Key West Killer Whales

Happy Friday Killer Whales! This week was full of excitement and preparations for our first home meet and it ran very smoothly! Thank you to everyone who helped get the pool ready, parked cars, cleaned the deck, set up and tore down the meet, and volunteered during the meet. We truly could not have done it without you and are looking forward to another great home meet this week.

This past week we focused on freestyle and backstroke flip turns as well as backstroke finished with our younger swimmers. I am so proud of those swimmers who tried a flip turn in freestyle or backstroke for the first time this week! Every day we see more and more progress with our younger swimmers and love their enthusiasm for learning and trying new things. We also started teaching butterfly and breaststroke to these swimmers. It is important to remember that progress can feel small each day, but we know the kids will get used to the new strokes as we continue to teach them throughout the season.

In our older age groups, we started adding more distance to our practices. It has been wonderful to see everyone ready to get in the pool and work hard on the sets! As we get into the hotter days of the summer, I encourage swimmers to bring a water bottle to practice with them. Even though they are in the water, they are still getting in a good workout!

Our meet against Glenmore had a lot of fast swims! You can check out the updated JSL Top 50 Times using this link. We have many swimmers who are on the Top 50 list and many more that are close. Once your swimmer has participated in two meets, you are able to opt them into JSL Champs on Swimtopia. The earlier you do this, the easier it is to plan for meet entries. Thank you for your continued support as we adjust to a new system this year.

As we look at the week ahead, we have another home meet to host against Lake Monticello Swim Team! Please make sure to opt in or out of the meet by Monday (6/22) at noon. The theme of the meet against Lake Monticello is going to be a PINK OUT! Wear all things pink (caps, suits, goggles, and clothes) and be ready to cheer on our Killer Whales! I cannot wait for another great week at Key West!

Go Killer Whales!

Coach Alexa

Happy Friday Killer Whales! It is hard to believe we already completed our first meet of the season. I wanted to say a special thank you to any and all who volunteered, coached, or simply showed up with good attitudes ready to swim. Many hands make light work and I think Key West is the perfect example of that. You can view the results of Wednesday's meeting here.

The past couple of weeks we have been working on getting back in the water and learning routine. Our younger swimmers have worked extremely hard to prepare for the first meet and did amazing! We are so proud of the growth we have seen and cannot wait to see where this season takes us. Our older swimmers are honing their skills in their strokes while also gaining confidence in the water. It is always fun to see the improvements from the hard work swimmers have put in during the fall and winter.

Our meet against Crozet highlighted some very fast swims, including many people who made it on the JSL Top 50 Times list this week! You can follow this link to see those times. One of our small swimmers asked me at the meet if I thought killer whales are faster than gators and based on our swims, I can answer yes to that question with confidence. We also had a few Key West Swim Team records broken at Crozet! These records are collected from post-COVID to the current date. Thank you Clint for running reports and organizing these records.

Harrison Kyin: 9-10 Boys 50 Breaststroke (43.35)

Whitt Jaskot: 9-10 Boys 50 Butterfly (33.05)

Whitt Jaskot: 9-10 Boys 100 Freestyle (1:04.73)

Zachary Kidd: 11-12 Boys 50 Breaststroke (37.14)

Nathaniel Matz: 11-12 Boys 100 Freestyle (59.91)

Sutton Jaskot: 13-14 Boys 50 Backstroke (29.81)

Sutton Jaskot: 13-14 Boys 100 Freestyle (55.88)

As we look ahead, next week holds our first home meet of the season! Please make sure to opt in or out of the meet by Monday. There is the option to do this for the remainder of the meets on Swimtopia if you would like to knock that out in one go. Any swimmers that are “undeclared” will not be entered into the meet. The theme of the meet against Glenmore is World Cup so break out those soccer jerseys and come excited to cheer!

Go Killer Whales!

Coach Alexa