North York Aquatic Club

The past three months have been the most challenging, rigourous, exciting and encouraging months for the Provincial 2 group. With such positive results coming out of Mega-City and Youth Cup we knew we had an opportunity to make a significant impact in the short course championship season. During this period we have tried to take our training to new levels and test ourselves both mentally and physically on a day-to-day basis. We had a little more emphasis on endurance the first four weeks coming out of Christmas and slowly increased the intensity as we headed into our championship meet season. We took a very "professional" approach to our training during this time as we made every minute of every workout count and made conditions as hard as possible. The amount of swimming we were doing, along with our pace times, our circuit training in dryland and Coach John almost having a heart attack on deck a few times (ha ha) made the months of December, January and February very difficult at times, but built up our confidence and made us realize we were ready to compete with some of the best swimmers in the Province.

3 rounds of
400 free - 400 IM
200 free - 200 IM (free and IM on the same interval)
100 free - 100 IM
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6 x 800 on 12:00
odd = free (even split)
even = IM (race!!! - done in a broken format)
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What better way to celebrate the New Year than swim a 400 IM and 800 free on the same evening!!!! - and that's exactly what we did when we were in Brampton on January 6 for the Cobra Distance challenge. This was a nice fitness test for us coming off of Christmas training camp and gave us a chance to swim two events (again much to Coach John's delight) that many of us have never competed in. Special recognition to Tina, Ozgu, Matthew Gamelo and Katie for swimming both events for the first time at this meet and to Jacki swimming in her first 1500 and cracking the 20:00 barrier.

We used the Etobicoke A/B meet on January 20 and 21 as a test meet to see where we were and do any necessary adjustments before our championship meets a few weeks later. Some of the standout swims at this meet were as follows ………

Katie - 3:24 for 200 IM (7 second drop)
Andres - 2:48 for 200 free (first time under 3:00)
Lev - 5:53 for 400 free ( provincial pre-req)
Jacki - 2:19 for 200 free (first time under 2:20)
Ariella - 2:38 for 200 free (first time under 2:40)
Evelin - 3:03 for 200 back (7 second drop)
Tina - 3:24 for 200 back (first time under 3:30)
Matthew Gamelo - 1:06 for 100 free (first time under 1:10)
Patrick - 5:28 for 400 free (first time under 5:30)
Radu - 2:50 for 200 fly (4 second drop)
Ozgu - 5:40 for 400 free (first time under 6:00)
William - 59.3 for 100 free (first time under 1:00)
Tommy - 2:33 for 200 back (12 second drop)

Central Region Champs was our first championship meet in February and with three hard months of training under our belts we felt confident in our abilities and were ready to perform up to expectation. The four day format, along with heats and finals for the Saturday and Sunday session tested our mental energies as we had to pace ourselves through the meet and take one race at a time. Overall the meet was a great success. Whether some of us were making a final swim for the first time or qualifying for provincials or just scoring a needed point or two for the team we all came out of the meet feeling confident and realizing that there were many great things to come for the rest of the year. With that said, here are some of the outstanding performances that took place at Central Regions …..

Lev - 1:12 for 100 free (2 second drop and 6th place finish)
Yaakov - 10:24 for 800 free (30 second drop and 8th place)
Patrick - 2:45 for 200 back (first time under 2:50)
Ronny - 1:18 for 100 breast (silver medal and provincial cut)
Matthew Got - 1:24 for 100 breast (2 second drop)
Matthew Gamelo - 2:58 for 200 IM (first time under 3:00)
Radu - 2:46 for 200 fly (4th place and first time under 2:50)
Jacki - 9:55 for the 800 free (4th place) - 19:36 for the 1500 free (silver medal)
Sarah - 1:16 for 100 fly (8th place - making the big final at night)
Nat - 1:23 for 100 back (first time under 1:25)
Tommy - 1:07 for 100 fly (7th place - making the big final)
William - 2:35 for 200 IM (5 second drop)
Boys 12/13 A relays (silver for freestyle, bronze for medley)

It is not everyday that you are able to take part in an event that is bigger than yourself, and makes you realize that even though swimming is an individual sport, it is the team and the individuals within that team that make the swimming experience something very unique. The weekend of February 23 and 24 saw us at the Etobicoke Olympium for Central Region Team Champs. This meet was not only satisfying from an individual performance standpoint as we had some outstanding swims at the meet, but also our swims made a significant impact in the final team standings as NYAC was able to take home the Large Team title. The lasting memory of all the Nyac swimmers receiving their trophies on the podium will stay with us for a very long time and was a huge motivator for us as we head into the long course season. Here are some of the swims and performances that helped bring home the title ………

Tina - 4th in the 100 back- 1:30 (2 second drop)
Chris - 2nd in the 50 free and 50 breast, 3rd in the 100 breast
Vincenzo - 3rd in the 100 fly
Evelin - 3rd in the 100 breast- 1:34 (central region qualifier)
Andres - 1:13 for the 100 free (first time under 1:15)
Ozgu - 1st for 100 fly, 200 IM, 100 breast (high point 12/13 boys)

Our last meet of the short course season was Season Ender at U of T. The meet gave us an opportunity to swim some off events and also to try and qualify for Central Regions or Provincials one last time in a short course pool. Here are some of the standout swims from the meet …….

Katie - 1:41 for 100 breast (4 second drop)
Matt Gamelo - :29 for 50 free (first time under: 30)
Yaakov - 1:14 for 100 back (4 second drop)
Matthew Go t- 1:20 for 100 fly (4 second drop)
William - 58.7 for 100 free (first time under 59)
Ozgu - 2:35 for 200 free (3 second drop)
Tommy - 27.4 for 50 free (first time under 28)
Patrick - 1:17 for 100 back (1 second drop)
Evelin - 3:06 for 200 IM (3 second drop)

With the short course season under our belts we now head into the long course season, trying to build on what we have accomplished over the past seven months. Even though we have had some fantastic performances during this period we can never be satisfied, and must always search for ways to get fitter, stronger and faster.

As always, I would like to thank Olga in the office, Steve our pool rep and William Williams for help with the web site as they help keep Coach John on track and organized and prevent him from having a mental breakdown (ha ha).