Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Colin Durham
Colin joined Nitro this season and has made an impression on his coaches. He always shows up ready to work hard and with a huge smile. Colin isn’t one of the bigger kids in Intro but he does not let that stop him, he always gives it his all. It has been a joy to see Colin become a stronger swimmer. Keep up the great work Colin! —Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Kylie May and Wendi Zhang
Kylie and Wendi rocked it this week with their backstroke! Intro to Nitro swimmers focused on strong underwater pushoffs on their back this week. Some kiddos find this a bit of a challenge, but Kylie and Wendi mastered it with ease! Both continuously get past the flags with their streamlines on their tummy and back. Both ladies also led their group with tall backstroke arms. Thank you Kylie for always bringing so much energy and fun to practice! Thank you Wendi for your sweet attitude and gentle spirit! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Ezra Wilson
Ezra is an extremely strong swimmer, but recently he has been focusing on mastering his technique. Just like his sister, Ezra has an outstanding breaststroke, getting lots of power from his kick and getting into a nice body line. His freestyle and butterfly have come a long way too, not only becoming faster, but becoming more efficient. This past weekend, Ezra went down to San Antonio for the AAAA meet, and he rocked he house! Way to go Ezra! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Nick Musil
Nick has been doing a great job finding new ways to make breakthroughs, working hard on his kicking speed, bodyline, streamline, but how do you improve your racing speed? Finding a new feel is hard, to swim a time you’ve never done before your body is going to feel a pain its never felt before, less breathing, tighter faster turn, faster hand speed, things that you can work on separately but done as a whole will change the feel. Nick put it together this week, the proof was swimming a 50 free off the block cleaner and faster than he ever has before, and he did this at the end of practice. His next meet should produce some great new swims. Keep up the great work young man.—Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Amelie Breton and Pablo Barrera
Amelia moved into T/F from our Intro to Nitro group and has made a smooth transition. She’s leading her lane during our daily freestyle kick sets and was really impressive last week on her butterfly head and body position. Her arm extension on fly is spot on. Pablo has improved immensely on all of his kicking. He is fairly new to the team and is picking up all the new instructions we throw at him. We can tell he really wants to improve his technique. He puts quality time in the pool. Someone who is great to coach and instruct. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Katherine Craighead
Katie has had one good leg since I got here. In fact, this was her first week without crutches. I’m so impressed how she’s only missed one practice, and even that was because she was elected to her school’s student council. Every practice, Katie comes hobbling in with the brightest smile you’ve ever seen. Her congeniality is infectious on the whole group. I have to admit, it always brightens my day too! With one good leg, and a smile that lights up the room, Katie works hard on her technique every single practice. She doesn’t make excuses; instead, she’s taken advantage of her injury by trying to lengthen out her stroke to be more efficient. I have to say, I’m lucky to be her coach! —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Abram Rheinheimer
Abram Rheinheimer from Silver #1 really understands good body positioning throughout all strokes. This week as we tackled breast stroke, Abe demonstrated for everyone how to have high hips and good head positioning throughout his stroke. He also mastered a fast recovery over the water to get a quick breath just before going into his glide. Not many swimmers come into the technical side of things naturally, but Abe sure does. Way to go Abe! Thanks for being my go to guy for demonstrations. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Alessandra Grijalva
Alessandra had been battling strep throat during the week and missed several practices, but she was able to come towards the end of the week to prepare for the AAAA dual meet in San Antonio this past weekend. Despite being sick for a few days and missing some practices, Alessandra still had a great meet! She dropped two seconds off of her 50 Backstroke and eleven seconds off of her 50 Freestyle. I’m so proud of the way she and all of the other Silver swimmers performed over the weekend! Incredible job, Alessandra! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Maks Taraszewski
Maks has developed his turns and strokes this fall very significantly. Maks had a tremendous backstroke at the meet this weekend in San Antonio – all with a great attitude! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Shireen Gore
Shireen is undoubtedly one of the leaders in the Gold group; not only does she lead her lane, she pushes the rest of the group to perform. Shireen is very technically sound, has unbelievable speed, and is always a blast to have at practice. This weekend at the AAAA meet, Shireen raced just as the coaches expected, with many time improvements (minus that tricky outdoor backstroke event!). The shining moment of her meet, though, was the 100 free, as Shireen broke the 1:00 barrier! Awesome job Shireen! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Meredith Wolfe
Meredith is a lot of power in a small package. She has done a great job applying on-land skills into in-water drills and has made a ton of progress this season. Meredith is one of the best crawlers and traversers in the group, as she knocks each and every PTS and dryland out of the park. Keep being a beast, MereWolfe! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Aidan Burt
Wowza kiddo! You crushed it this past week, as it was my first time seeing you able to connect your training and your amazing talent in the water. The swim meet was the cherry on top of all of your hard work. I loved being able to watch you compete this weekend in San Antonio, and you did a great job from checking in with the coach to pushing yourself and crushing your times. Now that you have a great base time for a majority of your events, you are on the set path for success. Way to go!—Coach Allison