Kimmy Pelfini--sometime during the season, Kimmy went from a swimmer who would settle for a middle of the pack practice with no real defined goals, to a swimmer on a mission. During the summer she was a constant at practice and trained hard. Her payoff was a perfect swim meet (all best times) with a few near JO times. It is always very satisfying for we coaches to see a swimmer turn the corner and begin to supply their own motivations for doing well.

David Slater--David went in the meet hoping to get back some of his lost A times (after last season, pacific swimming made A times quite a bit tougher than previous seasons). He ended up coming out of the meet with better than he had hoped, with 3 new JO time, which will allow him to participate in his 1st ever really high end meet.

Brad Cline--Before the meet I told Brad (who was seeded 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the field in this event) that my brother Rick's time in the 200 free as a 10 year old was a 2:09.9, which at the time 40 years ago(!) was a national record. Brad's time was going into the meet a 2:11.5. Why don't we make a goal of beating that time that Rick had a long time ago? Brad was interested in what swimming was like back then - what the pools were like- what the meets were like etc ( the answer to all was very antiquated). Brad ended up going 2:09.5 achieving a very cool goal.

Alison Sundberg-On Sunday, for the very last time Alison competed for one of my teams. Alison is the last person that I am so closely connected to that was on my Summer League team , the TPC Sharks. That was 1993 and she was the 8 year old high point winner in the league that year. Now all these years later, there she was competing and readying herself for her last year of college swimming at Duke. At one point I saw her cheering for her little TPC buddy, 6 year old Claire Holscher competing in her first big meet (and swimming a legal 100 IM I might add). Definitely a circle of life moment for me. What Alison was able to do with her swimming is what I hope for all my swimmers who have that kind of desire.

John Wright-- am I going to miss the pre race dance of John Wright this next fall through spring. How he approaches his racing is very inspiring to me - see you next summer John!!

Boys to Men--man was it fun to watch our older boys swim at this meet. For so many seasons they have been patient as we waited for maturity to hit - and it hit big time. The talent that was always there, now will begin to show in a huge way, and I look forward to watching that happen and being part of it.

Again, thanks to all the parents who helped out. It is such a pleasure to not have to worry about our team covering our responsibilities (plus sometimes other team's responsibilities).

WESTERN ZONE RECAP-- 4 of our swimmers Stephanie Christofferson, Elizabeth Kamai, Deborah Roth, and Brad Cline left the day after RESL's to participate in the Western Zone All star meet held in Utah. There were a few best times even at 5,000 ft, but more importantly there was some strong racing done by our swimmers. Brad won the 50 free and the 100 free as well as being on winning relays and making other finals. Stephanie was 2nd and 3rd in the 2 Breast races while Deborah made finals in the 2 Back races. Elizabeth had an incredibly good swim in the 100 free and made the final in that race as well as being on winning relays. All 4 tuna making a final at this level of meet, plus having a champion- incredible!!

That's all for now!
Ken