Good evening everyone,

It was cold, it was rainy, but we got the meet in last night! :) Plus, it was a good meet for us. There were a lot of best times and many very solid times too. Also, this season Nazareth is the largest team in the league (we're 2nd largest), and they do not have any glaring weaknesses in how their team's age groups are balanced. Actually, from what I saw last night, I place them as the odds on favorite to win the league this year. So, we should be proud of ourselves, we swam well. 

• Nazareth: 355 
• Phillipsburg: 248 

Seems like a lot, right? But for summer swimming it really isn't. Swim meets are a zero sum game, every point we win they lose, and every point they win we lose. Therefore, a 107 point loss is a 53.5 point swing difference. With a total of 609 points at stake, that is only an 8.7% difference. Which is similar to an 80 - 73 basketball game; a good win for Nazareth but not a blow out. 

What we need to do is focus on is upsetting Two Rivers this Tuesday. They are the league champs the last two years, but it's been fairly close, and they are beatable. So, let's get fired up! 

Meet Highlights - Things noticed by the coaches. :)

• 42% Improvement Rate

Sportsmanship: For demonstrating honor, fairness, and appreciation towards competitors. This could be from shaking hands after a race, to conversations overhead by coaches between competitors, to any other observed actions that may fall into this category. 

• Jason Li, Chloe Sigafoos, Ollie Hoch, Riley Devlin, Marcus Oest

Team Spirit: For consistent and enthusiastic cheering.

• Karla Flores-Ceja, Autumn Kane

Excellence

Reagan van Horne - Demonstrated leadership, team spirit, and caring by encouraging her teammates behind the blocks before they raced throughout the meet.

Bella McKenna & James Nungester - Demonstrated team spirit by organizing our group cheers at the end of the meet.

Luella Visone - Excellent timing on her relay start. 

Ava Harrison - Perseverance, courage, & grit. Every swimmer feels a certain amount of trepidation the first time they have to compete in a new race, particularly one they do not practice that often. This is especially true for an event that is longer than they are used to and in which there are multiple and unique ways to get disqualified. For Ava, that race was the 100 IM. Over the years I've had kids come up to me crying, or refuse to get on the starting block, or generally express a lot of high anxiety. All of that is understandable; it can be fearful and nerve wracking to try something new you think you might fail at in front of hundreds of people watching. Also, as the head coach, I don't always make it easy. No matter how much I smile and give high fives, I recognize kids feel the pressure from me more acutely..., and I assigned them the event to swim, so they have no choice. Now..., Ava might have been feeling all that inside too, but she didn't show it. She was calm, cool, and steady; she stepped up to the blocks, jumped in, and got the job done. No fuss, no muss, she just kept swimming. :) Well done, Ava!

How to read the results:

• PJ25 = Qualified for championships held on July 26.
• NS = No show
• DQ = Disqualified in that event. The DQ code is often a brief description at the bottom of the event, but if it's not there, I can let you know the most common reasons for DQing in each event if you're interested.
• X = Exhibition. The event counts for participation eligibility at champs (need a qualifying time too), and achieving personal best times, but it does not score points.

Attached are the full meet results. 

OF COURSE, do NOT share this with anyone outside our team. We don't want to give Two Rivers an advantage at seeing what we have when we can't see what they have yet, and won't until after we swim them.

See you on deck,

Coach Drake