Swim Orlando YMCA

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 14 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.

Gabriella 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.

Mel