Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Nikita Maralla – Nikita had a great week in the water! Although she hasn’t been in Intro very long, she is making progress every week! She is paying attention to the coaches during practice, and putting a real effort into demonstrating the skills correctly. I’m excited to see her continue to progress! Great job, Nikita! – Coach Jessie
Bee Cave: Chloe and Grace Jiang– Chloe and Grace went above and beyond this week! After really focusing on flip turns the week before, Grace and Chloe took some time to practice outside of our practice time. This extra work really paid off! They came back and had almost perfected their flip turns! Great job Grace and Chloe! Keep up the hard work! –Coach Meghan
Bronze
Cedar Park: Niamh Coles – She has been doing a great job in practices of focusing on the drills. She as well always seems to know the intervals that we are on and has turned in to a great lane leader. She capped off this week with a great performance at the Friday Night Lights meet. Congratulations and keep up the great work. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave: Ian Cunliffe Weiss – Ian has been on fire this past week! Every time we have a tough under waters set, Ian always rises up to the occasion. When I watch Ian’s under waters, they have a serious purpose! During the week we worked on sprinting and diving, I have seen tremendous improvement from Ian this week. Keep up the great work! – Coach Adrian
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Julie Chen and Roarke Estrin – It’s really great to see Julie back at our Cedar Park location. She’s been hitting the water like gangbusters showing us that she’s still got that go to attitude. Roarke has really been working on his butterfly arms and putting in the work that is necessary to having a good clean stroke. It’s paying off. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. – Coach Steve
Bee Cave: Cory Chang – as the swimmer of the week for TF. Cory has been improving on a regular basis, and recently he has really improved his breaststroke kick. He’s also been upping his diving to the next level. Cory always comes to practice excited and eager to learn new skills. Keep up the great work! – Coach Linda
Silver
Cedar Park: Franziska Buckel, Daniel Warren, Paula Warren, Trinity Hoang, Marina Roth, Tomas Vasquez, Rance Blancaflor, Cole Harris – All these swimmers swam very well at last weeks Friday Night Lights meet. While I could list out virtually every Silver swimmer in attendance I chose these in particular for achieving new ‘BB’ times in one or more events. Franziska has been a quiet hard worker that’s been putting in some great practices for a few months now and it really came through. Daniel can need some, we’ll call it ‘extra motivation’ on occasion, but when it’s time to get up and race he’s shown some real potential. Paula has been a joy to have in practice from day one and has really developed a great work ethic this season. Trinity is one of the most upbeat kids I’ve worked with in awhile and can’t help but show how much she loves being in the water every day. Marina has developed some very nice technique to her strokes that really shines through in the LC set up. Tomas is a racer, give him a reason to go from point A to point B fast and it’s fun to watch the result. Rance has also been doing a great job in developing some great technique to his backstroke that came through with his first BB time last week. And last but not least Cole came incredibly close to getting his ‘BB’ time for 11-12 boys, he’s another one that at times needs some extra incentive but we we’re very pleased to see him swim well last Friday. Keep up the great work guys and thank you to all of you who came out to swim last Friday! – Coach Dakota
Bee Cave: Nick Orta – Nick certainly turned a corner on Friday, he swam a 200 freestyle long course just the way you want a 10 year old to swim it, quick start, set the breathing pattern, keep the first 50 smooth, building his kick on the second 50, really started to drive his shoulders on the third 50, and by the last 50 it was pure race speed to the end, legs driving till he hit the wall, and for his effort a National BB time. It looks as though it is time to move Nick to the Advanced Silver Group, this young man has a great future in swimming 200s of every stroke. Great work Nick! – Coach Chuck
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Khanh Lai – Khanh might be new to the group, but she is definitely not intimidated by it. She has made a huge impact since starting with us at the summer schedule change and she refuses to take anything but perfect as acceptable. Khanh is a go-to-girl if coaches need a demonstrator and she is all smiles when she is at the wall. There’s no doubt that Queen Khanh is a beast in the water. Keep it up, Khanh! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Kevin Um – Kevin displayed a strong focus this week, demonstrating a desire to get better through his actions and engagement. He listened well and we saw a definite improvement in his strokes as well as his overall effort. In short, he displayed exactly the training habits that will see him forward to faster swimming and still more challenging workouts. Keep up the great work Kevin! – Coach Jeff
Gold
Cedar Park: Shreyush Shankar – He has been very consistent with his high effort level in practice. He has been very impressive during our long endurance sets and seems to be seeing some very good results in his meets. He finished off the week with the top average during our test set on Saturday. Congratulations and keep working towards your goals. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave – Gold II (going forward Bee Cave will be alternating each week with a featured Gold swimmer followed by a featured Gold II swimmer) Kira Baker: Kira has some of the best attendance in the group and has really committed herself to improving her underwaters. We put the lane buddies out several times a week and I’ve only had to ask her once to make sure she gets past it every time. She always gives a 110% and is able to receive feedback positively and apply it to her stroke immediately. Great job Kira! – Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Sophia Shelburne – This was a great week for Sophia, we always talk about how the swimmer has to commit to the set, don’t hold back, go locking for a new pain, train the breathing and the legs, well if you had seen Sophia attack her freestyle this past week you would agree that she was the swimmer of the week! She was tired, heavy breathing to the point where her usual smile had almost disappeared! The next send off and the streamline was pushed to just over 12 yards, no first breath, charging all the way. When a swimmer decides its time to step up, you see it from the first push, everything seems just a bit crisper, there is a snap, urgency to the movement, yet good control, it looks special, and the time confirms it. You just watched the swim and swimmer of the week! Great gob Sophia! – Coach Chuck