Marlins News

We are already getting in the 3rd week of October, days are getting shorter, cooler ... and practice is getting harder! Our swimmers are doing a great job at staying focused on the December meets and trying not to let the challenging practices shake their determination. The group 4 swimmers are very excited to have added a couple of "torture" instruments at practice. It will take some getting use to it but the new snorkel and paddles will help a lot.

View of the girl's side of the pool.

We have just participated in our second away meet of the season at Indian Valley in Novato on October 9th and 10th. Although the meet felt a bit chaotic with girls and boys swimming at the same time (at both end of the pool), it was a good demonstration of where the kids are at in their training. 23 swimmers participated in the event, mostly group 3 and 4 swimmers, but we did have a few younger kids represented by Alyssa Mulligan (7) and Amelia Downs (9) who swim in her first away meet ever (good Job!). 40% best time is below what we usually do at meets, but this early in the season it makes sense. Worth noting that our swimmers only collected 2 disqualifications out of 109 races. What is unusual is the fact that we had 5 new team records during the meet. James Beard improved his one year old record on the 9-10 500 free, and Jared Sears broke 3 eight year old records in the 15-16 200 free, 100 back and 200 IM and one seven year old record in the 200 back. Good job to all of you!

This last weekend, a few of our swimmers decided it would be a good idea to go swim in cold water and participated in the Tiburon Mile. Congratulation to Adam Loo, Isabella Salmi and Jared Sears.  Its been just over 24 hours so everyone should be thawed out by now and the good news is no Marlins were part of the 6 swimmers that had to be rescued due to the cold conditions.  Besides the rain and overcast sky an article in today's IJ mentioned because of the large number of swimmers (850) there was a longer wait on the beach so people were chilled going into the water.  

Take a wild guess! Was this picture taken before or after the race? You go guys!

We are now getting ready for our Saturday home meet (The Spooky Plunge) and hope to get good weather for the event. I you haven't done so yet, please take the time to sign-up. Of course I would be happy to help. NBA will be bringing a small crew to the meet and I hope to see a lot Marlins swimmers attending.

We are still planning on attending an away meet on November 20-21 (most likely in Oakland or the peninsula) more on this as soon as I have some info about our option. Regardless, this will be a meet that will not give us a long time to register for it, as soon as you get my e-mail announcement I suggest you sign-up.

Last but not least, the Fort Bragg meet is back on and just got posted. It is the same weekend as JOs and will be serving swimmers who didn't qualify for Junior Olympics ... or who are too old (15 and over). Now you are thinking Fort Bragg!!! Is he nuts? ... I know that a 3 hour drive is not everyone's favorite, but concider going for both days and spending the nigh there. It is an indoor pool with a really fun and attractive format for the meet (relays and team scoring). I will be sending you a specific e-mail shortly about the event.

Marlins News

Hi Folks,
here we are at the beginning of October with already 4 weeks of swim practice, one home meet and one away meet behind us.

As of today, we have about 125 swimmers actively participating in swim practice and it looks like everyone has their school schedule down. We are seeing the swimmer in group 1 and 2 an average of 2 practices a week, group 3's average is 2.6 and group 4's is 3.

We had beautiful afternoon for the first event of the season. 59 swimmers participated in the meet only 10 days after our first scheduled practice of the year. This was a great time to practice racing, get a feel for swim meets for our newer athletes and get parent to spend some time socializing. The performance in the 25 yard events, as expected,  was good. Most events were improved particularly with the 9 and over swimmer who do not race a 25 yard very often. The 50 yards events were a lot tougher on the kids as only 16% of the events were improved! Parents, thank you for helping with the meet. For results please click here.

Our first social event of the season was schedule right after the meet. We had Bobby from the RRC kitchen cater the event and everyone was able to enjoy the evening amongst friend and family. 20 families participated and everyone truly enjoyed Cheryl Davis' slide show put together with love about our last season.

Reed from Norcal was here ... if you came to practice that day (9/21), I am sure you heard his booming voice. I know he took quite a few orders for team suits, warm-ups and parkas. If you missed the event, you can still call Norcal at 1-800-752-7946 and place your order. I do have a sizing kit (a bunch of suits of all sizes in a box) in my office.

Jeff and I took 17 kids to our first away meet of the season in Hercules. This was a first for us and we loved everything about the meet. The format, the people, the pool and of course the weather. This is definitely a keeper and we will add this event to the schedule next season. The kids did OK, with 35% best time, I cannot call this meet great as this is well below average for the team, but the numbers do not seem to reflect the over all feel of the weekend. No one got disqualified (although Annelise should have ;-)) and many swimmers swam fast on a few of their events. Ultimately, everyone had been working hard the previous week - 25% harder then at the beginning of last fall season, and Jeff and I were happy to see the kids get within 1 to 2 seconds on their 100s. The results are posted on the Marlins website. Certainly worth noting is the fact that 2 team records were broken at the meet: Jared Sears broke his own record in the 13-14 200 Free and Jared Sears, Alicia Vogelaar, Kate Claman and Jack Berkenfield broke the 13 and over mixed 200 Medley Relay record as well. Good job.

Jack, Kate, Alicia and Jared - Go Marlins

This weekend, Jeff and I are taking 23 swimmers to the Marin Pirate meet in Novato (10/9 and 10/10). The kids have been training hard but we should see an overall better performance as they are all getting closer to their top shape. More on this next week.

If you have not noticed it yet, the sign-up for our next home meet are open. This year will be our 15th Spooky Plunge Meet, with the usual spooky events and hopefully the beautiful weather we hope will come with it.

You all have received you first invoice of the season. If you are paying by check, please make it payable to RRC and bring it by at practice at your earliest convenience.

Any questions, please call me at 456-1153
Marc