All PM and Saturday practices at Capaha Pool. All weekday morning practices at Cape Splash.
PRACTICE VIDEOS
The Gator Coaching Staff is trying to make it easier for our swimmers, parents and satellite programs to understand the basic drills
we do for each stroke. The drills and turns are briefly demonstrated by Coach Steve. There is normal speed and soon we will have it in slow motion.
I hope this helps our Gator family and all those visitors to the website. View the videos here!
LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR THE UNIVERSITY CITY MEET:
Due to the small number of swimmers who signed up for this meet, Coach Steve is extending the signup period until Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 8pm. ALL SWIMMERS are encouraged to sign up to attend this one-day (Saturday only) competition. Click here to sign up online or send an email to entries@gatorswimteam.org.
PRACTICE CHANGE: Morning practices will be starting at 5:00am and from now on we will be in the pool. If the water gets too cold, we will resume dryland mornings.
PRACTICE CHANGE: On Monday, September 13, we will not have afternoon practices due to the SEMO Fair parade, which starts at Capaha. Age Group 1 and Seniors will practice in the morning @ 5am (Cape Splash). All other practices are cancelled that day.
GATOR GREAT TIMES MEET: Parents, our first meet of the season is right around the corner. The Great Times meet will be held Nov 5-7 at the Bubble. Please put that weekend on your calendars, as we will need all the help we can get to help run a successful meet once more. We will be signing up workers starting at the beginning of October. Contact Joe Hobbs, Meet Director, for details.
NOTE FROM THE TREASURER: Until we are back at the Bubble (Cape Municipal pool) please mail your monthly dues to Greg Schmidt, Treasurer,
3507 Mallard Dr.,
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701. Please do not put them in the box at Capaha.
FALL FRENZY MEET: Signups for the U. City Fall Frenzy Pentathlon are closed. The lineup will be posted soon.
GATORS ON THE NEWS: Gator swimmer Gabby Vieira was recently featured in a Southeast Missourian article. Congratulations, Gabby.
GATORS AT ZONES: The Gators were represented well at the 2010 Central Zone Age Group Championships held at Lincoln, Nebraska August 6 through 9. A great effort to end their long course season!
New Team Records:
Helen Wojdylo broke the twelve year old team record in the Girls 11-12 200-meter breaststroke by more than 8 seconds, with a time of 2:56.85.
Madeline Siefert finished 13th in the 13-14 200 breast and 23rd in the 100 breast.
Helen Wojdylo finished 4th in the 11-12 200 breast, 9th in the 100 breast and 10th in the 50 breast.
Relays: Our Gator breaststrokers helped power the Ozark Team medley relay teams to strong finishes:
Madeline Siefert helped the 13-14 Girls team finish 6th in both the 200-meter and 400-meter medley relays;
Helen Wojdylo's efforts on the 11-12 Girls team contributed to a 2nd place finish in the 400-meter relay and a 4th place finish in the 200-meter medley relay.
SECTIONAL VIDEOS: Here are videos of some outstanding races by the Gator swimmers who attended the Speedo Champions Series Region 8 meet a couple of weeks ago in Columbia, MO (parents, please submit any pictures or videos you want to share to webmaster@gatorswimteam.org):
SHORT COURSE SEASON: The tentative short course season calendar is now online.
WHAT A GREAT SUMMER: We as a coaching staff decided to change some of our "normal" training this summer to see if we could get different results than in the past. Because of our swimmers being able to adapt and to accept the new changes, our team had one of its most successful seasons on record. I can't guess how many team records fell this summer, but I can give a quick overview of the team's success:
We had three swimmers ranked in the national top ten list at one time.
We have a swimmer who is ranked number one in the nation at the moment, with the sixth fastest all-time swim in the U.S. (Gabby Vieira, 50-meter butterfly).
We qualified three 12-year-old girls for Sectionals (Gabby Vieira, Caitlyn Palmer and Helen Wojdylo); the other new Sectional qualifier was Maddie Siefert.
New Sectional events qualified for were:
Kristian Troxel (200 free, 100 fly),
Kyleigh Troxel (200 free, 200 fly),
Gabby Vieira (100 free) and
Allison Hobbs (100 back).
