Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Smriti Narayanan! Smriti works hard at each practice and always has a big smile on
her face! She knows how important it is to pay attention to directions and listen when getting a correction. Smriti has shown improvements in each of her strokes; stronger butterfly arms, harder kicking on her backstroke, longer and smoother gliding on breaststroke and faster turnover on her freestyle arms! Keep up all the great work Smriti!!!
Bee Cave: Jaea Rivera. Jaea earned this award through hard work and focus. This last week we worked on Freestyle and streamlines, trying to be extra aware of our body position in the water. This is a constant struggled for swimmers of all ability levels and backgrounds. Jaea did an excellent job of listening effectively to the instructions and using the drills to improve her technique. Awesome Job Jaea!
Bronze
Cedar Park: Matthew Brisker is the Bronze group swimmer of the week. He attended his first swim meet with Nitro and did a great job! Learning the ropes at the meet was easier than he thought it would be and more fun too! Matthew swam hard and paid close attention to what his coaches had to say. Keep up the great work Matthew!
Bee Cave: Bailey Liverman. Bailey had a great meet up in Belton this weekend. She has been one of the swimmers on the edge of moving up to Silver group and the coaches were looking for a little more before we got her to the next step. Saturday she proved herself worthy of the Silver group by dropping time in her events with great technique and a positive attitude. She was very proud of herself and the coaches were impressed with the racer we saw. Congrats Bailey, work hard and have fun!
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park:The T/F swimmers of the week are Isabel Figueroa and Anoop Rachakonda. Isabel really nailed her butterfly this week. Her arms are clearly clearing the water and she has great head position. Anoop was struggling a bit with his strokes. He worked on his breathing and you could see vast improvement in the pool. Great job you two, thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. Coach Stephen.
Bee Cave: Jack Watt. Jack had an outstanding week in the pool. He absolutely thrived off our IM sets. Jack is starting to emerge as a leader in the group. All of his hard work is surely paying off. Keep up the great work Jack!
Silver
Cedar Park: Marc Mathieu – Marc joined Nitro at the beginning of the short course season. I still remember his first practice when he need to rest every 100 yards or so, since then his stamina has increased dramatically and he is always ready for the next challenging set. Marc never asks for rest anymore. His breastsdtroke kick is also becoming more and more powerful with every practice and more importatntly it is now completely legal. This is a prime example of why the Coaches of Nitro love what we do. When you see the growth a swimmer can make in his technique/endurance/confidence you can’t help but love your job. Thanks Marc for all the hard work you have put in and keeping a smiling on during it all.
Bee Cave:Lane Elizondo – I’ve seen great improvement in Lane’s weekly training, he has done a really nice job on improving the quickness of his turns, and the timing and pace of his butterfly shows how hard he has been working to smooth the flow of that stroke, hard work that paid off in dropping over 12 seconds in his 100 IM this weekend! Every single race Lane swam at Belton on Saturday had the intensity we love to see at Nitro Swimming. Way to go Lane!
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park: Elly Rice has been quietly coming to practices, working hard, and making great strides in her swimming over the last few weeks. She’s got an infectious smile and happy personality, and we are so pleased to see her improvement! I can’t wait to see what the New Year has in store for us with Elly! Keep up the great work! I want to also recognize the swimmers who participated in the COR meet this past weekend in Dallas: David Shay, Allie Freeman and Beau
Player. All had a great experience at this meet, swimming hard and really racing well. Nice job!
Bee Cave:Deuce Harbour. Deuce has been giving us solid practices for some time but, I wanted to highlight his work this week because of a conversation the Adv. Silver group had with Coach Mike. During the conversation, Mike wanted to know how many swimmers had asked their coach to watch them to make certain they were doing a specific stroke or drill or turn correctly. Deuce was the only one who had. I wanted to point this out because, from a coaching perspective, this level of interaction is one indicator as to the amount of investment a swimmer has in what they are doing. It is easy to say that you want to “get better.” It is entirely something else to ask for, potentially, critical feedback about what you are doing and engaging the coach in the mutual goal of making you a better swimmer. Keep up the great work Deuce!
