Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Austin Staffel, Anushka Gupta, and Nikhil Saravana
This week we worked on one of the most challenging skills for a young swimmer to master—freestyle flip-turns! We were impressed by the whole Intro group especially those who had never done somersaults in the water before. Austin, Anushka, and Nikhil stood out in particular. Austin did not forget his ‘under, streamline, push’ off every wall with a tight streamline and five strong body waves. Anushka was enthusiastic, engaged, and picked up corrections immediately once they were pointed out. Nikhil led his group by willingly demonstrating for his teammates. Well done! Congratulations to these three swimmers! —Coach Lindsay and Coach Mike
Bee Cave: Paritosh Paudel, Grace Wargo, and Jake Yonge
Paritosh, Grace, and Jake were the only three present for Intro #4 on the last day of school. These three not only accomplished a lot, they made practice a lot of fun! Paritosh joined Intro mid-April and has been a great addition. He always arrives excited to learn and tackle new challenges. This week his group had an opportunity to dive, and Paritosh rose to the occasion nailing his dives. Grace has been with into since September and has not stopped working hard and progressing. I am very proud of this young lady and her continuous effort and positive attitude. Jake recently turned six, and where he lacks in size, he more than makes up for with heart. Each day he shows improvements; this week Jake excelled in his underwater streamline push-offs and dives. I have two words for these three swimmers, “SWEET MAMA!” Way to go kiddos! —Coach Raven
Bronze
Cedar Park: Prisha Mohan
Prisha caught my eye this week as we had ourselves a little mini swim meet to show off some of our skills. Not only was she swimming crazy fast, Prisha made all her strokes look smooth while nailing each one of her turns. She raced to each wall, determined to give it her all, and finished all her races strong. Way to go Prisha! —Coach Adam
Bee Cave: Asher Chang
Coach Randy and I have been so impressed with Asher’s bodylines in all his strokes, the patience he has been displaying on breaststroke this week was great. Good deep push offs and full pull outs have been keeping his stroke count very low, and the timing is spot on! We saw the same training focus two weeks ago working on his butterfly, this young man is well on his way to becoming a first rate IMer. Now that long course is her very few of the Bronze swimmers have been cleared to swim the 200 IM but Asher is just about ready. Great Job Young Man! —Coach Chuck
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park: Tiffany Sheridan and David Ng
Awesome job you two on your freestyle and backstroke underwater turns. Great breath-control which is so important to a great breakout on both strokes. Thanks for being a part of NITRO and we’ll see you at the pool. —Coach Stephen
Bee Cave: Ishaan Goel
Ishaan had the best week of practice of his life. Everything was coming together for him – he was firing on all cylinders! His power push-offs and underwaters were magnificent; his streamlines were flawless; and, his butterfly was unbelievable. It was so much fun watching everything Ishaan has worked on finally come to fruition. I believe this young man is ready for Bronze – and Coach Chuck will appreciate him just as much as I did! Outstanding. —Coach Jonny
Silver
Cedar Park: Sammi Hunninghake
Although she is brand new to Silver, Sammi brought her A-game this week. Every set she attempted, she attacked full force. She may not be the tallest swimmer in Silver, but she swims like a giant. Her tempo and ability to race also make her unstoppable. Combined with her attention to detail and desire to improve, I can’t wait to see where she can take this energy over the course of her stay in Silver. Keep working, Sammi! I’m pumped to have you in my group. —Coach Claire
Bee Cave: Brock Woertink
Brock did an excellent job this week with the butterfly drills we did, especially the skate drill. The skate drills emphasizes a few very important elements of our butterfly: the timing off our breath, keeping our chin on the surface of the water during our breath, and finishing our pull. Brock did a great job with all of these elements, which translated very nicely over to his full stroke. Brock is one of my fastest upcoming swimmers, and I’m excited to see him continue to rise the ranks of Silver. Great job, Brock! —Coach Peter
Advanced Silver
Bee Cave: Lucy Fuselier
Lucy has beautiful manners at practice, always being very polite and respectful to her teammates and coaches. Also, Lucy is breaking through to the next level in her swimming and kicking strength, which has been a joy to watch the past few months. I am very pleased to be her coach during this exciting part of her swimming career! —Coach Paige
Gold I & II
CP Gold I: Keshav Laxminarasimhan
Keshav’s attendance has started to get back on track, and you can see the difference it makes in the pool. He is finding it easier to build his skills up and start working on his speed. I can tell he is eager to improve as he has started asking how he can get better each day. I am looking forward to seeing his continued success through the summer! Keep it up Keshav! —Coach Adam
CP Gold II: Peter Huang
We had a lot of tough swimmers at the Nitro Distance meet, but Parker might have been the toughest. He wanted to try some unorthodox events for a ten year old—400 IM, 400 free, and 200 fly. Not only did Parker go into each race with confidence, he swam incredibly well and even negative split the last three legs of his IM! It was an awesome job by an awesome swimmer. Keep rocking, Parker! —Coach Alex
Bee Cave: Swaha Roy
Swaha, wowza you completely impressed me this weekend with your endurance and fight throughout this past week. Your sweet and shy demeanor hides your inner beast of a swimmer! I loved watching you take down every interval I threw at you this week, as well as completing 27x100s free on 1:30, and I know you could have kept going if we had more time. Very impressed and can’t wait to continue working together. We just need to get you into some swim meets now :-). —Coach Allison