Nitro Swimmers of the Month for June 2013

Cedar Park

High School Training: Cypher Miller– Cypher has had very consistent attendance over this past month showing up on time and ready to train. He is a dedicated leader during dry land workouts as well as constantly working to improve his strokes in the water. He has attend every single long course meet so far this season, great job Cypher!!!

TAGS 2: Portia Perley– There were so many swimmers that I could have put into this position this month because this group overall has had an amazing month of both training and competition. The Bill Nixon Meet this past month showed several swimmers who have really blossomed over the past month of training and are looking really strong going into the Championship season. Portia stood out because for about the past month and a half she has been struggling with shoulder pain. She has not missed practice to rehab her shoulder she has come to most every practice and kicked and lots of it. Started swimming full practice about three days before the last meet and went up there and rocked her events lifetime bests and plenty of TAGS cuts to go with that. Congratulations Portia!!!

TAGS 1: Ashlyn Carroll– Ashlyn is a good consistent worker who listens and responds to what her coaches say to her. Ashlyn is still 12, but turns 13 just before TAGS and had a great meet at Rockwall, with many great swims including making a 13-14 TAGS cut in the 100 fly.

Senior: Kendall Grier– Kendall has been at almost every practice this spring and summer, and has made the effort to improve the little things-mainly her freestyle stroke and her underwater dolphin kicks. It all came to together this past weekend at the Slower than A Championships in Brownsville. In her first final Saturday night (the 50 freestyle), she dove in, streamlined right to the 15 meter mark, won the event and got her ‘A’ time. This trend continued all weekend. Great job Kendall!

Sectional: Kira Morgan– Kira has taken her training very seriously and has shown great professionalism in working to improve her swimming.  This is particularly evident in her performance at the Texas Open meet during the end of June, as Kira not only hurdled a lull by dropping time in multiple events, but was also very pleased with practice effort translating well into her racing results.  We are excited to see her continue to grow as a competitive swimmer and prepare for college swimming.  Keep training hard, Kira!

Bee Cave

High School Training: Erika Fritz– Erika has done an amazing job. I can tell she always has question on how I can get her better and what she needs to do for her goals. She has put in a great amount of work to get better and it shows every day she is in the water. Keep up the great work!

TAGS: Kendall Shields & Camille Sweeney– Every chance that Kendall has to be a positive influence on someone, she takes it. A true pleasure to be around, lights up any room she enters. She is one of the hardest workers we have in our entire program, and that hard work paid off some dividends at the Rockwall meet with some 13-14 year old TAGS times and even a Sectional cut — and she is still 12 for a few more days!! Well done, keep it up, and stay as nice as you are! Camille is just now scratching the surface when it comes to figuring things out from a training perspective. She had her best month in the water since I’ve known her. She’s working hard, making corrections, taking an active interest in getting better, and as a result, she appears to be enjoying the sport more. Funny how all that plays together. Great to see and looking forward to what the future holds for Camille!

Senior: Carson Newman– This long course season has really broken Carson out of her shell. With constant demand of our under waters and holding technique, Carson has really stepped up her game this month. She is really grabbing the attention of the coaches and the swimmers in the group. Carson has been blending in with the Sectional group a few days a week and is keeping up just fine, if she misses an interval she doesn’t quit, she throws on one fin and catches up. It’s this kind of dedication and right mind set that will take her far. Carson is just breaking the surface of what she can do. To cap off the meet warm up this Friday morning we did 15M races from the block, she clocked in a blazing 6.24 to our leader Micah’s 6.16. With her intense training, Sectional is just a race away for her. Phenomenal job this month Carson, can’t wait to see your swims this weekend. Good luck.

Sectional: Laurie Prinz, Danielle LeBleu & Brian Jordan– Hard to decide on just three with the usual “suspects” like Diana, Jess, Kyle, and Grant leading the way every chance they get and working as hard as they do day in and day out. Fey is still the group’s biggest morale booster. But I had to do my best to narrow it down. On the “niceness” scale of 1-10, Laurie is an 11. Not only does she give all she has every practice as she has been rehabbing a knee issue, she stays and helps on most nights for our Summer Rec program as she is giving back to the sport at such a young age. Rarely do you see Laurie without a smile, and she is great to have on the team. Danielle had a little rough patch for a few months, but stayed with it and pushed herself even harder to get through it quicker. Well, it happened. The Rockwall meet was one of her best meets in her life. The highlight to me was her dive/breakout improvement – coming up a half a body length ahead of just about everyone in every one of her races. It is something she has worked hard on, and is starting to show. Well done. Danielle is moving to Atlanta at the end of July, so we certainly wish her the best. Swim Atlanta or Dynamo will be picking up a great addition to their program! Brian Jordan works about as hard as humanly possible every workout – regardless of how he is feeling. I have never heard a negative word come from him, always so positive – even when he’s dragging after a workout. Keep up the great work Brian!

National Group Swimmer of the Month: Mason Tenney & Zach Thomas – Similar to last month when Regan Barney and Karli Hemstreet were named  the NG swimmers of May for leading the girls team in both training and meets, this month on the boys side the two lead trainers have been Mason Tenney and Zach Thomas. Both have been ultra-tough as well as consistent in their training and both performed like champs at the Texas A&M Senior Circuit Meet. Mason made his first ever USA Junior National cut in the 100 fly and Zach went 6 for 6 with lifetime best times and nipping at Juniors in a bunch of events. Great job guys and setting up a really fun Championship meet season in July and early August! Focus in Irvine Cali!