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THANKS FOR A GREAT SEASON.
Valley Press Article 12_21_12
Coach Kowalski's Photos
Lewis Mills Photos
Shepaug Photos
-Hartford Public Photos
SEASON IN REVIEW - posted 3/19/13
I am sad to say but this will be my last e-mail of the season as we close a banner year of 2012-2013 for Simsbury Swimming and Diving.
States Taper Week March 4th-8th-
During this week we began to taper the States team getting ready for the State LL Trials on March 9th at Hamden High School and State LL Finals on March 12th at Wesleyan University in Middletown. All I can say is that we received 100% effort from each individual all week and that they were best prepared as I know how. There is no doubt I was a bit nervous entering the LL State meets because you are swimming with the best of the best and it can be very intimidating. I believe it was most intimidating for the Girls 200 Freestyle Relay because they were the only girls entered and swimming in the meet. All a coach can say is that you earned this spot, you deserve this spot, you are as best prepared for this meet as you can be, you have every right to be here, go out swim the way you know how, and embrace the moment.
LL State Results
Let's look at the results of our Simsbury States Team:
200 Medley Relay: Nick Stamboulis (back), Alex Ratajczak (Breast), Kyle Chambers (Fly), and Doug Nicholson (Free)
Seated Time a 1:50.12 swam a best time of 1:48.87 at Trials 1.24 seconds faster. At Finals placed 16th with a time of 1:49.92. Still quicker than there seed time for Trials. Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
200 IM- Alex Ratajczak did not qualify for the 200IM and did not make Top 36 to be able to swim at Trials. Thank Goodness for Will Pendergast who helped out in a tremendous way as our alternate swimmer and was able to get the splits for everyone. He noticed that Alex was entered in the 200IM. We did not receive any notification from the LL Committee that he was entered. He was seated 36th with a 2:20.25 and swam a 2:22.03 and placed 35th.
50 Free- Kyle Chambers seed time was a 24.28 and went a 24.27 and placed 46th at Trials
100 Fly- Doug Nicholson seed time was 57.87 and swam a 57.15 and was seated 22nd and that qualified him for LL Finals. At Finals he swam a 56.46 and placed 21st. Great swim by our Team Captain. A 1.41 second drop. Incredible swim and his best time ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
200 Freestyle Relay: Max Braun, Kaitlyn May, Nikki Kowalski, and Sammi Dowd
Seated with a time of 1:48.08 and they needed to swim 2.01 faster to break a Simsbury Girls 200 Freestyle Relay Record. At Trials they swam a 1:45.48, a 2.60 second drop and a New Team Record. At Finals they swam a 1:45.32 a .16second faster for another New Team Record. This relay swam unbelievable and proved to LL that girls belong at the State level for swimming and Simsbury has 4 outstanding girls swimmers who can swim with the big boys. At Trials they beat the Norwalk relay and those boys were not happy.
100 Backstroke- Nick Stamboulis was entered with a seed time of 1:02.59 and swam a 1:02.81. A few tenths of a second slower but he has nothing to be disappointed with in his time or his season. He placed 32nd in LL Trials. In the 200 Medley Relay he had a split time of 28.97. Almost a full second drop. He has never broken a 29.00 in the 50 Backstroke split. That is one of the reasons why our 200 Medley Relay went over a second faster thanks to Nick's hard work and effort!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
100 Breastroke-
Doug Nicholson was seated with a 1:04.44 and went a 1:04.18 and made the Top 24 and swam himself into Finals. At Finals he went a 1:04.76 and placed 21st. A very nice swim and he needed to get ready to swim the anchor leg of the 400 Free Relay.
Harry Saperstein was seated with a 1:08.65 and swam a 1:08.56 and placed 31st overall with a best time. Great Swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex Ratajczak was seated with a 1:09.07 and swam a 1:09.63 and placed 33rd overall. A Great Swim by our Team Captain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
400 Free Relay- Sean Russell, Kyle Chambers, Sammi Dowd, and Doug Nicholson
Seated with a time of 3:40.49 and swam a 3:38.80. They dropped 1.69 seconds thanks to Sean Russell going a flat start of 53.34. An excellent swim. At Finals the relay swam a 3.37.91 almost another full second faster. Excellent way to end our season with another best time.
Diving- What more can we say about Cam Schoffstall that hasn't already been said. Cam dove great at LL Finals. He was seated 12th and moved up to 10th place with a dive score of 317.30. This qualified him for State Diving Opens as a 24th seed. At Opens he improved his dive score to 317.90 and this moved him up to 17th place. We can say that at Simsbury High School we have the 17th Best Diver in the State on our team. Many congratulations are in order for Cameron and his 100% effort all season. Because of how well he dove at CCC West Championships, LL Finals, and State Opens I received an e-mail Sunday morning at 6am announcing that Cameron was selected to the CCC West All-Star Team for Diving. Way to go Cam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Final Score and LL State Place- Last season we scored 51 points and came in 19th out of 19th. This season we scored 80 points and placed 19th out of 20th beating Norwalk High School.
I believe we can say we had a very successful swim season and I am so thankful to be part of an amazing swim team and an awesome team of swimmers in more ways than one.
Team Banquet March 17th @ Hopmeadow Country Club
The Banquet was a wonderful time of celebrating a very successful swim season. Many thanks are in order for the Senior Captains who worked on the banquet brochure, their speeches, our diving coach who worked with the swimmers to put a terrific slide show together commemorating the swim season,to the Russell family who worked on the Award Certificates, to Kari Ratajczak who worked very hard behind the scenes organizing the banquet with Hopmeadow Country Club and that delicious dessert cake. Many Thanks to the Hopmeadow Country Club Staff who served us with a smile during the banquet. What a way to end the season on such a positive note.
I will just say this, yesterday I received an e-mail with our next season schedule already. I guess we don't get a chance to rest.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 3/2/13
Practice-
We continued our Taper Week in preparation for our CCC West Championship meet that was held on Thursday and Friday. As you come to the end of the season your body begins to wear down and is in need of rest in order to swim your best at a Championship meet. It is my belief that we have one of the best taper workouts that give our swimmer the best opportunity to do their best. The reason why I say that is because I have done my reading and research on tapering. I have spoken to some of the best swim coaches that I know on how they taper and I have the Big Ten University of Wisconsin Swimming Playbook in my possession that hasn't led us astray.
