Santa Clara Swim Club August 2009

“BELIEVE IN YOURSELF”

Making Waves

FROM THE POOL DECK by Head Coach John Bitter

What a summer Championship meet season the club just completed! Before I go into further detail I just want to congratulate all of our swimmers for their excellent efforts and thank all of the coaching staff and our parents who spent numerous hours on the pool deck these past several weeks supporting all of our swimming members as they pursued their individual bests.

The Championship season began with the Western Sectional meet held in Clovis, California, July 22-26. There were 34 swimmers from the National and Senior Gold groups who competed in this meet that had clubs from Southern California, Central California, Pacific Swimming, Sierra Nevada participating. The meet started with a bang the first day with three senior swimmers getting their first US Open cuts in the 800 Free (Jackson Partin, Kevin Owens, and Sam Shimomura) and SCSC finishing 1, 2, and 3 in the event. This rousing start propelled the team to a first place finish among all teams in competition. Due to the excellent performances of the swimmers and the great support of coaches Dave Meck and Brie Marhenke, I was named Coach of the Meet by the other coaches in attendance. I want to thank everyone for this, as this honor is not just an individual award it belongs to the team.

Besides the excellent start to the event, many other swimmers achieved new cuts for the end of the season meets.

Charlotte Ruby: Junior National cut in the 200 Fly and 400 IM Jackson Partin: US Open cut in the 1500 and Junior National cut in the 400 Free Sam Shimomura: Junior National cut in the 400 Free Kevin Owens: Junior National cut in the 1500 Free

Also Courtney Monsees set new SCSC Senior Long Course Team Records in the 100 Free with a time of 55.71 and in the 200 IM, with a time of 2:17.09.

Following this meet many of our swimmers went on to Far Western Championships held at Independence High School, July29-August 2. The team finished third behind PASA and Pleasanton. At this meet the following swimmers competed in finals for SCSC:

10-Unders: Sophie Zhou-Krivokapic Women’s 200 Medley Relay (Sophie Zhou-Krivokapic, Thea Lawler, Vivian Qian, Winnie Zhao) Women’s 200 Free Relay (Sophie Zhou-Krivokapic, Raime Jones, Thea Lawler, Winnie Zhao) Men’s 200 Medley Relay (Nathan Yates, David McKenna, Daniel Blake, Chris Grey) Page 2 Making Waves

FROM THE POOL DECK (continued)

11-12: Iris Brand Jared Yongyuth Marzuq Khan Women’s 200 Medley and Free Relay (Anika Mohindra, Iris Brand, Rahel Pelikan-Dean, Ulyana Tkachenko) Men’s 200 Medley Relay (David Ren, Lawrence Tao, Brandon Ngo, Marzuq Khan) Men’s 400 Medley Relay (Samuel Blake, Marzuq Khan, David Ren, Jared Yongyuth) Men’s 200 Free Relay (Jared Yongyuth, Samuel Blake, Brandon Ngo, Lawrence Tao) Men’s 400 Free Relay (Jared Yongyuth, Samuel Blake, Marzuq Khan, Lawrence Tao)

13-14: Helen Tang (won 200 Free) Dorothy Ren Annalee Akin Kristin Brand Matthew Webster Keltan Lawler Ian Burns Sky Calleja-Harris Women’s 200 and 400 Medley Relay (Katie Siegel, Helen Tang, Annalee Akin, Dorothy Ren) Women’s 200, 400, and 800 Free Relays (Kristen Brand, Helen Tang, Dorothy Ren, Katie Siegel) Men’s 200 Medley Relay (Matt Webster, Osker Lu, Ian Burns, Keltan Lawler) Men’s 400 Medley Relay (Matthew Webster, Timothy Kuo, Ian Burns, Keltan Lawler) Men’s 200 Free Relay (Jeffrey Chen, Keltan Lawler, Ian Burns, Matthew Webster) Men’s 800 Free Relay (Ian Burns, Matthew Webster, Keltan Lawler, Osker Lu)

*The Women’s 800 Free Relay won and the Women’s 400 Free Relay set a new Pacific Swimming record for their age group

15-16: Abby Blake Haley Oosterhouse Natalie Garland Charlotte Ruby Haley Smith Kevin Owens (won 400 Free, new Junior National cut) Michael Nunan (won 200 Free) Mike London (won 100 Free)

17-18: Lauren Opatrny Morgan Lee Jake Lehman Eric Owens Lajos Pelikan Page 3 Making Waves

FROM THE POOL DECK (continued)

Emily Tomkins (made finals in 200 Fly and 800 Free) Sean Fronzcak Maddie Takaki (won 200 Fly)

