IOWA CITY EELS

 

Contact: 351-3336 or swimice@aol.com            website: www.iceels.org   May 2005

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Thanks to our corporate sponsors: A.W. Welt Ambrisco, the Coral Fruit Market, Hills Bank, Hodge Construction, Iowa State Bank & Trust, The New Sycamore Mall, Oral B Industries, Scheels All Sports and Universal Climate Control- their generous support helps keep our Club in the water!

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Coming up:

 

5/21:                        SWIMATHON at Mercer

6/4-6/5:   CRAA Summer Kick-off at Mercer

6/4:                          Parade of Homes begins

6/11:                        DASH June Invitational

6/13:                        Summer practice schedule begins

6/13:                        ICE Board of Directors meeting; 6:30 PM at Mercer

6/15:                        ICE bills due

6/17-6/19:                DMSF Birdland swim meet

6/25-26:  Vinton Aquatic Club Invitational

7/9-7/10: RCA Stars of Tomorrow (Clinton)

7/9-7/10: Mason City swim Club Invitational

7/11:                        ICE Board of Directors meeting; 6:30 PM at Mercer

7/15:                        ICE bills due

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COACH’S CORNER      

 

Short Course Season Recap 2005

 

 

ICE had a lot of success the past Short Course season at many different levels.  Here is a short list of how we did and who accomplished some great things:

 

College – ICE swimmers had some major success in the college ranks.  Former City High star Katie Funk helped Truman State win another NCAA Division III National Team Title and again swam to individual All-American status in three events.  Katie competed in the 400 IM, 500 Free, 1000 Free, and 1650 Free for the Lady Bulldogs and swam on the 800 Free Relay. 

 

Junior Brian Johns helped Loras College to a successful season.  Brian swam to first place at the 2005 Liberal Arts Championships in the 200 IM and the 200 Back and to a runner-up finish in the 100 Back.  The former Williamsburg HS standout also contributed legs on Loras College’s 200 and 400 Medley Relays.

 

Junior Becky Witinok-Huber completed her Junior year as a member of the Univ. of Vermont swim team.  Becky swam to a 16th place in the 100 Fly and swam legs on UVM’s 8th place medley relays at the America East Swimming Championships.  Becky also competed in the 200 Fly and swam the 50, 100, and 1000 Free during the season for the Catamounts.   

 

Molly Gable closed out her career as a member of the Univ. of Iowa swim team.  Molly competed for the Hawks in the 50, 100, and 200 Freestyles and helped out at dual meets on relays.  Molly’s final meet was a member of the Big Ten championship squad held at the University of Indiana Councilman-Billingsly Aquatic Center where she helped the Iowa women place 8th.  

 

Freshman Paige Knebel and Sophomore Gayle Dunlap swam at the Liberal Arts Championships and the Iowa College Conference Championships for Coe College.  Paige posted season best swims in the 500 and 1650 at the conference meet placing 4th and 3rd in those distances.  Gayle placed 4th in the 50 Free and 10th in the 100 Free at the same meet.  Both helped out on relays as well.

 

High School Boys – The Iowa City Boys High School Team (which includes swimmers from City High, West High, Solon, and Williamsburg HS) had a strong season and qualified a lot of swimmers for the 2005 Iowa Boys High School Athletic Assoc. State Swimming Championships.  Qualifiers included (along with place at the meet):

 

Josh Schubert (12th in 100 Fly, 15th  in the 500 Free) - Eels

Alex Modestou (15th in the 100 Fly, 24th in the 500 Free) – Eels

Devin St. John (21st in the 100 Fly) - Morays

Kaegan Recher (13th in the 100 Free, 18th in the 200 Free) – Eels

Christian Bauer (21st in the 200 IM, 22nd in the 100 Back) – Morays

 

200 Medley Relay (Devin St. John, Brian Lowe – Morays, Josh Schubert, Pete Cilek – Eels)  14th Place ,  200 Free Relay (Pete Cilek, Christian Bauer, Brock Dixon – Morays, Keagan Recher)  11th place, 400 Free Relay (Pete Cilek, Josh Schubert, Christian Bauer, Keagan Recher) 12th place.  Alternate for relays was Kyle Siefers – Morays.