CCC West Swimming and Diving Results-
On Thursday we were at Cornerstone for the swimming component of the CCC West Championship and on Friday our divers were at Miss Porters School for diving. All I can say is that I am so proud of this team and how they have performed all season and at CCC West is no different. Going into the meet based on our record we should place 5th out of the 6 teams that make up our league. We know that Farmington, Conard, and Hall would duke it out for the top spots. Southington, Northwest Catholic, and Simsbury would duke it out for the next 3 spots. Our conference record was 1-4 with losses to Conard, Hall, Farmington, and Southington. I felt if we kept it close on Thursday and give our divers a shot we might be able to overtake Southington. Well that is exactly what happened. After Thursday we were in 5th place, 22 points behind Southington. Southington had 152 points and Simsbury had 130 points. Now it was up to our divers fully aware that Southington does not field a strong diving squad. Our divers placed 3rd (Cam), 4th (Katie) and 10th (Aly). The Southington diver placed 11th and scored 2 pts and Aly's 10th placed finish gave us 3 more points that secured our 4th place finish. WAY TO GO DIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's take a closer look on how we pulled this off:
200 Medley Relay - seeded 8th and placed 3rd with a Best Time of 1:50.12 by over 3 seconds (Nick Stamboulis, Alex Ratajczak, Kyle Chambers, Doug Nicholson) and out touched Southington's relay by .55 seconds.
200 Free - Sean Russell- seeded 12th and placed 10th with a Best Time of 1.59.60 by close to a second.
200 IM - Alex Ratajczak- seeded 16th and placed 9th with a Best Time of 2:20.25 by over 8 seconds.
50 Free- Kyle Chambers- seeded 9th and placed 7th with a Best Time of .24.28 by close to 1/10 of a second, out touched Southington's swimmer by 3/10 of a second who was seeded 6th.
Diving- Katie Amarell - seeded 5th and placed 4th with a Best Dive Score by 10.20 with a score of 184.60 and Aly Saperstein seeded 12th and placed 10th with a Best Dive Score by 5.10 point with a score of 150.70.
100 Fly- Doug Nicholson- seeded 6th and placed 6th with a Best Time of .57.87 and out touched Southington's swimmer by 3/10 of a second.
200 Free Relay- seeded 12th and placed 10th - Max Braun, Kaitlyn May, Nikki Kowalski, and Sammi Dowd.
100 Backstoke- Nick Stamboulis- seeded 10th and placed 7th with a Best Time of 1:02.59 close to 2 seconds.
100 Breastroke - Doug Nicholson- seeded 3rd and placed 1st with a Best Time of 1:04.44 close to 3 seconds, Harry Saperstein seeded 8th and placed 7th with a Best Time of 1:08.65 close to 2 seconds
400 Free Relay- seeded 6th and placed 5th with a Best Time of 3:40.49 close to 2 seconds (Sean Russell, Kyle Chambers, Nick Stamboulis, Doug Nicholson)
Also, we had many swimmers who swam their Best Times:
Lizzy Austin - 200 Free Best Time- 2:30.19, by over 1 second, 100 Free- 1:07.95 by close to 1 second
Emily Fritz- 200 IM Best Time- 2:38.97, by close to 1 second
Harry Saperstein- 50 Free Best Time- 25.50, by 3/10 of a second
Wyatt Gallagher- 50 Free Best Time- 26.54, by over 1 second, 100 Free 59.95, by over 1 second
Graham Clarkson- 100 Free Best Time- 1:05.59, by close to 5 seconds
Will Pendergast- 100 Back Best Time- 1:10.12, by 1/10 of a second
Alex Ratajczak- 100 Breast Best Time- 1:09.07, by 4/10 of a second
Nick Catalano- 100 Fly Best Time- 1:12.54, by close to 1 second
Jeremy Laverde- 100 Breast Best Time- 1:12.10, by over 2 seconds
The Final Standings:
1.Farmington- 322 2.Conard- 306.5 3.Hall-218 4.Simsbury-156 5.Southington-154 6.Northwest Catholic-106.5
I consider this a victory for our team because it was a total team effort. One of our team goals this season was to improve over our last year performance at CCC West Championships and we did. Last year we placed 6th and this year we placed 4th. Way to go Simsbury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday- State Practice 7PM-9PM
Tuesday- State Practice 7PM-9PM
Wednesday- State Practice 7PM-9PM
Thursday- State Practice 7PM-9PM and LL Diving Finals @ Middletown High School
Friday-State Practice 7PM-9PM
Saturday - LL Swimming Trials Hamden High School
DATES TO REMEMBER
3/17 - Simsbury Swimming and Diving Award Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00NOON, cost $10.00 per person. Please submit your registration form and payment to The Ratajczak's 1 West Mary Drive Simsbury, CT 06070 by March 11th.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 2/24/13
Practice-
This week we began our Taper week for the Girls Splash Meet. The design of a taper week is to help the individual swimmer do their best at an upcoming meet; usually some form of a Championship meet. During the taper you decrease the yardage, increase the rest between sets, and keep the intensity of a race pace. It usually is very effective and as I look at the results of Splash it worked. I will speak more about that later. We moved all of the girls over to lanes 1-4 and I worked with the girls. We moved the boys over to lanes 7-8 and pushed them hard Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and Mary Fran has been working with them. The boys began tapering on Thursday in preparation for CCC West Championships on Thursday February 28th.
Team Dinners/Lunch-
1) On Wednesday a Team Dinner was held at the home of Max Braun. Many thanks to her parents for opening their home to the team. The meal included pulled pork sandwiches, salad, pasta, buffalo wings, and a tasty brownie and ice cream dessert from Graham Clarkson. A good time was had by all.
2) On Thursday we had our first ever Team Lunch at Little City Pizza. I was thinking that it was vacation week maybe it would be a fun time to spend a lunch together. We had a blast. 5 large cheese pizzas, 1 large mashed potato pizza, I am guessing 10 pitchers of soda and alot of laughs around the table family style was a hit. It might become an annual event on the swim team social calendar. I thought it would be nice to have our athletic director Dane Street attend and meet some of the team. He had a little easier week without the students in the building. I would say he enjoyed meeting the team and the conversation around the table. Many thanks to our AD who treated the team to lunch.
3) On Friday the girls had their Girls Only Team Dinner at the home of Bella Albani. Many thanks to her parents for opening their home to the team. There was plenty of ziti, mozzarella sticks, salad, chicken, and birthday cake for Brie Sakatis for all to enjoy. The reason why this was a Girls Only Team Dinner is for the girls to get psyched for Splash, spend time making posters for each swimmer and diver, and enjoy each others company. I believe it was a very memorable time for the girls.
