Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Max Panneton
Max comes to practice ready to work and race his teammates. This week Intro worked on backstroke and maintaining perfect body position. Max did a really great job keeping his body in great position. His group also had the chance to work on the beginning of backstroke starts and he did fantastic job with the new skill. Great work this week Max, keep it up! —Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Sirisha Agarwal
Sirisha has put forth a lot of effort in Intro; her hard work has paid off and she is making great strides in her butterfly and breaststroke. She demonstrated tall reaching arms on the recovery phase of her butterfly. Sirisha worked hard on her breaststroke kick this past week—focusing on turning her feet out and catching water with the insides of her feet. While we continue working on legalizing her breaststroke kick, Sirisha is now one of the strongest flutter kickers in her group. Keep up the great work young lady! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Katherine Bernsten
Last week, Bronze hit some 100 IM’s. It was a pretty big challenge, but Katherine stepped up her game. She made her strokes look smooth and efficient, and was nailing her turns time after time. Katherine pays very close attention to detail, making corrections anytime she is asked. Katherine also works as hard as anyone else in the Bronze group. Keep it up Katherine! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Karen Bui
Just some great work by Karen on the length of her breaststroke this week, she is holding a very tall position, and the low head is key to a low stroke count. I really love how deep Karen pushes off on her turns, swimming faster because you swim less is a great way to improve, and her pullout length is easy when you push deep. Great job young lady cant wait to see more breaststroke. —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Emily Jones and Aayush Vaswani
Both of you two have really stepped up to the plate and delivered. Great job on the open turns and the freestyle and backstroke hand placement on your catch of the water and the pull. Also we are seeing a great improvement in your opening kick set. More power in your kick with a great kick beat. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Clara Podoloff
Clara blew Coach Peter and me out of the water this week 🙂 She’s been in TF a few months now and has come along swimmingly 🙂 However, this week she proved herself in the top tier swimmers of Bee Cave’s TF groups. Her underwater streamlines and power push-offs were like none I’ve ever seen from her before. Her underwater breaststroke pullouts were paralleled to none. Coach Peter and I both watched her push off and looked at each other in amazement. Consequently, Clara demonstrated in front of the entire group and nailed it. I’m so proud of her and the milestone she passed this week. I expect big things from her in the near future! I can’t wait till the rest of Nitro witnesses her skills at the Nitro @ The Races meet on April 29th. —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Madison White
This week Madison did a fantastic job working on butterfly. As we talked about pressing the chest through the stroke to move the body through the water, I could tell Madison was really having to work at this skill. But her work paid off and her butterfly looked phenomenal by the end of the week. But what really struck me was how Madison reached out to a swimmer trying out Silver this past week. After practice she made sure to give this swimmer a high five and say Good Job! It is so awesome to see a Silver swimmer encouraging a fellow teammate. Way to be not just an awesome athlete but a fantastic person as well, Madison! —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Jackson Ledbetter
We did a lot of endurance sets this week, and Jackson really shined. This kid just flat out works. All of the main sets this week included sprinting various distances and while I could tell some swimmers were holding back a bit and not sprinting when they were supposed to, Jackson gave me 100% effort every single time. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was just spent. He did an excellent job not breathing in the red zone, doing two arms in and out without breathing, and sprinting when he was supposed to. That’s the kind of effort I love to see in practice. Great job, Jackson! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Alan Chu
At the meet this weekend, he surpassed my expectations with flying colors – Alan had excellent turns and streamlines and is getting close to a few cuts. Additionally, he has truly developed his kicking strength this spring and is more focused on swimming than ever. This racer is coming along! Great work, Alan. HARD WORK PAYS OFF! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Mariana Castellanos Lopez
Mariana had a great week last week. First, she made her way back into the pool after being sick the previous week. Mariana didn’t miss a beat, though, as she worked hard through some backstroke technique work and speed sets. She finished off the week with a great showing at the Red vs Black meet this weekend. Way to go Mariana! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Alex Jiampietro
Alex earned this week’s title! While everyone in the group swam well at the RvB meet on Saturday, Alex stood out and swam lights-out. She was fierce going into every event and always climbed out of the water smiling. Alex earned her first ever AA cut in the 100 back and she’s now ready to set her sights on that TAGS cut. Nobody is more hungry and humble than AJ! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Daniela Cazares
Daniela rocked it this weekend! Not only has she been to practice consistently and working hard to get back into the water. I was able to watch her race this weekend, finally! We talked about her 50 Free the day before and the day of the meet. She was worried about her seed time, but I reassured her she would rock it anyways! When meet day came, she ended up in a heat all alone. We got everyone to rally around her and she blew it out of the water. I even had an official lean over and tell me “she needs to race alone more often!” So impressed with her courage and grit. —Coach Allison