8 year-old Gwen Skillern (Blue Group) recently visited the Nica Nadadores in Central America. The Skillerns help sponsor one of the Nica Nadadores swimmers and Gwen also keeps in touch with a pen pal.

 

We asked Gwen to share a little about her experience with the team.

On May 4, 2017, my family and I went to Nicaragua to visit our friends in Chinandega.  While there, I spent time with the Nica Nadadores swim club in Managua. Nica Nadadores is a swim club that helps bring the great sport of swimming to the impoverished.  Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and many of the swimmers live in huts with dirt floors and do not have indoor toilets.  Nica Nadadores not only teaches them to swim and race, but if a student-athlete shows dedication, they can get a scholarship for school!

I had the best time working out with the group.  All of the swimmers were very kind and welcoming to me.  Even though only one of the swimmers was able to speak with me in English, we all communicated and worked together.  They WORK HARD at the Nica Nadadores!!  Coach Timmy had us do a very long warm up, and then we worked on free, back and fly.  I learned some great new drills!  I was excited when the coach asked me to demonstrate some of the drills.  At the end of practice we had to clean up the pool and remove the lane ropes, but then, Coach Timmy let us play for a while.  I enjoyed getting to know a swimmer named Samantha, and learning about her life.

My afternoon with the Nica Nadadores was an amazing opportunity for me.  I realized how lucky I am to have access to a good education and everything I need.  I also learned that even though these swimmers live far away and have a very different life than me, we are very much the same – we are all athletes --- WE ARE SWIMMERS!

 I cannot wait to go back to visit my new swim friends!

 More About Nica Nadadores

Hello Dad's Club Member's and our many Friends!

Hopefully, my quarterly letter finds you and your family in good health and spirits! The Dad's Club seems to be enjoying improving good health, both financial and physical with a wonderfully renewed spirit of volunteerism and parent involvement. It is a pleasure for me to list and relate the current accomplishments and our ongoing issues to be addressed this quarter and year.

In my year end 2016 newsletter, I mentioned that club membership is at an all-time high, and that our financial outlook had taken a rather sunny side up prospective, with the physical plant evolving for the better with multiple improvements being made and many more planned, and that the 33 yard pool that was under the former steel girder and galvanized metal roof was repaired and is now being utilized. I am very pleased these four items are positives that continue!

Noteworthy first quarter accomplishments

• Completed the fencing for the 33 yard pool 
• Offered and completed training and safety classes for our lifeguards 
• New cleaning crew hired and results have earned positive reviews 
• Completed $7500 of drainage improvement in the chronically wet areas 
• Landscaping of shrubs along the wrought iron fence 
• Asphalt repair and restriping on the driveway and parking lot completed 
• Lighting improvements for the three pools, both above and below the water 
• Marathon Fundraiser Weekend topped $100,000 in proceeds 
• Saturday, April 1st Volunteer Club Clean up day had over 90 parent volunteers 
• Swim Committee and Facilities Committees are two shining examples of our functioning committee system

Tags was held in Lewisville, Texas on March 9^th-12^th. Tags is the fastest 14 & under meet in the state of Texas and you must have qualifying times to enter. It is a prelim/final meet so the fastest 16 swimmers from the morning come back to race in the evening to see who comes out on top. Dads Club had 28 swimmers attend and we finished 11^th overall out of the 70+ teams in Texas. Our girls finished 9^th and our boys finished 18^th in the state. Here are our swimmers that proudly represented Dads Club.

 

Isabella Alas, Baily Bergen, Ava Ceraudo, Emma Clark, Sophia Cone, Tori Cone, Amy Evans, Benjamin Farahbod, Rafael Fente-Damers, Sara Fente-Damers, Trey Fischbach, Larkin Helman, Zelie Hughes, Wednesday Hunter, Max Lee, Lexie Lukens, Alex Miao, Kara Moss, Nathan Moss, Renee Nealon, Pearl Reagler, Sydney Smith, Reid Vandervoort, Emma Venghaus, Joey Wieland, Eloise Williamson, Max Zuanich, Megan Zuanich.