Splash Results-
What an amazing meet Simsbury Girls swam. I could not be any more proud of their effort, character, enthusiasm, attitude, and results. There are so many highlights from this meet. We did place 3rd and came home with a trophy. I believe this was the closest Splash meet that has taken place in a long time. Our girls practiced hard all week and I knew it would pay off on Saturday. Even though we had to deal with a time change that did not hinder our performance. Here are the results:
Best Times:
200 Medley Relay- Brenna Welsh, Ana Jahrstofer, Kely Savino, Nikki Kowalski dropped 3 seconds to a 2:04:19
Bethany Hamlin- 200 Free dropped 8 seconds to a 2:29.91, 100 Back dropped close to 2 seconds to a 1:16.48
Lizzy Austin- 200 Free dropped over 2 seconds to a 2:31.21
Max Braun- 200 Free dropped 4 seconds to a 2:15.92, 100 Breast dropped close to 2 seconds to a 1:18.19
Shelby Downes- 200 IM dropped 2 seconds to a 2:47.76, 100 Breast dropped 1/10's of a second to 1:22.14
Allison May - 50 Free dropped 2/10's of a second to 28.81, 100 Free dropped close to 2 seconds to a 1:04.24
Nikki Kowalski - 50 Free dropped 3/10's of a second to 27.95
Sammi Dowd- 50 Free dropped 7/10's of a second to 25.47 and placed 1st, 100 Free dropped 1 second to a .55.68
Kelly Savino- 100 Fly dropped 3 seconds to a 1:09.79
Hannah Corcoran- 100 Free dropped 4/10's of a second to 1:07.37
Bella Albani- 100 Free dropped over 1 second to a 1:07.55
Kaitlyn May- 100 Free dropped close to 2 seconds to a 1:02.43
Brenna Welsh- 500 Free dropped close to 2 seconds to get under 6:00minutes with a time of 5:58.78, 100 Back dropped 2/10's of a second to 1:07.61
200 Free Relay- Max Braun, Kaitlyn May, Nikki Kowalski, Sammi Dowd dropped over 3 seconds, placed 1st, Out-touched Avon's relay with a time of 1:48.08
Ana Jahrstofer- 100 Breast dropped close to 2 seconds to a 1:15.70
Our divers dove great with Katie Amarell placing 2nd, Aly Saperstein placing 9th, and Claidia Lungarini placing 13th. Great job once again by our divers.
The highlight of the meet along with all of the best times, a 3rd place finish, is our 400 Free Relay of Max Braun, Kaitliyn May, Nikki Kowalski, and Sammi Dowd. They placed 3rd and dropped close to 3 seconds. They set a new Simsbury Girls Team Record with a time of 3:58.50. The old record was set in 2002 with a time of 3:58.93. Way to go girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPCOMING WEEK
Practice-
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we continue to have practice the usual time 7PM-9PM.
Thursday- CCC West Championship Swimming @ Cornerstone. The bus will leave at 2:30 and the meet will begin promptly at 3:30. The meet needs to conclude by 6PM. We take the whole team and everyone swims. Divers stay home and practice
Friday- CCC West Diving Championship Meet @ Miss Porters School in Avon. Warm up is 6:15PM with a meet start at 7:30PM. Divers plan on meeting Rich at the high school at 5:30PM.
Friday- Swim practice for the State Team at 7PM -9PM. I will announce the State Relays during the week. For the remaining swimmers I do ask you return your team warm ups on Friday. We will be collecting them.
DATES TO REMEMBER
2/28- CCC West Swimming Championships
3/1- CCC West Diving Championships
3/17 - Simsbury Swimming and Diving Award Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00Noon (More Information To Follow)
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 2/17/13
Practice
Did we even have one? It feels like it was so long ago. Our Monday meet against Conard was postponed and rescheduled to Monday 2/18 at the same time and place. We will keep it boys only as we begin Splash Taper Week for the girls. ATTENTION BOYS We will have practice after the meet and I do expect to see all the boys there. We were able to have one practice on Tuesday and we worked a Sprint Workout to prepare for three meets in a row.
Simsbury 76 Suffield 60
This meet was suppose to be closer with many more closer races. I applaud Coach Jameyson and Suffield Swimming for showing up for the meet. Suffield is a decent team with many talented swimmers who swim year round with the USS team called the Aqua Bears. They have 20 swimmers on their team and their only weakness is in diving and depth. She had 6 swimmers sick, 2 seniors decided not to show up, and 1 boy injured himself by sledding in the storm last Friday night and he broke his leg and required stitches. Still with 10 swimmers Coach Jameyson could have called me and decided she did not want to swim us and have practice instead. They are a class team that follows through on their swim meet commitments. I don't know how many visiting coaches would be willing to announce diving. That is not their responsibility, Coach Jameyson who is a diving coach/head coach volunteered to announce diving for our girls. If you noticed their diver was out sick and was not able to dive. After the meet she complimented us on the character of our team and would be willing to put us on their scheduled next season. I agreed and said we would be more than willing to swim them at their home pool of Suffield Academy. I felt it was important to let their AD know what a quality and classy team they are via e-mail.
Splash Qualifiers
Ana Jarstofer - 50 Free- .29.81, 100 Free- 1:07.99
Emily Fritz- 50 Free- .29.06
Shelby Downes- 100 Free- 1:07.49
SENIOR NIGHT
Simsbury 99 NWC 80
This was a great meet for us. The last two seasons we have lost to NWC by a combined score of maybe 10 points. Both meets came down to the last relay and we just did not have it. This season we are a stronger team in many events and our depth is helping us in our relays. We swam and dove a great meet. Let me highlight some great swims:
Best Times
Girls 200 Medley Relay - 2:06.96 Brenna Welsh(back), Ana Jahrstofer(breast), Kelly Savino(fly), Max Braun(free)
Kyle Chambers- 50 Free- .24.31, 100 Free .54.43
Nick Catalano - 100 Fly- 1:13.74 a 3 second drop. Great Swim
Nick Stamboulis- 100 1:04.88 BEST TIME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to say thank you to our Freshman, Sophmore, and Junior class for making it such a great night for our Seniors. It is always nice to give our Seniors a victory something we have not been able to do the last two seasons. The deck was beautiful, posters were awesome, the yellow roses terrific, chocolate bars for NWC Seniors delicious, I think the embroided towels were a hit, and I believe the officials were shocked that we honored them. Our team signed thank you notes for them and we gave them a $10.00 Subway Gift Card to say thank you to them. So parents and swimmers I say Thank You so much for all your hard work. We will miss our Seniors next year.
Southington 87 Simsbury 79
We knew this was going to be a hard meet to pull off. Not impossible just hard. We swam an awesome meet and I could not be more proud of this teams heart, character, and effort. The only place where we lacked was in our depth in the relays. In all of the relays they went 1st an 3rd a 10 to 4 score for them. That is very hard to make up especially when they don't have diving at the Southington YMCA because we would have placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with our outstanding divers. We gave it an excellent effort. Let's hope for a victory over Southington next season.
We had some great swims and best times.
Sophie Sloan- 100 Back- 1:12.54
Doug Nicholson - 200IM- 2:17.40, 100 Fly- 58.13
Kyle Chambers- 100 Free- .53.87 3/10 of a second from qualifying for States
THE WEEK AHEAD
We have a little bit of a busy week and here are the details.
