Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Om Vacchani
This season Om really stepped up and shown his coaches that he is willing work hard. Om listens to his coaches well and always tries his very best. This week Intro worked on backstroke and finding good body positioning in the water. Om did a great job asking his coaches questions about specific details in backstroke. He also had wonderful under water push offs and streamlined past the flags every single time he left the wall. While his swimming is improving a lot, Om has also stepped up by becoming one of the leaders in his group and always willing to help out his teammates. Keep up the great work Om! —Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Audrey Nielsen
Audrey has shown tremendous growth since joining Intro. This week she wowed the coaches with her excellent underwaters and tall bodyline. Audrey demonstrated how to keep a low head position when taking a breath during our swordfish freestyle drill. She gives 110% at practice each week and continues to develop her strokes because of her determination. Thank you for your hard work young lady! Keep it up! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Reese Stoner
Reese may be one of the younger ones in the group, but she packs quite a punch. Reese finds a way to grab on to a lot of water, is able to kick with crazy speed, and always looks like she is having a blast. It’s awesome having her in the group. Way to go Reese! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Michelle Fong
I can’t remember how many times this last week I asked Michelle to demonstrate a drill, show her timing, or perform a stroke, she has just been doing an outstanding job in the water every practice. This Saturday I was very impressed with how she held her stroke for the 100 butterfly in our Valentine Meet. Remember Bronze Groups are not known for training for the 100 butterfly so to see her hold tempo, kick, and length, was something special. A great finish to a great week for this young lady, great job Michelle! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Annabelle Kim and Atul Errabolu
These two athletes did a great job working on breaststroke this past week. Especially with the breaststroke pullouts. Excellent head and body position keeping the forehead down. Great job on the diving we did as well utilizing the new starting blocks that we have received at Cedar Park. Great job you two thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Ace Malone
Ace had one of those breakthrough practices this week. Everything seemed to click. He understood the concepts better than he ever had before. Everyone in the group noticed his unprecedented speed in the water, too! Lanemate, Drew, even said, “Guys! Ace is now competition!” So proud of Ace and the week he had. Looks like all that hard work and effort to pay attention to his coaches is finally paying off! —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Matthew Jiampietro
This week we covered a lot of ground with IM work, turns, and starts. While Matthew Jiampietro worked on all of these with a smile on his face, his hard work paid off tremendously in freestyle. His stroke was smoother, longer, and more efficient by the end of the week. He focused on rotating from his hips, keeping his head down, getting his elbows up through his recovery, and even hand placement as his arm entered the water. Way to work, Matthew! Keep it up! —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Weiyi Huang
It’s always so great to see a swimmer take what they have learned and improved on in practice and apply that to their race in a meet. Weiyi worked really hard on his butterfly this week. He had been struggling a little bit with his recovery arms and making sure they were simultaneous. He had been DQ’d a few times for it, but looked much improved this week during practice and in the meet on Saturday. I’m so proud of the work Weiyi put in this week. His efforts really shined during the meet! Great job, Weiyi! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Andrew Yun
This young man has recently taken it upon himself to work towards leading the lane, to develop his kicking, to understand as much as possible about the sport of swimming, and now is very swimming fast and having fun as a result of his decision. I love answering his detailed questions and explaining the technique of a particular part of the set to him. His dedication and passion are contagious in our group. You deserve the recognition, Andrew! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Autumn Matula
Autumn has turned a corner this season. We’ve talked about pushing ourselves a little more, and boy has it paid off. At the meet this past weekend, Autumn looked aggressive in her races, starting them out strong and finishing even stronger. Especially in that long 500 free. Keep it up Autumn! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Nigel Nielson
Nigel is like a train – when he gets going, it’s hard to stop him. Nigel joined Gold II in the middle of the season and didn’t have any hiccups jumping on board. He’s definitely gotten better at his physical skills in the water, but what’s most exciting is how much he’s grown in his confidence. Every day we’re working to have fun first and swim fast second, and Nigel is starting to learn how to both at the same time. Keep smiling, Nigel! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Eli Ward
I saw a turning point in Eli this weekend! He has set some great goals for himself and has really focused in on them in the past few weeks. This past weekend he was able to swim at the Nitro meet. After his first race, we had a great talk about taking his races one by one and finding the Peak of his race (one thing he did well), and the Pit (one thing we could get better at). He took the talk perfectly and finished his meet with positivity and the biggest smile! I was proud of how he turned his day into a positive one, and raced really well to finish the day! —Coach Allison