Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a good long weekend. I am getting back to reality and summer swim! We have a fun week ahead of us! We have our first away meet in Middlebury at 296 Buttolph Dr. Middlebury, VT on Tuesday. For away meets, we arrive at 5:15pm, for a 5:30pm warm-up. 

Also just so it is on everyone's radar. We are at the half-way point of our dual meet season, so we have three dual meets left. In order to attend League Champs swimmers must compete in 3 dual meets with their respective team. Therefore, if your swimmer has not competed in any meets this season and has a desire to compete with us at Leagues, please make attending all of the last 3 dual meets a top priority. For Leagues I am not allowed to make any exceptions to the rules. So please get your 3 dual meets in!

Also thinking ahead for State Championships August 3rd and 4th in White River Junction, I have attached time standards (same as last year), order of events for the weekend, and the meet invite with all the meet details. If your swimmer makes it in 1 event they can swim up to 4 bonus events so long as they make the bonus time standard in each additional event. If you have questions about whether your swimmer makes it or not, please text, email, or call me. States is super fun for all age groups, you can go to 1 session, or all the sessions. You can stay over or go up and back in one day. It's only about 1 hour 25 minutes to Upper Valley Aquatic Center from Burlington. I have done it a zillion times in all weather. With clear roads and blue skies it is an easy trip. 

It is a really fun way to cap off the season. We are set up for a team dinner on Saturday at Lui Lui (thank you Leah Pence!) and we are working on a block of hotel rooms for us all. I will have more details for you soon in a separate email. Why am I mentioning State Champs now? Well the distance meet this Saturday morning is a good opportunity for kids to get times in longer events that they may want to swim at States. For 8&Unders, there is the 50 free and the 100IM. For 9-10, there are the 50s of all the strokes and the 100IM. For 11-12 and 13-14, there are the 100s of all the strokes, 200free, and 100IM. For 15-18 there are all the 100s of stroke and IM, 200 free and IM, and 500 free. If your swimmer swims in winter and has times from January 2024 then they can use those times, but if they don't and want to swim one of these events then please enter them in the distance meet this Saturday the 13th at Middlebury. Your swimmer can enter up to 3 events (so let me know in the note section which events your swimmer wants), there will be no relays or regular dual meet events. Warm ups are at 8:20am, so arrive at 8am. The meet will start at 9:10am and be done around 12:30pm. It is a lot of fun, please consider signing up for it. 

One last thing for this week, is Family Fun Night this Thursday at BTC. We will gather around 5:30pm at the pool with our own picnic dinners. There will be an ice cream truck for dessert. There will be opportunities for families to compete together on teams or mixed up with other families. Often there is a coaches relay and all of us get our swimsuits on and swim against the kids. It is a fun low key event where we just get to gather and enjoy a night at the pool together as a team. It is one of my favorite nights of the season.

So to recap, meet at Middlebury this Tuesday, declare whether you are attending or not. Thursday night is Family Fun Night at BTC at 5:30pm, bring your racing suits, your fun attitudes, and your picnic dinners. Last but not least Saturday morning 8am distance meet at Middlebury again! Middlebury two times in one week! Have your swimmers challenge themselves with 3 longer events, list preferences in the notes to the coach section by Thursday! If you have questions, concerns, comments, compliments, or interesting stories send them my way!

See you at the pool!

Coach Hilary