15-18 Relays: Women’s 200 Medley Relay (Lauren Opatrny, Natalie Garland, Charlotte Ruby, Helena Gali) Women’s 400 Medley Relay (Lauren Opatrny, Morgan Lee, Charlotte Ruby, Natalie Garland) Women’s 200 and 400 Free Relay (Lauren Opatrny, Natalie Garland, Charlotte Ruby, Helena Gali) Women’s 800 Free Relays (Helena Gali, Charlotte Ruby, Haley Oosterhouse, Natalie Garland) Men’s 200 Medley Relay (Eric Owens, Jeff Peters, Jake Lehman, Mike London) Men’s 400 Medley Relay (Sean Fronzcak, Gideon Hou, Michael Nunan, Sam Shimomura; Kevin Owens, Jeff Peters, Mike London, Daniel Tan) Men’s 200 Free Relay (Mike London, Sam Shimomura, Kivanc Karagulle, Daniel Tan) Men’s 400 Free Relay (Sam Shimomura, Jake Lehman, Mike London, Daniel Tan; Jeff Peters, Christian Vu, Kevin Owens, Eric Owens) Men’s 800 Free Relay (Jeff Peters, Mike London, Kevin Owens, Michael Nunan ((won)) Eric Owens, Bobby Wen, Kivanc Karagulle, Christian Vu)

Congratulations to all the SCSC swimmers who competed and contributed to the team’s overall finish.

The next meet on the schedule was the US Open held in Seattle, Washington August 4-8. Seven swimmers from SCSC competed in this meet and the team finished in the top 25 nationally. Courtney Monsees placed seventh in the 100 Free and set a new team record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:15.17. Ryan Hinshaw finished fifth in the 800 Free with a new team record of 8:05.82 and also finished 12th in the 1500 Free and 14th in the 400 Free with times of 15:40 and 3:55 respectively. The Men’s 400 Free Relay finished 16th and consisted of Jonny Muir, Brandon Shilling, Robert Bogart, and Danny Wall.

The following week 15 swimmers from SCSC competed at the USA Junior Nationals also held in Seattle, Washington August 10-14. The men’s team finished 3rd amongst all teams competing. Among the notable th th swims were Jackson Partin who finished 12 in the 1500 and 8 in the 800 Free, Brandon Shilling who finished 7th in the 200 IM and set a new team record for 18-unders in the 100 Free with a time of 51.89 and Mark Liu who finished 10th in the 100 Breast with a new team record for 18-unders with a time of 1:04.48. The Men’s relays finished 8th in the 400 Free Relay (Brandon Shilling, Ian Burns, Sam Shimomura, Julius Espiritu), 3rd in the 800 Free Relay (Jackson Partin, Sam Shimomura, Ian Burns, Brandon Shilling), and 2nd in the 400 Medley Relay with a new Pacific Record time of 3:50.1 (Brandon Shilling, Mark Liu, Matt Hurko, Julius Espiritu)

Besides these meets we also had several of our swimmers represent Pacific Swimming at either the North American Cup Challenge or Western Zones. Representing Santa Clara Swim Club at the North American Cup Challenge, were Mike London, Helen Tang, Dorothy Ren, Matthew Webster, Keltan Lawler, and Sean Fronzcak; and at Western Zones by Sophie Zhou-Krivokapic.

As you can tell we had an extremely busy, but also extremely successful Championship meet season for the club. Finishing 1st at Sectionals, 3rd at Far Western Champs, and 3rd on the Men’s side at Junior Nationals, along with a 51st place finish in the Virtual Club Championships run through USA Swimming. For comparison, last long course season the club finished 79th. All of these results demonstrate the hard work everyone within the program has put in this past year, but it also establishes new benchmark for the coming Page 4 Making Waves

FROM THE POOL DECK (continued)

year. As we say “goodbye” to an excellent swimming campaign we now must look forward and set new goals and establish new benchmarks for the club. The success of the past year is something we should all be proud of and enjoy for the moment, but as we return to school and return to the pool in the coming weeks, a new season is upon us and some new rules in terms of suits allowed will be in force. What we did this past year is awesome, but it is also a building point for what we can do in the future if we continue to build upon the past and set bigger goals for the future. I want to thank all of my coaches for making much of this happen, to the parents who allowed us the chance, and to the swimmers who did not pass up any opportunity given to them to strive to believe in what they can do. I look forward to the next chapter that will be written by the swimmers who will walk through that gate and allow for their dreams to become reality, if they but take the chance.

