Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Chloe Doklovic – This week as the Intro group worked IM (Individual Medley) turns. Chloe learned the butterfly to backstroke, backstroke to breaststroke and breaststroke to freestyle. She did a great job on the 1. Finishing either with 2 hands or on her back, 2. bringing her feet to the wall, and 3. pushing off the wall under water in a streamline. Though it may sound simple the coordination open turns take is quite challenging. Chloe caught on quickly and was able to adjust to all the open turns she was taught. KEEP IT UP! – Coach Ben
Bee Cave: Danica Ryan – Danica has a quiet presence entering the pool but makes waves during practice. She is a hard worker week-to-week, and continuously grasps the skills and techniques we focus on. She is often the first to demonstrate for the group showing true leadership skills. I’m excited to watch her continue to grow as she moves to Bronze this week. Congrats Danica, and best of luck! – Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Sunayna Adoni – With the group working on backstroke this past week, a couple of our main focuses were underwaters and flip turns. Sunayna, one of the leaders in her group, excelled through all the practices. She had killer streamlines, beautiful breakouts from her streamline, and mastered her stroke count for those tricky flip turns. Sunayna has worked hard all season, and it has been awesome watching her grow as a swimmer. Way to go, Sunayna! – Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Maya Breshers & Hali Karimi – For several practices Bronze has been focused on the rhythm of butterfly, timing of the breath, but more importantly how to place the breath into a sustainable rhythm. Hali and Maya just came alive on Monday, no panic, plenty of strong kicking, and just letting the stroke happen. Once the girls found the correct head position it was smooth swimming. Hali said “your right coach once I was patient and made the kick bigger it was easy!” Sure its easy but the girls really put in a focused effort to feel the rhythm letting the legs do most of the work turned it all around. I’ve never seen Maya’s or Hali’s butterfly press so long, their stroke counts were cut in half and the smiles were huge. What a fantastic breakthrough for both girls, Great Job ladies! – Coach Chuck
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Tanvi Gupta & Tom Honeycutt – Tanvi did an incredible job with her breaststroke pullouts and really getting a great tight streamline push off with a good glide in between the pull, glide and kick. Tom has really advanced with his underwater streamlines and keeping his head down on his dives off the starting blocks. Such improvement this past week. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave: Stephanie Nichols – Stephanie recently came back from a broken finger that kept her out of the pool for eight weeks! Upon her return, she had some concerns about being able to keep up with the other T&F swimmers after being out for so long. I told her she might need a few practices to shake off the rust, but she would soon be back to her normal self. It turns out I was right this time around! Since coming back to Nitro, she has been working very hard and has caught the eye of some of the other coaches (including Coach Mike!) as well as me. We are very excited to have Stephanie back in the pool! Keep it up, Stephanie! – Coach Peter
Silver
Cedar Park: Dylan Harrison & Liam Riley – Every day there are so many swimmers that catch my eye doing something special. Whether it be bringing it on a hard set, or just helping lift a teammate spirit – there are so many reasons to be recognized. I see so many moments from so many swimmers, I’d just like to recognize the entire silver group. You guys have all shown me so many times, such amazing work and spirit. Couldn’t be more impressed, proud, or thankful for my time with you guys. Now to the two. Dylan joined silver not too long ago, and since day one, she’s brought a new energy and work ethic to the group. Although she can be quiet at times, once you get her going, she’s a force to be reckoned with. I’ve never seen her take it easy, she’s a very quick learner, she’s all smile, and just a great teammate to be around. Liam brings a different energy, an it’s every bit as important. Short of jumping in the water tying his legs together, Don’t think I could slow him down if I tried! He’s constantly pushing himself, focusing on the set, and has really begun to stand out in the group. Couldn’t ask for more from two swimmers, and no doubt future leaders at Nitro. Keep up the great work! You will be missed! – Coach Nick
Bee Cave: Melinda Dai – Melinda is continuously progressing in the pool. Her attention to detail has made her stronger and stronger every day, and it shows in her ability to race. One of the most recent swimmers to join our group, she has shown improvements and established herself through her focused work ethic. Melinda had a great meet at the Leap Year Races as well, especially in the breaststroke events! Way to go! – Coach Lianne
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Morgan Vopat – Morgan is a dolphin among fish. She shows up every day on time and ready to put the work in. I’ve never seen her take it easy in practice or skip yards. Morgan is one of the hardest workers anyone will come across and I know her swimming career will be full of success. Keep swimming fast, MoVo! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Zane Yacoub – Zane, your job in practice has been shining everyday more and more. Your desire to be and to do better is the best motivation to achieve SUCCESS. Focusing on the goal and putting in the work always leads to one thing, EXCELLENCE! Keep it up Zane, you are on your way there! FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS!!! SI SI SI!!! – Coach Felix
Gold
Cedar Park: TAGS Participants Rance Blancaflor, Hailey Freeman, Bella Gamez, Trinity Hoang, Alaya Johnson, Avery Mehok, Oliver Rowe, Paula Warren – We had a GREAT representation of the Gold group at TAGS this season. I couldn’t be more excited and thrilled to look back on the season and to end on such high achievements! There were a lot of great races and wow some of our relays had my heart racing!! Not only did Nitro win the TAGS Championship, but our 10 & Under Girls helped bring home the High Point Award for their respective age group! WAY TO GO! – Coach Jeremy
Bee Cave: Catherine McCluskey – Catherine has made a solid presence in Gold group over the past few months. She works hard everyday, and for one of the first times this weekend, I was able to see some of the changes in her stroke during a relay she swam at TAGS. Nothing is better than seeing a swimmer put in the work in practice and having it come out the way you want it to in a meet. Catherine has a great group of friends at Nitro. They laugh and have fun, and at the same time they do a great job of coming together to race and make each other better. Thanks for being a part of Nitro, Catherine! – Coach Allison