Looking Back (Week 4) & Looking Forward (Week 5)

Looking Back
Week 4 was mainly surrounded/interrupted by the holidays. We all hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy Hannakah! Friday, The team donated a whopping $300 smackers to Swim for America. Also, as you see in the fore of the picture, lots and lots of non-perishables. My daughter Violet and I took the donations to Merrimack Valley food bank in Lowell. They weighed our Charitable offerings at 126 pounds! Way to go TGD! As a result, the team earned 30 minutes of fun. Which they spent playing water polo, as you see in the background of the photo. Captains Sam Messina and Austin Drake wrote the team's swim practice. We cheered our heads off at the end of practice (Thanks Cam W) and headed right into our team Pot Luck Brunch. Thanks Mrs. Kay for organizing and thank you Mrs. Panagakis and Mrs. Ferriera for helping at the food table.

Looking Ahead:
We have our GLT meet on Monday. 9:30 Warm-Up don't be late. It will be a fun meet and one, I hope, becomes a tradition between the two squads. We also host Shrewsbury Jan. 2 (warm-Up is 5 PM). Captain Sam Messina is organizing our team outing and is looking to reschedule our bowling night. Monday, Dec. 30th just won't for Bolero Lanes (Brunswick to you and me). If you have any ideas, feel free to contact any of the captains or me. Have a happy and safe New Year's! Looking the take our winning streak well beyond week 5!

Week 4: Holidays, Swim for Hunger and our Scrimmage meet with GLT.
We enter into week 4 with some good swims in our rear-view mirror. Now to make the most of this time with little meet interruptions. Expect yardage to ramp Up! Get the ice ready for those shoulders! Friday is our annual Swim against Hunger Fundraiser. Captains will run this distance-heavy practice with hope to raise enough money or bring in enough food to play some water polo. Details in my email.
Next meet is December 30th against Greater Lowell Tech. We agreed to host so we will need timers, score table personnel, ect. Find some family members to come and watch. Should be a fun time.
Immediately after this meet, the team is going bowling! Captain Sam Messina is organizing this fun day out so watch out for her emails (or wherever the correspondence is taking place) and get ready to lose to your coach!
Happy Holidays!!!

Week 3 Highlights: Fudge $$, Gardner Meet and New swimmers.
A whirlwind of a week to be sure. First off we hit our goal and then some with our Fudge Fundraiser. Over $600 raised is well over last year's total. Lily Wagner sold the most fudge leaving were with a delicious platter of cookies and treats. Well done Lily. Next up, we have our Swim for Hunger event. Details to follow.
The last school week before the holiday always is a busy. TGD spent this week welcoming the swimmers and divers from North Middlesex to our team. A good group of juniors and seniors came to practice Wednesday and raced with the team the very next day. It only seems fair they get right back into the swing of things considering how their season started.
The Gardner meet was a good one. Gardner was clearly outnumbered (especially the boy's team), but they won their fair share of events and made the Women's competition quite close. With some perfect timing, the North Middlesex girls gave us a boost and a win for the women 111-71. While the boy's was determined rather early, Gardner will prove to be a much stronger team when we face off with them at Mid-Wach. Monty Tech swimmers who normally call Leominster home, will race with Gardner. We wish them luck in the rest of the season.

Swimmers of the Meet!

Travis Belanger: Hasn't missed a practice all year. Raced in two winning relays and finished second in both the 200 free and 100 fly. Not is usual events, but when you need a swim from a guy, Travis can do it all. Well done Travis!
Ben Szum: Or Ben Zoom as I like to call him. Ben did some heavy lift for us in the 200 IM and the 500 Free, finishing second for both. He also anchored the 200 Free and swam breast in the Medley. Way to represent TGD! Strike a pose Zoom. You've earned it.
Kailyn Looney: Our resident team manager has been as steady and committed as she can be. Swimming 50 and 100 free for the first time, when asked 'How did you like that?', an emphatic 'I LOVED IT' came right back. Hopefully, Kaitlyn can move her schedule around so she can take less times and swim more best times (see what I did there?). Great Job Kaitlyn!
Emma Drake: Another solid and steady competitor. Emma shines with a tenacious drive. Racing in the 200 Free, 100 Free and the 200 Free Relay. She can go at sprints and at middle distances. A team favorite for her focus and calm demeanor, we have not seen the last of this 1st year swimmer. Way to go Emma!

Nice Job TGD we are both 3-0! Next up: GLT.

Week 3: looking Ahead

TGD had to postpone Tuesday's meet with Shrewsbury. New date to be determined.

Wednesday the fudge orders are coming in. We will need a parent or two to volunteer distributing the fudge. If you can come around 7:15 to help get the orders to the correct recipients, that would be very helpful.

Thursday is Picture day. Please come with your team shirt for photos at 4:30. Our second meet of the year we host Gardner and hope to continue the great we have so far.

Friday practice's start time has changed to 6PM. GLT is hosting a meet and will be out hopefully at 6:30PM. We will do our dryland, then swim from 6:30-7:30. We may get in early, be on time!

We expect to host some new swimmers and/or divers this week. Hailing from the defunct Leominster Swim Team, some North Middlesex athletes have decided to join our coop to continue their love of competitive swimming. We will ingratiate them as part of the team and continue the season with more character than we start. Can that even be possible?

Fight 'till the end!

Week 2 Highlights

We had a great Meet versus AMSA and Grafton Saturday night. Boys and girls won both contests and start off the season at 2-0 apiece.
Scores:
    Girls
TGD 92 AMSA 68
TGD 81  Grafton 79
    Boys
TGD  85 AMSA 74
TGD 98 Grafton 44

There were several records in jeopardy including the boys 200 Medley Relay, Gavin's 50 Free and Cam's 100 Fly. 1 Record did fall. Cam Watelet broke his own record from 2 years ago in the 200 IM dropping the record to 2:06.10.

Grafton/AMSA Swimmers of the Meet: (L to R) Max Gregoire, Joey Wang, Mo Aldulaimy, Riley Beaudoin



Starting with Max Gregoire: He swam several important legs of our relays including the 200 Medley, 200 Free, 400 Free. But the biggest swim was his first 200 IM . Having a flawless and competitive IM on your first go is quite the accomplishment. Way to go Max!

Joey Wang is new to the team but made a splash early on with his 2 1st place finishes in the 100 and 200 Free swim and his near record backstroke leg of the 200 Medley relay. Well done Joey! He also swam 2nd in the nearly state qualifying 400 Free relay.

Mo Aldulaimy swam in his first competitive swim meet ever. EVER! And boy what an inspiring bunch of swims he had. First having a go in the 50 Free and the 200 Free relay, Mo then led our B relay in the 400 Free. You think Mo was anchoring the darn thing the way our team cheered his lane.  Way impressive Mo!

Riley Beaudoin's second season got off to an aggressive start. Anchoring one sectional qualifying relay in the 200 Medley and then leading off in the 2nd sectional qualifying relay, the 400 Free. Riley nearly came away with the relay trifecta in the 200 Free but the team came up short finishing second. Rounding off the night, Riley did some work in the 100 back to a 3rd place finish. Well done Riley

Great job this week TGD. Let's keep it going in week 3!