Hello USC swimmers and families! It seems like we just started our second year at the Twinsburg Fitness Center, and it is half over already. It's amazing how fast the time goes. Our short course season has come to a close, but the long course season in already in full swim. We have three swimmers attending the Speedo Sectional Championships in Indianapolis starting next Thursday and running though Sunday. Amanda Knapp is swimming all 6 of the events she qualified in, while Amber Kovach and Maria Eidam are swimming 4 events. Jodi Turk and Sarah Litt are also attending (both from the US site). Good luck to the 5 of you as you start our long course season off right! Practices are still being run as usual, with the intro group swimming from 5:00-6:30 and the advanced group from 6:30-8:30. The optional dryland workouts for the advanced group will begin again on Monday, March 29 from 6:00-6:30. If you are going to participate in these, please be ready to go at 6:00!
That's all I have for now, see you at the pool!
Coach Matt
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
A Championship State of Mind
Hello all,
So it has again been way too long since I have updated this, so good thing it is not part of my job description! Well the Championship season has started, and it has started well! We had a bunch of swimmers swim yesterday at Bronze Champs, and we had probably 90% best times overall, including numerous event wins and lots of Silver Cuts! Zach Halawa won 3 events, achieving BB cuts in most of his events! Orange swimmer Isabel Ergun also won numerous events, posting B times or better in everything. Taylor Steele was also an event winner. In total, USC won 13 of the days events, which is impressive considering we were not represented in a good number of events. We had many others place in the top 8 of their events which is great! Let's keep up the good work and carry this momentum through Silver Champs this weekend and Gold Champs the weekend after that!
See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
So it has again been way too long since I have updated this, so good thing it is not part of my job description! Well the Championship season has started, and it has started well! We had a bunch of swimmers swim yesterday at Bronze Champs, and we had probably 90% best times overall, including numerous event wins and lots of Silver Cuts! Zach Halawa won 3 events, achieving BB cuts in most of his events! Orange swimmer Isabel Ergun also won numerous events, posting B times or better in everything. Taylor Steele was also an event winner. In total, USC won 13 of the days events, which is impressive considering we were not represented in a good number of events. We had many others place in the top 8 of their events which is great! Let's keep up the good work and carry this momentum through Silver Champs this weekend and Gold Champs the weekend after that!
See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
Monday, January 4, 2010
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a relaxing break and are looking forward to getting back to school... and I'm sure the parents say yes while the kids run and hide! Trust me, my students did not like being back this morning. We have about 2 and a half months until Champs are upon us, so we need to keep up the hard work! We have lots of meets this month with lots of us swimming in them.
This weekend is the New Year's Splash in Rocky River. I will not be at this meet because I will be in Nashville, TN for my cousin's wedding, but Roderick, Charlie and Jen(or some combination thereof) will be there. Also this weekend is Quads which Pete will be attending in Indianapolis. Amber Kovach and Jordan Delgross were selected to attend this meet along with 4 other USC swimmers. Good luck to everyone!
We have a normal practice schedule this week, but a modified schedule every other week this month due to Twinsburg High School home swim meets. Check the team calendar on www.universityswimclub.org for the complete practice schedule. We miss 5 practices this month, and with only 20 practices a month, that is alot! Make sure we get to practice as much as possible!
That's all I have for now. See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
This weekend is the New Year's Splash in Rocky River. I will not be at this meet because I will be in Nashville, TN for my cousin's wedding, but Roderick, Charlie and Jen(or some combination thereof) will be there. Also this weekend is Quads which Pete will be attending in Indianapolis. Amber Kovach and Jordan Delgross were selected to attend this meet along with 4 other USC swimmers. Good luck to everyone!
We have a normal practice schedule this week, but a modified schedule every other week this month due to Twinsburg High School home swim meets. Check the team calendar on www.universityswimclub.org for the complete practice schedule. We miss 5 practices this month, and with only 20 practices a month, that is alot! Make sure we get to practice as much as possible!
That's all I have for now. See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
GTAC Ohio Open
Greetings all! Wow, this is my second post this week. I guess lack of school gives me lots of free time! Anyway, I just checked on the entries for the GTAC Ohio Open, and from all sites, we have 1 swimmer entered. I know that this meet has cut times, and many of the swimmers on the team are not eligible to swim, but for those of us that are, we would like to take a big group to the meet. So if you are able to, please consider attending this meet. Entries close on Direct Athletics December 28, so you need to get to that soon!
