Happy Thursday Sharks!

I have attached the meet entries and preliminary heat sheet for Saturday’s meet at Olde Mill Swim Team. Please arrive at the pool by 7:45am for warm ups. This is the final chance to qualify for Silver or Gold, or to swim legal strokes for the first time. Our focus this week has been on the swimming done inside the flags such as streamline, starts, turns, and finishes. 

There are some swimmers that suggested events and I typically follow these suggestions. However, there are a few cases where I changed these events to position swimmers to qualify for different events. For medal meets, it will be the swimmers choice for their events.

Olde Mill is new to our Greater Annapolis swim league but my first year at Southdown in 2018 we hosted OMST when we were all part of the Central Maryland swim league (and they beat us by a bit). We used to be a small team struggling to have enough kids for relays but with years of dedication and support from our community we are a thriving team. As we visit Olde Mill, I want all of our swimmers to show the best sportsmanship possible. I will give a speech during practice tomorrow but I am asking that you talk with your sharks about staying in the water until everyone in the heat is finished and making sure to shake hands with a verbal “good race” or something of that nature. I want our swimmers to be mindful of the type of trash talking they do with each other at the clerk of course as well. We have never had problems of this kind with our sharks but reminders are helpful. 

I am also asking that you be prepared to declare your swimmers for Medal Meets by 2pm Saturday. This is a quick turn around after the meet ends. Your family should already have an idea of where your swimmer stands but you will be able to make changes after receiving the final times at the conclusion of the meet. If your swimmer qualified for multiple meets, you must pick ONE (1) meet to attend. After declaring as attending the meet of your choice, please declare your swimmer as not attending for the meet that they are not attending. This is an administrative task on your end that will greatly help the coaching staff come this weekend.

As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. See you all at Pancake Friday tomorrow! We’re almost there.

-- Coach Nastya :-)