After a week out of the pool, Northwood competed in the Division IV Championship. The Boys finished 2nd overall and the Girls finished 6th overall.

The scores may not have gone our way, but every single athlete has something to be proud of. We saw 21 season best times, some seriously impressive diving and lots of pink facepaint!

Every swimmer achieved something great:

• Gabe had a seriously tough schedule, but still had a super fast 100 Fly, finishing with a time of 1:24.28 (beating Coach Maddie’s 100 fly time from earlier that day).
• After finally convincing the coaches to stop entering him in the 200 IM, Jonas crushed his 200 Free, dropping even more time and placing 6th overall.
• Dropping 2 seconds last week in the 100 Free wasn’t enough for Charlie! He continued to improve his time this week, finishing with a season best time of 58.62.
• Solena has found her event! In the 500 Freestyle, she went all out her last 100yd, which helped her get her time below 9 minutes.
• In the 200 Medley Relay, Brevin had his fastest 50 Back split of the season (28.61), which helped the relay team achieve a METROS cut.
• Ian finished second overall in diving, with a score of 184.75. He picked some challenging dives and his highest scoring dive was his Inward Dive, where his total score was 36.00!
• Though she didn’t beat Coach Maddie’s time (yet!), Katie dropped over 7 seconds in the 100 fly and placed 9th, getting the Girls important points!
• Despite the last minute goggle disaster, Nathalie swam a super fast 50 Free, all while having the most pink on out of any swimmer!
• In the 50 Free, Xavier broke 30 seconds and achieved his personal best time – 29.68.
• Zaid had his fastest leg of the 400 Free Relay, helping the relay team achieve a METROs cut.
• Xavion was there the entire meet, cheering on the Gladiators, helping coach Maddie stay organized and overall being a positive presence for the team.
• With some of the strongest walls ever, Henry swam his season best time in the 100 breaststroke, finishing with a time of 1:12.73 and swimming well above his seed.
• Not only did Abby show up in the coolest pink outfit, but she crushed it in the pool, dropping 2 seconds in her 100 Freestyle
• Even though he has dropped time in the 100 Breast almost every meet this season, Oliver knew he could go even faster. He dropped 4 more seconds in the event, for a season best time of 1:08.90.
• In diving, Donovan received an 8 as a part of his total score of 36.90 on his Back Dive, ½ Twist.
• With a final time of 1:59.32, Porter swam his fastest 200 Free of the season and secured first place in the event.
• After some prerace drama (another swimmer took her lane), Magda crushed her 50 Free from Heat 2, swimming exactly her best time.
• Angie continued to drop time in her 200 Free and 100 Breast, achieving her personal best times in both events.
• In the 200 Free, Becker crushed his previous time, swimming a 2:04.15 and out-racing his competitor to secure the Gladiators a 1-2 finish.

Thank you to our volunteers – John, Jennifer, Arlen, Pam, Kevin and Rochelle. We appreciate your hard work during such a long meet!

This week:

Monday, Feb 2 – Practice is TBD – check team groupchat

Wednesday, Feb 4 – Practice @ MLK, NO DIVE PRACTICE

Friday, Feb 6 – Boys 400 Free Relay and 500 Free at METROS

Saturday, Feb 7 – 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay at METROS

Swimmers should plan on attending practices this week, even if they aren’t swimming at METROS, so we can prepare for Regionals. Please declare your athletes for Regionals on Swimtopia. We will be sending an email to request volunteers for the meet soon.

Other Upcoming Events:

Thursday, Feb 12 – Dive Regionals

Saturday, Feb 14 – Regionals @ MLK. Meet begins at 8:00am.

Saturday, Feb 21 – States @ UMD

Sunday, Feb 22 – Swim Team Banquet @ Kenmont Swim & Tennis Club. Begins at 6pm

Monday, Feb 23 – Winter Sports Awards Night

Saturday, Mar 14 – MULCH SALE

This is our largest team fundraiser of the year. We need a parent volunteer to drive a UHAUL and deliver mulch. Please let me know if you are interested!

We have a few more weeks of the season. Go Glads!