Neptunes improve to 4-0! 

For the second consecutive year, we will be one of two undefeated teams battling for the crown as Division 17 champion. Next Saturday, July 20th, we will face Lincolnia Park. The two of us have each beaten every other team in the division and it will be our closest and most exciting meet of the year! It will be "all hands on deck" and we will be looking for every swimmer possible to be available as we seek our first Division Championship since 2009. 

This Saturday, we beat North Springfield 243 to 174. We were the favorites, but the meet was seeded to only be about a 30 point difference between us and them. Our swimmers dropped times and finished hard to take a lot of close races, winning the meet by more than expected. In 110 individual swims, we set 43 personal best times! 

OFFICIALS & DQs - This week, both Monday and Saturday, there was a lot of talk about officials and DQ's that were or were not called. 

1) DQ's: Our coaches take the time to go over EVERY DQ slip from every meet in the season. We look for patterns, areas that need focus in practice, and we also tell each swimmer what they were disqualified for and how we can fix that for the future. We do not look at DQ slips as a bad thing and are not disappointed or angry with swimmers for getting disqualified. The goal is to not be disqualified, but a DQ slip just means that we are not at that point yet, and it lists exactly what we were doing wrong so that we know what to work on going forward. DQ slips open a conversation for how we can improve our swimming, and the coaches have that conversation with each swimmer when necessary. 

2) Officials: There was a lot of talk about some of the other teams' Stroke and Turn Judges this week, which is not appropriate and was on the brink of becoming gossip. Swimmers were overhearing other swimmers and even parents making negative comments and were repeating those comments, sometimes without even knowing what they were really saying. Stroke and Turn Judges have a difficult job, have to know the rules for every stroke, and have to watch 3, sometimes 4, lanes all at the same time. They are also one of the jobs that you are not allowed to do in a meet unless you have done an NVSL training which must be updated every two years. They work very hard for us and the meets could not be run without them. Finally, and most importantly, our Stroke and Turn Judges, just like all of our meet officials, are volunteers, most with children swimming in the meet. Just like the rest of us, our meet officials are not perfect, however, if you have a question or issue with any official, bring it to Team Rep Tyler Wyllie or Coaches Jamie or Miranda. Please don't spread stories or start talking unfairly about the volunteers that help us run our meets. 

Can you believe we are looking at our final B Meet Monday night? We're looking for some more personal best times!

PLEASE DECLARE YOUR SWIMMERS AVAILABILITY FOR MONDAY NIGHT'S B MEET ASAP (before 10:30am on Monday!)

Let's go Neptunes! 

NFST Coaches