2/ 18
Monday - Swim Meet vs Conard High School @ Cornerstone. Bus leaves at 2:30 with a 3:30 meet start. We are only taking our boys. Girls begin to taper for Splash Meet.
Practice 7PM-9PM I do expect all of the boys to be at practice after the Conard meet.
2/19
Tuesday
Practice 7PM-9PM
2/20
Wednesday
4:30PM - 6:30PM Team Dinner @ the home of Max Braun 27 Tim Clark Circle Simsbury off of Munnisunk Road
Practice 7PM-9PM
2/21
Thursday
12:00 Noon- Team Lunch @ Little City Pizza Cost is $10.00 for pizza, drinks, and tip
Practice 7PM-9PM
2/22
Friday
4:30PM-6:30PM Team Dinner Girls Only @ the home of Bella Albani 3 School House Lane Simsbury
2/23
Saturday
Splash Classic Meet
Divers 7AM meet @ High School and Rich Kowalski will be driving the diving team.
Swimmers 11AM meet @ High School for the bus.
Bring money for a Wendy's supper stop after the meet.
Boys are invited and many are planning on attending to cheer on our girls. Way to go boys. Nick Stamboulis and Wyatt Gallagher have agreed to be our two required timers for the meet and their entrance fee is covered. The cost is $6.00 entrance fee.
DATES TO REMEMBER
2/20 Team Dinner @ the home of Max Braun, 4:30-6:30
2/21 Team Lunch @ Little City Pizza 12:00Noon, cost $10.00
2/22 Girls Only Team Dinner @ the home of Bella Albani
2/23 Splash Classic Swim Meet
2/28 CCC West Swimming Championships
3/1 CCC West Diving Championships
3/17 Swim Team Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00Noon
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 2/8/13
Practice
We had two good nights of practice during the week. We worked on Stroke and Sprint Freestyle as we are trying to increase our speed in our upcoming meets. Also, we worked on our starts off the blocks that need to be faster as the Championship part of our season is quickly approaching.
Hall 97 Simsbury 81
Hall High School is one of the toughest teams in our league. They are strong from top to bottom in every event. That was evident in our meet against them. Even in a hard meet we did very well and saw some great swims and dives. I could not be more proud of this team. This is what happened against Hall.
Best Times:
Jeremy Laverde- 200 IM- 2:41.05- I don't have many swimmers volunteering to swim the 200 IM, Jeremy did and swam great.
Harry Saperstein- 50 Free- 25.80- First time under a .26. Great swim and let's qualify for States at a .24.43. I believe he can do it.
Max Braun -200 Free- 2.19.80- Nice swim and that will help us in Splash
Cam Schoffstall-Diving-He dove great and beat Hall's diver and is poised to win CCC West Diving again. Great diving
Splash Qualifier
Claudia Lungarini- Diving- Degree of Difficulty 8.4, Diving score- 133.90. Splash Qualifying is 8.3 Degree of Difficulty with a Score of 125. She did it. First time Splash Qualifier for her and am so proud of her. The officials were so proud of her effort and one of them came over to congratulate her.
Simsbury 94 Lewis Mills 80
Before the meet began I pulled the team in and told them I was making some lane assignment changes. When Lewis Mills arrived Reid, their head coach told me he was missing 1/3 of his team to a band concert. They could have chosen not to show up but they did not. He did our team a big favor by coming because they rent a pool like ourselves and only have practice Monday - Thursday from 9:00PM to 10:30PM. He made the decision to miss a practice and swim us. My goal in a meet is to never embarrass, humiliate, or run up a score in a meet. That is not sportsmanship so I moved most of our boys to Lane 1, exhibition lane. We won the meet for our 7th win of the season. That is one more than we had last season. I believe we will get 2 more, possibly 3 next week. After the meet Lewis Mills spoke with us and congratulated our team on the win and had many nice things to say about our team. Reid said we had a nice bunch of kids who know what respect is by how we cheered for his slower swimmers and how none of our swimmers got out of the water until his last swimmer touched the wall. They would love to swim us next year again preferably a Friday night. They loved Westminster Pool.
I have our Splash line up pretty well set up with times and now I have to go back edit them due to our meet last night. First let me begin with Best Times for the boys.
Best Times
Wyatt Gallagher 100 Free - 1.01.10 I believe he will be under 1.00 by the end of the season. Willing to bet a Wendy's baconater on it.
Sean Russell - 200IM- 2:22.84- That might help us against Southington
Kyle Chambers- 100 Free- 54.24- He needs a 53.54 to qualify for States. Almost there!
Will Pendergast - 200 Free- 2:09.04 by over 5 seconds and now we have another backstroker at 1:10.56 Great Swim
Nick Catalano - 100 Fly - Granby Meet- 1.24.95, Hall Meet- 1.18.31, Lewis Mills Meet -1.16.02. Great Swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Splash Update
Emily Caliman- 50 Free- 30.53 Splash Qualifier, 100 Free- 1.09.91 Best Time Need To Edit Her Entry Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bethany Hamlin - 100 Back- 1.17.78 Splash Qualifier - Best Time Need To Move Her From the 500 Free To The 100 Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Emily Fritz- 100 Fly - 1.12.57- Best Time Need To Edit Her Entry Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ana Jahrstofer - 100 Breast -1.16.77 Best Time Need To Edit Her Entry Time!!!!!!!!!
Kelsey Dombrowsky-1.16.41 100 Back Best Time Need To Edit Her Entry Time!!!!
Alyson May 100 Free 1.05.72 Best Time Need To Edit Her Entry Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These girls are creating more work for me HAHA
THE WEEK AHEAD
2/10 Sunday Team Dinner @ the home of Nick Catalano 18 Alder Road Simsbury. I am hearing homemade lasagna will be served. I think you want to be there.
2/11 Monday Meet vs Conard @ Cornerstone bus leaves at 2:30. I WILL ONLY TAKE THE BOYS TO THIS MEET MARY FRAN WILL RUN A PRACTICE FOR THE GIRLS WE ONLY HAVE 7 DAYS OF PRACTICE LEFT BEFORE SPLASH.
2/11 Practice 7PM-9PM
2/13 Wednesday Meet vs Suffield @ Westminster 6:45 Arrival. 7PM Deck Set Up, 7:15 Dryland Stretching, 7:30 Pool Warm Up, 8PM Meet Start
2/14 Thursday Meet vs NWC @ Westminster Senior Night 6:00PM Team Arrive, 7:00PM Seniors Arrive, 7:15 Dryland Stretching, 7:30 Pool Warm Up 8:00PM Meet Start
2/15 Friday Meet vs Southington @ Southington bus leaves at 2:30
DATES TO REMEMBER
2/10 Team Dinner @ the home of Nick Catalano 18 Alder Road Simsbury
2/14 Senior Night
2/17 Team Dinner ANY VOLUNTEERS
2/22 SPLASH TEAM DINNER GIRLS ONLY at the home of Bella Albani 3 School House Lane Simsbury
2/23 Splash Classic
2/28 CCC West Swimming Championship
3/1 CCC West Diving Championship
3/17 Swim Team Award Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00Noon
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 2/3/13
Team Dinner @ the home of Doug Nicholson
A fun time of food, friendship, and fun took place at this Team Dinner. I understand an obscene amount of homemade steamed dumplings was consumed during the evening. Many thanks to Robert and Lin Nicholson for opening their home to the swim team.