That's all I have for now. See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
That's all I have for now. See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Holy Cow!
So I know its been a long time (and I feel that whenever I update this, I say the exact same thing!), but I guess I'm just not so quick at getting to this. But anyway, as Laura Watson has pointed out, it's been way too long... and so much has happened... so here it goes.
After sending off the high school swimmers to their respective swim seasons, the age group swimmers have been swimming amazingly fast. We swam very well at the meet a few of us attended in Ft. Wayne, IN, and also at the Shaker Shark Invitational. The only thing I am going to specifically mention from either of those meets is the 11-12 200 Free Relay which set a new team record in a time trial at the end of the meet. The relay of Amber Kovach, Natalie Klug, Rachel Zarlinski, and Iman Eulinberg beat the USC team record by a second with a time of 1:45.42. Amber led off in a lifetime best of 24.46, which qualified her for Sectionals which is an amazing feat for a 12 year old. The other three girls all had lifetime best splits on the relay as well.
December 18-20, we were in Pittsburgh, PA for the Xmas Meet. All I can say is wow! This was an incredibly fast meet, most events needing a AAAA time to place in the top 3. I am very proud to say that our USC representatives added to the quality of the meet. Amber made finals (top 8) in all but one event she swam. She also set new team records in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle; 50, 100, and 200 backstroke; and the 50 and 100 butterfly. She also won the 50 fly by over a second! She posted times in the 100 back and 100 fly that will allow her to swim these events at sectionals as bonus events. Needless to say, Amber swam very well! But she is not the only one... Jordan Delgross (or Delweirdo if you read her swim cap) made her AA time in the 200 free. She took her first 50 out very fast, maybe a little too fast, but she was able to hold on to drop 3 seconds and get the AA cut. Emma Meyer, who swims at Orange, also swam very fast. She made finals in the 100 Fly, 50 Fly, and 100 Free. She dropped from a 1:17 to a 1:13 in the 100 Fly on Sunday, and her comment to me after she swam the 1:13 in finals was "I wasn't ready." If that was swimming "not ready," maybe we all need to take a page from young Emma's book! Scottie Bowman, also an Orange swimmer, lowered his own team records in the 100 Back and the 50 Fly. He swam both of those in finals, as well as the 100 Fly. Iman Eulinberg, Grace Ferry, Michelle Leahy, and Kingsley Bowen all swam very well also. I was very pleased with how everyone swam. It was a long weekend, but definitely worth it! I was proud to be the coach on deck!
Well, that brings us to today. Maybe I won't wait so long to post next time...or maybe I will ;)
See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
After sending off the high school swimmers to their respective swim seasons, the age group swimmers have been swimming amazingly fast. We swam very well at the meet a few of us attended in Ft. Wayne, IN, and also at the Shaker Shark Invitational. The only thing I am going to specifically mention from either of those meets is the 11-12 200 Free Relay which set a new team record in a time trial at the end of the meet. The relay of Amber Kovach, Natalie Klug, Rachel Zarlinski, and Iman Eulinberg beat the USC team record by a second with a time of 1:45.42. Amber led off in a lifetime best of 24.46, which qualified her for Sectionals which is an amazing feat for a 12 year old. The other three girls all had lifetime best splits on the relay as well.
December 18-20, we were in Pittsburgh, PA for the Xmas Meet. All I can say is wow! This was an incredibly fast meet, most events needing a AAAA time to place in the top 3. I am very proud to say that our USC representatives added to the quality of the meet. Amber made finals (top 8) in all but one event she swam. She also set new team records in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle; 50, 100, and 200 backstroke; and the 50 and 100 butterfly. She also won the 50 fly by over a second! She posted times in the 100 back and 100 fly that will allow her to swim these events at sectionals as bonus events. Needless to say, Amber swam very well! But she is not the only one... Jordan Delgross (or Delweirdo if you read her swim cap) made her AA time in the 200 free. She took her first 50 out very fast, maybe a little too fast, but she was able to hold on to drop 3 seconds and get the AA cut. Emma Meyer, who swims at Orange, also swam very fast. She made finals in the 100 Fly, 50 Fly, and 100 Free. She dropped from a 1:17 to a 1:13 in the 100 Fly on Sunday, and her comment to me after she swam the 1:13 in finals was "I wasn't ready." If that was swimming "not ready," maybe we all need to take a page from young Emma's book! Scottie Bowman, also an Orange swimmer, lowered his own team records in the 100 Back and the 50 Fly. He swam both of those in finals, as well as the 100 Fly. Iman Eulinberg, Grace Ferry, Michelle Leahy, and Kingsley Bowen all swam very well also. I was very pleased with how everyone swam. It was a long weekend, but definitely worth it! I was proud to be the coach on deck!