As a reminder, Stroke Clinic begins Tuesday, September 8th with the 13 and overs coming in at 3:30, the 8 and unders from 5 to 6 pm and the 9-12 from 5:30 to 7 pm. This is our time to reevaluate the groups, the swimmers, reinforce the stroke principles that we hold true and to slowly build to full workouts the last week of September. Stroke Clinic is not about groups and how many yards we do each day, it is about getting ready for the long season ahead. There will be some changes in coaching assignments for next year and we are in the process of adding a few new coaches to the staff and when both of these items are finalized we will get this information out to the membership. At the end of every season I write down the things that worked and the things that I see as points of improvement for the coming season and I make judgments based upon this. We have made tremendous strides in many areas of swimming development in the past year; however, there are areas that can and must still be better as we move forward. To this end I hope that some of the changes I am looking at for the coming season will strengthen these areas, while also building upon what we have accomplished. Nothing is ever perfect and while we constantly strive for such perfection, we know that more can be done and we will continue to look at other ways to make these types of things happen. I appreciate the dedication everyone has to this club and its swim program and nothing can be done without that type of support. Again I thank everyone for being apart of the club and I look forward to even a better

Naming Contest Winner by Stella Ezrre

The winning name for our White Bengal Tiger is ‘Stripes’ submitted by Hannah Franzwa from the White Bell group.

Thank you Hannah for a great name for our new friend. Page 5 Making Waves

Out of the Blue : Sharing insights and positive perspectives about the sport of swimming from those that have lived the experience. By Cynthia Owens

This month’s article is very special. Our story features an SCSC alum who became a real life hero and served our country with great honor. For me, one of the most compelling parts of his story is that it all started in his formative years as an SCSC swimmer! Jeff Freeman was the last of 4 kids in his family to join SCSC. He was just 6 years old when he tried out for the team, in the "little kid's pool" at the old Santa Clara High School with others who would become good friends for many years to come. He swam for SCSC until he graduated from high school 12 years later.

Jeff attended Cal Berkeley, from which he’d earned full scholarship. After graduating, he entered the United States Marine Corps Officer Program and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1982. From there he graduated from the US Naval Flight School, and was selected to fly the CH-53E tactical assault support aircraft. Jeff was promoted to Captain and flew combat missions in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm in '91, and then to work in flight operations as a Major, supporting President Clinton in Uganda, Africa in '98.

By 2002, Jeff was flying anti-terrorist support missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom - Djibouti, Africa, Horn of Africa/Persian Gulf, and had been promoted again to Lieutenant Colonel. He continued to serve by flying combat missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Bagram, Afghanistan, in '04, as a Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel.

Today, Colonel Jeff Freeman, United States Marine Corps is the Safety Professional for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA for the United States Department of Energy. He is happily married to another SCSC alum, Janet Wiemken, and they have two grown children.

Recently I had the opportunity to catch up with Jeff and ask him about his thoughts on swimming. Question: What has swimming meant to you? Competitive swimming is what made me the person I am today. To define yourself by what you did early in life may seem a bit uncommon. But, we swimmers share a very unique experience. We start as age-groupers, bonding and learning from our coaches and mentors just what it takes to work hard, set goals and we learned about not stopping until you've reached those goals. As we transition to being young men and women, our goals are set higher, and our self-confidence in achieving those goals increases to match. There truly is no limit to what can be attained. For me, being involved in swimming since the age of 6 has taught me many things - all of which I bring to bear in my daily life. Goal-setting is just one of the tools in my "swimming bag." After an average age-group swimming experience, I was able to focus more on stroke technique and using the skills that I was born with, both mental and physical, to move beyond "average" in high school.

I had wonderful coaches in George Haines and Mitch Ivey, both of whom knew how to motivate and capitalize on the talents of each and every swimmer. Wonderful men. I ended high school as a world-ranked breaststroker and with a full-ride scholarship to UC Berkeley, and had a very successful college career under the guidance and skill of Nort Thornton. During college, I was ranked in the top 10 in the world each year, won Nationals, was the member of 2 NCAA championship teams, traveled with the US Swimming Team and went to World Games. All of this would not have been possible if I did not learn from the best, and have the best possible examples of leadership and physical and mental toughness when I was a young kid at SCSC. Page 6 Making Waves

Out of the Blue (continued)

How could you not want to excel with all those Olympians in the pool with you? To this day, I rely upon a vast array of "lessons learned" from my swimming days for success in my daily life. Success means different things to different people - for me, it is simply accomplishing what I have set out to do, in the best possible manner. It just so happens that if you were a kid swimming at SCSC, throughout your life, your goals tend to be set higher than the average person. Question: When you think of your personal experience at SCSC what comes to mind?