 

ISI Regionals – Bettnedorf Section.  ICE qualified many swimmers at this meet and swam to many season and personal best times.  Those who achieved ISI Q times at the meet included:  Sophia Opitz, Lily Doershuk, Amber and Amanda Gerard, Amy Gray, Ben Hartman, Jae Yeon Kim, Shannon Koppes, Tereysa Lehnertz, Kelly McNeilly, Carson Miller, Caroline Noser, Robin Olson, Anna Pashkova, Sarah Ritchie, Brandi Rogers, Jasmine Roghair, Natalie Shoultz, and Kerry Soderdahl. 

 

ISI Age-Group (12 & Under) State Championships – We had a great team effort at the age group champs in Coe College last February.  ICE placed second overall and won the 11-12 Boys division title and crowned a few state champs too. 

 

Cameron Herting (11-12 Boys 1000 Free and 1650 Free)

Sidney McMillin (11-12 Boys 50 Free, 50 Breast, and 100 Free)

Vivan Zhu (11-12 Girls 400 IM)

Lilian Zhu (8 & Under Girls 50 Back and100 IM)

 

11-12 Boys 200 Medley, 200 Free, 400 Free Relays. Personal included Stu and Sid McMillin, Cameron Herting, and Daniel Dai.

 

Coach Matt Hamer and I were very proud of this group at our Age-Group champs this year since a huge chunk of our points from the 2004 Team either aged up or moved onto Senior Champs.  We had a solid and experienced group of 11-12 boys but beyond that we had a lot of kids who were rookies or on the lower end of their age group and all stepped up to the challenge better than we could have hoped.  On a personal note – this was one of my favorite years to work at this meet as our 11-12 year olds (made up of mostly Waves and Morays) really took charge of cheers and team spirit and (along with the parents) provided a great example for our younger swimmers to follow.  I think we have established a presence in the top 3 at this meet and will stay there for some time to come! Even with a younger squad and less swims we stuck with CIA for two days and put a lot of points on the board!  Next year should be a lot of fun.

 

 

ISI Senior and 13/14 Championships – ICE placed second in the overall standings at the recent ISI Senior Champs in March at the University of Iowa Field House Pool.  Champions included:  Ashley Lawler (Senior 500,1000,1650 Free), Chelsea Hartman (13-14 Girls 500,1000,1650 Free), Beth Eyanson (13-14 Girls 100 and 200 Fly, 100 Back), ICE Senior Girls 400 Free Relay (Lauren Talman, Stacia Johns, Anna Kampling, Ashley Lawler), and the 13-14 Girls 800 Free Relay (Chelsea Hartman, Beth Eyanson, Shelby Doehrmann, Grace Murray).  Awesome job by the girls for swimming a heavy load of events and placing well.   Great job too by the HS guys (plus Coach Adam and collegiate swimmer Brian Johns) for extending their taper season and racing up to the level of the competition.  We recorded a slew of PR’s and had people placing in events that are outside their normal program!  I was extremely proud to coach this group this year and was very impressed with how they fed off of and supported each other through the entire meet. On Sunday night at finals we were still lighting up the pool with our swims while many others teams were looking worn out and incapable of producing the quality of swims we seemed to be maintaining across our team.   I would like to thank all of them (and their parents for helping out too) because I feel they earned me the Senior Coach of the Year award based on just how they swam at that meet!

 

USA-S Speedo Sectionals Series – The following swimmers participated at the Sectional meet at the Univ. of Minnesota Aquatic Center in March.  Stacia Johns (100,200 BR and 200 IM), Adam Osweiler (Coach Adam, 50,100,200 FR, 100 FL), Josh Schubert (100 & 200 FL), and Beth Eyanson (100,200 FL, 100, 200 BK, 50 FR).  All the athletes posted some great swims and we had many season best times. No speeding ticket for the Head Coach this time either. 

 

Let’s get ready to start making waves in the Long Course pool!

 

Donald P. Spellman

Head Coach – ICE

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Meltdown wrap-up: Lisa Murray and Erin Herting wish to thank everyone for helping out at the 2005 ICE Spring Meltdown.  We played host to 269 swimmers affiliated with 15 different teams from five different states. This is the smallest meet we host but even so this year’s Meltdown generated about $2,500.00 in net revenue.