Practice
For all intense purposes we did not have a practice this week. Monday was a wash for all winter sprts as we had early release due to snowy conditions and our meet with Lewis Mills was cancelled again. Tuesday and Thursday we had meets. Wednesday was our Swim a Thon. After Thursdays meet I made the Executive Order to cancel practice. I felt our team needed a night off and truly has earned it because of their hard work each night.
Simsbury 93 Gilbert 82
This was the first time we have swam Gilbert High School from Winsted. We met them a few years ago at Splash and their was interest on both sides to swim a co-ed meet. They were on our schedule last season but the meet was snowed out and we ran out of dates trying to reschedule it. I was glad we were able to swim them on Tuesday evening. They are a developing team with a few good swimmers and I knew there would be some good races. They have a new head coach who just so happens to be there full-time Athletic Director. I spoke to him prior to the meet and you heard about his committment to their student athletes. I was truly impressed by him and his team. If you go on the Gilbert High School web-site, click on Athletics you will see their Code of Conduct that they expect from coaches, parents, officials, and athletes. They are doing something right at that school. After the meet we shook hands, expressed admiration for both teams and the swimmers. They loved our team, pool, and wish to come back next season for a meet at Westminster. We agreed a Friday night would be better for them. Hats off to a class team of Gilbert High School.
We did have a few Best Times that I would like to acknowledge
Girls 200 Medley Relay - Brenna Welsh, Ana Jahrstofer, Kelly Savino, Nikki Kowalski - dropped another 2 seconds 2:07.02. At Windsor - 2:11.58, Plainville- 2:09.57, Gilbert - 2:07.07. I know this relay can go faster and will be very hard to beat at Splash.
Sammi Dowd- 50 Free - 26.18. This is her personal best time and it dropped by 1/10 of a second. I believe she can be under 26. and will be a tough competitor at Splash
A great swim by Will Pendergast who swam the 500 Free without any goggles as they fell off at the start.
Manchester 86 Simsbury 80
There is not much to say about this meet. We swam a very tired meet after the Swim a Thon. Sometimes you have meets like that during a 13 week 15 dual meet season. That was my reasoning for issuing the Executive Order of No Practice. I did run out to Sunrise Convience Store to buy the Hartford Courant. There is a great photo of Doug Nicholson winning the 100 Breaststroke.
Swim a Thon
Many thank you to the parents, siblings, swimmers, and sponsors who helped support our Swim a Thon. I do not have a final tally as money continues to come in. As soon as I know the final amount that was raised I will pass that along.
The Week Ahead
Monday - Practice 7PM-9PM
Tuesday- Swim Meet @ Cornerstone vs Hall High School bus @ 2:30, Warm Up 3PM, Meet Start 3:30
Wednesday- Practice 7PM - 9PM
Thursday - Home Meet vs Lewis Mills 6:45- Arrival, 7PM -Set Up Deck, 7:15- Dryland Stretching, 7:30- Pool Warm Up, 8PM -Meet Start
Friday - Senior Night vs NWC- Swimmers Arrive 6:30 to decorate SENIORS ARRIVE 7:15 for Stretching
Sunday- Team Dinner @ the home of Nick Catalano 18 Alder Road Simsbury
Dates To Remember
February 8th - Senior Night vs NWC
February 10th - Team Dinner @ Nick Catalano's home 18 Alder Road Simsbury
February 17 - Team Dinner ANY VOLUNTEERS
February 23rd - Girls Splash Classic
February 24th - Team Dinner ANY VOLUNTEERS
March 17th - Swim Team Award Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00 Noon
The Week In Review 1/26/13
Team Dinner @ the home of Alex Ratajczak-
On Sunday our team gathered for delicious grinders, drinks, snacks, and laughs. Many thanks to the Ratajczak's for opening their home to the team. After dinner the team enjoyed playing games of skeet ball, darts, ping pong, and round robin ping pong. A good time was had by all.
Practice -
We had another good week of practice as we focused on Stroke and Sprint Free with a little less yardage and the results truly paid off in our meets of Windsor and Plainville. There was a great effort and attitude all week. Also, our new fins arrived on Wednesday and we used them in Thursday's practice.
Simsbury 99 Windsor 87
Last year we swam Windsor and beat them rather easily. I knew from the result sheets that I had from two of their meets it was not going to be a repeat performance. They have improved tremendously and it was going to be an incredibly close meet. We had many close races and the heart of our team showed up for this meet. In the 200 Free I told Sean Russell he was going to have a tough race and the heart of Sean Russell came through as he did his best time by over 2 seconds and out touched their swimmer. Sean went a 2:00.33 and their swimmer went a 2:00.54. Our tag team of Doug Nicholson and Kyle Chambers in the 50 Free needed to be all heart. Doug went a 24:32, Kyle went a 24:71, and their swimmer went a 24:76. You can't get much closer than that. If these races went in a different direction we probably would have lost the meet.
Let's talk about First Time Splash Qualifiers
Sammi Dowd - 50 Free (26.22) 100 Free (57.87)
Alli Salina - 100 Free (1.11.73)
Lizzy Austin- 100 Free (1.08.27)
Brenna Welsh - 500 Free (6.07.90)
Best Times
Sean Russell - 200 Free (2.00.33) by 2 seconds
Kaitlyn May - 200 Free (2.15.83) by 1 second
Sammi Dowd - 50 Free (26.22), 100 Free (57.87)
Nick Stamboulis - 100 Free (56.15)
Lizzy Austin - 100 Free (1.08.27)
Simsbury 91 Plainville 88
Every year we swim Plainville at there pool because it is a tremendous opportunity to have our girl's swim in the pool Splash Classic will be held at. Plainville is a team that is rebuilding and going through some changes. Their head coach for many years retired and they have a new coach. Our goals for this meet was to win, keep the meet close by going exhibition, qualify as many girls as possible for Splash, and see some best times/dives. We accomplished each goal.
Goal 1- Win, we did
Goal 2 - Go exhibition, we did. In meets that we know we will win I always make it a point to let the officials know I do not want one point more than we need to win. The lead official told me after the 200 Free Relay we had the meet won and I called exhibition. Just prior to the 400 Free Relay he told me his math was wrong and I would need a 3rd place in the 400 Free Relay. So we scored the 400 Free Relay and placed 2nd and that was enough for the win.