New quad-A swimmers just in the past 10 days: Brogan Davis, Helen Wojdylo and Kristian Troxel.
Several Ozark LSC records broken by Gabby Vieira this summer: 800-meter free, 1500 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 fly, 400 I.M. and also the 500-yard free and 100-yard back, adding to her other yards records from the spring: 1000 free, 1650 free, 100 fly, 200 fly and 400 I.M.
Gabby is also ranked in the all time top-100 fastest swims in meters: 100, 400, 800, 1500 freestyle / 50, 100, 200 Fly / 200 back;
and in yards: 500, 1000, 1500 Free / 100 back.
Our Summer League Team successfully defended its title for the 7th year in a row under the Coaching of Steffan Troxel and long-time assistants Ann Welker, Dana Powel, Joanie Edmundson,
Rebecca Snyder, Kyleigh Troxel , Allison Hobbs, Bridget Hale, Maddie Siefert and Morgan Maguire.
Thank you to all who made this summer's successes possible!
Steve Franklin
Gator Head Coach
OZARK LONG-COURSE CHAMPIONSHIP: The Gators showed determination and talent once again at the Ozark championship meet, with 19 athletes scoring 1,168.5 points, enough to place the team in 6th out of 18 teams. More importantly, the Gators had the second highest average points per swimmer (61.50) among all teams, just slightly behind champions Parkway with 62.68. In all, 68% of all seed times were improved upon. In addition to these very impressive stats, the prestigious Penny Taylor trophy was awarded to our own Gabby Vieira for her performance at the meet. The award is given to the outstanding swimmer of the meet every year and has been in Gator hands for the past 3 years.
New Ozark Records:
Gabby Vieira set new LSC records in the Girls 11-12 age group, swimming the 50-meter butterfly in 29.02 seconds and the 100-meter butterfly in 1:05.44. Gabby's 50 fly time is currently ranked first in the nation by USA Swimming.
Brogan Davis broke two team records in the Boys 9-10 age group, swimming the 50 back in 36.82 and the 100 back in 1:22.50.
Austin Hobbs set a new Boys 11-12 team record in the 100-meter butterfly event, touching the wall in 1:14.27.
Madeline Siefert broke the team record in the Girls Open 200-meter breaststroke, finishing the race in 2:52.42, more than 4 seconds faster than the previous record.
Kristian Troxel broke the team record in the Boys Open 200-meter butterfly, beating his older brother Steffan's record by over 2 seconds. Kristian's time was 2:12.07.
Gabby Vieira broke the thirteen year old 50-meter freestyle team record in the Girls 11-12 age group with a new time of 28.75 seconds. Gabby also lowered her own team records in the 100 free (1:00.54), 50 fly (29.02), 100 fly (1:05.44) and 200 IM (2:28.31).
Helen Wojdylo set a new team record in the Girls 11-12 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:22.55.
Gabby Vieira set two new Ozark and team records in the Girls 11-12 age group, breaking the 19-year-old 500 freestyle record with a new time of 5:00.58 and the more recent 100-yard backstroke record with a new time of 58.51 seconds (also a new Girls Open team record). Gabby also lowered her own team record times in the 100 free (54.47) and 50 fly (26.72).
Helen Wojdylo lowered her own Girls 11-12 team record time in the 200-yard breaststroke by almost 7 seconds, touching the wall in 2:33.86.
Helen Wojdylo got her first Quad-A time in the Girls 11-12 age group (200 breaststroke, 2:33.86). Helen is the second Gator swimmer to join the group of AAAA swimmers in less than a week, after Kristian Troxel's 1500m free time last week.
Three more Gator swimmers qualified to swim at the Speedo Championship Sectional meet next spring. First Madeline Siefert and Helen Wojdylo raced each other in the 200-yard breaststroke, both qualifying by a comfortable margin. A few minutes later Caitlyn Palmer beat the qualifying time in the 100-yard butterfly race. One race later, Kristian Troxel (already qualified in other events) added the 100-yard butterfly to the list of events he will be swimming at the next Sectionals meet.