Gold
Cedar Park: Gold group swimmer of the week is Thomas Shomper. After being sick for quite a while, Thomas bounced back this weekend at COR, dropping time in almost every event that he swam. He was part of both 10 and under boys relays, and was also the winner of the 10 and under 50 freestyle. It was great to see him healthy and swimming fast again! Great job Thomas. All of the Gold group participants at COR had a great weekend as well! Great racing from the whole group!
Bee Cave:Brian Li – You expect a swimmer to train hard on the events and the stroke that are their favorites, but when the swimmer voluntarily jumps into a new area of training as a coach you smile, but when that swimmer explodes the set, not once, not twice, but three times, going times faster than the national AA in the 200 butterfly for an eleven year old, as a coach you go WOW! Very nice Brian Li, I can’t wait to see that 200 butterfly in a meet.
Swimmer of the Month for November 2012:
Cedar Park
High School Training:High School Training Swimmer of the Month goes to Brian Nardone. Brian is in the midst of his first season with Nitro and has made some pretty impressive strides with his swimming, in particular his breaststroke. Working hard to find his feel in the water everything came together this past month. December will be an exciting month to see what he can do!
TAGS 2: Melissa Bartlett and Ashlyn Carroll. Both girls have great attendance and are working on improving technique. They have been
asked to demonstrate some form of technique / drill to their group and have done a fantastic job doing so! Great job to both of these girls!
TAGS 1:The TAGS1 swimmers of the month are the swimmers who competed at COR. The final preparation during the month of November was finished off with great meet over the weekend. Senior: Nick Shomper. Nick has had great attendance and is working on improving his technique. He’s also consistently have all required equipment for training, and has done a great job demonstrating to his group. Way to go Nick!
Sectional: Gus WHITEMAN Gus is only .4 tenths off NCSA automatic cut in his 100 backstroke and reaching the next level of his swimming.
Great COR meet this weekend!
Bee Cave:
High School Training:Gwyneth Pietrzyk & Vanessa Niccum. Both Gwen and Vanessa have improved tremendously in the short time they have been with the High School Training group. These swimmers have made a huge turn around from the shy girls that I saw on their first few days. Both girls have gotten stronger and more confident in the water. Gwen is almost always the first person in the pool and is always excited to get to work. Each practice Vanessa gets a little more efficient in her technique and more self assured in her abilities. It is an inspiring sight to see and I am excited to see where they will go from here. Keep up the great work Girls!
TAGS:Emily Long. A quiet personality around the pool, Emily not only brings a great smile but an improved training ethic. Emily has stepped up her training this past month & is diligently working on refining her strokes. Awesome month Emily…keep it up!
Senior: Chris Mayer. Chris brings a lot of energy to the group. At a certain stretch of meets he went from a 1:07 to a 56 in his 100 back in only five weeks! Chris’ hard work in and out of the pool has gotten him the boot to the sectional group. Keep up the great work in your new group Chris, it has been a joy to have you in our Senior group.
Sectional: Diana Dunn. Diana capped an outstanding month of training with an excellent COR meet. In addition, she swam fast at the November UT meet. Diana deserves recognition for maturity beyond her years as well as her fiery competitive spirit combined with an incredible attitude. Congrats Diana!
NATIONAL GROUP SWIMMER OF THE MONTH for NOVEMBER:
William Licon
Will had an incredible month starting with his commitment to be a student-athlete at the University of Texas and then ending
the month with an outstanding US Nationals where he set 3 team records and recorded a 9th place finish in the 200 breast
with a time of 1:57.07! Will has an infectious personality and is becoming a team leader this year as well. Looking forward to
seeing where he can help the team go this season in his leadership role and how he performs at Junior Nationals this March
in Orlando. Congrats Will