Green Mountain Swim Team

I hope everyone enjoyed your morning off today, and I hope that the few of you who had the whole weekend off were able to hold your parents off until AT LEAST noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Results for the Ken Caryl meet are posted in the right sidebar, and the team finished 9th OVERALL, out of 20 very good teams! More importantly, of all of the teams that will compete in our division at state, we finished FIRST! And although a few teams look like they’ll be very good at state, the coaches sincerely believe that a top 3 finish is more than possible for this club!

We now have 43 swimmers qualified for league, and 22 swimmers qualified for state! That puts us ever nearer to the team goals that the coaches set for the team at the beginning of the year (we’ll share those with you in the very near future).

So a few shout outs seem appropriate at this time. For those of you who weren’t there, Coach Richard and I spent all of our downtime (i.e., 200 freestyles…) coming up with nicknames for our swimmers. So first…

…”Big Ben” Hofstra, for putting a new twist on the breaststroke, and coming away with two TOP 5 Ken Caryl finishes as a result

…”Krusin” Molly Kruse, for cutting more than a minute in her combined races this weekend. (the fact that some of her races are longer than my commute to the pool isn’t relevant..)

…Tristan “The Best” Gess, for two top 3 finishes, and flirting with a team record in the process

…Carly “Can Do” Cozzo, for sacrificing her ENTIRE SATURDAY to come swim 2 relays and support her team

…Elise “The Charger” Chevalier, for deciding she simply wouldn’t lose

…Joseph “The Jet” Duffy, for showing his coaches that miracles indeed do happen

…Ethan “The Trick” Schick, for showing, time and time again, that hard work pays off

…Dylan “Thrillin” Jacob, for extending his unbeaten streak in the 100 IM against the fastest swimmers in the state and placing a team-high 3rd at the pentathalon

…Elsa “The Burner” Debrunner, for burning through her 50 free and moving up 15 places in her event. And for having the *best* nickname

…Lauren “Scorin” Sutherland, for positively transfering passive aggression against her tardy brothers into some class A swimming

…Adam “Beastly” Wheatly, for being one of only two 6-year olds at the meet, and for sharing his toys with his coaches

There were MANY more amazing swims, but I can’t hardly think of any more nicknames…congrats to everyone who was involved in this weekend’s incredible meets!

Coach Luke

Hello All!

Don’t forget–NO UPPER DIVISION PRACTICE TOMORROW (FRIDAY)! You have Ken Caryl in the afternoon, so get some morning sleep! 9-12, 8-under practices will remain the same (non-KC swimmers…bring your best beaver goggles!)

In addition, practice is canceled 2 days next week! Monday, following our marathon of meets, we will not be swimming. Then, Friday after Water World (WW on Thursday!) we will take a 3 day weekend! I’ll post this reminder permanently in the side bar on Monday. The next meet following the invites this weekend is our July 1 intrasquad, where I expect American pride speedos to be in full display.

Big weekend this week, so let’s get ready to kick some butt and take names!

Coach Luke

First order of business – Night Practice is ON tonight! Don’t be afraid of a massive electrical storm a little water, you wuss!

Best times are updated, as is meet information for both meets this weekend, entries for Ken Caryl and results from C/D. I would post CK/AK meet info, but they currently have the wrong report–CKST best times–and that’s about as useful to us as Coach Rich at a spelling bee (or Duncan at a weight lifting competition…or coach Josh at a tanning demonstration.)

Anyway, I promised I’d get an update of this weekend’s meets, so after a 3 hour nap that lasted for the entirety of the afternoon, I think I finally have the energy necessary to get something up. That said, this week’s shout-outs are all about energy! These swimmers made huge contributions to the team this weekend not only through their swimming prowess, but through their hard work and hardcore attitudes! These were our weekend warriors in a VERY wearing weekend!

Sophie Aiken
Sophie swam her HEART out, especially at Sunday’s C/D meet. She sought out advice before EVERY race and (gasp!) really crushed some of her old times! And even if she didn’t, I’m sure she would have came up smiling, anyways…

Anna Granquist
Anna is at the top of her age group this year, and she’s showing that she has the ability to compete with the very best. She has now achieved League times in 4 events and swam a gutsy 36 second split to anchor a very good relay at Saturday’s meet!

8-Unders!
Remember when I said we’d talk about how our Ken Caryl count got so high? Look no further than virtually the entire 8-under division! Just some examples from their weekend brilliance… Elsa Debrunner qualified for the 50 free, after looking like a tiny rocket shooting from a cannon. I may film her expertly executed start and show it to the upper division tomorrow… Allison Dagli got off a cast that she had been swimming with, and promptly recorded the second legal fly for the division, giving us an extra (very fast!) relay and showing that hard work really pays off. Seraphima Tsarevski and Brandon Jacob both achieved “B” and “League” qualifier times in thier first meets EVER and Adam Wheatley just about blew his coaches out of thier chairs with an incredible league-qualifying butterfly in his first-ever attempt in the 25 fly! WELL DONE, 8-UNDERS!

