Swim Orlando YMCA

Swim Orlando YMCA swimmers burned up the pool in Clearwater at the "beat the heat" meet June 11 - 13th! Coach Erin and Coach Mel reported some amazing swims and major time drops from the 3-day open prelim/final meet. See below for more:

Coach Mel  after Day 2:

“I cannot tell you how happy we are to be out of the sun and in a somewhat air-conditioned facility at Clearwater’s 'Beat the Heat’ invitational. The kids are responding well to the good pool, good competition and to the nice size of the meet - which is letting the older swimmers get the rest they need between prelims and finals.

It’s mid June- very early in the summer’s long course season, but already SwimOrlando YMCA swimmers are doing LIFETIME best times right and left; from some of our younger folks like Emily Kliewer, age 12, winning the butterfly events and dropping her times by seconds at a pop, to some of our senior swimmers like Ian Perkins , age 15, dropping his 200 free by16 seconds in one day! Sarah Solly, age 14, improved 10 seconds in her 100 breast in prelims and another 4 at finals for a whopping 14 second drop on the day. Zoe Sherman, age 11, had a 2-second drop in her 50 fly and Mel Nash II, age 15, had a 12-second drop in his 200 back. The Rutledge girls, Lilly, 9, and Lauren, 11, both had great 100 breasts dropping between 6 and 10 seconds and Vincent Di’Napoli, 16, dropped his 400IM by 14 seconds. The list goes on and on...." from Coach Mel on June 12, 2010

After Day 3 from Coach Mel:

"Hello team. Back in Orlando now after a rewarding weekend at the Clearwater meet. Swim Orlando YMCA had inspiring swims across the spectrum of experience levels. I would like to let you know of two very different examples of how our team's style of training is paying off in the water.

Drew Harrington is 13 years old and is in our Green group. He learned to swim as a little kid but did not swim seriously until joining Swim Orlando YMCA in the Summer of 2009. His best time in the 100 meter freestyle going into this weekend had been 1:43.00. Drew has been training hard and has worked diligently on stroke correction. We hoped he would have a major breakthrough and drop to 1:30.00. Instead Drew dropped his time in the preliminaries all the way down to 1:18.00! That qualified him for finals in the evening and there he dropped another 4 seconds to 1:14.00. A whopping 29 second drop in one day! Drew, congratulations! Your attention to changing your stroke and your hard work are paying off.

Gabriela Gil, age 16, went into the nighttime finals of the 200 Fly seeded 4 seconds behind an exceptional swimmer from Illinois. Gaby’s best times this summer had been 2:29.00 and 2:31.00 in the fly. She told me before the race that she was going to take it out and hang on. When she hit the wall at the 50 meter mark, she had half a body length lead. When she surfaced after her dolphin off that wall she had a body length and a half lead and by the 100 meter wall, Gaby had built her lead to 3 body lengths! She held that lead the rest of the way and dropped her season time to 2:24.8. Great swim Gaby!

Good job swimmers! And thank you parents for supporting your swimmers."

Mel