Well, that brings us to today. Maybe I won't wait so long to post next time...or maybe I will ;)
See you at the pool!
Coach Matt
Monday, November 2, 2009
It's November already
Hello USC!
I can't believe it, but it is already November! Where does the time go? This week our high school swimmers leave us as they start their season, so good luck to everyone! You are all ready to have great seasons. The start of November also means that we are going to step it up a bit at the advanced practices. I know we have been working hard, but we are going to work even harder so that we are ready to swim fast come Champs season in March! We have a few meets this month, starting with the Odd-Age meet in Strongsville this weekend. I will be at the meet on Saturday morning and all day Sunday. The week after that, we have a breakout meet in Solon on Sunday the 15th. The last meet of November is in Ft. Wayne Indiana the 20th - 22nd. I always love travel meets so I am really looking forward to some fast swimming at this meet!
If you plan to go to the Pittsburgh meet in December, please get your entries in ASAP. We need to send in the entries very soon to make sure we get in. This is a fast meet and you need an "A" time in most events to qualify.
That's all for now. Keep up the hard work and I'll see you on the pool deck!
Coach Matt
I can't believe it, but it is already November! Where does the time go? This week our high school swimmers leave us as they start their season, so good luck to everyone! You are all ready to have great seasons. The start of November also means that we are going to step it up a bit at the advanced practices. I know we have been working hard, but we are going to work even harder so that we are ready to swim fast come Champs season in March! We have a few meets this month, starting with the Odd-Age meet in Strongsville this weekend. I will be at the meet on Saturday morning and all day Sunday. The week after that, we have a breakout meet in Solon on Sunday the 15th. The last meet of November is in Ft. Wayne Indiana the 20th - 22nd. I always love travel meets so I am really looking forward to some fast swimming at this meet!
If you plan to go to the Pittsburgh meet in December, please get your entries in ASAP. We need to send in the entries very soon to make sure we get in. This is a fast meet and you need an "A" time in most events to qualify.
That's all for now. Keep up the hard work and I'll see you on the pool deck!
Coach Matt
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sprint Spectacular and week of 10-12
Hello everyone!
What a great first meet of the season! Best times and records were shattered all weekend! It would take an hour for me to write all the best times out, and I am not about to do that, so I would like to just say congrats to everyone who swam. We swam really well, but we have alot to work on still. I will mention some of these in a minute, but first I want to recognize a few people for their performances.
What a great first meet of the season! Best times and records were shattered all weekend! It would take an hour for me to write all the best times out, and I am not about to do that, so I would like to just say congrats to everyone who swam. We swam really well, but we have alot to work on still. I will mention some of these in a minute, but first I want to recognize a few people for their performances.
- Matt and Michael Flinchbaugh continued where they left off this summer, both crushing their best times from last season in pretty much everything they swam. Between the two of them, they dropped at least a collective 30 seconds among all their races. Good work!
- Marissa Henderson had a couple best times, but she swam some new events and didn't shy away from the longer events. She is new to the 11-12 age group, but she is not afraid to swim the 200 IM and the 100 fly in the open age group events, racing 17 and 18 year olds. Hats off to you Marissa!
- Michelle Leahy achieved her first "A" time by posting a time of 1:21.74 in her 100 Breast! Great job!
- Amber Kovach set 4 team records (50 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly, and 100 Fly) as well as breaking a 12 year old district record, taking down both the swimmer and event records for the 50 fly! Her time of 27.00 broke the team record by 1.85 seconds, the district swimmer record by 0.50 seconds, and the district event record by 0.28 seconds. Her time also would have tied her for 20th in the nation among all 12 year olds last year!
Though we swam well, we need to focus on some of the smaller things at practice. Too many of us are breathing the first stroke off the wall on our starts and turns in freestyle and butterfly. We need to be more disciplined in practice and not allow ourselves to do this and it will carry over into the meets. Also, our kicking is great, but we need to keep working the legs in every swim we do in practice. This will only help us get better.
Don't forget to sign up for meets by the posted deadline on the USC website. If you are having difficulties with Direct Athletics or have other questions about meets, let me know. I will do what I can to answer your questions and solve your problems.
That's all for today. See you at practice!
Coach Matt
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