SwimMAC makes a big splash on a hot weekend in Greenboro!

Over 100 SwimMACers descended upon the 54th Annual Eastern Invitational in Greensboro. There were many best times and new time standards achieved by a lot of swimmers as we make a final push towards our championship meets. The coaches are very proud of the efforts of all of the swimmers. The 12 & under swimmers swam in a timed finals afternoon session. Even though the afternoons were hot, the true heat was in the pool as the Gold and Silver groups lit the pool on fire. There was particular improvement in our fly and breaststroke events as well as the 200 and 400 free! For the 13 & over swimmers, this was a prelims/finals meet and SwimMAC was well represented in every finals session with tough, strong swims and going to that extra gear to lower their times. Not to be outdone by the younger SwimMAC swimmers, the 13 & over kids showed tremendous improvement in their fly and breast events as well! This is great news as we go into the final weeks of the summer long course season. SwimMAC is once again poised to capture another state title as the North Carolina Championships for both the Senior and 14 & under swimmers approach. Stay focused, stay tough and take extra care of yourself so the end of the season is just as successful as the beginning! Go SwimMAC!

Last Day at Bolles

The SwimMAC Senior 1 and 2 swimmers started their last day in Jacksonville, FL on the beach. We traveled to Neptune Beach where the swimmers enjoyed the beautiful sand and ocean in an open water swim and beach run. They ran a mile down the beach and swam back under the watchful eyes of the beach guards. Afterwards, it was playtime and the kids had a blast playing volleyball and challenging Coach Russ to wrestling matches in the water. Those boys regretted that decision.

After lunch near the beach, it was time to head back up to the Bolles School for practice. The coaches joined in on some stroke work in the pool and the kids all had fun playing ultimate Frisbee on the reigning Florida state champs football field.

The night ended with dinner at Dave & Busters, where the kids feasted on great food and then spent all of their parents money playing video games and skeeball.

The SwimMAC team will return home on Tuesday morning after a combined practice in Brunswick, GA. They have all had a great time and have been great representatives of their families and SwimMAC!

Bolles Day 4

On the last day of competition, SwimMAC finished off the meet with more great swims and more best times. Kyle Darmody had a huge drop from his morning swim in the 200 back to lead off the evening. Pete Brumm, Tyler Hill and Dillon Love all had best times while swimming in the top heat of the 200 back. JT Stilley and Logan Heck had a great race in the 100 free, both dropping their best times, with JT out touching Logan by one one-hundredth of a second. Elijah Walker and Christian Yeatts finished their grudge match in the 200 fly with best times and Christian winning by half a second. Heather Holtom completed her sweep of the women's breaststroke events by winning the 100 Breast. Katherine Plevka and Amanda Rubel also had best times in the breast.

After a team meal with the Bolles team and the team from Cancun, Mexico, there was combined team meeting where the kids spoke about some of the positives that they took from this meet. Meredith Hoover spoke of overcoming poor swims to step up and have a great swim afterwards, such as she did tonight with her great 200 fly performance and Elijah Walker told the story of the challenge he and Christian developed to improve their 200 fly. After the meeting there was a HUGE dodge ball game. Swimmers from all three teams split up and went at it!

The coaching staff and chaperones have been showered with praise from coaches, parents, officials and other swimmers on their team spirit, sportsmanship, politeness and support of one another all weekend. We are very proud of our swimmers. The greatest compliment the SwimMAC swimmers received was when one of the Bolles coaches spoke of their difficulties with having swimmers from different places swimming together and how they wished they all were able to swim together like we were. They didn't realize we had different sites, that is how close the swimmers have been on the trip! It's a great representation of how well we have grown in that aspect of our program.

Monday brings an open water swim on the beautiful Neptune Beach an d an afternoon practice where we hope to reinforce some of the lessons learned this past weekend.

Bolles Day 3

On Saturday night, the swimmers of SwimMAC were able to focus on only the meet as there were no weather issues, just blue sky and bright sunshine. We had another great day of swimming, with more best times. Justine Mueller destroyed the meet record in the 200 IM but was disqualified for an illegal turn. Jordan Berry and Mack Montgomery went head-to-head in the 200 IM in one of the most fun races of the night. Lauren Harrington was just touched out in the finish of the women's 50 Free. Heather Holtom dominated the women's 200 breast, winning by 3 body lengths.

The team spirit at the meet is so high you can almost taste it. In the last event of the morning session, the 400 Free, Richard Graham was our last swimmers. SwimMAC lined the pool chanting his name. Richard got into a great race with a swimmer two lanes over and managed to pull out a dramatic victory and a 15-second drop!

