Good evening everyone,

672 ....... That's the number of days since our last dual meet until today. 

It's nice to be getting back into the groove of things. :)

What do we value and reward?

Spirit Awards: For consistent and enthusiastic cheering.

• Mattie Johnson, Ava Uliana, Otis Palmer-Gaugler, Galvarino Pinto

Sportsmanship: For demonstrating honor, fairness, and appreciation towards competitors.

• Shelly Bove, Megan Kragh, Sarin Taylor, Danny Bartolet

Excellence:

• Kaine Vargo - For winning an exciting photo finish by driving to the wall in the 50 Breast and achieving a District Qualifying time.
• Alexandra Harlos - For racing her heart out by completing a 50 when only a 25 was required. She just kept swimming, got out, no complaints, just a smile. :)
• Paige Nungester: Due to her improvement in her stroke technique, she had two solid races, nearly a five second drop in both, and two CHMC qualifying times.
• Austin Olexa: Excellent implementation of a race strategy, leading to a win in a come from behind victory. Counterintuitively, the swimmer that wins the race is not actually the "fastest" swimmer, but the one who slows down the least. Austin was behind in the first two laps, but as planned..., he kicked it into hire gear on the 3rd lap, knowing that on the last lap could be expended. However, he kept faith in his training and his strategy. Everyone waits for the last lap to go all out, but if you start earlier, you win the psychological battle. Austin hit the turn, had an excellent streamline, and from that point of catching and passing the other swimmer, you could just see the deflation in the other swimmer's stroke, the tightening up, the stress of trying to make his arms go faster but they don't. While Austin poured it on, and finally pulled away for good in the last five yards for the win!  

As a team, true to form in the Madison Division, we got back to our winning ways too. I know it's tough to tell if we are winning or not, how close it is, or which races will be exciting when sitting in the a lobby. Just from viewing though, I hope you saw a number of races where our swimmers excelled. Actually, the meet was closer than what I thought it was going to be, not by total points necessarily, but by age group. In the PennDel League each age group scores points, and if your win the age group, you win a "meet" point. There are five age groups (8/U, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15-21):

• NEYS Boys - 3 / North Penn Boys - 2 = We won! :)
• NEYS Girls - 3 / North Penn Girls - 2 = We won! :)

In the age groups we won, we tended to win handily, but North Penn did manage to squeak in a some close wins in a couple of other age groups too. These results are not official yet, and I've noticed a number of timing and scoring mistakes that will need to be corrected, but so far it seems like none that affected the over-all outcome of the meet. So, when you look at the attached PDFs, please know that individual points scored, place finishes, and even a few times (including qualifying times) may change in a future update. But, I wanted to send out the results tonight since the vast majority are correct. 

New Team Records

• Jelena Watts - 9/10 Girls 100 Backstroke @ PAAC Fall Harvest
• Nick Berger - 13/14 Boys 200 Free @ North Penn
• Cameron Alvino - 15-21 Girls 50 Free @ North Penn
• Jack Drake - 15-21 Boys 400 IM @ Boyertown Boo

Great job everyone!

Coach Drake