Swimmers of the Week for June 25th – 30th
Intro to Nitro
Cedar Park: Rachel How– Rachel has been a great addition to the Saturday Intro classes, always smiling and giggling while swimming. She is a quick learner and is ready for each new challenge. This past week we have been learning open turns for butterfly. Rachel quickly understood the turn and did not hesitate at the wall. Not only was her new turn awesome to watch, her butterfly also caught our attention! Strong, long and straight arms, feet together right on the surface of the water!! Keep up the terrific work Rachel!
Bee Cave:Olivia Gerhart– Ever since Olivia has been with the Intro to Nitro group she has continuously shown me that the knows how to work hard and have fun while doing so. Every practice she is focused and actively listening to every instruction. Olivia’s drive to master each drill and lesson I teach has helped hugely in her rapidly developing technique. Keep up the great work my dear!
Bronze
Cedar Park: Kat Smalling– Kat has demonstrated all week and the weeks before that she is the leader in the group always meeting and exceeding the expectations set by the Bronze group. She will most certainly be one of a few swimmers advancing to the Silver group soon, be sad to lose her but we as coaches are excited for the future this swimmer brings to Nitro.
Bee Cave:Nica Makhervaks& Jennifer Bui– Nica always has a smile on her face and is a joy to coach. She gives it her best effort and listens well. Nica really made a breakthrough in her start this week and showed her toughness by continuing to go off the blocks even when she scraped her knee on one of her starts. When I asked her if she wanted to stop she shook her head no and got back up on the blocks with a smile on her face. Keep up the great work Nica!Jennifer always has a smile on her face when she comes to practice. She puts in a 100% effort on every set that is put in front of her. When she is told to correct something, she asks for immediate feedback. Keep up the great work Jennifer!
Technique and Fitness
Cedar Park:Jordynn Tolento & Arsh Gamare – Jordynn swims on Saturday afternoons, so her pool time is very important. This week she was really impressive, with her freestyle and backstroke rotation. Her dives are coming along as well. Arsh has been a great addition to the T/F group. His technique and looks good, as does his attention to watching the clocks. Great job you two, thanks for being a part of NITRO, and we’ll see you at the pool.
Bee Cave:John Fontenot– John has been with Nitro for about a year now. In that time he has matured into a great lane leader. He has taken his skill sets to be a valuable asset to his summer league team. It was great to see him shine. Great work John.
Silver
Cedar Park:Jessica Ding & Maddie McKay– Both of these girls have done a great job over the last week. Jessica has begun to be a leader in her respective group, and continually works extremely hard to improve her swimming. Maddie has shown an incredible transformation in her swimming, she comes to practice motivated to improve and is always very excited to be at practice. Both of these girls are beginning to have some great things happening in their swimming. Keep up the hard work girls!
Bee Cave:Zachary Miller– Zachary has been working very hard lately, and is quite the racer! After a lot of work on stroke technique, and applying it in practice, Zachary is consistently going faster & swimming more efficiently. His bright personality is a joy to have in our Silver group! Keep up the great work Zachary!
Advanced Silver
Cedar Park:Rachel Jacops & Mary Illukovich– Rachel has been very, very close to making her TAGS cuts in the backstroke all year. This past weekend, she finally broke through and made her cuts not only in the 50 back but in the 100 back as well. Kudos to Rachel for never giving up, working hard, and achieving her goals! Nice job Rachel! Mary swam a great meet this weekend at BB Champs, handled adversity extremely well with great attitude and an ability to make stroke corrections in between races.
Bee Cave:Logann Khollman– Logann has had a great week. She really takes stroke correction to heart and applies it right away. This week I talked about swimming drills with integrity. There are plenty of ways to go faster in a given drill but, more often than not, changing the drill to go faster removes the drill’s benefit for the swimmer. Logann knows how to do the drills with integrity. This type of swimming will really pay off for her both in the short and long term. Keep up the great work Logann!
Gold
Cedar Park: Viktoria Haide & Zachary Matula– Viktoria had a great BB Championship meet this weekend adding another event to her A Championship meet her attitude towards her swimming whether she is having a good meet or a practice she is always trying harder. Zach added several entries to his A Championship meet from the 3 previous ones he already had. Congrats to Zach for making your work load even harder.
Bee Cave:Keren Mahkervaks– Keren has stepped up her swimming this week and is doing an incredible job in her daily workouts, pushing herself to the limit every single practice…in and out of the water. She is a tremendous young lady, extremely coachable, and an outstanding swimmer to have in the Gold group. Keep up the hard work Keren!
Swimmer of the Month for June:
Cedar Park
High School Training:Alec Hudson– Alec has done a great job battling through a new training style, and sickness, since joining our group this summer. He comes and works extremely hard to improve his swimming, kicking, and breaststroke. He is a welcomed addition to our group, and am looking forward to seeing what he can do once his high school tryouts come around for the school year. Keep the hard work up, and continue improving!
TAGS 2:Michael Shay– Michael has transformed into a well-rounded swimmer over these last few weeks, topping it all off with a great showing at our travel meet in Rockwall where he made several TAGS cuts. He has begun to improve his underwater kicks, along with smoothing both his backstroke and freestyle out, with consistency. With less than a month away from the TAGS meet, he is looking like he will be a major factor in the success of our 11-12 boys. He has really amped his training up, and began pushing others. Only a few weeks until his successes continue! Keep it going Michael!
TAGS 1:Olivia Allen– This is Olivia’s first season in TAGS1, she started the season by trying to make the intervals in TAGS1, but during June she really started competing well in practice, sometimes leading the B interval lanes. Her training paid off with some great swims at at Rockwall and will continue to pay off at TAGS.
Senior:Kayla Strohmeyer– We want to recognize the steady and committed work ethic that she has demonstrated so far this summer. Even on the days when she feels tired and sore, Kayla keeps her nose to the grindstone and has emerged as one of the most consistent members of the training group. Thanks for your humble example Kayla! Keep up the good work!
Sectional:Maddie Carringan– Maddie had an outstanding Rockwall meet with some great finals swim and several best times. She is a team leader and everyone looks to her for inspiration including the coach.
Bee Cave
TAGS:Miguel Velasquez – The newly formed Bee Cave TAGS group has its leader in Miguel. Curious about getting better & humble in receiving technical instruction, Miguel has worked hard and been committed during practice to challenge. Great job in being the trailblazer for the group!
Sectional:Diana Dunn – Wow! Diana has been on fire this past month. The youngest member of the Bee Cave Sectional group, Diana has stepped up and has led her elder teammates with continued regularity this past month. Diana is a nationally ranked swimmer who is an absolute joy to coach and had a great month of training, leading and competing.
Thanks for being a part of Nitro Swimming! See you at the pools — Coach Mike.