Goal 3- Qualify as many girls as possible for Splash, we did
Alli Salina - 50 Free (30.70)
Lizzy Austin - 50 Free (30.58)
Ana Deacon - 50 Free (30.75), 100 Free (1.09.0)
Bella Albani - 50 Free (29.85)
Kelsey Dombrowsky - 50 Free (29.63)
Emily Caliman - 100 Free (1.10.47)
Goal 4 - Best Times
Girls 200 Medley Relay - Brenna Welsh, Ana Jahrstofer, Kelly Savino, Nikki Kowalski (2.09.57) best time by 2 seconds
Kaitlyn May - 200 Free (2.12 .35) best time by 2.5 seconds
Ana Jahrstofer - 200 IM (2.34.70) best time of the season by over 3 seconds
Sammi Dowd - 50 Free (26.07) best time by 2/10's of a second, 100 Free (56.68) best time by 6/10's of a second
Nick Stamboulis - 100 Free (55.20) best time by over 1 second
Ana Deacon -100 Free (1.09.0) best time by over 3 seconds
Brenna Welsh - 500 Free (6.00.37) best time by over 7 seconds
Bethany Hamlin - 500 Free (6.40.71) best time by over 6 seconds
Harry Saperstein- 100 Breast (1.10.59) best time by alot
Girls 400 Free Relay- Allison May, Kaitlyn May, Nikki Kowalski, Sammi Dowd (4.08.96) best time by over 3 seconds
Best Dives
Cam Schoffstall- Score of 218.65 best dive score by over 30 points
Aly Saperstein- best degree of difficulty (8.4) and a SPLASH QUALIFIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Week
Monday- Home Meet vs Lewis Mills WE NEED TIMERS
Tuesday- Home Meet vs Gilbert WE NEED TIMERS
Wednesday- Swim a Thon WE NEED COUNTERS
Thursday- Away Meet @ Manchester Bus leaves @ 2:30
Friday- Practice
Dates To Remember
February 10th - Team Dinner at the home of Nick Catalano 18 Alder Road Simsbury
February 17 - Team Dinner ANY VOLUNTEERS
March 17th Swim Team Award Dinner @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00NOON
Emailed 1/20/13
The Week In Review
Practice
We had an excellent week of practice the whole week. We concentrated on IM, Stroke, and Distance workouts with increased yardage. We worked with some individuals on their stroke and as a team we focused on starts at the end of practice. I was very proud of the effort that was present. I know many are still fighting colds and I hope they are getting the rest needed because we need everyone healthy.
Lewis Mills Meet Rescheduled
I was sorry that this meet was canceled I really wanted to swim them because they are a co-ed team that we will see at the Splash Classic and it would be a great meet for our girls. Lewis Mills has a policy of school cxld/all activities cxld so there coach had no say in the matter even though the roads seemed to be fine at the time of our meet. I did speak to the coach and we have rescheduled the meet to Monday, January 28th @ Westminster. That was the day of our Swim a Thon so we moved our Swim a Thon to Wednesday, January 30th.
Team Dinner @ NickStamboulis Home
Many thanks to Nick and Randi Stamboulis for hosting our first Team Dinner of the season. A good time was had by all who attended. The food was delicious and included foot long grinders and home made mac n cheese. The desserts were to die for and many thanks to Randi Stambouis and Jetta Albani for wonderful, calorie free (haha) desserts. For the record the team of Scott Chambers and Will Pendegrast were unstoppable in Banagrams. Our knowledge of the English language and incredible vocabulary surpassed everyone who dared to challenge our intelligence.
The Week Ahead
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - Practice
Wednesday - Swim Meet @ Windsor. The bus is leaving at 2:30. This will be a good meet that we should be able to walk away with a win. We beat them rather easily last year. I have two of there Meet Results and they have improved and are a much stronger team. Chris Todd, the Windsor coach is an excellent coach and he has his swimmers at top form right now.
Friday- Swim Meet @ Plainville. The bus is leaving at 2:30. This is a great meet for our girls to swim at Plainville High School. We swim them every year at there pool. We like our girls to swim in this meet because it is where Splash Classic is held. They have a new coach this year. I have the Newington/Plainville Meet Result and we are stronger in each event so we should walk away with another win.
Dates to Remember
January 27th - Team Dinner at the home of Doug Nicholson 3 Barbury Road West Simsbury
January 28th - Rescheduled Home Meet vs Lewis Mills @ Westminster WE NEED TIMERS
January 30th - Rescheduled Swim A Thon WE NEED COUNTERS AND PLEDGES PLEASE HAVE YOUR SWIMMER WORK ON FUNDRAISING
February 10th- Team Dinner at the home of Nick Catalano 16 Alder Drive Simsbury
February 17th- Team Dinner at the home of ??????? Any Volunteers
March 17th- Swim Team Adward Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00Noon Start
Posted 1/14/13
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
January 8th - Simsbury 90 Bulkely 87
We knew going into this meet it was going to be a rather easy win. I tried my best to keep the score close and set up some good races in the meet. After diving the score was Simsbury 41 Bulkely 36. Wyatt Gallagher had a good race in the 50 Free and Will Pendegrast had a good race in the 100 Free. Aly Saperstein dove beautifully with a score of 145.65 and I believe that is her best score ever. She is .1 away on the degree of difficulty to qualify for the Splash Classic. There is no doubt she will qualify and that could put her in the Top 12. Congratulations to Bella Albani who officially qualified for the Splash Classic in the 200 Free and Bethany Hamlin who qualified in the 100 Free.
