As we go into the New England Regional Championships, I want to recap our 2009/2010 Short Course season with the Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoon swim team.  So, without further ado, here is how our season played out:

We started our season with our swim clinic about 3 weeks prior to any other swim team in our Yankee Cluster, and it proved to be very successful!  The swimmers learned a plethora of drills and skills that they would be then used throughout the regular season to improve their stroke and racing technique.  Following the clinic, we had our first meet in early October.

The 2009 National YMCA Virtual Invitational had 220 swim teams (in total 11,605 athletes throughout the U.S.) swam locally to compete nationally against each other which was the first time that an event like this has been run by the YMCA.  The Typhoon swimmers did extremely well with the following as highlight swims:

• W. Munstermann placed 12th in the 50 free, and 15th in the 50 back
• G. Livsey placed 19th in the 50 free, and 11th in the 100 breast
• 10 and under boys placed 15th overall
• Typhoons finished 2nd out of all our Cluster teams (69th overall out of 220 teams – not bad for being a young swim team)

The Autumn Classic was the next stop for the Typhoon swim team, and we did excellent!  Some of the highlight swims were:

• A. Allen took off 9.23 seconds from her 100 free
• G. Desroches dropped nearly 4 seconds on her 50 freestyle
• E. Hodes dropped over 5 seconds in his 50 breaststroke, and over 3 seconds from his 50 free
• N. Kern dropped 10.98 seconds in his 200 free
• G. Livsey cut 5 seconds from his 200 free
• M. Munstermann took down her 200 IM by 8.30, and her 100 free by 3.80

Our meet against Farmington Valley YMCA, though long, was a very fast meet for the athletes.  In total, there were 18 Typhoon swimmers that dropped time for a cumulative of over 3 minutes dropped by those 18 swimmers.  That equals out to an average of 17 seconds dropped per swimmer!

And the times just kept getting faster and faster throughout the year!  Typically swimmers will usually flatten out (or plateau) with their times as the season progresses until it is time to taper.  However, the Typhoon swimmers truly didn’t experience this – at least not at looking through everyone’s times!  That not only shows that we still have room to grow, but that the swimmers have tremendous heart and dedication to get better no matter the circumstances!

So, the short course season went on and into Yankee Cluster Championships.  Last year, we (as an almost brand new team) finished 11th out of 13 teams.  This year, we were able to overtake significantly larger teams and place 9th overall out of 13 teams – as an aside, we were the second smallest team in attendance!  Not only were we able to accomplish that, but take a look at our other achievements:

• 13 and 14 year old girls placed 8th overall
• 13 and 14 year old boys placed 5th overall (and this includes 15 – 18 as well)
• 9 and 10 year old boys placed 3rd overall

The Yankee Clusters wrapped up our regular season which produced 8 individual qualifiers for New England Regionals, but our swimmers wanted more!  So, we ventured off to the Last Ditch meet where we entered 8 individual events.  Four of those events ended up as qualifying times where we added 2 more individually qualified swimmers to our total!

Our year-end stats are still in limbo depending on how the swimmers do at the Regional meet, but here is a quick look at how we stand so far:

• 43 of 66 team records broken (some broken several times)
• over 50% of swims were personal best times
• Out of 60 swimmers, 10 individually qualified for New England’s, and a 19 swimmers competing in relays which is almost 50% of our team that will attend Regionals this year – the highest number in our team’s history!
• And, most importantly, a total of 60 smiles on 60 swimmers’ faces every week throughout the year as they learned and had fun with their friends!

So, congratulations to the swimmers, the coaching staff, the parents, and the Hamden North Haven YMCA community!  I will try to update all of you on our happenings in Boston as we travel this weekend so stay tuned for more Typhoon News!

Go Typhoons!!

The Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoon Swim Team officially has 3 days left until they make their way to the YMCA New England Regional Championships in Boston, MA!  This 2009 – 2010 Short Course season marks the first time that the Typhoons have hit double digits in individual qualifiers ranging from the Hamden, North Haven, Bethany, and surrounding communities.  This also allows relay teams from each age group to attend the championship meet!

For more: New England Championship Information

Your very own Hamden North Haven YMCA Typhoons coach was on Split Time with Garrett McCaffrey last night.  We talked about caffeine restrictions and bans in the NCAA which has been a huge debate recently on pool decks and among coaches.  Take a look through this link, or watch the video below:

As the Hamden North Haven YMCA Swim Team – The Typhoons – head into their last week of taper practice prior to New England’s, here is a quick run-down of how the 2009/2010 short course season went:

• 43 of 66 team records broken
• 10 individual swimmers qualified for New England’s
• 7 relay teams (a total of 28 swimmers) competing in New England’s
• 13 and 14 year old boys placed 5th overall in Cluster Championships
• 9 and 10 year old boys placed 3rd overall in Cluster Championships
• 13 and 14 year old girls placed 7th overall in Cluster Championships

To say the very least, it has been a great season so far with the final meet coming up in Boston, MA!  For those swimmers in the meet, swim hard and fast!