Evan Giusto
Evan is quickly becoming a premier swimmer in the 13-14 age group, and with an extremly hard work ethic and great attention to detail, had one of his best meets ever on Saturday. Efforts like that will make our 13-14 boys one of the top groups in the league, if not the state!

Daniel McKelvy
Daniel has redefined the term “workhorse” and seems to favor races porportionally based on how much pain they might potentially provide him. He has swam his staple–the 200 free–at every meet so far and has shown extremly impressive improvement there. Next week, I might tie some lawn furniture to his waist at the meet, just to see if we can possibly push him any harder!

Daria Romero
Daria is still relatively new to swimming, and has rarely ever ventured from the safety of freestyle. But this year she has made it her goal to branch out this year and try to be a successful, all-around swimmer (did I mention this is her first year of 100’s?) Her guts and courage have been an inspiration to her coaches all season!

Ethan Schick
Ethan has developed this year from a “dang, he’s pretty good” kind of a swimmer to a “holy (insert 4-letter word here), that kid has skills!” kind of swimmer. With some newly-acquired buffness, an intense personal drive, several years of very hard work and exquisite attention to detail (I’ll be he’s really good at making model airplanes,) Ethan has become one of the top, all-around swimmers on the team. The scary thing? He’ll be even better next year, and probably even better the year after. He could make a serious splash at this weekend’s Pentathlon!

See y’all in the morning!

Coach Luke

Results coming…probably not today, though!

In the meantime, congrats to all new Ken Caryl and Pentathlon qualifiers! We qualified an INSANE 53 swimmers for KC Invite this year. And if you’re wondering how that number jumped from 44 in just 2 days, well, more to come later…

In addition, congrats to the following GM swimmers who qualified for Sunday’s Pentathlon by posting “B” times in 4 of the 5 standard events.

Ianna Debrunner
Josh Duffy
Tristan Gess
Ben Hofstra
Dylan Jacob
Molly Kruse
Brian Long
Inez Moore
Brandon Oney
Ethan Schick
Cassidy Stein
Lauren Sutherland

Check back for more updates on this weekend’s awesome meets, and entries/relays for Ken Caryl!

And HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Coach Luke

I had 0 HITS on the site yesterday (even my mom didn’t check it!), something that I suppose was punishment for not providing you with some kind of update…so I made up some news to get my numbers back up.

First, practice is canceled both THIS Monday AND NEXT Monday. This is simply because we have Saturday and Sunday meets both weekends and the coaches the swimmers need at least ONE day to sleep in! So please help us spread the word.

Second, don’t forget that you need to be at Columbine Knolls NO LATER THAN 6:30 tomorrow morning! We’ll have our team meeting then, and warm-up begins at 6:40a. Please don’t be late! A map and all important meet information is in the right sidebar.

Thanks! Enjoy the sun today!

Coach Luke

Holy blog update, batman!
Shield your eyes. This blog just got so pretty, it’s no longer approved for swimmers with certain kinds of heart problems or children under the age of 5. Consult your doctor if you notice that you’ve been staring at the screen haplessly for 4 or more hours without interruption.

The update is the product of some sweet collaboration between myself and Mr. Peter Schick, our resident design guru. Mr. Schick created the logo, painstakingly selected the photo, masterfully blended the 2, boldly explored new fonts, and applied top secret, art guy knowledge to create a wonderful header. I clicked a button or 2 (yeah, I was working on it all afternoon). So pretty much 50/50. Hope you like it!

KEN CARYL UPDATE (See last blog for KC Invite details)
It has been discovered that Ken Caryl entries are due on Sunday at noon! No sweat, but it means we’ll have to get those in on Saturday afternoon. That said, we’re going to be asking swimmers to commit to the meet a little earlier than we had hoped. Don’t worry–you still have Saturday (and, in theory, Sunday to our C/D swimmers!) to qualify, but we need your help being extra vigilant if you newly qualify for the meet and aren’t on our list! Although I have nothing better to do on Saturday afternoon than repeatedly hit redial trying to reach you to ask you about the meet, we’d really like to make sure we get an official “yes” or a “no” from everyone by the end of Saturday’s meet, at the VERY LATEST!

Yeah, that’s right. You have to un-sign up for this one if you can’t make it. Don’t forget it!

*Extra — we may be seeking some extra swimmers to help us fill out relays! If you don’t qualify and would still like to participate, let us know and we’ll try to find a slot!!

Marco…
…polo tonight! 7:50. Upper Division. If your last name is “Cotten,” please trim your nails to suit your aggressive playing style. That is all.

Coach Luke