Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Misha Anand, Rowan Minnick & Noah Harmon – Misha had tremendous improvements on her flip turn, we saw her work on having a long, tight streamline underwater, and has one of the quickest freestyle breaths in the Intro group. Rowan puts in effort daily, never takes anything easy, did a great job picking up on the flip turns this week. Noah was the main demonstrator on the underwater push offs and adding the 5 underwater body waves. He’s a pro!! Well done you three. Keep it up! –Coach Ben, Coach Darren & Coach Mike
Bee Cave: Srijan Jagarlamudi and Kyle Lee Srijan – Srijan has been doing really well in class and this week he really worked hard. Recently I have noticed an increase in listening and participation. He hasn’t been in Intro for very long, but has come a really long way! Kyle’s flip turns this week were stellar. He swam in, flipped, and then pushed off the wall in a streamline! He did 5 dolphin kicks and came up to swim again ALL without stopping. It was fun to watch! Good job and keep it up!! – Coach Sarah
Bronze
Cedar Park: Kavya Jey – Kavya has been working very hard to improve her strokes in practice, and that showed at the Reindeer Races swim meet. Kavya had great swims in all her events, dropping massive amounts of time and getting very close to some B time standards. Keep up the great work Kavya! – Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Victor Teeters – This young man is the kind of swimmer every coach likes to work with, great focus, makes adjustments when asked, never afraid to push past his limits, always comes to the pool with a positive attitude and the desire to improve. Victor put his focus to the test this weekend and made three great swims, dropping almost 7 seconds in his 50 free, almost 6 seconds in his 50 back, then finished up the day with a 2 second drop in the 50 breast. Great work for a young man who traveled half way across the country and seems not to have missed a beat in his training. Welcome aboard young man, Great Job! – Coach Chuck
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Avery Habermacher and Neal Davar – Avery was what we called “The girl on fire!” this past week. She was nailing all of our swimming trivia questions and more importantly she is diving! Hearing her say “I did it!” is why we coach. Neal Davar showed up to practice a bit late this past week but raced in the water and took off. We love that attitude of wanting to be there and ready to swim. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Katie Shen – Katie was one of several Technique & Fitness swimmers that participated in the Reindeer Races meet this past Saturday. She swam the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke, and absolutely shattered her seed times! With a seed time of 1:00.00 in the freestyle, she crushed that swimming a 48.04, and with a seed time of 1:10.00 in the backstroke, she swam a 53.45! It was a pair of fantastic swims for Katie. I hope she continues to work hard at practice and swim in meets! Katie’s SOW award this week represents all of the T&F swimmers that competed in the Reindeer Races meet. Amazing job this week, Katie! – Coach Peter
Silver
Cedar Park: Claudia Shen – Claudia had another great week of practice, focusing on technique and really going after the harder sets. She also really embraced our pre race three B’s, when we talked about how to prepare yourself to swim a solid race. The focus paid off at Bee Cave during Reindeer Races – though we had a brief lane scare at the beginning! She knew exactly how to handle it. She remembered to breathe, to bounce, and to break, and proceeded to put together some awesomely big swims, and sported an even bigger smile! Couldn’t be more proud of your fight and spirit Claudia. Way to go! – Coach Nick
Bee Cave: Katelyn Lieb – You watch the swimmers to see who is consistent, length of stroke, push offs, steady head, no breath finishes, all the things we talk about, but it’s the swimmers who do it every day in practice that make the breakthroughs at swim meets! Katelyn had a great meet Saturday, a seven second drop in her 200 free, not an easy first event for a Silver swimmer, followed by a nine second drop in her 100 breaststroke, pullouts made a big difference, and to finish the day, how about dropping 24 seconds in her 100 IM! WOW! A great day all around for Katelyn but she has been working on those swims for weeks, and it’s the consistent practices that get the job done. Great job young lady! – Coach Chuck
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Luka Herceg – Luka Herceg earned this title for a few reasons this week. First off, he achieved his very first A cut in the 50 backstroke. Secondly, he was the first of several swimmers in Advanced Silver to ever do a legal backstroke to breaststroke crossover turn – a milestone for the group! Third, and most importantly, Luka came back for consolation finals as a runner up in the 200 IM. He had dropped a second from his best in prelims, but then came back and raced the top seed in consolation finals, netting him the heat win and a HUGE 15 second drop. Luka was super happy, but he didn’t celebrate at all before shaking his opponent’s hand and telling him great job. Looks like Luka’s learned to compete like a champ! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Jennifer Li – Jennifer, always demonstrating a great passion for her swim everyday in practice. She has done a great job since she started with Advanced, specially in her streamlines and breaststroke pullouts. She’s rocking on those details! This past Saturday during the Nitro meet, she had a hard time before the meet start. I spoke with her, she had a great warm up and she did AMAZING on every one of her events. Ending the meet with four “BB” times for her swimming records. Good way to go Jen..keep it up! FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS..SI SI SI!!! – Coach Felix
Gold
Cedar Park: Julian Yung – Julian crushed his swims at the Reindeer Races! He attained multiple A time standards and was close in a couple of others. Julian pushes himself in practice, making sure to listen and fix any corrections or suggestions from coaches. We are really looking forward to seeing Julian continue to grow and build upon what he has accomplished. Way to go Julian! – Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Autumn Forgey – Autumn is our SOW for Gold this week for one simple reason: intensity. She had a wonderful week at Nitro. Coach Mike was able to work with her, really get her motivated and going, and changed her whole outlook on swimming. I was able to see her come to practice with a determination to make each interval and learn from each set. I am proud of her for working this past week, and I look forward to her continuing to work hard throughout the Holiday training ahead. Keep at it, Autumn. – Coach Allison