June 2004

Corvallis Aquatic Team News

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
 
June 19-28  Hawaii Senior Training Trip
June 24  Trophy League meet –4:30 - Philomath
June 30  CAT Prowl (all team)
July 7  Trophy League meet –3:00 - Lebanon
July 7-14  Olympic Trials – Long Beach, CA
July 9-11  Eugene City Summer Invite (ABC)
July 17-18  10 & Under Championship (A) – Albany
July 20  Team Picnic
July 29-01  OSI 11 & Over Championship (A) – Gresham
Aug. 3-7  USA Nationals (Q) Stanford, CA
Aug.  5  Trophy League meet –4:30 - Corvallis
Aug. 9-13  Junior Nationals (Q) Stanford, CA
Aug. 10-14  Sr. Sectional Championship (Q) Federal Way
Aug. 13  Scout Lake Picnic
Aug. 13-15  Bend Open (ABC) – Bend
Aug. 10-14  Western Zone Champs (Q) –Redding, CA
Aug. 14-18  Olympic Games!! – Athens, Greece
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
Payment Reminder: Payment is due by the 10th of each month. If you have questions, please contact the CAT treasurer, Jeannie Schoper.  752-7279 or email jschoper@comcast.net
Donations:  For those of you who have made donations to the team, Thank you! Your donation may be eligible for a company match. Please note that these are tax deductable.  The tax ID number is: 93-0748812
 
President’s Message: Jim DiGiulio
 
  Many thanks to all the hardworking fundraisers for our CAT-A-THON. By bringing in those pledges, we can keep our dues low. Now get your permission slips turned in, and have a blast at the CAT Prowl on June 30. Speaking of having a blast, if you are a new swimming family or have otherwise never gone to the Bend meet, you really should consider this one. It is the second weekend of August and is our unofficial end of the swim year. It begins on Friday with a picnic/swim at Scout Lake (on the way to Bend) and reconvenes that evening for some easy camping in Juniper Park right next to the pool. That is followed by some serious lounging on Saturday and Sunday. This is a great way to spend some time with other CAT families and your kids will love you for it.
  Don’t forget that we are now swimming our summer morning schedule. I hope everyone enjoys their summer break. Get in lots of laps. See you on deck- Jim
 
Team Report: Rick Guenther
 
  Congratulations everyone on two great meets this weekend at Mt. Hood and Amazon. Check your coach reports for meet comments. The staff was quite happy with the team spirit and enthusiasm the swimmers exuded.
  Congratulations to OSU, CAT and German National swimmer Birte Steven who recently qualified for the German Olympic Team in the 200 Breaststroke. The Olympics will be held in Athens Greece this August. Tune in for a great race.
  It’s that time of the year for some summer time reminders. The sun is out and it’s going to get hot. For late morning and afternoon practices be sure to apply sunscreen, SPF 10-30, a half- hour prior to practice. This half- hour will give the skin time to absorb the lotion. If you make the application just before entering the pool the sunscreen will wash off right into the pool, making Coach Nathan a very unhappy pool operator.
  Next, the heat of the summer will quickly dehydrate the body. Consume plenty of water on a regular basis. By the time you become thirsty the body is already well on its way to dehydration. Everyone should have a water bottle at practice and meets.
  Sometimes I feel we should change our team name to CART, Corvallis Aquatic Racing Team. One major emphasis, as a swimmer becomes more experienced, is racing. Racing at its best is putting swimmers of equal ability up against each other and seeing how the results come out. A swimmer who enters a race against swimmers of less ability and dominates, is really not racing, but swimming a time trial and feeling really good about himself. My favorite situation is the swimmer that enters a race against swimmers of a higher caliber and finds the inner drive to elevate his level of performance and competition, challenging those supposed better athletes. As a team we ask that each swimmer enter a race with an open mind, willing to let the body achieve the level for which it has prepared. Have a great time racing.
Coaches’ Report: Greg Bostrom
 
Oregon All-star meet - Edmonton, Ontario, Canada. 
  From April 28-May 1 three CAT athletes, Sydney Boyce, Rachel Lee and Mailene Leslie, along with coach Greg were selected to travel to the Edmonton Keyano International meet along with 35 other swimmers and coaches from Oregon swimming. In order to qualify you must have at least one 12 or 14 year old sectional time. It was a tremendous meet to attend. There were teams from across Canada, one from Nashville, TN and even one from Costa Rica. The meet is a prelims/finals meet with semi-finals in the 50’s and 100’s.  Oregon had  numerous final swims with our own Rachel Lee placing third in the 400 IM and Mailene Leslie placing first in the 400 free. All three swam several best times and were able to get second swims.
  The next All-star trip will be next January in southern California. Let’s get those Q (qualifying) times so we can be a part it. 
 
