YNS Mid-Season Recap
Good Evening YNS Families,
We are wishing you all a warm holiday season. Below are some updates from the first half of our 2023-2024 short course season. Included you will find:
- November Meet Recap
- December Meet Recap
- Upcoming Meet
- Holiday Practice Schedules
- Para Swimming Update + Recap
November Meet Recap:
In November, the Sharks competed at the Turkey Classic at St. John’s Prep, the Robert McDowell Invite in Wilton, CT, and the NSSC Specialty Meet at Gordon College. In total, we had 116 athletes compete between the three meets!
At the Turkey Classic, the Sharks saw 65% best times! Our older swimmers also had some fun competing in the “Shootout” 50s which were run as Prelims/Semi-Finals/Finals throughout the two days.
Our Sharks in Wilton competed in Prelims and Finals over the course of the weekend. Combined girls and boys saw 80% best times and a 5th place overall finish at the meet with 25 swimmers! We also saw some team records broken- Congratulations to Caroline Curtin (11-12 Girls 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly, & 100 IM) and Grant Dwyer (13-14 Boys 100 fly) for your record breaking swims!
While some of the older Sharks were in Connecticut, our 10&Unders had a good showing at the Gordon College meet. Of 46 swimmers, nearly all of them had 1-2 events they have never competed in before!
December Meet Recap:
In December, we were able to host our annual winter meets as well as travel for some mid-season focus meets.
We kicked off the month with the Reid Sacco Invitational hosted in Beverly. This meet was prelims/finals for our 11&Over swimmers and timed finals for 10&Unders. All together, the Sharks boasted 71% best times with many New England Age Group and Senior cuts met! Thank you to everyone who contributed to our annual Beverly Bootstraps food drive during this meet. We were successful in delivering almost 180 pounds of food for the food pantry to help the kitchens of those families in need. Every little bit we can do to help is meaningful!
Following the Reid Sacco Invite, we hosted our Pre-Team Holiday Showcase in Ipswich. We had 40 swimmers participate in this event. This was many swimmers' first time competing, and we are so proud of all of the progress these swimmers have made over the past three months.
Last weekend, the Sharks were split between the New England Senior Championship hosted at Brown University, the NSSC Meet at Boston College, and US Para Nationals in Orlando, FL.
New England Seniors is the highest qualifying meet in the LSC for athletes. We have been happy to be able to continue to grow our group of qualifiers. Congratulations to Karli Atwood, Finn Bergquist, Caroline Curtin, Grant Dwyer, Stepan Ignatiev, Madeleine Lucas, Declan MacDonald, Porter Mulgrew, and Sophia Tramontozzi for an amazing meet! We were very happy to have Mixed, Men’s, and Women's relays throughout the weekend and some amazing individual performances.
Congratulations to our 68 athletes for their stellar performance at Boston College. Our swimmers averaged nearly 70% best times across the board. We had plenty of first swims to new Age Group qualifiers!
Upcoming Meets:
We are approximately halfway through the short course season, and the championship season is approaching quickly. Below are meets we will be competing in January and February.
Events marked with an asterisk have a time standard attached to the entry. When committing to the event, events in which your swimmer qualifies appear in BLACK and events where the standard is not met are RED.
You may also visit our “Time Standards” page under the Swimmers tab.
RAYS Specialty Meet, Jan 13 (Deadline: PASSED)
NE Bronze Championship*, Jan 19-21 (Deadline: Jan. 5)
YMCA Districts*, (Event Coming Soon!)
NE Silvers Championship*, Feb. 2-4 (Event Coming Soon!)
NE 10U Age Group Championship*, Feb. 16-18 (Deadline: Feb. 2)
11-14 Age Group Championship*, Feb. 22-25 (Event Coming Soon!)
If you have questions about entering in one of the championship meets this season, please reach out to your Lead Site Coach. We hope to see all qualified Sharks at meets throughout the Championship season!
Holiday Practice Schedules:
Next week, we will be following our Holiday Schedule. Please refer to the Holiday Schedule for all practices Tuesday, December 26th - Saturday, December 30th.
Special Events Recap:
Thanks so much to everyone who attended our holiday film at the Cabot Theater with our Gymnastics and Cheer teams. It was a great evening for everyone and we'll look to build on it going forward as an annual event.
This year was the first in which we asked for support for the Giving Tree effort which provides holiday items for children and families who are part of our childcare programs. We are so happy to report that your generosity allowed us to contribute just about $1,000 in gift cards to the overall effort of the program. Thank you all sincerely!
Para Swimming Update + Recap:
Back in November, Coach Dave represented Team USA on their trip to Santiago, Chile for the ParaPan American Games. This was the second international competition that Coach Dave has been invited to participate in as a Coach. This two week journey/competition saw most of the country’s up and coming Para Athletes compete at one of the highest levels, and Dave was an integral part of their success as he helped coach, assist, and monitor many different classification levels during their time in Chile.
The US Para National Championship was held in Orlando during December 14th-17th and was attended by Coach Dave and Leanne Smith. Coach Dave represented Team USA again as a Mentor Coach for all Athletes and Coaches that attended the Meet. Leanne saw season best times in all 4 of her events, and took home Gold Medals in the 50 Back, 50 Breast, and 200 Free! Leanne also achieved a National B Team Time Standard which allows her to continue to be a part of Team USA going into 2024.
Looking forward to 2024, Dave and Leanne will have a few more opportunities to travel domestically and abroad to continue their Para Swimming journey. A few of the next travel opportunities are below, and we wish them both the best of luck as they try to represent YNS on the World Stage, and hopefully at Paris 2024!
- National Team Training Camp + Swim Meet
- Colorado Springs @ Olympic & Paralympic Training Center
- January 8th - 14th
- Para World Series #1 (International)
- Aberdeen, Scotland
- January 28th - February 4th
- Para World Series #2 (Domestic)
- Indianapolis @ IUPUI
- April 10th - 14th
- US Paralympic Team Trials
- Minneapolis @ University of Minnesota
- June 26th - 30th
~Your YNS Coaching Staff
