Season VIII Big Meet Brain Dump:

1) MGM Sent 10 Swimmer to Nationals, an all-time high. Five individual all-time team records were set -- all by women: Three by Cathy "Doc" Sajn, one by Natalie "Red" Oskvarek one by Emily "No Nickname Yet" Koziarski. Sajn's performance included team records in the 100 Fly (1:10.41); the 100 IM (1:07.96); and the 200 Fly (2:39.83); Oskvarek swam the 200 Back in a record 2:26.26; while Koziarski swam the 100 back in 1:06.69. These performances were so impressive that deck announcer Misty Hyman was unable to complete any of her daily video feeds without a single mistake!

2) The women's team also dominated in relays, where Karen Scobbie, Natalie Oskvarek, Rachel Dickman and Cathy Sajn received medals with a 5th place finish in the 200 Freestyle Relay (18+) with an overall time of 1:51.19. They also placed 8th in the 200 Medley Relay at 2:11.23.

3) Dan Campione set new team age group records in the men's 25-29 bracket, swimming the 100 Backstroke in 54.72. He set new age-group records in the 100 Freestyle (48.44), 200 Backstroke (2:05.31) and the 50 Backstroke (28.89). Dan also became the first MGM swimmer to literally age up during a Nationals swim competition. (Congratulations, Dan, on reaching this amazing milestone.)

4) John Javorski set a new individual record in the men's 30-34 agegroup by swimming the 100 backstroke in 58.09. He is also credited with performing the first spontaneous Robot dance while walking behind a live taping of Misty Hyman's on-deck news feeds. A flustered Hyman stated, "Damn. That's one fine Robot."

**One special note on John's meet: During the 200 mixed Free relays, John is credited with swimming the final length at an astonishing 20.90. This was a really remarkable swim -- compare it to his own all-time team record in the 50 of 21.11 -- mindblowing.

5) MGM swimmers John Javorski, Chad Morris, Dan Campione and Ryan Mulchahy set a blistering new team record in the 200 Yard Freestyle relay, swimming 1:29.58, finishing 6th overall. The Team Illinois Masters men's relay (Team White Tiger) responded bravely by swimming 10 seconds slower and finishing 19th overall. 

6) MGM continued to be one of the fastest and most storied small teams in the country by finishing 43rd overall in a field of 146 teams.

7) At state, MGM swimmers finished 13th Overall, while setting a host of new team agegroup records. Mary Moore set new age-group records in the 100 Freestyle (1:13.23) and  the mile (25:48.23). Marilyn Kulak set 11 new age-group records(!), and John Miller set four age group records. 

8) Wayne Bik set a host of new age group records in the 75-79 agegroup, including the 200 Free (4:09.14); the 100 Back (2:13.03); the 50 Breast (57.97); the 100 Breast (2:14.77); the 200 Breast (5:19.19); and the 50 Fly (1:00.13). Because technicians never anticipated that any MGM swimmers would be this old or have this many records, these times do not currently show up on the MGM records page. This oversite must be corrected! (Hang in there, Wayne, I'm working on it!)

Finally, don't forget to visit the team records page ( http://www.mgmswimteam.org/records ) to see a comprehensive list (except for Wayne) of team records. Dont forget to hover your mouse over any event to see best times by swimmer.

..Stay tuned, more season highlights to come....

Hey, everybody: There are going to be two sets of relays at Evanston this Sunday: the 200 Mixed Free, then the 200 Mixed Medley. I'd really like to have the relays set up before we get to the meet so that we don't have to mess around on deck too much. If you're interested in swimming in either (or both!) of these, please send an email with the relays you want to swim, along with your age to markroyko@gmail.com )

Next: It's hard to believe, but I just checked the Entry Sheets for the St. Charles Superbowl meet, and the registration deadline is listed as Friday, the 21st. (That's tomorrow.) I'm not sure how flexible they are about this, but I really, really recommend sending in your registration for this meet. While this is a great meet, it is an awful meet to deck enter for. (They put you in a Bull Pen and put you in unseeded whenever someone else scratches. Not good.) Plus, this year's meet is at St. Charles North, not the normal pool that we're used to. There's no way that wont cause confusion on deck, so, please visit the meet page for details and send in your registration. (I wouldn't worry about it too much if you can't do this by tomorrow, but I'd definitely get this in the mail ASAP.)

Also...

If you haven't been to the site lately, you really should check it out: Emily, our own Swimmin' Dietitian, has posted some great articles about nutrition. Her latest is about cholesterol. If you have questions for Emily, please send them to her or see her on deck. Now see, you gotta admin -- we have one sweet team.

Thanks to everyone who voted on team policies for the upcoming 2010-2011 season. This was an important step in deciding how we handle new members, guests, and meets.

Here's the new MGM policies for the upcoming season:

1) Team Membership: will be limited to 14 members in the first group and 10-13 in the second group. (The number of swimmer's we'll be able to take on in the 2nd group depends partially on the availability of the new fourth lane. We'll get a better idea of whether that lane is dependably open or not between now and the start of the season*, and decide the final number after that.)

2) The team voted to make attending two meets a mandatory condition of memberhip this season.

3) In order to join the team you must commit to attending at least two practices per week.

4) The team voted to allow guests to swim with the team occasionally, but only on nights when we are bellow full capacity. We haven't formalized the number of times a guest is allowed to participate, but I think that you'll be able to tell if the rest of your group is getting annoyed. Regardless, guests must do the team workout to participate.

*Tentatively, the MGM season will officially start on Monday, November 15th. I say tentatively because before I can open registration, I have to register the team with USMS (which opens officially at some point in October -- although I don't know the exact date) and make the website ready for accepting dues payments. I'll let you know when this takes place.

When this happens, membership will be first opened to swimmers who were dues paying members the previous year and agree to abide by these new policies. Following this period, any additional slots will be filled on a first come, first-served basis. The names of any additional swimmers will be added to a waiting list, and invited to join the team as space becomes available.

If you have comments or concerns, please post them as comments on to this newsletter on our web site.

Thanks!

Hi, everybody: Please read this entire message.

There will be a team policy meeting tonight at 8:00 PM in the observation area above the pool. If I can get the use of a room tonight, I will let you know and we'll move the meeting there.

The issues we will discuss are about team membership eligibility, including:

1) The maximum number of swimmers in each lane for each group. (Team size.)
2) Whether attending a certain number of meets is a requirement for team membership.
3) Whether doing posted workouts is a requirement for team membership. (In other words, except in unusual circumstances, you agree to do the workout that's been posted by your workout group.)

We'll also open the floor to any other team business as needed.

IMPORTANT: Several people mentioned that they will not be able to attend this meeting. With that in mind, on Tuesday, I will post a voting form on the website where everyone can cast their final votes on these questions. I will then post the new (Finalized) membership policy Wednesday morning.

Please let me know if you have questions. Thanks for your participation.