UPCOMING MEETS & EVENTS

LY CLAIMS BRONZE

USA Swimming recently recognized the Lynchburg YMCA Swim Team as a Bronze Medal club, categorizing LY as one of the top 200 USAS clubs in the country (out of about 3,000). In order to achieve this award, LY had to first achieve a club recognition level that showed the team’s commitment to long term growth, development, and stability. The club had to meet markers measuring business and organizational success, parent and volunteer participation and education, coach development and experience, and athlete development and performance. Once these factors were established, the club was ranked according to athlete performance. We are excited and proud to have our club be recognized in this fashion and thank all of you for your contribution to making LY the best program that it can be!

LY COMES IN 2ND AT REGION CHAMPS

While the parents enjoyed big screen tvs in the stands, piping in Andy Griffith in the morning and the ACC basketball tournament in the afternoon, LY swimmers sped through the water at the new pool in Cary, NC. Ruth Bettis dropped over 3 seconds from her morning swim to her finals swim to win the consolation final of the 200 backstroke; Abigail Black knocked 22 seconds off her 400 IM to pick up a AAA time; Emily Black set a new team record in the 15-16 400 IM with an 8 second improvement; Ashley Mauzy, Holly Carrington, Alyssa Reed, and Casey Wrabley combined to bring home the GOLD in the 10 & under girls’ 200 medley relay; Andrew Cook dropped 26 seconds off his 1650 yard freestyle and became the newest member of the travel team; Devin Creger took 4.4 seconds off his 200 IM and picked up a 6th place finish and also took 4th in the 200 free with a 2 second improvement; Ainsley Reed, Abigail Black, Deanna Rossman, and Juju Skorcz put together two winning relays for the 11-12 girls in the 200 free and the 400 free relay and also set two new team records; Joe Euhus shaved 4.6 seconds from his 200 free; Logan White, Blake Nowakowski, Blake Proffitt, and Byron Fredericksen combined for a 3rd place finish in the 11-12 boys’ 200 free relay and a 2nd place finish in the 11-12 boys’ 200 medley relay; Sarah Fredericksen shaved nearly 11 seconds from her 500 freestyle, and captured the bronze medal in the 13-14 girls with a AAA time; Jake Richardson had a tough 50 backstroke but kept his head high despite a dq; Carter Head was 2nd in the 200 breast and dropped 27 seconds from his 1650 freestyle; Grace Parker improved her 400 IM by 5 seconds; Sean Imron chopped 29 seconds from his 1650 freestyle; Lindsay Jefferson was 2.5 seconds better in her 200 yard freestyle and Ashley Jennings took 3.3 seconds off her 100 IM; Haley Jennings knocked nearly 6 seconds off of her 200 yard freestyle; Andrew Moon managed the exact same time in prelims (a 2.86 second improvement) as he did in finals and picked up a 10th place finish in the 200 butterfly; Rett Neiman dropped 6 seconds from his 400 IM; Holly O’Hara swam her 2nd ever 1650 freestyle and improved her best time by over 37 seconds; Matthew Owen took 1.5 seconds off his 100 breaststroke and nabbed an 8th place finish in the 10 & under boys; Drew Pociluyko was 4 seconds faster than ever on his 200 yard freestyle; Katherine Rossman was 2.6 seconds faster in her 200 yard freestyle and 3.3 seconds faster in her 100 IM; CT Skorcz sheared over 2 seconds from her 200 IM; Maddy Skorcz took 4.5 seconds off her 400 IM; Kemp Pettyjohn, Travis Stauder, Carter Watson, and Collin Conrad combined to win the men’s 800 free relay and set a new meet record; Caleb Williams won both the 13-14 boys’ 200 freestyle and the 13-14 boys 200 backstroke; Chad Nowkowski and Phil Gorman picked up Y National qualifying times and were able to travel with the team to Ft. Lauderdale. The Lynchburg YMCA team finished an incredible SECOND overall in the meet! Congratulations to everyone for a hard season of work and an excellent season ending meet!

SUCCESS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE

LY swimmers shined at the CYAC Spring Splash on March 29th. Madison Carroll swam an aggressive freestyle at the end of her 100 IM to drop an impressive 4 seconds. Madelynn Knight kept each stroke of her breaststroke race long and efficient, dropping more than a second off her 25 breast time. Holly O’Hara picked up the high point trophy in her age group. Hannah Owen’s hand speed led her to a first place victory in the 50 free. Matthew Owen kept his stroke long and kick strong to post a best time in the 100 free. Tyler Pociluyko practiced good breath control in order to drop time in his 50 free. Jake Richardson kept his stroke smooth, swam over the black line, and engaged his kick, dropping one-and-a-half seconds in his 50 free. Walter Rodemann’s improved butterfly and strong kick coming home helped him drop four seconds in his 200 IM. Logan Sitton got her head down in breaststroke and was quick on the turn in order to do her best time in the 50 breast. Madison Sitton used her hand speed to drop two seconds in her 25 free. Chandler St Clair timed his backstroke finish perfectly for over a second improvement in his 25 back.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Our parents shined, too. David Pociluyko was a stroke and turn judge for the entire meet, and Udo Rodemann was a timer for the duration.

FUTURE NEEDS

This year has certainly been a big year in terms of swimmer and team success - we’ve had swimmers at Junior Nationals, a swimmer at USAS Nationals, we finished 2nd at the Y regional meet, our club has been recognized by the national governing body as one of the most successful clubs in the country ... As we head toward summer and the start of the long course season, it is a good time to evaluate what our program’s needs are for continued success. I see two areas where I believe we need to focus our energies to ensure the team remains strong. One, we need to recruit more swimmers to our team. We are losing a large number of swimmers to graduation this year. We need to be sure that we are building the ranks of our swimmers all the time so that we can maintain strong training groups that continue to help our swimmers get better. With two other year round teams in the area now, it is important for our swimmers and parents to tout the success that we achieve and let others who might be interested in swimming know that there is NO OTHER PROGRAM in Lynchburg that achieves what LY does! As you know, swimming takes a lot of time and energy. Anyone interested in excelling shouldn’t waste their time anywhere else ... get your friends to try out LY in the fall.

Two, we need to be sure that we are maintaining a strong group of officials on our team. We must have officials to ensure that we can host meets. Swim meets serve not only to test our swimmers, but they also function as fundraisers for our team. We raise a good part of our budget from the meets that we host. Currently, we have NO MEET REFEREE and NO STARTER on our team. We have been fortunate over the past year to receive help from Mary Turner, Bob Dray, and Roy Fisher, but we really need to have team parents working their way through the system to help out. We also only have one certified CTS operator. If you aren’t already training as an official, please consider if you might help out in this fashion. We would like to start getting all of our officials dual certified for USAS and YMCA.Thanks to everyone for your commitment to your children and LY!