Good evening everyone,

We had our final meet today, the PJSL Championship, and we did great! We were the host and received a lot of compliments. Well done everyone. Especially thank you to our volunteers and donators, the meet was successful due to all your hard work.

Meet Highlights

• 43% improvement rate
• 45 new personal best times overall
• Numerous trophies, medals, and ribbons earned
• Full meet results are attached.

New Team Record & New PJSL Championship Meet Record Set!

• 8/U Boys 100 Free Relay: Marcus Oest, Sebastian Sanabria, Morgan Oest, Britain Mazzetta  

PJSL Event Champions

• 11/12 Boys 200 Medley & 200 Free Relays: Henry Hartman, Santiago Roman, Tristen Vasquez, Aden Chen
• Britain Mazzetta: 8/U Boys 25 Breast
• Kayden Cullen: 9/10 Boys 25 Breast
• Fran Berger: 9/10 Girls 25 Back
• 8/U Boys 100 Free Relay: Marcus Oest, Sebastian Sanabria, Morgan Oest, Britain Mazzetta 

Special shout out, thank you, and farewell to Rich McCormick. The McCormick's have had four children come through our program and they have been a huge part of our swim team family. All their support, volunteering, contributions, good cheer, and of course..., swimming over the years, has been invaluable. With their youngest, Maeve, graduating this year Rich will be stepping down as our team president. We will miss him and his family and wish them well in all they do. Although..., I suspect we'll still see them every now and again in future seasons. :) 

BIG NEWS TOO: We finished 2nd in the league, not 3rd. Go Lightning Bolts!

We had a scare, underestimated HCY, but were able to recover by switching things around from our original game plan in the final 1/3 of the meet to win. However, Nazareth was unable to rise to the occasion and lost to HCY, who really came on strong at the end of the season. Then, Nazareth did not reschedule one of their meets which counts as an automatic forfeit. Hence, at 5-2, we surpassed their 4-3 status and earned 2nd. :)

Please know, this is not a technicality. At least half of age group swimming success comes from how well we organize, plan, and communicate. Swimming has a lot of moving parts and is not the easiest sport to understand. However, at 122 swimmers from ages 5-19, from beginner to National level qualifier, with families from multiple communities and school districts, with at least four different primary home languages spoken (by my count), and families from all walks of life, our ability to come together, to organize into one successful team and swimming community, is an attribute other teams struggle to match. I know I hit on this theme often, but the score and season record does not simply reflect how "fast" kids are on paper (although obviously that is a big part), but how well a team can organize, plan, schedule, and come together to make it all work. 

As a result, we earned 2nd place.

After-all, when we lost our original home pool in Lopatcong, we came together and stayed alive by renting pool space at Belvidere at 9:00 o'clock at night, then for two more seasons we rented pool space at Eddyside in Easton, a pool with no starting blocks. Plus, the PES pool was not available for 2 of 3 of those seasons post May. So, if we survived for three seasons with no guarantee of a pool, I don't know how a team does not have the will or ability to reschedule one swim meet. I believe the record reflects that too. :)

As always, see you on deck,

Coach Drake