SPEEDO CHAMPIONSHIP REGION 8 (SECTIONALS) RESULTS:
New Records:
Gabby Vieira lowered her own team record times in the Girls 11-12 age group in the 200 free (2:10.97), 400 free (4:31.21), 800 free (9:24.17) and 1500 free (17:59.25). Her 800 and 1500 times are also new Ozark records.
EMAILS: Please help us update our team information. Send a short e-mail to gschmidt@gatorswimteam.org No message is required. Just add your name and your swimmer's name so we can add your e-mail address to our data base. Thank you for your help!
AGE GROUP ZONES INFORMATION POSTED: The Athlete Registration Packet for the Ozark Zones Team is now available online.
FITTER AND FASTER TOUR IN SAINT LOUIS: Join Olympic Medalist and 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year Lacey Nymeyer, along with three-time Olympic Champion and five-time Olympic Medalist, Ian Crocker on August 15, 2010 at the Lafayette High School Pool for over 90 minutes of swimming, motivational speaking, gift bags and more. The events and the Olympians focus on creating a fun, interactive and inspirational environment for swimmers age 5 to 18 to further their love of the sport. Click here for details
SWIMMER SHOWCASE:Check out this website created to help swimmers find a college swim team. It's a free and useful recruiting tool that allows swimmers to get their name, abilities and accomplishments in front of college coaches. Click on the sidebar logo (on the left) or here to visit the Swimmer Showcase website.
All Gator swimmers are strongly encouraged to attend as many meets as possible during the season, so please consider signing up for the upcoming meets. Here are some very important reasons for swimmers to attend meets:
1. NEW SKILLS: Competing in meets gives us a chance to learn things that we can’t really learn in practice. Racing is a skill that must be developed, just as a good butterfly is a skill that needs to be developed. To do this we need to practice and the more meets we compete in the better we get.
2. TEAM SPIRIT: Going to meets as a team encourages us to get to know our teammates better and fosters team spirit. It also allows our younger swimmers a chance to watch, and learn from our older, more experience swimmers.
3. GOALS: Good goal setting takes practice too. By swimming in meets and testing ourselves to the limit, we learn just how far we have come, and what we need to improve on. Remember, we can learn just as much from our failures as we can from our successes.
4. REWARDS: Swimming is a sport that teaches us great life lessons. Particularly, if you want something bad, then you have to work for it. Participation in meets gives us a chance to be rewarded for all our hard work.
There are many more great reasons to swim in meets. The main idea is to realize that meets are a great learning experience. Just as tests that we take in school allow us to both monitor our progress and to learn from our mistakes. Meets are a vital part of any swimmers development and ALL swimmers are encouraged to participate in them, regardless of what practice group you are in.
"Excellence is certainly not ordinary. It is special. It is also however, for the most part, not a chance or accidental occurrence. Excellence results from consistent preparation, positive beliefs and attention to detail. Excellence occurs when we make it the standard for our daily routine."Continued.
Note from Coach Steve: Gator families, Because of problems arising with parent involvement during practice time, I am asking all parents to please refrain from talking with me or the coaching staff during scheduled practices. We will be available before and after practice if you have any questions that need answered. Preferably I would appreciate a phone call or email prior to any discussions at the pool. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation. - Steve
GATOR SWIM TEAM INFO
JOIN THE GATOR SWIM TEAM - YEAR-ROUND OPPORTUNITIES - The Gator Swim Team is a parent-owned competitive swim team organized to teach swimmers of all ages and abilities. When a swimmer joins the Gator Swim Team he or she learns the values of sportsmanship, discipline, teamwork, and integrity. Swimming, through the Gator Swim Team, provides physical, emotional and intellectual skills that will last a lifetime. Find out more here!.
The Gator Swim Team is a regional parent-owned competitive swim team dedicated to teaching swimmers excellence in swimming and life through sportsmanship, discipline, teamwork and integrity.
www.gatorswimteam.org
Cape Girardeau, Missouri "Gator Swim Team" and the "Eyes and Eyebrows" logo are trademarks
of Gator Swim Team, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. All rights reserved.
PRACTICE CHANGE: Morning practices will be starting at 5:00am and from now on we will be in the pool. If the water gets too cold, we will resume dryland mornings. 
