Cedar Park
Sectional Development: Shelby DuBose
Once again it was really tough to choose one swimmer with championship season closing and so many great swims but Shelby really stood out this month. She has been swimming incredibly fast in workouts, knocking it out of the park on test sets and time trials, and making some adjustments to her strokes and technique. It showed on her first swim of STAGS when Shelby swam best times in her 200, 400, and 800 free-all during her 800 free! Keep up the great work Shelby. —Coach Dan
Senior: Alex Llorens
With championship month coming to a close it was tough to choose just one swimmer for this group but I decided that Alex deserved this months SOM because of some great swims at Jr. STAGs. Alex made some great time drops at Jr. STAGs and has done a great job this season working for those drops. She had great attendance and worked hard on a daily basis and it showed at her championship meet! —Coach Dan
TAGS 2: Trinity Hoang
It has been an awesome experience to watch Trinity Hoang grow and mature into an elite swimmer this season. Not only is she lighting fast when closing on relays, but it is what goes on behind the scenes that is most impressive. Trinity loves her TEAM and can always be found encouraging others. Great job, Trinity, on all the smiles you bring to the TAGS II group (especially your coach). Keep up the good work and I can’t want for another season of fast swimming. —Coach Daniel
TAGS 1: Landon Alarcon, Shannon Bagnal, Emily Burchett, Lauren Chaney, Kelly Digby, Trisha Filimoehala, John Fontenot, Corby Furrer, Bella Gamez, Joseph Hunninghake, Sydney Johnson, Karsten Olsen, Danny Pineiro, Sophia Rivas, Shreyush Shankar, Megha Siddapureddy, Molly Sparrow, Edie Waiwaiole, Caroline Waiwaiole, Rylee Worley, Karen Yin & Julian Yung
Our group enjoyed tremendous success this past weekend, winning multiple relays and multiple Individual events. Very proud of everyone in the group and how they performed. Hard work pays off. —Coach Flo
National Development: Bryce Flynn
Bryce continues to not only push himself to be better everyday, but also his teammates. He shows great leadership inside as well as outside of the pool. Not only has he been a great leader, but has also had a great amount of success at his swim meets with multiple sectional Cuts achieved this past month. Continue the journey, and enjoy every minute of it! —Coach Jeremy
Bee Cave
HS/MS Training: Christian Gomez
Christian is one goofy kid, but he has improved a ton since joining the group. I think one of his biggest motivators are his three younger siblings that also swim at Nitro. Christian joined Nitro later than them, but he definitely has shown me the motivation and work ethic of the other Gomez kids. He is one of the few kids in this group that consistently attends swim meets, which I hope continues going into the short course season. Christian gets better with every practice, and I’m excited to see what he is capable of. Great job, Christian! —Coach Peter
Senior: Gabriela Gomez
Gabriela is learning how to train, you turn 13 and your whole world of swimming changes, the events are longer, the meets last forever, you go to more and more meets away from home, so trying to fit everything in becomes a lot more complicated than when you were 10 or 11. We talk at length about how you are not only training to make each swim better but that we are training to keep your edge sharp and energy sustainable for the grind of a four or five day meet. This month Gabriela has done just that, in a short season filled with meets she had quite a good end of Long Course season swimming 8 events at Junior STAGS dropping time in 7 of those 8. What was most impressive was that she built into the meet, everyday got better and every swim was stronger. She started with a 1 second drop in her 400 free, but followed with 5 and 6 second drops in her 100 free and 100 breast, then pushed her 200 free and 200 breast 5.7 and 3.6 seconds faster, but the best came on the last day when she dropped 10 seconds in her 100 back and finished the weekend with a 14 second drop in her 200 IM! This showed how hard this young lady has worked all summer not just this past month! Great Job young lady! —Coach Chuck
TAGS 2: Stefen Teeters
This past moth Stefen has been the ultimate teammate! He has a gift for making those around him laugh when they least want to, and making everyone around him smile. He was able to attend STAGS to race one of his best races, but he also went out of his way to cheer for almost every single Nitro swimmer during Prelims and Finals. I’m not sure of every specific but I can still see him kneeling on deck and cheering his head off. It gave me chills that day and has stood out in my mind since then. Even after STAGS he attended practice and supported those around him while they finished their training for TAGS. I am so proud of the maturity I saw from Stefen these past few weeks, and cant continue to watch him grow! —Coach Allison
TAGS 1: Morgan “MoRad” Rodriguez
I’m here on the shuttle that will take me to the airport, thinking about the last Swimmer of the Month of this great Long Course season that just ended a couple hours ago, and we are the CHAMPIONS. The trophy is going back home. That being said, and after a long and methodical thinking (these TAGS 1 swimmers make this decision harder every month), the Swimmer of the Month for July goes to Morgan “MoRad” Rodriguez. WOW!!! What a season for this 12 years old kiddo. I’ve been watching her since I started at Nitro three years ago and now finally have the honor of being her coach. Morgan had a spectacular end of the season at TAGS, ending with five solid 13-14 (she’s turning 13 in December) TAGS cuts and four Sectional cuts. I could not be happier! Mornings, afternoons, a lot of time in the water, all the sacrifice finally paid off. Good job Morgan, stay FOCUSED and MOTIVATED that the best is yet to come! Keep it up! SI SI SI!!! —Coach Felix
National Development: Yasmina Buhl
Yasmina finaled in both the 100 and 200 Fly at TAGS. She was 3rd in 100 and 6th in her 200. She now has a new futures cut in her 100 Fly too. Yasmina set her goals in the Spring and reached them through consistent practice, excellent attendance and a great fun spirit! Congrats Yasmina!! —Coach Randy
National Group: Dominic Toledo, Michael Shay, Jack Grieshop
Michael gets a nod for a moment from this weekend. In the 200 back he missed the Summer Juniors cut by .37. As he walked over he had a huge smile on his face. Normally you would expect a swimmer to be really upset. Instead, Michael, expressed how proud he was of himself for just getting close. It’s that attitude that’s led him to success all year.
Dominic had a rough start to the season. He was really sick for a few weeks and had another month just trying to recover. Dom struggled with his confidence. But he slowly turned it around by building on the small wins. This all led him to impressive time drops at Sectionals!
Jack was not happy with how his spring meets ended. Instead of pulling away, he stuck to the process and kept pushing forward. That commitment to the process led him to his first Summer Juniors Cuts at Sectionals!! —Coach Elliot