CT Age Group Championships July 29-Ag 1 @ Wesleyan & Cheshire
The Piranhas returned to Wesleyan & Cheshire for the Connecticut Age Group Championships.  Over the weekend, there were many great swims and several record setting performances!  Representing our 12/U Piranhas were Gilmar Barrios, Lexi Devlin, Courtney Ferriera, Kevin Grune, Becca Maroney, Alex Milewski, Maggie Orem, Amelia Ornato, Cesar Pena, Erik Ryan, Phoebe Slaughter, Owen Stevens, and Alexandra Truwit.  This group showed up each morning at Cheshire with one mission, and that was to swim fast!  Finalists for the 11/12 year olds were Courtney Ferriera, Phoebe Slaughter, Erik Ryan, Becca Maroney, Cesar Pena, Maggie Orem, and Alex Milewski.  Phoebe Slaughter set a new Team Record in the 11/12 girls 200 backstroke, Erik Ryan set new Team Records in the 11/12 boys 200 backstroke and 200 fly, and Cesar Pena set new Team Records in the 11/12 boys 100 & 200 breast!  Our 13/O Piranhas were Victoria Chao, Rahul Datta, Tyler Gould, Chris Janson, Caroline Kearney, Rebecca Liu, Hadley Merrill, Emily Molinelli, Caroline Orem, Andrea Smelser, Will Smelser, Julia Stobbie, and Claire Treesh.  Finalists from the weekend included Victoria Chao, Tyler Gould, Chris Janson, Caroline Kearney, Emily Molinelli, and Caroline Orem.  Caroline Orem took first place in the 13/14 Girls 100 & 200 backstroke events setting a new Team Record in the 200 back!  Overall it was another great weekend for the Piranhas!  Thank you to all of our parents who volunteered throughout the weekend.  

CT Senior Championships July 22-25 @ Wesleyan University
Piranhas break 16 Team records on the way to a 5th place overall finish. 
The girls finished 4th overall and the boys finished 7th.  This is the best finish for the Piranhas in over 10 years!!  Lindsay Tyler and Liza Bragg each broke 4 Team records and along with Emilie Geissinger, and Catherine Treesh were apart of the record breaking 200 and 400 Free Relays and teamed up with Caroline Kearney and Treesh again to break the Team record in the 400 Medley Relay.  The 200 Freestyle Relay finished first overall from lane 8!!  Other top 3 finished included Tyler, 2nd in the 200 Back (after finishing 6th in the 800 less the 30 minutes prior) and Bragg was third in the 100 Back.  Not to be outdone, Phil Treesh won the 100 Backstroke and finished 2nd in the 200 backstroke.  Jake Greene broke the Team record in the 200 Breaststroke and tied the Team record in the 100 Breaststroke.  Other top 3 finishes included the 200 Free Relay Team of Treesh, Steve Grune, Tyler Gould and Chris Weihs.  The entire Team stepped and swam awesome!!  The whole weekend was a huge success and a lot of fun!!

Thanks to all the Piranha parents who helped with running meet.  Special thanks to Meet Manager Jason and Meet Referee Jeff Gray.  The meet could not have been a success without your efforts.
 
Peter Clark, visit - swimmers
On Tuesday morning about 25 Piranhas piled into Henk's office for an intimate and unique opportunity to sit down with one of USA Swimming's top swimming advisors and consultants, Peter Clark.  Peter's discussion centered on, how to formulate long and short term goals and the importance of both.  His discussion also touched how a swimmer could and should plan a season, college swimming and process of recruiting.  He also touched upon elite swimmers and how they become "elite," how they prepare for races and how they plan.  He challenged the kids and he got them to think.  The best part is 99% of what he said, transcends swimming and sports.  He gave them valuable information they can use in all aspects of life.  It was an awesome discussion for all our swimmers who took advantage of this opportunity.    

Peter Clark, visit - parents
The 13 & over swimmers and parents who took the opportunity to hear Peter Clark from USA Swimming talk on Tuesday were in for a real treat.  It was very interesting to hear from someone who knows so much about the sport of swimming on so many different levels...big picture and individual athlete.  He spoke about goal setting, development of swimmers, and the many facets of the sport and the athletes that coaches focus on everyday, much of which is behind the scenes.  From just getting our swimmers to eat healthy meals, get to practice and eventually take ownership of their swimming, is a complex process that takes a great deal of determination and communication among the swimmer, coach and parents.  Peter Clark took an interest in the Piranha team and the work our coaches are doing here and it was educational to hear his thoughts on the sport of swimming.  This was an opportunity you didn't want to miss!!!

Regionals July 16-18 @ Cheshire or Wesleyan University
The Piranhas made a great showing in the Connecticut Regional Championship this weekend!  It was a great meet for both the 12/U at Cheshire and also for the 13/O at Wesleyan.  There were many best times throughout the weekend with an impressive 38 best times out of 45 swims on Sunday for the 13/O Piranhas.  The 12/U also stepped up to the blocks ready to swim and excited to swim.  There were many personal best times swam and a number of great races with a number of Piranhas finishing in the top 10 in their events!!  Congratulations to all Piranhas who participated in the meet; it was a great weekend to kick off the Long Course championship season. 
Thank you to all parents who stepped up and volunteered through sun and sauna this weekend.  Thank you to Leila Stevens, Delphine Brown, Zuyglid Mazariegos (Barrios), Nancy Grune, Denny Maroney, Laurie Orem, Jody Truwit, Erica Merrill, Dave Oulighan, Jeff Gray, Martin Milewski, Matt Marion, Ren Liu, Liz Molinelli, Tere Smelser, Nancy Grune, Annie Slaughter, Brian Stobbie, and Peter Kearney.
Results are posted.