January 11th- Shepaug 95 Simsbury 89
This was another close, tough meet for us. We knew going in that it was going to be difficult but not impossible to pull out a victory. There depth is a little stronger than ours and you saw that in there relays. In the 200 Medley Relay they went 1st and 3rd and in the 200 Free Relay they went 1st and 2nd. They outscored us 22 to 6, a 16 point difference and that was the meet. I was very proud of the attitude of Kyle Chambers, Sammi Dowd, and Nick Stamboulis for swimming events that they don't normally swim to score the most points for our team. I knew Kyle who is a sprinter could not beat there top sprinter who goes a 23.4 but I knew he could beat there top 200 Free swimmer and place 1st and he did. I knew Sammi who did alot of distance swimming for us last year but is primarily a strong sprinter could score more points for us in the 200 Free and the 500 Free. She scored 5 points for us in those events. Nick who never swims the 100 Free, I knew he could score points for us in that event and he did. He placed 3rd and scored 3 points for us.Our divers did awesome as usual with a very old, difficult diving board. Hats off to Katie Amarell who dove the best she could being sick and choosing 3 difficult dives she has not practiced that much. One dive she landed on her back and hurt herself. I asked her if she wanted to stop and take herself out of the diving event. Of course she said no and continued. Our team is working hard in practice and the proof is in the results. Here are some of the outstanding results I saw:
Sammi Dowd- 200 Free dropped 3 seconds off her best time and qualified for Splash
Alex Ratjaczak- 200 IM and 100 Breastroke did his best times of the season
Sean Russell- had an amazing meet 200 Free dropped 2 seconds off his best time and 7 seconds off his best time in the 500Free
Claudia Lungari- dove a 151, did her best diving by 25 points
Nick Stamboulis- 100 Free dropped his best time from last year by 5 seconds
Emily Fritz- 100 Fly dropped her best time by 3 seconds
Brena Welsh- 100 Back dropped her time by 4 seconds, and is tenths of a second off her best time from the 2012 Splash Classic
Kaitlyn May- 100 Free not sure how many seconds she dropped, she went a 1:01.83 a Splash qualifier and I am guessing that is her best time
The official on our side paid our team a nice compliment on how well mannered and nice we were. I was proud to hear that from him. Also, we stopped at Wendy's in Torrington for supper and as we were leaving the workers spoke to Mary Fran and said we were the nicest, cleanest team that they have ever had before. Last thing I will say about the meet is that there coach invited our girls back for a Sprint Classic Meet on Saturday February 2nd at there pool. He noticed how good our girls swim how many girls we have on our team and took the time after the meet to invite us. I am not sure if we will attend but it was nice that he thought of our girls to invite us.
THE WEEK AHEAD
January 13th - Team Dinner 5PM - 7PM at the home of Nick Stamboulis 3 Teachers Turn Simsbury. If your swimmer is planning to attend please bring anywhere between $2-$5 to help with the cost of the dinner.
January 16th - Lewis Mills vs Simsbury- It will be nice to have a home meet again. It feels like it has been a while. This will be a good meet as Lewis Mills is a new team that we have picked up and they are a co-ed team. So I expect to see many good races. We are in need of timers for this meet and I have been in touch with Mike Pendegrast who will spearhead the "Parent Sign Up" through Sign Up Genius. So please keep an eye out for that as we need 8 to 16 timers.
DATES TO REMEMBER
January 20th- Team Dinner 5PM - 7PM at the home of Alex Ratjaczak 1 West Mary Drive Simsbury
January 28th- Swim a Thon 7:30PM - 8:30PM- Need Parent Counters
February 8th- Senior Night vs NWC
March 17th - Swim Team Adward Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club 12:00Noon
Posted 1/6/12
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
January 4th Simsbury vs Hartford Public - The final score was Simsbury 88 Hartford Public 82. We did go exhibition by the 200 Free Relay. We swam a very good meet and was very proud of everyone's effort and attitude. We knew this was going to be a rather easy meet going in and I am very firm on respecting the other team. In our discussion about Hartford Public in practice we knew we would be ahead of them in many events and that you do not get out of the water until the final swimmer touches. I am proud to say not one swimmer on Simsbury got out of the water prior to the last swimmer touching the wall. As a coach it is great to hear an official tell me how respectful our team is by showing that behavior and cheering for the other team. I heard that on Friday. WAY TO GO SIMSBURY SWIMMING.
In this meet we had many girls qualify for Splash. Our team is looking very good for a strong repeat performance at the Splash Classic on Saturday February 23rd at Plainville High School. Here is the list of qualifiers from the meet
Bella Albani- 200 Free
Kaitlyn May- 200 Free
Lizzy Austin - 200 Free
Alison May- 50 Free
Sophie Sloan- 50 Free, 100 Free
Sammi Dowd - 500 Free
We have many girls just seconds away and tenths of seconds away from qualifying. We will continue to work hard on having everyone qualify. Hats off to Jeremy Laverde who dropped his 100 Breastroke time to a 1:14.44 a 1.1 second drop. Nice Swim Jeremy, keep up the hard work.
THE WEEK AHEAD
January 8th Bulkely High School Meet-
Please be advised there has been a change in this meet. I received an email on Friday from Juan the head coach at Bulkely. You may remember Bulkely we swam the Bulkely Relays early in December. He is a great coach and a great guy. He was concerned for his team having a late meet and most of his swimmers walk home from the high school after practice and some even take public transportation. He would be in quite the situation having his swimmers walk home late on a school night in Hartford and the buses not running at 10:00-10:30 when they might get home from Westminster. So I am in agreement for the safety of his team to move the meet to his pool and a 4:30 start. Therefore, we will swim Bulkely at their pool on Tuesday at 4:30 and our bus will depart from the back of the school at 3:15. This will be a good meet for us to continue to work on qualifying our girls and getting ready for our Friday meet at Shepaug.
January 11th Shepaug High School Meet
This will be the hardest, closest meet of the season for us. The past two years we have lost to them by a mere 4 points and it has come down to the last relay. I don't expect anything different this year. We are so evenly matched and that is why we love to swim them. I have their meet results from Watertown and Litchfield and it is going to be a nail biter. It is trip to get to Washington, CT and that is why we have a 5:30 start. The bus will leave at 3:30 on Friday. Parents I invite you to come cheer on our team. I know it is a trip out there but we would love your support. It will be a late night as we will stop for dinner on the way home. So please make sure your child has money for a Wendy's or Burger King supper stop. I hope it will be a victory celebration dinner. It is going to be hard but not impossible.
LOOKING AHEAD
Team Dinners:
Sunday January 13th 5PM-7PM at the home of Nick Stamboulis 3 Teachers Turn Simsbury
Sunday January 20th 5PM-7PM at the home of Alex Ratajaczak 1 West Mary Drive Simsbury
We do ask for a small donation of anywhere between $2.00 to $5.00 to help cover the cost of the team dinner.
Swim a Thon:
Monday January 28th @ Westminster 7:30PM to 8:30PM. Your swimmer will be getting more information on it this week. Denise Raymond is willing to help organize this and will be at practice on Wednesday to talk to the team about the swim a thon. This is our fund raiser to help cover the cost of Senior Night, End of Season Adward Banquet @ Hopmeadow Country Club, and purchase needed equipment for the team. We do need parent help as counters for the night.
Dear Parents,
I know I said my last e-mail was going to be my last and to be checking www.simsburyswimming.org. I continue to work with Mark Raymond on the web-site. I wanted to get this weekly update out today as we head into the Holiday Season and with all the busyness that comes along with it as I am not sure of Mark's schedule next week.