For results, I will be trying to post each evening which events were swum and how each swimmer (and relay team) did with their swims!  So, check back for more information, and more records broken in a week!

Go Typhoons!

The regular short course season for 2009 and 2010 has officially ended on an extremely high note with the YMCA Yankee Cluster Championships this past weekend!  I want to congratulate all of the swimmers, parents, Coach Kait, and Coach Nicole for their accomplishments, achievements, and improvements throughout this year!

Here are some of the overall highlights from the meet:

• 8 and under boys took 7th overall
• 9 and 10 boys finished 3rd overall
• 11 and 12 girls brought home 6th overall
• 11 and 12 boys took 8th overall
• 13 and over boys took 5th overall

Not bad for being the second smallest team that participated in Clusters – a total of 39 swimmers from our team that attended the meet!

If you want to see the results for this past weekend, please check: Yankee Cluster Championships.

I just wanted to quickly shoot out and update that we are canceling tonight’s practice due to the wintry weather that we are getting.  The Hamden/North Haven YMCA will also be closing at 2:00pm today due to the white stuff falling from the sky.

Practice will resume tomorrow evening.  Enjoy the snow!

The results have been posted from this past weekend’s swim meet. You can click the following link for them (NMYB Results) or find them under our swim meet results page.

As a meet recap, all of the Typhoon swimmers did an outstanding job on Saturday morning against the Northern Middlesex YMCA Barracudas! Both swim team’s had great results with quite a few swimmers dropping time which is always hard in this part of the season! Along with the great times, we had one more swimmer qualify for New England’s and another swimmer qualify for New England’s in an alternate event! Great swimming to the both of you!

See you all on deck!

I wanted to congratulate all of the Typhoon swimmers who participated in the meet against Northwestern YMCA Lasers this past weekend.  You all did an outstanding job, and we had one more swimmer qualify for New England Regional Championships!  A huge congratulations to that swimmer, and let’s swim hard this week!

Northwestern YMCA Results

Dear Typhoons swimmers and parents:

Happy Holidays!

Applebees Fundraiser (January 2, 2010): Money raised will be funding the banquet.  We need 100% participation to meet our goal of paying for each swimmer’s meal and participation awards.

• The window for ticket sales is quickly closing and we need to hear from YOU in two days, by December 24.   Applebees requires a headcount 1 week prior to the event.  If you cannot find Kathy, please give the money and/or tickets to Coaches Kaitlin or Nicole.  You can also email Kathy Garner @ kathryn.garner@ubs.com, call @ 203-248-1982 or 860-616-9073, or send in the mail 100 London Drive, Hamden, CT.
• Many thanks to the following families who have purchased tickets or will be coming to the Applebees fundraiser: Allen / Vincent, Andoh, Bunton, Fontes, Fox, Garner, Hammerberg, Kaptain, Miller, Munstermann, Pagni, Rockwell, and Schrier.
• For those families who have NOT responded, this is a great way to earn volunteer points!
• As a reminder, each person will need to present their ticket in order to get served breakfast.  Kathy tracks all sold tickets so if you lose your tickets, she can double check and can help with replacement tickets if necessary.

Volunteer Points Tracking:

• Typhoons family volunteer points tracking document is attached.  The first page is the summary of how many volunteer points your family has earned to date. The second page is the breakdowns from December.  Please note that if you donated food items for our first HOME meet, you would have earned 3 volunteer points.  If you volunteered either as a timer or snack bar worker, you would have earned 4 points for the entire meet.  Food donation points are captured under the “Timers first half – December 12” column.  Snack bar and timer volunteer points are captured under the Timers heading.  If you feel that your data are not correct, please let me know (do not REPLY ALL please).
• Thanks to Jen Fox, our parent liaison, for tracking these December volunteer points.

Swim Meets

• All of the meet results, schedule, directions, and practice times are online at www.typhoonswimming.com.
• Results for Waterbury, Wheelers, and our first home meet with Mystics have all been posted (http://www.typhoonswimming.com/meets/meet-results/).

I will not be sending out a weekly email next week because of the holidays.  The email notices will resume on January 5.

Go Typhoons!

Volunteers tracking summary Dec 22 2009

Heidi

Just a gentle reminder that all tickets for our Flapjack Fundraiser (January 2, 2010) are due on December 23rd to Kathy Garner.  If you have any questions or need any information on the event please contact either Kathy or Coach Andy as soon as possible.

Happy Holidays and Happy Swimming!