Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Joyce Ma – Joyce had a great week in the water! Not only does she come to every practice with a smile – she listens to the coaches and puts effort into what she does. We worked on IM turns this week, and that effort really paid off! Joyce’s turns were looking fantastic! Great job, Joyce! – Coach Jessie
Bee Cave: Owen Crowns – Owen has been working really hard lately in his breaststroke kick. This week he put so much focus on it and did a great job mastering his glide! Great job this week Owen! Keep up the hard work!
Bronze
Cedar Park: Blakely Calderone – She has consistently made the changes that she is asked to during practice. As well as having one of the best streamlines in the group she always knows the intervals and what is expected during the set. Congratulations and keep up the good work. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave:Jax Cadell – Jax had a great week in the pool. He has become a leader in the bronze group. I really enjoyed watching him focus on his under waters and dives this week. He always comes to practice ready to own it. Jax displayed his phenomenal racing capabilities. Great job this week Jax!
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Ester Yu & Liam Graves – Ester did an amazing job working on her butterfly. Arms were out of the water and head position was great. Liam really did an incredible job paying attention but even more letting Coach Jess help him improve his freestyle, especially the breathing. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave:Christian Flewelling – He really did outstanding work diving off of the starting blocks this week. His whole group really was impressed with his dives. His brother, Tyler was so excited too. Tyler kept saying – “that’s my brother, that’s my brother”. Great work Christian. – Coach Linda
Silver
Cedar Park: Michael Wang – Michael is one of the fastest kickers we’ve seen in Silver. This much was clear from day one, what’s been great to see since then has been the increased confidence and ability in everything else. Over the past few weeks he’s really opened up and let his personality shine through. This increased confidence shows in his swimming as well in his dramatic improvements to his strength and endurance as we’ve asked them to get after some tough sets over the past week. Keep up the great work Michael!
Bee Cave: Kelly You – Imagine you love swimming, you sign up for a Silver Group, not knowing who or how many will be in your group, big, small, crowded lanes, open lanes, it makes no difference to Kelly, she signed up for a group with only 3 swimmers in it, and that makes no difference, she would be a stand out in any group. Kelly is always on her game patient stroke work, great kick, a good feel for the water, and can turn up the speed when called on, but what is really great is she understands, when asked why we are doing a certain drill she can tell you, she pays attention to details like body line, neutral head potion, quick breath, all the little things a more experienced swimmers knows but still must be reminded of, while Kelly is on top of it and her strokes show the hard focus. Great to have a leader like Kelly in the Silver Groups at Bee Cave!
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Garrett Gray – Garrett has been doing a great job at practice. He is putting more effort into the technique side of his strokes, particularly in the foundation of the strokes: head position. Garrett doesn’t make temporary changes; rather, he tries to permanently improve his technique every day. It really shows, too, especially in his freestyle test sets, as he’s improved tremendously on his averages. Keep working hard, Garrett! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Leah Michalski – Leah started in the Adv. Silver group three weeks ago and she has done an outstanding job. She’s worked hard every day, and has shown an enormous improvement in her flip turns, streamlines and starts. It hasn’t been easy for her but she’s never given up. She’s always open to learn new things, she’s a big help with the dry lands, which will help her continue to do better every day and achieve her goals. Keep it up Leah, with hard work and dedication, excellence is at your fingertips. Great job!! – Coach Felix
Gold
Cedar Park: Karsten Olsen & Ana Herceg – These two had an amazing STAGS meet down in Corpus this week. Ana picked up 3 new TAGS cuts. She made finals in every event she swam, making the podium in 4 events, and was the Champion in the 200 Free. Karsten picked up his first 2 TAGS cuts. He also made finals in every event he swam and is coming back with 2 Bronze metals as well. More than just their stellar performance was their adjustments to their races between prelims and finals. Making changes to them to allow them to achieve their goals. Congratulations and can’t wait to see what we can do this week at TAGS. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave: Logann Khollman – What can you say about the heart of a swimmer, they swim fast, work their turns, make state cuts, all the things you would expect from a top swimmer, but what about a swimmer who see the lead of the lane moving away from them, some swimmers might suddenly need to go to the restroom, others might have a goggle problem, maybe a side or foot cramp, not Logann this young lady battles on first one 100 then another, you can see the colorful back light up, she drops her head a little, picks up the kick, scrapes and claws her way back to the lead! WOW!! That is what I call heart! nothing came easy except the smile on her face, way to go Logann!!! Coach Chuck