1) Our Bathing Suits Arrived: I was getting very nervous at the beginning of the week as we were having our first meet on Tuesday and wanted us to look like a team against Farmington. When the suits did not arrive on Monday I made many phone calls on Tuesday to Deb Cosme our local Metro Swim Shop person and the headquarters of Metro Swim Shop in New Jersey who swore to me that we would have them on Tuesday. I spoke with Susan Healy in the AD's office who said she would text me when they arrive at the school. Well that text never came through to me. At 4PM I spoke to Susan who was leaving for the day and with the bad news "No Suits". So I left my school where I teach and was on my way to the high school to wait for the UPS truck. I was travelling down Hopmeadow Street and at the Main Fire Department what do I see but a big brown UPS truck. So I decided to tail him to his next stop. He pulls up to the CVS store and I get out of my van and asked him do you have a delivery to the high school from Metro Swim Shop. He says yes, I say can I have them, he asks me am I Susan Healy or have any ID that would help him be able to give me the package. I said I am a desperate high school swim coach who has a meet in a few hours and want our team to have their suits for the first home meet. He took down my license plate number and drivers license number and handed me a large box of bathing suits. We handed out the suits and Metro Swim Shop only made one mistake in the sizes. One freshman girl ordered a size 26 and was sent a size 28. I called Deb Cosme and asked for a size 26 suit be oernighted to me and it was here in time for our Friday meet. So I can check off suit order complete on my list of things to do.
2) E-mail List Almost Complete- If any of you know the families of Kate Hoinoski and Graham Clarkson I do not have a correct e-mail address of them. If they could forward me there e-mail address that would be terrific.
3) Practice Schedule of Vacation Week- We are off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We will be practicing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at the same time 7PM-9PM. We will be taking our dryland exercise program to a new hard core level as we continue to work on strength and endurance.
4) Team Dinner Our first Team Dinner is scheduled for Sunday January 13th at the home of Nick Stamboulis. The address is 3 Teachers Turn in Simsbury. We ask each swimmer who attends to chip in $3.00 toward the cost of the dinner. In the past some of the parents did not want the money collected and donated to the team to help the cost of the Adwards Banquet. There is no obligation to do that. If you are interested in hosting a team dinner please talk to the Captains of the team as they organize them.
12/17/12- Farmington 97 - Simsbury 82
We knew going into this meet that we are swimming one of the strongest teams in our conference. Farmington has some of the top swimmers and have incredible depth in each event. I told our team do not even look at the score of the meet because it is not important to us.What is important is our character, integrity, respect, and effort. I could not be more proud of our team after Tuesday night. We swam lights out and I do not think Scott Feringo the coach of Farmington expected to see what he saw against his team. This is what he saw:
Doug Nicholson- 50 Free, 100 Breastroke
Brenna Welsh- 200 Free, 100 Backstroke
Bethany Hamlin- 200 Free, 500 Free
Sammi Dowd- 50 Free, 100 Free
Nikki Kowaski- 50 Free, 100 Free
Sophie Sloan- 100 Backstroke
Kelsey Dombrowski- 100 Backstroke
Ana Jahrstofer- 100 Breastroke
Max Braun- 100 Breastroke
12/21/12- Simsbury 97 - Granby 81
I have heard many different things about the Granby Swim Team this year. They are in about there 4th year of existence and are developing a very competitive program. Rich Gadoury there head coach who could not attend the meet due to a family committment (a father of two young twins) is doing a superb job with his team. They are a 47 member team and because of those numbers he is no longer permitted to have a co-op team with Canton like he has had in the past. Our goal was to win the meet and qualify more girls for the Splash meet. We accomplished that and surpassed our goal as Doug Nicholson qualified for the State meet in the 100 Butterfly. We did not have that written down as a goal.
Here is the list of girls who qualified for Splash:
Hannah Corcoran- 200 Free, 100 Free
Alison May- 200 Free, 100 Backstroke
Emily Fritz- 100 Butterfly
Many thanks to the parents who have helped time and run the scorers table. The meet could not run without you.
As I see it I believe we are off to a great start and I am looking forward to a great New Year of Simsbury Swimming.
Simsbury Swimming and Diving
A few notes about our pre-season meets:
1) Simsbury vs Westminster - this was a scrimmage meet and both Grant (Westminster Head Coach) and I agreed to keep it a friendly meet and not keep score. I thought that was a very respectful and sportsmanship way to go. My competitive nature did get the best of me when I got home, so I tallied the score. The final score of that meet was Simsbury 97 and Westminster 91. As a team we talk about crucial points. Those points are the 5th place points that score 1point each. In that meet 4 individuals from our team scored a crucial point: Nick Catalano, Bethany Hamlin, Shelby Downes, and Claudia Lunguari. If they did not score those points we would have lost. Every swimmer on our team plays a critical role in our success. Our divers dove an amazing meet and both Cam and Katie qualified for States. Now they just have to do that in one of our meets.
2) Bulkely Relays- This is always a fun meet to attend. There is such a positive feel when you attend this meet and Juan the Head Coach of Bulkely High School is doing a terrific job in Hartford and runs a terrific meet. Out of the 9 events we came home with 6 medals; 5 swimming and 1 diving. I couldn't be more proud of our teams total effort. Our 400 Medley Relay of Nick, Alex, Sean, and Harry placed 3rd. Our 300 Breastroke Relay of Alex, Harry, Jeremy, and Doug placed 1st. Our 300 Backstroke Relay of Nick, Will, Emily F, and Brenna placed 3rd. Our 300 Butterfly Relay of Sean, Ana J, Max, and Doug placed 1st. Our 400 Freestyle Relay of Sean, Nikki, Kelly S, and Harry placed 3rd. Our divers of Graham, Chelsea, and Claudia placed 3rd. Then we topped off our success at Wendy's in Bloomfield and our team was completely respectful to the bus driver and Wendy staff. Truly a great night. For the record in the past we only took a few swimmers to this meet because of the crowded deck space. I was very pleased that we took the whole team for the experience and spending time together. A win win situation.
A few notes for this week:
1) Our suits should be in on Monday and we tentatively have a team picture planned for 7PM tomorrow night at the pool. If our suits do not come in we may postpone it to another time. I did tell the students to bring their top warm up suit just in case.
2) Our team is much larger than in the past. We were 7 warmup jackets short. I did order them and they should be here this week.
3) We ordered Speedo IM Hand Paddles; 1 for each swimmer and we will be susing them in practice each night.
4) We have 2 home meets this week. Tuesday we swim Farmington one of the best teams in our league and Friday we swim Granby. We will be in need of help at these meets. We need back up timers; 8 per meet. One parent is willing to use sign up genius to have you pitch in. We need to coordinate that happening. So if you would not mind helping out this week it would be greatly appreciated.
5) Looking ahead at the Holiday Vacation; we will not be practicing on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day. Please enjoy the time with your family. We ill practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
I think that is all for now.
Simsbury Swimming and Diving
Welcome to the 2012-2013 Season
Scott Chambers - Head Coach
Mary Fran Drakeley - Asst. Swim Coach
Rich Kowalski - Diving Coach
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