Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Aislin Coles – Aislin has been working hard every week to improve her strokes and get stronger in the water. This week the coaches noticed how much that work is paying off! We were practicing backstroke, and her underwater streamlines off every wall were phenomenal!! That’s a difficult thing to master! Great job, Aislin!! – Coach Jessie
Bee Cave:Hayden Grier – Hayden did a wonderful job this week in practice! I was so proud of his focus! He came in and immediately started working hard! Not only did he do a great job staying on top of watching the clock, but every length was 100% effort for him!! Wow Hayden! Way to step it up this week! I love your enthusiasm and focus! Keep up the hard work! So proud! – Coach Meghan
Bronze
Cedar Park: Sarah Liu – Sarah had a great week in the water! As a swimmer it’s difficult to push off the wall and have great technique for every lap you swim but Sarah is dedicated to making that happen. As a result her strokes are getting stronger and stronger every week. She is leading her lane, nailing intervals and paying attention to her coach’s feedback. Great job, Sarah! – Coach Jessie
Bee Cave: Ava Chozick – Ava really impressed me this week by stepping up and leading whatever lane she was swimming in. She listened to instructions and set a good example for the rest of the group. Being first in a lane is a challenge, and Ava did a tremendous job with it. Way to go Ava, I’m proud of you! – Coach Jared
Technique & Fitness
Cedar Park: Julia Ratliff & Keegan Butler – Both Julia and Keegan demonstrated great interval and clock watching abilities. They really took charge of their lanes and showed their groups how to be an outstanding lane leader paying attention to multiple intervals. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. Coach Steve – Coach Steve
Bee Cave:Stella Franklin – Stella is new to Nitro, but that isn’t stopping her one bit. During practice this week, she had the most improved butterfly! Sometimes, being pulled aside or singled out to work on things, is a GREAT thing, and in Stella’s case she took the challenge on very well. Keep up the great work Stella! – Coach Linda
Silver
Cedar Park:Isabella Karstetter & Tyler Douglas – I felt the need to recognize these two swimmers for very different reasons looking back on a weeks worth of practices. Isabella is a swimmer that we’ve been lucky enough to work with since moving to Silver in the spring. She immediately struck me as someone that is good at making corrections and really focusing on the basics we ask our swimmers to work on day in and day out, but sometimes could seem a bit overwhelmed with the longer sets or strokes she wasn’t as comfortable with. Over the past month or so that’s changed dramatically. In addition to the focus on stroke technique she’s always had over the past few weeks we’ve really noticed her uptick in speed on our longer sets. More often than not when I’m looking across our lanes I can count on seeing Isabella maintaining the focus of the day we’re working on and leading not just her lane but the entire group. We couldn’t be happier to work with swimmers like Isabella and look forward to what the future will bring. Tyler is a brand new addition to both the Silver group and Nitro swimming. He and his pal Tarek (who’s also done great) started up just recently, and while there’s clearly a bond between them as coaches we try to understand what motivates our swimmers beyond social ties. Tyler had a rough day in the middle of the week. Both in swimming and life we’ve all got things that we struggle with that become especially difficult when we compare ourselves with our peers. While Tyler didn’t enjoy our breast stroke workout very much he came right back later in the week and really impressed us the very next practice. I’ll take a bit of artistic liberty in lifting a quote off of one of the Rocky movies here and copy the remark that “It’s not about how hard you can hit. But how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” We appreciate and respect any swimmer that can have a rough day and come right back the next to give their best. Keep it up Tyler! – Coach Dakota
Bee Cave: Sasha Dauletau – The start of every week is a test for the Silver swimmers, coming off of a long weekend you want to see which swimmers will have the focus, walk out onto the pool deck with their game face on, take that step towards being the best swimmer possible, and that is just what Sasha does every Monday! I’m very impressed with how she builds through each workout, turns the kick up when asked too, presses beyond the group standard with her under waters, and when asked to demonstrate a particular drill she is spot on. This young lady is one to watch this season; she has a fire, and is raising the level of each Silver workout at Bee Cave. Great job Sasha! – Coach Chuck
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Katie Zografos – Katie has done great in her first few weeks in Advanced Silver. It’s often intimidating moving groups that demand harder training, but Katie has not been afraid of the intensity or learning how to use new equipment. We coaches already see lots of great changes in swimmers’ strokes and Katie is definitely shining. We look forward to seeing her breaststroke and butterfly these next two weeks. Keep it up, Katie! – Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Kiara Bobb – Kiara has been this weeks revelation with awesome kick sets and taking first place in her lane. Her outstanding effort, attitude and determination to accept challenges, are preparing her to accept new opportunities along the way. Congrats Kiara, and keep going with the hard work and the excellent effort your putting in to your craft. SI SI SI.. – Coach Felix!
Gold
Cedar Park: Claire Emata – She is very consistent in her practices to the point that she has not missed a single one so far this season. She always accepts a challenge during practice to work harder and try to out work the person next to her. This kind of consistency and work ethic will be of great benefit to her in everything she does in her life. Congratulations and keep up the great work. – Coach Travis
Bee Cave: Matthew Villagomez – Matthew is truly a talented swimmer, he calls himself a breaststroker, but has a great feel for the water in all four strokes, a butterfly that is smooth long and strong, a backstroke that cuts cleanly through the water, and a freestyle that has even caught the eye of coach Tim on occasion, to me he is more like an IMer freestyler. Matthew reminds me of a young Tom Dolan, watch for him to impress many at Nitro this season, big things are coming for this young man! Great work this week Matthew! – Coach Chuck