After the meet, the swimmers were treated to a professional women's tackle football game held in the stadium right behind the pool. The kids had a great time cheering and watching the first half. When we arrived back at the hotel, Bolles head coach Sergio Lopez spoke for a while of his experiences as an Olympic athlete and how he is trying to teach those same lessons as a coach. The most important one is that you never give up on your dreams!

Bolles Day 2

Lightning and tornadoes won't stop the SwimMAC swimmers from posting best times in Jacksonville. On day two of the Senior 1 and Senior 2 swimmers trip to the TYR Invitational hosted by the Bolles School, there was a delay starting the finals session on Friday night. It started with a small thunderstorm that got all of the swimmers out of the pool for what was supposed a ten-minute delay that turned into an exciting tornado warning. Off the coast of the lake the sits behind the pool arose a waterspout, that's a tornado that is over water. The swimmers from the meet went to the safety of the gym where a basketball game was occurring. The SwimMAC swimmers lived up to form where they joined up with the swimmers from the other teams doing cheers, laughing, and supporting the bewildered basketball players who have probably never played in front of such an energetic crowd that all happened to be wearing Speedos.

water funnel

When the meet finally began after about an hour and a half delay, victories and best times abounded. Leading the team off was Lauren Harrington swimming right past several of the host teams' swimmers to win the 200 Free with a best time of 2:06.0. Some of the other great swims at finals on Friday night include Kevin Glen's 400 IM, Syd Schroeder's 100 Back consolation victory, Logan Heck' consolation heat victory in the 200 Free, Syd Lindblom, Amanda Rubel, and Zane Turpin finished in the top eight with great 400 IM's, and Justine Mueller just missing the meet record in the 400 IM.

The swimmers had a good team meeting after dinner and discussed not putting limits on themselves and their abilities. They are having a lot of fun getting behind the blocks and cheering for the their teammates and are looking forward to two more great days of racing.

Bolles Day 1

SwimMAC is invading Jacksonville, FL. 85 swimmers form the Senior 1 and Senior 2 groups have traveled to Jacksonville, FL to compete in the TYR Invitational hosted by the the Bolles School. This is a prelim/final meet that has a great history of competition.

The team left early Thursday morning and after a little delay getting started due to bus issues, SwimMAC arrived safe and sound and kicked the meet off with the 800 Free. Best times were had by Caroline Bryant, who dropped 15 seconds and blew by the competition on the last 100, Jake Stilley, Heather Isetts and Dillon Love.

The kids are excited and having a lot of fun. Thursday was the seniors day to lead the team cheers and bring the excitement and they did great job! Swimmers were lined up on both side of the pool, cheering on the 800 swimmers and making a loud "WHOOOSH!" whenever a SwimMAC swimmer dove in. Friday, it's the freshman's turn.

Fitter & Faster Tour with Mark Gangloff

Dear SwimMAC friends and families,

First, I would like to thank you for making the Charlotte UltraSwim a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. The amount of camaraderie and friendship that I felt as I heard all of my SwimMAC teammates cheering for me was like no other swim meet in which I have ever competed. You all were a part of my win last month. Thank you.

Though I am sad to be leaving Charlotte for now, I will be returning in September to host a clinic with my friend, Olympic silver medalist, Lacey Nymeyer. This clinic is part of a nationwide tour called the Fitter and Faster Tour. The tour will be exciting and a great experience for everyone that participates. There will be two available sessions in Charlotte, however they will not be exclusive to SwimMAC. I'd like to fill the entire clinic with my SwimMAC friends, however space is limited. To ensure that you'll be included in the fun, visit www.swimchampions.com today and register. Packet is attached.

Each clinic will include stroke technique and drills, fantasy races against Lacey and me and a Q&A session where you can ask about anything from the our travels to Beijing to what we eat for breakfast. There will be time for plenty of autographs and we'll even let you try on our medals.

Some of you may not know this, but I decided to become an Olympian when I was twelve years old because 1992 Olympian Mike Barrowman spoke to my swim team. He talked about his experience at the Olympic Games and the commitment it took to get there. He said, "Someone in this room has the ability to become an Olympian. Will it be you?" That day changed my life forever. I am now a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Where will you be in 2012? What about 2016?

Do not wait, register for the Fitter and Faster Tour today and come swim with us...