Senior Report: Rick Guenther
 
  I was quite impressed and proud of our senior squad this weekend. The weather was less than adequate for upper level racing, but they truly stepped it up and did a great job. Everyone kept their bodies warm with appropriate CAT attire.
  As usual the Mount Hood Invite came through with all sorts of weather. The squad finished in the top 5 with Jordan Iverson acting as the lone 12 & under swimmer with best times in the 200 IM and 100 breast.



  Logan and Brittney completed the meet each 2 points out of high point swimmer of the meet. Brittney won the 1500 and 800 free and 200 IM. Logan won the 1500 and 800 free and 200 back. Matt had a 4 second drop in the 200 breast. Jennifer had a best time in the 50 free and 100 back and did a great job of splitting the 200 breast. Coach Boal had a huge drop in the last 50 of his 200 free with a fast finish. Daniel walked away with 100% best times and did a great job of fly kicking off his walls in the 1500. Chan had a huge 11 second time drop in the 200 breast and a best time in the 200 IM. Ashlee completed the meet in style with a best time in the 400 free racing right down to the finish. Riley did a great job of splitting the 200 back with a 2 second fade. Sloan got the meet off to a great start with a 2nd place finish in the 1500 and swam to a best time in the 400 IM. Lindsay Boyce, our swimmer representative, dropped 42 seconds in the 1500 with a new “A” time in both the 800 and 1500. Mark had a bitter- sweet 200 breast dropping 15 seconds, but getting disqualified. That was not the end of it though. The next day he came back in the open division to reestablish the great time drop. Brynna had a consistent aggressive racing meet, just off a number of times and a best time, not to mention a negative split, in the 800 free. Sydney got off to a slow start, but ended the meet with 5 best times in her last 5 events. Malia had one of her best midseason meets ever finishing 2nd and 3rd in the backstrokes and negative splitting the 200 back. Sean had an unbelievable 22 second drop in the 200 breast. Jessie showed her tough racing with a remarkable eight best times out of nine events. Lindsay Hendrickson, just off of her softball season, swam to a one second time drop in the 100 breast. Lydia picked up a new “A” time in the 800 free and had four best time swims. Katleen did a solid build into her 100 fly finishing strong with her legs. Alex picked up a zone time in the 200 back with a great two-second fade. Rick got a quick start to the meet with an eleven-second drop in the 1500 with clock like consistency. Blaine won the 100 back and had best times in both the 50 free and 100 breast. Rachel had a huge time drop of sixty-two seconds in the 1500 qualifying for the zone championship. Emily swam to strong finishes in both her 100 back swims as she negative split the event. Mailene finished 3rd in the 1500 free and 4th in the 400 free with a new zone qualifying time. Thanks for a great meet everyone.
  Down in Eugene, over the weekend, Ashley Duffus had a best time in the 100 back. Mackie swam to best times in 6 out of eight events and continued to whittle down the 400 free.
  Be sure to read the team report. Let’s have a great summer.
 
Senior Prep: Greg Bostrom
 
  The summer is finally here! Now that school is out I would like to see all of you start to focus more on training. Some of us are close to getting our first zone times and some of us are close to getting our first “A” times. Regardless which you are looking for we can only get there by hard work between now and the ECSC meet in the middle of July. That not only means making it to practice, but pushing yourself when you are in the water. I know that many of us have other activities that begin when school gets out but we can be creative with our practice times. Our usual practice time is from 7-9am M-F and 8-10 on Saturdays. If you have other obligations that come up during the summer we can practice with the senior group from 6-8am M-F or 3-5pm M,T,Th,F. If you can’t make it to the prep practice one day make it to another one. As we mature, the importance of being in the water everyday becomes greater.
  We have had two good meets these past two weeks in Albany and Eugene. We are all swimming right at our best times which is encouraging with the amount of work that we are doing at practice. As we get older the number of times that we swim best times decreases. Because of this, for the meets that we attend during the beginning and middle of the season, it is important to race the best you can and not focus so much on the time. Our big time drops will be at the end of the season when we are rested and tapered. A good taper begins with hard work during the season.
 