There is not a day that goes by that I don't remember some element of my days at SCSC. The friends you had, the swim meets you went to, the smell of the over-chlorinated pool during a hot summer workout, GET-OUT SWIMS!!, the long waits before a prelim swim at Nationals...the sixties and seventies were a unique period at SCSC. The team had many accomplished swimmers and many Olympians, and many stars among the Olympians. Being a part of that heritage was a fantastic experience, one that I would never trade for another. That experience is what shaped me. Question: Did you always dream of making the Olympic team? Why or why not is that important?

I always knew that SCSC had special swimmers. One of my earliest memories was while swimming at the Santa Clara High School pool (the War Memorial Pool) and seeing the big white record board at the far end fence. Names like Mark Spitz and Brian Job were listed with their pool record times. I knew that they were Olympians, and wondered if I could ever be that good. Then, when the International Swim Center was finished, and we walked in through the main lobby entrance, those enlarged photos of the SCSC Olympians were there to greet you, as if to say, " We did it...now it's your turn to carry the torch." I took it as a challenge, and did what I had to in order to be a better swimmer. It became important to me to try and be the best. When I was finally capable of winning at the national level of competition, the dream of being an Olympian seemed very close. Unfortunately for me, the boycott of 1980 kept me out of the Olympics. I did, however, make the 1978 World Games Team after winning Nationals, something of which I will always be proud. It was important to me to at least make my mark in the swimming world, after all those years in the pool. Being an Olympian should always be at the top of your list - even if you don't quite get there, the journey will have proved worth it in many other ways. Question: What advice do you have for swimmers just beginning their journey?

Have fun! Swimming is all about having fun. That doesn't mean that it is not hard work, and you won't get tired, but, ask yourself this...how much fun do you think Michael Phelps had winning those 8 gold medals at the 2008 Olympics? I bet lots! Listen to your coaches. Trust plays an important role in swimming. It's also a two-way street - a good coach will also listen to their swimmers. Learn to set goals that can be attained at your level, and then set them higher next time - this is age-old advice, but it stills works! When you feel like slacking off a bit in the pool, just look over at the rest of the swimmers and ask yourself if they are slacking off. If you can work just a bit harder, it will show the next time you take the blocks at a meet. You will know others that are not as capable or as fast as you - try to build them up, encourage them. In the process, you will improve yourself. One of my favorite memories is the feeling that I would get when "SCSC" was displayed on the score board in the number 1 position, or "SCSC" was announced over the loudspeaker. SCSC has always had a huge sense of camaraderie and of being the best. It will only stay that way if you add to the spirit of all those who have gone before you. Have fun, work hard, and one day you may have your picture on that lobby wall.

Out of the Blue is a regular monthly feature in our club newsletter to showcase stories of inspiration, motivation and humor from those who have strong ties to our great sport. Page 7 Making Waves

SCSC Swimmers shine in all areas by Coach Luba

Congratulations on a great summer vacation

Competing at JO Swim Meet in Concord on July 16-19 were:

Riley Lexvold, Nathan Yates, Sophia Sebastian, Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou, David McKenna, Daniel Blake, Chris Grey, Raime Jones, Thea Lawler, Lily Wu, Nehemi Winn, Winnie Zhao, Chianty Yang, Ruth Roh, Pari Dhayagude, Nuha Ahmed, Virginie Qian, Ewan McGarvey, Vivian Qian, Nate Lee, Celia Tang, Vincent Lee.

Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou was a first time champion in 100 fly & 100 back.

Competing at Far Westerns Swim Meet in West Coast on July 29-August 2nd were:

Vivian Qian, Nathan Yates, Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou, David McKenna, Daniel Blake, Chris Grey, Raime Jones, Thea Lawler, Nehemi Winn, Winnie Zhao Ruth Roh, Riley Lexvold, Vincent Lee.

Competing at Western Zone All-Stars Swim Meet in Hawaii on August 3-9

Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou Super Job Sophie!!! Have fun next season!

New PRT times: Megan Tao, Krystal Tran, Dasha Pastushenko, Benn Winn, Ryan Ma, Cathy Teng, Ryan Lee

Way to go Yellow 1 group. Keep up the great work, with great times and great technique.

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Making Waves is the monthly newsletter of the Santa Clara Swim Club 2625 Patricia Drive, Santa Clara, California 95051 (408 ) 246-5050 www.santaclaraswimclub.org Youth Competitive * Learn To Swim * Adult Fitness