Sincerely
Mark Gangloff
2x Olympic Gold Medalist
SwimMAC Carolina

Attachments:
File
Charlotte Packet.pdf

SwimMAC heads to Greensboro for the 54th Annual Eastern Invitational

SwimMAC will bring over 120 swimmers to GSA's Invitational meet on June 26-18, and we're looking forward to some awesome swims! The meet will be held at Lindley Park Pool, 2914 Springwood Drive, Greensboro NC 27403.

Warm-ups for all three days of the meet:
Prelims (13 & over): 6:30 warm-up, 7:30 meet starts
Timed finals (12 & under): 12:00 warm-up, 1:00 meet starts
Finals (13 & over): Warm-ups are not before 4:30, meet starts an hour later.

T-shirt order for the meet: Show your SwimMAC team spirit!
Friday - White
Saturday - Light blue (registration shirt)
Sunday - Orange

Other info: Be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen, food, and water. It's likely to be hot - drink water BEFORE you get thirsty!

Please speak with your group coach if you have any questions. Good luck, and GO SWIM MAC!

Camp Soar Finale

Last Thursday Camp SOAR, at least the volunteer portion for SwimMAC volunteers, came to an end. The big finale was last Friday. The camp concluded with a gigantic dance party, with athletes and volunteers dancing to heart thumping music provided by a DJ. The dance floor was packed with happy people!

For SwimMAC this was an opportunity to give back to the Charlotte community and to give to a very special population of our community. Camp SOAR is in it's ninth year, held at the JCC. There were 250 campers and at least one volunteer per camper. SOAR stands for Special Olympic Athletic Retreat. Each of the first four days were filled with activities for the athletes including, bowling, soccer, basketball, tennis, Bocce ball, computer lab, Bingo, arts and crafts, and of course swimming. Swimming was a favorite.

Special compliments go to Katherine Plevka and Rachel Carter for handling an emergency at the pool. Their instincts and lifeguard training kicked into high gear when Katherine noticed one of the campers not acting right. This was the beginning of a seizure in the pool. Katherine and Rachel made sure the swimmer's head did not go under water; they got her to the side, where she was lifted on deck and cared for during her seizure. The EMT's were there quickly, but the fact that SwimMAC was there providing pool buddies really helped in this situation. In the past campers swam by themselves with their day buddies dangling their feet in the water. Rachel and Katherine were right there, recognized the situation and did a great job. Their training came in handy. The Executive Director of the JCC (Phil Berman) happened to be standing in an area where he saw the whole incident and he praised the girls. Mr. Berman said, "You never want this type of thing to happen, but today, this incident was handled appropriately and effectively."

This service project will become an annual event for SwimMAC. Next year look for your opportunity to get involved! The organizer and founding camp Director Bob Bowler and his accomplice Al Tinson could not praise our volunteers enough. These two gentlemen make this camp happen every year and they were so impressed with our SwimMAC volunteers. News 36 was there at the camp and here is a link to the interview with volunteers Bob Bowler, Erin Gaeckle and Patty Waldron. To see the video, click here.

camp soar 9 camp soar 10

Great Challenges at Capital City

This past weekend, many of our senior and some age group swimmers competed in Cary at the Capital City Classic. There were many good teams from around the state and out of state to add to the competitive environment.

The meet provides some great challenges not only in the form of competition but going prelim/finals for upwards of 3 days. This is exactly the kind of environment we need to keep getting ourselves ready for larger championship meets in just a short period of time.

The coaches were pleased to see consistency in pacing, success in secondary events and taking advantage and going faster in finals.

Congratulations to those who achieved new time standards:

Long Course Senior Sectional- Tyler Hill, Currie Murch Elliot, Katherine Plevka, Reed Wheeler

Senior Champs- Richard Graham, Chad Heiser, Heather Isetts, Syd Lindblom, Billy Murch Elliot, Currie Murch Elliot, Jonathan Peterson, Amada Rubel, Jake Stilley, Zane Turpin, Lee Ward, Haley Weaver, Andrew Wrist

Age Group Champs- Charles Blinn, Lane Bretschneider, Bailey Burt, Kate Carter, Matthew Curtin, Jackson Dickey, Austin Hill, Morgan Holbrook, Kaitlyn Kent, Ali Kitchens, Connor Long, Catherine Maxey, Heather Merritt, Jessica Merritt, Carter Miller, Harrison Mobbs, Katie O'Brien, Andre Petry, Jory Pettit, Brian Piccirilli, Emma Rubel, Payton Schrum, Sara Stranick, Samantha Teague, Lauren Wallace, Philip Walton, Graham Weaver, Cole Weber, Mary Weinstein, Reed Wheeler, Evan White

Way to go SwimMAC!!

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