 

Relays

800 Free- finished 12^th-seeded 15^th Pearl Reagler, Emma Clark, Kara Moss and Wednesday Hunter

400 Free

10 & Under Girls-seeded 5^th-finished 5^th-Baily Bergen, Renee Nealon, Tori Cone, Eloise Wlliamson

10 & Under Boys-finished 2^nd-seeded 2^nd Alex Miao, Nathan Moss, Finnian Helman, Rafael Fente-Damers

11-12 Girls-seeded 9^th-finished 11^th-Sydney Smith, Isabella Alas, Megan Zuanich, Sara Fente-Damers

13-14 Girls-seeded 8^th-finished 9^th-Pearl Reagler, Emma Clark, Sophia Cone, Wednesday Hunter

200 Medley

10 & Under Girls-seeded 17^th-finished 12^th-Tori Cone, Renee Nealon, Eloise Williamson, Bailey Bergen

10 & Under Boys-seeded 4^th-finished 3^rd-Joey Wieland, Finnian Helman, Alex Miao, Rafael Fente-Damers

11-12 Girls seeded 13^th-finished 10^th-Sara Fente-Damers, Sydney Smith, Isabella Alas, Megan Zuanich

13-14 Girls A-seeded 6^th-finished 5^th-Emma Clark, Amy Evans, Perl Reagler , Sophia Cone

13-14 Girls B-seeded 22^nd-finished 22^nd-Emma Venghaus, Zelie Hughes, Kara Moss, Wednesday Hunter

200 Free

10 & Under Girls-seeded 4^th-finished 4^th-Bailey Bergen, Ava Ceraudo, Tori Cone, Eloise Williamson

10 & Under Boys A-seeded 6^th-finished 4^th Alex Miao, Benjamin Farahbod, Finnian Helman, Rafael

Fente-Damers

10 & Under Boys B-seeded 14^th finished 11^th –Reid Vandervoort, Max Lee, Joey Wieland, Nathan Moss.

11-12 Girls-seeded 9^th-finished 7^th-Sydney Smith, Isabella Alas, Megan Zuanich, Lexie Lukens

13-14 Girls-seeded 17^th-finished 14^th-Pearl Reagler, Emma Clark, Sophia Cone, Zelie Hughes

400 IM

11-12 Girls seeded 27^th-finished 13^th-Lexie Lukens, Sydney Smith, Isabella Alas, Megan Zuanich

13-14 Girls A-seeded 6^th-finished 7^th-Emma Clark, Amy Evans, Pearl Reagler, Sophia Cone

13-14 Girls B-seeded 23^rd-finished 20^th-Emma Venghaus , Zelie Hughes, Kara Moss, Wednesday Hunter

 

 

Day by Day Finals Breakdown

 

Thursday

The 10 & under Boys start the weekend off with some great time drops in the 500 freestyle. Finnian Helman drops 7.15 seconds to finish 15^th and Alex Miao drops 2.24 seconds to finish 18^th in the state.

 

Friday

Sydney Smith gets finals started off finishing 9^th overall winning the B final in the 11-12 100 breast with a time of 1:08.88. Congratulations Sydney on your first Sectionals cut as a 12 year old.

Amy Evans is next up taking charge and getting 3^rd overall in the 13-14 girls 100 breast. Amy dropped the most time between prelims and finals getting a personal best of 1:05.64. Way to step it up.

The 10 & under 200 free lead by Eloise Williamson as she gets a personal best time and finishes 11^th overall. Eloise is just getting warmed up.

Here comes the 10 & under boys in the 200 free. We have Alex Miao dropped over 3 seconds to make finals and finished 16^th overall. Finnian Helman also steps up and drops 3 seconds to make finals and ends up 15^th. Rafael Fente-Damers makes the A finals by dropping 2.7 seconds. Rafael finished 8^th in the state. Nice job Big Boy!

Tori Cone makes her first final in the 10 & under girls 50 back.  She drops .91 seconds to charge to an 11^th place finish. Did I mention she was seeded 25^th? Wow!

Joey Wieland is next at the 50 back with the 10 & under boys. Joey went from being seeded 20^th all the way to 12^th. Now that is a big jump. Mad props Joey!

The 13-14 girls 100 back is next. Emma Venghaus achieves her first sectionals cut going from being seeded 45^th all the way to 12^th. Lights out swimming Emma. Congrats on your first sectionals cut. Emma Clark is up next working those walls and cranking that hand speed to finish 9^th and win the B final. Great job ladies!

