Good evening Lightning Bolts,

The George Stultz (this Saturday) and PJSL Champs (next Saturday) are all open for swimmers to choose their events on our website, gps.swimtopia.com.

How do you know if you qualified?

• The events swimmers qualified for are clickable when you hit "Edit", "Attending" for each meet of these two meets.
• You can compare your swimmer's best times so far from this season (can be seen on your Swimtopia account) to the qualifying times (PDF under "Inspiration" on our website and attached PDF).
• Look at PDFs of this season's meet results, a "PJ26" is next to each swimmer's name and time they qualified for.
• Look at the attached report for PJSL Champs. For the "Last Chance" meet, you'll need to click "edit" to verify events.

As for the meet tonight, we won!

• GPS: 319
• Hackettstown: 252

A little closer than we had expected. We needed 305 to mathematically lock a win, but with some quick changes just to be sure, we padded on an extra 7 points. Plus, once the Hackettstown 15-19 boys free relay realized the meet was lost, they did not go all out. We had planned to go 2-3 no matter what, but since they just cruised it in, we went 1-2, meaning we gained more points than we expected. The score could have been 307 - 271, still a win for us, but even closer. However, with only 66 swimmers, the fewest we sent to meet in quite a few years, it's good to see we can take on the challenge, call upon some of our "unsung hero" to step up, and still earn a team victory.

So, who are some of those "unsung heroes"?

John Paul Barreira: John Paul is usually on the "B" relay..., but not today..., not today. Today, John Paul was the anchor on our 1st place medley relay. Today, he also earned two best times, 3rd and 2nd place finishes to boot.

Ella Schuetz & Evangeline Lau - They were the only two 13/14 girls at the meet, but they held their own. Earning four 1st places, a 2nd, and a 3rd, totaling 24 points between them. Plus, in the 100 IM Ella was in a tight race for the first 50, but in the third lap she charged extra hard, took the lead, and never looked back. Not only has Ella been working to improve her breaststroke technique, which paid off here, but she also demonstrated an important racing principle. You win in the 3rd of a 4 lap (100 yard) race. If you wait until the 4th lap to make your move it’s too late, you likely already lost. In a 100, you win in the 3rd.

Emma Collins - In the 100 IM it was tied the whole way, neck and neck, but in the last 5 yards Emma kept up an incredibly fast kick, and finished with a no look, head down, no breath, drive to the wall, photo finish win. She demonstrated the way to win close races. Don’t look!! If you look you lose.

Itzi Flores Ceja: Normally Itzi is a reliable depth swimmer, racking up solid 3rd place points for us in each meet. But today she stepped up to get a best time and earned 1st place in the backstroke.

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.

• Aden Chen, Tristan Vasquez, Marcus Oest, Ayanna Elston, Brody Cullen, Matt Romero

Team Spirit: For consistent and enthusiastic cheering.

• Emma Sepulveda, Jacob Hufford, Paige Nungester, Olivia Hill, Kayden Cullen, Britain Mazzetta, Alek Chen

Full results are attached.

See you on deck,

Coach Drake