Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Egan Enfield
Egan has been one of the leaders of his group this season. From helping out his teammates to asking questions about being the best swimmer Egan is always wanting to get better. The last two weeks Intro has worked on breaststroke and every practice Egan gets better. He has worked really hard on the timing of his breath and having a really great breaststroke kick. On Wednesday Egan had an awesome practice and all the coaches were so proud. Keep up the great work Egan!
I would also like to take a second and send an honorable mention to all of the swimmers in Group 2! Group 2 has worked so hard the last two weeks on breaststroke and they have done such an AMAZING job! So great job kids! So proud of each everyone of you! —Coach Hannah
Bee Cave: Grace Wargo
Grace LOVES breaststroke! As we continued working on breaststroke this week, Grace led her group with her three-second glide after each kick. She also did a wonderful job getting her head down and reaching forward after her pull. Grace nailed the timing of the stroke and has worked hard to perfect her underwater streamline push-ups. Thank you for sharing your love for the sport and your bright smile! Keep up the good work Grace! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Daryl Guzman
Daryl earned swimmer of the week for his work the last few weeks on his turns! When Daryl first joined Bronze, flip turns were really challenging. Daryl kept at it, though, and a couple of weeks ago, he was showing me awesome freestyle and backstroke flip turns. He capped it all off by improving his open turns tremendously last week! Way to go Daryl! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Ansel Wong
Ansel is looking very strong in the water, this week we made a change to how the group focused on their butterfly kick and Ansel never missed a beat. The tempo is quick on his kick closer to a freestyle rate, and yet his breathing adjusted nicely. His eyes remain down chin low and the arms straight and quick on the recovery. This butterfly is going to greatly improve his IM time in his next meet! Ansel now has one of the strongest butterfly strokes in all the Bronze Groups at Bee Cave. Great work young man! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Ria Modi and Warner Young
Both of these athletes excelled at our turn work this past week. We really spent some time on our flip and open turns and their hard work paid off. Ria did a great job with a fast quick release from the wall on her butterfly to butterfly and breaststroke to breaststroke turns. Nice job with the quick foot work on the wall. Warner was having a little trouble getting a quick streamline off the walls but after observing a swimmer demonstrating he quickly implemented it and now has a nice, long impressive streamline off his turns. 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: Isabella Rontondaro
Isabella is amazing. Several weeks ago, she broke her arm. I was so sorry to hear the news. However! Since then, she has still not missed a practice. She isn’t swimming – unfortunately, her cast isn’t waterproof. But she still comes to her assigned day and time and sits nearby to hear what we’re learning. She’s not on her phone or iPad or anything like that. She just sits there respectfully, watching and listening. Isabella didn’t ask me if this is something she should do. She just did it. I couldn’t believe it! What an amazing young lady with a work ethic paralleled to none. —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Ashleigh O’banion
This week Ashleigh O’banion worked extremely hard on what she has professed to be her least favorite stroke…breaststroke. We also reviewed butterfly and focused on breathing during both. Ashleigh really strived to keep her head down during the breath on breaststroke and not looking forward. She also worked to keep her knees in line with her hips, not letting them go too far outside the line of the body. She also did a phenomenal job on her butterfly trying to keep her head low to the water as she went for a breath. Finally I could see Ashleigh lunging forward after her recovery on both strokes to try and keep her hips on the surface and get her body line to be longer in the water. This girl has great attention to detail and technique. Way to go Ashleigh! —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Ava Katacic
Ava is another swimmer that I coached in Bronze and eventually moved up to Silver. She was one of the swimmers I was most excited to coach again when I took over the Silver group. She has improved a tremendous amount from her days in Bronze to now. One of the areas she has improved the most is her kicking. She has turned from a good kicker into a phenomenal kicker! Ava has quickly risen to be one of the top swimmers in the Silver group, always leading her lane. To quote myself the last time I made Ava SOW, “Ava brings so much energy and positivity to the Bronze group!” I can happily say that she still brings that energy and positivity every practice in the Silver group. Great job, Ava! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Hudson Ingram, Stefan Deac, and Tyler Grimm
AII 3 of these athletes raced at TAGS after qualifying unexpectedly at STAGS in multiple events last weekend. To make it to this level of championship meet from our group was simply incredible and says a good amount about their work that they put in the pool this season. All three were much welcomed additions to the scoring team and contributed both in relays and individual scores to Nitro’s total at night! Keep up the great racing and positive attitudes, young men. We are proud of you! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Minji Kim
Wow. This past weekend Nitro participate in the Texas Age Group Championships, or TAGS. Minji represented the team extremely well, exceeding all expectations I had as her coach. Not only did Minji finish 7th in the 200 IM and 4th in the 50 free, she got 2nd in the 100 breast and 1st in the 50 breast! That makes her a state champion!! She also helped her relays to multiple top 8 finishes. Keep up all the hard worl Minji, your future is very bright! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Amy Park
Amy was one of the seven Gold II athletes who raced at TAGS and she was absolutely crucial in the three relays. Her freestyle races were strong, but where she really shined was in her butterfly, in which she split a 30.59 – almost two seconds faster than a TAGS cut! This coming season is going to be a great one for the group, and especially for Amy. Keep up the great racing! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Adriana Klaas
I was able to spend a lot of time with Adriana this past week, as she prepared and was able to compete at TAGS. While I am very proud and excited that she swam at the level she did to qualify to swim at TAGS, it was the behaviors and maturity/friendship I saw from her throughout the long and grueling weekend. Adriana reminded me this weekend that while our Nitro swimmers from Cedar Park and Bee Cave aren’t able to swim together everyday, we are all still ONE team. She was able to meet some other 10&U girls from Nitro that she had never met before, and instantly made all of them feel welcome and comfortable swimming at what can be a sometime stressful meet! I am very proud of her throughout the entire weekend, but most importantly how she handled herself throughout a 4 day meet! —Coach Allison