Good evening Sharkies and Shark Families,
If you know me by now, you know that I don't look at the meet points to decide if the Sharks are winning. We are a small team, the joy I get out of building our team, our skills and the threat our tiny team is to some of the larger and more established teams is undeniable. When I look at the depth of a team like TAZ, there should be no way we walk away not feeling a little beat up. If you were at the meet this Saturday, you know that is just not the case. Despite races that had 2nd and 3rd heats with no Sharks and only TAZ swimmers we walked off with a huge pile of first places!
Count the Wins:
We took home 27 1st places, 24 2nd places and whole bunch of 3rd place spots. Three times we took 1st, 2nd and 3rd in three different races. Six times Sharks won the 1st and 2nd places of an individual race. Full confession, that's fun but I try not to do it on purpose. I try to find all the races we can get 1st place in--I never plan on 1st and 2nd except for 6 and unders who don't swim all of the strokes in competition.) When it happens it usually means the other team had scratches in that race OR a Sharkie racer really popped off and dropped time! Yes--we had both happen this weekend.
Best times:
It's early in the season and because practice is still hit and miss for some swimmers with busy schedules I wasn't expecting as many best times as we had.
204 best times for individual races!
The highlights (there were a lot so if I don't mention your swimmer I am so sorry!)
My favorite: Harper Pasek. you might remember her from TimeTrials. She was the 5 1/2 year old who took about two minutes to swim her 25 yard free and even cried a little. Her sweet mom is Shark Alumni and even coached Sharks when she was younger. Harper had a great race on Saturday and dropped over one whole minute!
All together the six and unders boys and girls dropped almost 2 minutes combined.
CADE WILLIAMSON--he is a brand-new 11/12 year old boy who came to our preseason clinics. Without embarrassing him I will just say watch out for him! He dropped around ten seconds on every event he did and managed to stay legal. He also got 3rd place in the 50 yard free style sneaking in before Patrick Hagens. I see a friendly feud in the works.
We have been diligently working on improved turns. That translated into many new best times going 3, 4, 6 and even 8 seconds better over last week.
Alicia Ricci--7/8 girls--had a great backstroke race and dropped from a 1:41.96 in backstroke to 48.27! I love when I see a win like this! keep going, never give up!
Dakota Alfaqih went a BEST TIME of 1:11.66 in IM with a previous time of 1:24.31! I saw her when she finished. She was as shocked as anyone. She deserves it and has put in the work!
There were a lot of wins and strides in the right direction, many experienced swimmers who bested their last week times by 3 or more seconds and lots more who are chipping away at a good pace!
Let's Keep the momentum up! The Cheat Code to faster swim is more swim practice.
MOC status:
Makena Acosta has MOC in 100 IM
Davis Martin has MOC in 100 IM and Hunter Acosta is .07 of a second away
Welcome to Sharks--Addison Mossman is .58 of a second from 100IM MOC
Solara Lofts has MOC in 50 Free. Addison Mossman is .66 seconds away
Addison Mossman has MOC in 50yrd backstroke
Makena Acosta has MOC in 50 free
Davis Martin has MOC for 50 Free
Davis also has MOC in 25 yrs Back an less than a second to beat the team record
Makena Acosta has MOC in 50 yard Back
Hunter Acosta has MOC in 25yrd Breastroke
Dakota Alfaqih got her Breaststroke MOC time
Makena Acosta has MOC in 25yrd fly and is less than a second from the team record.
Savy McDonough has 50 Fly MOC and is less than a second from two other MOC times
It's too early to give you a list of everyone with-in a second or two of MOC, there are quite a few and I expect more. 13 individual races and 7 athletes isn't a bad way to start the year.
MOC times are attainable.
Set a goal.
Swim at practice like you mean it.
When it gets hard try to finish the set.
Check the clock after you touch the wall--are you holding your times? How many times can you keep it up?
It will be hard.
It's not about beating the clock every time, it's about how many times you tried and did it.
If you really try, every week you will see gains.
Low hanging fruit:
We had 8 DQ slips get turned in for not touching the wall to finish or one hand touch for fly and breastroke. One of those cost Sharks and the swimmer 1st place. I stress it all of the time. Finish every wall like it's a real race. Finish correctly. Build muscle memory. We will continue to review DQ's (come and find me if you want help with yours--I will put them into the file folders next week and track down as many kids in person as I can)
We didn't win the meet but everywhere we had swimmers, we kicked buns! Hopefully our next two meets we get a few of the 13/14 girls and boys and the few 15/18 men we count on to have winners in every event. June 1st is our next meet and it is away. I think that we have a good chance at competing well against this team. They have year round access to the pool and coaching but are a smaller team so if we show up in numbers--we could do very well.
Housekeeping:
Have a great Memorial Day Holiday weekend. No practice Friday thru Monday due to lifeguard availability and Ponderosa Graduation on the 24th.
I hope you go to the MOONRAKER EVENT! I believe we get one raffle ticket per ticket. Trust me, space is limited (they can't fit us all) the list of raffle/auction items are pretty great this year (I want them and plan on winning if none of you are there...) So come--Don't let me get all the cool stuff for myself. JUNE 6th. Info and prizes here: https://sierrasharks.com/family-fun-night
Great JOB Team!
See you on the pool deck,
Coach Melanie
707-772-9589
