Swim Meet Success!

Our second swim meet yesterday was a total success! I'm very proud of all our swimmers who came - I think we had around 80 at the meet! Despite a warm pool, I heard about lots of personal bests and I saw FAST swimming. :)

Some shout outs to swimmers who did awesome yesterday: thank you SO MUCH to Tanner, Maya, Brandon, Bradden, Ben, and everyone else who was willing to swim two legs of a relay so that their relays didn't have to be canceled! It was so fun to watch our swimmers step up to the challenge! I was also excited to hear about swimmers swimming their personal bests - Hannah Baggs took off 18 seconds on her 50 butterfly from her time last summer!

Also, I know for many swimmers, this was their first ever swim meet. First of all, thanks for showing up! It can be intimidating to think about competing when it's something you've never done before, but all our new swimmers did a great job yesterday and (hopefully!) had fun too. Three new swimmers that not only swam their events but were also willing to swim in relays were Rachel and Mimi Miller and Daphne. Thanks girls!

Just a reminder to all swimmers and parents that if a swimmer needs to leave the meet early, it is VERY important to tell coaches before the meet (if possible) or as soon as you know, because we often place swimmers in the freestyle relays, which are the final events of the meet, and when swimmers leave, it often means other swimmers don't get to swim their last event.

A couple announcements! Tuesday is our TEAM PICTURE DAY! Our team photos will be taken by Clayton Smith, one of our very own Sellwood parents, and you can either purchase them by writing a check to Clayton on Tuesday or you can order them online. Prices differ by size, but a 4x6 is only $2! This is much, much cheaper than the photos we have taken in previous years (which averaged around $13), and Clayton will also be taking pictures of our practice (including totally awesome underwater photos) that are available for purchase online.

Swimmers! Bring your team shirt on Tuesday for photos! Everyone needs to be there by 7:55, so we are ready to go at 8! (If you don't have a team shirt still, I will dig up extras. And, we will be getting the appropriate-sized shirts - not adult extra larges - before the next meet and will hand them out ASAP).

Thanks for your hard work, everyone! Oh, and GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP at the meet! And credit to my mom for taking photos. :)

Practice Makes Perfect!

Sellwood swimmers have been practicing hard these last 3 weeks! They've been learning new strokes and techniques and gaining endurance. We've had a few particularly hard sets in the past couple days, and I just want to thank all the swimmers for pushing themselves hard (shout out to those swimmers who thought they couldn't complete the workout today, but did! Logan, Owen, and everyone else)! I know this will pay off when we swim in meets and at the City Championship Meet!

Speaking of that, the City Meet is on August 15th this year, and I really, really, really want to see as many of our swimmers show up as possible! I know some people will already have vacations and such planned, and that's ok, but we will plan to have everyone there, unless you let us know otherwise. This year we have a really big team and lots of strong swimmers, so I am really hoping that we can place in the top three teams at City! But in order to do that, it's really important that kids show up to help us fill our events.

Swim meet this Saturday at Grant Pool! Please be there at 7:45, warmups start at 8, and the meet starts at 9.

Potluck on Friday! We're asking for everyone to come at 7 if you can (if you can only get there by 8, that's ok, but we'll be done with most of our swimming by then), and we will swim, do team stuff, eat (bring something to share!), and do meet sign-ups.

Note for all swimmers! Make sure to sign up for the meet at the potluck! Once you get your food, come to one of the coaches (we will be sitting in chairs, probably right outside the party room), line up, and tell us what you want to swim. I know last time there was some confusion, but hopefully it will make more sense this time. :)

Gooooo Sellwood!

Welcome to Sellwood Swim Team's first ever blog! I figured this would be an easy way to update you all without flooding your inbox, plus I can include links to interesting swimming stuff, and I would like to highlight Sellwood swimmers as they make accomplishments and meet their goals!

Last Friday we had all our swimmers write goals for themselves for this summer. This is the first time we've done this, so it may have been a little confusing for some. I am hoping that as swimmers think about how they would like to improve and what they want to work on, this will motivate them to work hard and have fun at the same time! Also, it helps us as coaches because we can work with swimmers to help them accomplish their goals. I asked swimmers to write down 2 copies of their goals - one for the coaches, and one for themselves so they can remember what they wrote. Lots of swimmers wrote about how they want to learn new skills (like butterfly or flip turns) or set new personal records in their events. Those are great goals! I know that not everyone was at the potluck last Friday, but it's not too late - everyone can set a goal for themselves.

Some other news - our meet last Saturday went very well! Karly Bolton (Swim Team Program Specialist) has a blog that has all the meet results on it AND a list of the all-meet leaders with the top ten finishers in every event across the City.

That's it for now! Have an awesome 4th of July, everyone!
- Sarah