Good afternoon Lightning Bolts,

Good meet last night, we won and are now 2 - 2. :)

• GPS: 391
• Belvidere: 208

Meet Highlights

• 64 Improved Times
• 42% Improvement Rate - Still a strong percentage for the 4th meet.

Team Spirit - For consistent and enthusiastic cheering.

• JoJo Berger, Riley Devlin, Henry Hartman, Dennis Jones, Marcus Oest
• Sparkly Face Spirit Crew - Norah Duddy, Savy Collins, Emma Collins, Reagan van Horne 

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.

• Adaeze Oluku, Logan Hill, Emma Sepulveda, Paige Nungester, Autumn Kane, James Nungester, Gwen Henry, Kaitlyn Murphy, Britain Mazzetta, Aaric Grant

Excellence

• Mia Gonzalez: Mia demonstrated a much improved backstroke and good technique. After her streamline, she kept a good stroke cadence, thumb-out, pinky-in, with straight long arms over the shoulder, for a new personal best time. Well done, Mia!  
  
• Collin Casey: "4 for 4 Swimmer" - four swims, four wins (Ind/Relay Combo).
• Orion Tasiopoulos: "Achieve 3 Swimmer" - three swims, three personal best times achieved.
• Abdul Ferguson: For stepping up literally last minute and allowing us to secure an early 1st place. We needed a last minute substitute in the medley relay, event #2. When changes are needed that early in the meet, often there is not enough time to make it. This is especially true for the relays since most swimmers in an age group will already be in one. However, Abdul was sitting with the team, and when we called for him, he got up, ran to the deck with goggles in hand, said “Yes coach?”, and was ready to go in under 30 seconds! With so many moving parts in a swim meet and in running a swim team, it's important to stay task focused and mission oriented. I know..., I know..., seems a little heavy since it's only age group summer swimming. However, youth sports like swimming teach important life lessons. Whether it's for your team, your job, or your family, remaining focused as a person people can rely upon to show up even last minute to help and/or get it done (whatever "it" is), is an important attribute. Good job, Abdul!

We have Easton tomorrow (home) and Hackettstown (away) next Tuesday. However, our big meet is against HCY next Thursday (home). If at all possible, everyone please make that meet a priority. As always, it's understandable if you have family plans, but that last meet against HCY is what will determine our league ranking for the season, with a team trophy at stake. The league "championship" meet determines individual champions in each event, but league TEAM awards are determined by dual meet record. After that we have one more week and the season is over. So, let's stay focused. :)

Full results and top times report are attached.

Home meet group practice times tomorrow morning, Thursday, 7/9.

See you on deck,

Coach Drake