 

SWIMATHON: A reminder that the annual SWIMATHON will be held at Mercer this coming Saturday, May 21st.  Waves, Morays, and Eels will swim from 7:00 to 9:00 AM.  Frost and Cubes will swim from 9:00 to 11:00 AM.  We are still in need of food donations for the swimmers.  Check the sign-up sheets at Mercer and Coralville if you would like to bring juices, fruit, or baked goods. 

 

CRAA Summer Kick-Off: Cedar Rapids is hosting a swim meet at Mercer the weekend of June 4th & 5th.  ICE is assisting with this event and will receive some compensation for our efforts.  In addition, we have reserved the right to run a concessions operation.  Last year concessions at this meet were rather profitable for the team.  If you would like to donate food for this effort there is a sign-up sheet posted at Mercer.  In addition there are a limited number of slots available for persons to help run the concessions area.  For each shift worked $15.00 in fundraising credit will be earned.  The sign-up sheet for working the meet is also posted at Mercer.

 

Parade of Homes: A couple of slots have become open for the Parade of Homes fundraiser.  If you are interested in earning fundraising credit while working this event the sign-up sheet has been posted at Mercer.

 

Summer practice schedule: Monday, June 13th is the start of the summer practice schedule.  Whether we will actually be able to swim mornings at City Park remains to be seen (we need some warm days to heat up the pool) but the switch from evenings to mornings and afternoons for all groups will take place on the 13th as planned. The summer practice schedule can be downloaded from the ICE website (www.iceels.org).

 

Meet sign-up:  The summer swim season will be upon us soon.  It is very important that entry cards get turned in on a timely basis.  Some of these meets fill up quickly and late entries may even be denied in some situations. Currently we are taking entries for two June meets. The DASH June Invitational (Saturday, June 11th) is a good meet for Frost and Cubes swimmers. The DMSF Birdland Invitational (June 17th through 19th) is a Q+ meet which has the added advantage of being a prelim/final event for 13 and older swimmers on Saturday and Sunday.  Sign-up deadlines are 5/29 for the DASH meet and 5/30 for the DMSF meet. 

 

Summer State: We are once again hosting the Long Course Summer State Championships.  The 2005 version of this meet will be held August 5th through the 7th at Mercer.  This is the largest swim meet in the state of Iowa.  Normally we have over 450 participants swimming in over 100 different events for nine sessions spread out over three days.  This is a big event and one that requires much work on the part of everyone associated with ICE.  Planning for this meet will begin soon.  If you are simply interested in how swim meets work or you have some suggestions to make please consider dropping by one of the planning sessions.  Times and dates to be announced soon.

 

Chair openings: The Iowa City Eels can function efficiently only because of the amount of effort that goes on behind the scenes.  Typically members of the ICE Board of Directors oversee these tasks but anyone associated with the team is encouraged to lend a hand. The ICE by-laws state that we have six standing committees (fundraising, communications, technical planning, merchandise, social, and meets), which must be staffed.  In addition, there are other less formal arrangements that need to be filled as well (meet concessions and hospitality for example). Some of the people in these positions have been serving for several years.  For the long-run health of the team, it is past time for persons with new ideas and enthusiasm to take a turn at handling some of these assignments.  At the moment we are in need of persons to take over technical planning, communications, and concessions.  Our concessions chair will be finished after the Summer State Championships, with the chairs of technical planning and communication angling to move on to other roles as soon as possible.  If you have any interest in any of these committees feel free to contact Kelly at keleyn@inav.net. At some point soon these jobs will have to be taken over by others and by getting involved now you will have an opportunity to learn things on the job as opposed to on the fly. 

 

 

Scholastic All-Americans: To be considered for this honor, swimmers who have completed 10th, 11th or 12th grade, possess at least a 3.5 for the school year and competed in an individual event at Summer Sectionals in 2004 or Spring Sectionals in 2005 should contact Don for the appropriate paperwork or download these documents from the USA Swimming website. The application deadline is August 1. 

 

Final note from communications: It is very difficult to keep up with everyone once the Summer schedule goes into effect.  At this time of the year we depend even more on e-mail to keep in contact with everyone.  If you have difficulties receiving club e-mail do contact Kelly at keleyn@inav.net and alternate arrangements will be made.