Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Payton Halbert and Emma Trapani
We worked on backstroke this week, and every group impressed me with their streamlines and tall arms. Payton showed great rotation with her shoulders during one-armed backstroke drill and demonstrated that for the group. Emma is not the biggest, but when she does her underwater push-offs her streamlines make her 10 feet tall! Nice job, swimmers! —Coach Lindsay
Bee Cave: Reid Askins and Liam Galloway
Last week Intro worked on a new skill—flip-turns—and I have to give SOW to Reid and Liam. These two knuckleheads didn’t necessarily have the best turns, BUT they showed tremendous effort and had a lot of fun learning the new skill! Reid and Liam were persistent throughout practice and made improvements each attempt. Thank y’all for showing up, working hard, and having a blast while doing it! Keep it up boys!! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Lauren Bai
Lauren in the kind of swimmer every coach loves to have in their group. She always comes in with a smile, ready to work hard, and makes corrections quickly as the coaches ask. Lauren spent Saturday at the UT swim center, racing in a 50-meter pool, and knocked it out of the park on each of her races. Way to go Lauren! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Aiden Giroux
Aiden had a good week, 46 in the 50 free, and a 1:49 in the 100 free, a great focus in the racing pool. Aiden has done a great job working on stroke length and every time the stopwatch comes out he just makes breakthrough after breakthrough. Every week bronze works on a different stroke and Aiden has been making his biggest strides with his kick, and the long course pool shows just how hard he has been working, no turn at 25 yards and your legs have to do the extra work. Great work young man! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Kailey Turner and Casey Henne
Kailey had an awesome practice this past Saturday asking to do some distance swimming. She rocked it starting with four 200-yard freestyles and then descended. Casey did an incredible job working on all four strokes during the all KICKING set for the hour. AWESOME. Great job you two thanks for being a part of the Nitro family and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Dominic Bellia
Mr. Dominic did a fantastic job leading his lane on Saturday. I don’t usually see him leading his lane; but, from now on, I’ll make sure he does! He was on top of everything we did. What I liked the most, however, were his underwaters. His streamlines were tight off every wall, his underwater fly kicks were speedy, and he stayed underwater till the fruit loops every time! What an outstanding practice for young Dominic. I hope to see many more like that one! I know I will 🙂 —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Chris Pierron
Chris Pierron has come a long way since he started in Silver. When I first laid eyes on him in the water, his head was always up and looking forward, his kick was almost non-existent, and his stroke was incredibly short. After just 5 months of swimming in Silver he has significantly improved in these and several more areas. At the start of the summer season, I could tell Chris was down as he was not achieving the times that he had sought to make in his head. However that did not stop him from working his tail off in practice to fix the things that were holding him back. He now brings his head down in freestyle, attacks his under waters off the wall, finishes into the wall during a race without breathing, and the list could go on and on. His attitude is unstoppable as well. One of the best things I heard him say this weekend after he finished racing in one of his events was, “I saw some guys about to pass me on the last 50 and I thought….NOPE!” Chris, keep working hard and telling those guys that want to pass you…NOPE. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Miguel Gomez
Of all of the swimmers in my group, Miguel is one that has improved a tremendous amount since joining the Silver group. His focus, technique, strength, and endurance have all seen an uptick and it paid off this past weekend at the TXLA meet with his first ever B time! The excitement on his face reminded me why I coach. It is one of many B times to come for Miguel in the near future! Great job, Miguel! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Natalie Yung
Our Advanced Silver Swimmer of the Week is Natalie Yung. She comes with a can-do attitude daily to practice and is eager to learn. Natalie also competed this past Saturday and earned her first “BB” time in the 100 Meter Breaststroke. She put together many correct pieces of the race to do it – beautiful rhythm, strong kick, and nice streamline – the result of several months of focus and hard work! Way to go Natalie! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Mariana Castellanos-Lopez
Mariana went to the Sprint Cup meet this past weekend, showing off some of her events she doesn’t usually swim. That meant no butterfly, but she did get to swim some breaststroke, and made some nice corrections after the 50 breast before swimming the 100. Then, she rocked it on her 100 free. Way to go Mariana! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Ian Redmond
Ian stepped up this past Saturday and swam his very first LCM 100 fly at the meet. Ian went in hungry and started the race a bit too fast, making the second 50 very difficult to swim. He didn’t give up, though, and finished to the wall. Ian struggled in the race, but never gave up – a true sign of a tough kiddo. To top it off, he came back and had two amazing events after that, including making a BB cut in his 100 free. Well done, Ian! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Jenny Li
Jenny is back!! She’s been on vacation, but finally back into the pool. So excited to see what she does this summer, and the strength and power she’s is going to develop! All coaches have noticed her, as we can’t wait to see this girl continue to mature and get better day in and day out! —Coach Allison