practice. Joe is learning that and I’m really excited to see what he can do at STAGS in a few weeks. Great job Joe and keep up the hard work! – Coach Scott
TAGS 1: Kaley Rogers – Kaley had a great month. She always comes in with a smile and ready to work. Her hard work paid off this past month as she qualified for TAGS in both the 100 & 200 backstroke events! One of the biggest improvements over the past month for her is the ability to add her kick into her backstroke. Kaley is one of the strongest kickers on our team and she is now learning how to use it when racing. Keep up the great work and you will have a fantastic championship season! Congratulations on a great month. – Coach Jason
Senior: Abigail Wilkinson – Abby has been on fire all month long. Prior to the BB Champs Abby had swam a lifetime best in her 400 IM swim at the AAAA Progressive meet in San Antonio. Since then she had been on fire during practice all month long working on her mechanics and being confident in her races. At the AAAA progressive meet Coach Chuck and I witnessed Abby swim the 400 IM like a seasoned veteran. She swam the 400 IM again at this past BB Champs and swam aggressive with having negative split the back, breast and the free. I am so proud of Abby and her accomplishments. It is a prime example of swimming with confidence and working hard towards her goals. Keep up the great work Abby you had a killer season and I am so proud of you. – Coach Adrian
National Development: Fey Matamoros – Fey has had a tremendous turnaround from the beginning of our short course season. Her attendance is much better and her attitude and work ethic have been great. No matter what the set, Fey gives her best effort. At our last meet, her hard work began to show as she posted several best times and showed true toughness in all of her events. Fey has shown a lot of progress in the last month with her butterfly and breaststroke. Keep working hard and keep having fun! Congratulations on a great month. – Coach Jason
National Group Swimmer of the Month: Regan Barney – Regan recently dealt with a little bit of hardship but handled it in true Nitro fashion, professionally and with class. At the Arena Pro Swim Series at UT she was dq’d in the 400 IM for her back to breast turn. She swam an awesome race, dropping 3 seconds and making the A final with former Olympians filling the heat. Coach Tim and Regan didn’t see or feel like she had done anything wrong. Coach Tim protested but to no avail, they didn’t overturn the call. Coach Tim and Regan watched her race with the USA Swimming High Performance staff and they all said it was a perfectly legal turn. Regan then said to all assembled at the video review table “that’s ok I will take it out on my 200 IM and make that A final” (which she did ) and smiled and headed to warm down for her next event. This speaks volumes of her character and shows the proper way to handle such adversity. Great job on taking the hardship in the correct manner and taking it to make yourself even hungrier for your next races and achieve your goal(s). – Coaches Tim & Robert