Rafael Fente-Damers is back again to swim his second individual final of the day in the 10 & under boys 100 IM.  Moving up through the ranks from 23^rd to finish 12^th cranking out another best time. More to come….

Our last swim of the day happens to be our first Tags Champion of the meet.  Sydney Smith floats across the water winning the event by .83 seconds. Great turns and strong underwater travel certainly propelled this young lady to winning it all. Way to go Syd!

 

 

Saturday

Eloise Williamson is back in finals but this time in the 10 & under girls 100 butterfly.  Eloise moved up a few spots to finish 10^th overall.  Just wait, she is just getting warmed up in fly.

Our 10 & under boys really stepped on the gas in their 100 fly. Rafael Fente-Damers drops 1.56 seconds to make the A final and finish 7^th. Alex Miao drops 1.79 seconds between prelims and finals with an amazing swim and gets 5^th from lane 8. Outside smoke folks.

Swim #2 of the day, Eloise Willamson is back at again. This time in the 10 & under girls 50 free. What a great race by this young lady stepping it up and coming in 2^nd overall in the state. Getting warmer…

Finnian Helman back in finals again in the 10 & under 50 free. He had to drop a .5 second to make finals and did an excellent job of racing. Rafael Fente-Damers really cranked it out dropping .75 seconds and sprinting his way to a 6^th place finish.

This is Megan Zuanich’s first Tags and is already making finals. Originally seeded 41^st she raced her way to a 13^th place finish in the 11-12 girls 50 free. Stepping up to the moment. Nice!

Isabella Alas makes her first individual finals of the meet also in the 11-12 girls 50 free. She dropped .94 seconds going from 23^rd seed to a 5^th place finish in the state. That is rising to the occasion.

Amy Evans gets after in the 13-14 girls 200 breast with a very exciting race. She drops .75 between prelims and finals to finish 3^rd overall. Great job Amy

And now stepping up is Finnian Helman in the boys 10& under 50 breast. Fin rocked the B final finishing 14^th overall and completing his 3^rd individual final so far.

 

Sunday

Sydney Smith starts the last day with a bang in the 11-12 girls 50 breast going 31.68 and finishing 2^nd overall dropping .76. Way to RACE!

Tori Cone is back in the water swimming backstroke again, this time in the 100 back for 10 & under girls. She really pushed herself and dropped over 2 seconds from prelims to finals coming in 10^th overall. Way to get out of your comfort zone Tori.

Great prelims swim from Finnian Helman dropping 2.64 seconds to qualify him for the 10 & under boys B final in the 100 back. Fin went from 27^th seed to finishing 14^th. Definitely moving in the right direction.

13-14 girls are back in finals for the 200 backstroke. Emma Venghaus is up first dropping 2.23 seconds getting her bonus sectionals cut with a time of 2:07.97 and going from 29^th to 13^th. Crazy good!  Emma Clark really steps up dropping 1.55 seconds achieving her short course NCSA cut with a time of 2:04.21. FANTASTIC swim Emma.

Eloise Williamson starts her Sunday finals off with an 11^th place finish in the 10 & under girls 100 free. This makes this Eloise’s 4^th individual final. Rock on!

This is one of the best reactions of the meet. Rafael Fente-Damers has an awesome race in the 10 & under boys 100 free breaking a minute for the first time. The pure joy on his face is something I will never forget. He finished 3^rd overall with a time of 59.58. Way to go Rafa!

Sydney Smith makes the most out of her last individual swim of the meet dropping 1.53 seconds going from 31^st to 10^th overall in the 11-12 girls 100 free.  Her time was 55.38. On fire!

The last individual swim of the meet also happens to be one of our best. Eloise Williamson becomes our 2^nd Tags Champion in the 50 fly and the first for the 10 & under girls. Eloise had one of the best starts of the meet putting her a ½ body length ahead of her peers and she never relinquished the lead after that. Great starts can win races. Fantastic job!

 

Thanks to our swimmers, coaches and parents for coming together and representing Dads Club in such a positive manner. The coaching staff thanks all of our athletes for all your hard work and dedication to this team and the sport we all love so much. Dads Club Proud!