Junior II: Greg Bostrom
 
  Wahooo, summer is finally here!!  I know that many of you will have other activities starting now that school is out. Our practice time is 8:15-9:30am M-F with Saturday practices being optional from 8-10am. If you can not make our practice talk to me and I will tell you what other practice time will work best for you. The most important thing is being in the water practicing your strokes. When we are at practice it is important to conduct ourselves as if we were in a meet. Do legal turns, streamline and finish at the wall. When we are doing drills it is important to slow down and think about doing the drills the way that they are supposed to be done, not trying to get done with them as quickly as possible. 
  We have had two great meets these past two weekends. At the Albany meet Chloe and Madeline both swam five best times and dropped 57 and 35 seconds respectively. Everybody else had at least three best times with some incredible time drops. Kelly and Erika both dropped over 15 seconds in the 200 IM and Reid took off 11 seconds in the 100 free. At the Mike Morris meet Madeline dropped another 38 seconds in  Congratulations to all of you that swam in these meets. There are too many great swims to try to cover all of them here.
 
Junior IA: Nathan Boal
 
  School's OUT!!! That means I get to be the first person you see in the morning instead of your teachers. Great! I'm sure we'll have some great practices with your muscles starting out so rested and it will get your blood flowing for the rest of your day. It will, however, be very important to be at practice on time, because the stretching and warm-up will help get your muscles ready to work after they have been still all night.



  I am so glad that so many of you were able to make it to the first of the season's Trophy League meets. There were so many great swims and first time swims. Carrie swam the 50 breast, 50 free and 100 IM all in very good times. Aislyn swam the 100 free and the 200 IM. She really stepped up and gave these longer events a strong effort. For Geoff, this was his very first meet. He only signed up for one event and had to wait through a lot of swims before he got his turn, but once he finally swam he had a very impressive 50 freestyle. Kat had great swims in the 50 back and 100 IM. Her 100 IM was a best time by 6 seconds. Okay. Hold on. You'd better sit down for this one. Avery swam the 50 breast, 50 free and 100 IM. In her 50 free she dropped more than THIRTEEN SECONDS!!! Laurel swam the 50 back, 50 breast and 50 free - they were all great swims! Eric dropped some serious time in both his events - about seven seconds in both the 50 back and 50 free. The best times keep coming. Nina dropped nearly 11 seconds in the 50 breast and nearly 7 seconds in the 50 free. Great job! Eliot swam VERY fast in his 50s fly and free. Lauren had a great 50 breaststroke. Also, swimming very well was Tae-Han, with nice 50s of back, breast and free. That time is dropping off like crazy. Nice job everyone!
  A few of you also swam at the Albany Long Course meet. Noah swam a great 200 free, 50 free, 100 breast and 50 back. He dropped over five and a half seconds in the back! John swam the 100 breaststroke and dropped nearly 4 seconds and also swam good 50s of fly and back. Kat swam 4 events long course for the first time and in the one event she had swum before, the 100 breaststroke, she dropped over 11 seconds! Tae-Han only had the chance to swim once in this meet and he did very well. He dropped almost 3 seconds in his 50 breast
  Again, you are all improving so quickly, it's very exciting. Thanks for all of your effort- Nathan
 
Junior IB: Jennifer Schurz
 
  Thus far it looks like it's going to be a great summer season! There were some fantastic swims in Albany two weekends ago- well done swimmers!
  Now that I am finished with coaching this summer, I expect you all to do exceptionally well for Justin. I truly enjoyed being your coach and mentor and seeing such improvement over the past season. I want to thank you all for this opportunity to work with such dedicated athletes. I will miss everyone this summer. Good luck and HAVE FUN! :)
Jennifer
 
Novice:  Miranda Behee
 
  It’s summer time and you know what that means…new practice times.  You can come three times a week either in the mornings or the afternoons or a combination of the two.  Practice is M-F 9:30-10:30am or M-Th 4:00-5:00pm.
  Also, don’t forget our next Trophy League meet will be June 24 in Philomath at the high school. Everyone did a great job at the first meet. Keep up the good work at practice.
 
Enjoy your summer… swimming!!