Hello Lake Marion Family!

It’s time for another epic email as we close out the season. I can’t promise that this is the last email you will receive this summer, but I can promise that it will be the last long one! ;)

Here’s what’s included:

• Popsicle Meet
• Banquet & Awards Night
• Thank Yous
• End of Season Surveys

Popsicle Meet

We had a fabulous turn out for our Popsicle Meet on Sunday morning. Congratulations to everyone who swam. We are so proud of you! Thank you to all of the family members who served as timers, and to Stacey Seager for being our Head Timer. Thank you to all of the CITs who came out to help; Stephen Ravas for being our official; Fatima Rasulova-Lewis and Monte Lewis for providing full automation for the meet; Ashley Page for announcing; Brandi Valencia and Vanessa Larios for doing ribbons; and Alison Torres and Cindy Fuentes for organizing the morning fun! And of course, thank you to Ellie Mikula and Izzy Najarro, our preteam coaches, who supported the swimmers all season long! You can review the results by clicking here.

Banquet & Awards Night

It was so great to see the team in their fancy attire on Sunday evening to celebrate the season. There are so many thank yous and congratulations to share!

First off, thank you to all of the coaches (and their helpers) for all of the time, energy and thought they put into each of the swimmers’ paper plate awards. Hours and hours of work are poured into our team’s paper plates, and it really showed! A huge shout out to Brandi Valencia for coordinating the festivities! And Kelli Giffin created an amazing senior slideshow as well as an awesome slideshow from the pictures the team posted to Cluster!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with set up, serving, clean up and preparations. And thank you to the voice of Gaithersburg, Mike Page, for being our master of ceremonies that evening!

We will miss our graduating seniors - Giana Caldarera, Ellie Mikula, Izzy Najarro, Brett Page and Catherine Silva. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and would love to welcome you back to the pool deck next summer for a visit or two - or more! We will miss these “graduating” families as well: the Caldareras, the Mikulas and the Silvas. It’s not goodbye to the Najarros and Pages just yet! We also wish our super senior Chase Keeler and his mom Laura all the best.

Our preteamers received a medal for their participation. Swimmers who received an All Star time this season received a star pin. Swimmers who participated in any A or B meets received a personalized report card. Swimmers not on preteam under age 12 received red sunglasses, and our teens received Laser pajama pants.

Congratulations to these swimmers for earning the following special recognition:

• Most Improved - improvement in time and ability
  • Evelyn Yeh and Nikita Zhelyazkov
• Perseverance - outstanding effort and persistence
  • Maya Gross and Caden McClure
• Spirit - team spirit and leadership skills
  • Sarah Caldwell and Tyler Niemiec
• Sportsmanship - showing respect and a sense of fellowship with competitors
  • Charlie Eaton and Eli Hunter
• Coach’s - team spirit, sportsmanship, motivation and overall attitude throughout the swim season
  • Makenna Ravas and Kien Nguyen
• Excellence - general excellence in swimming
  • Sam Arias and Chase Keeler

Preteam

• Perseverance - Harper Shealy and Antonio Vargas-Vidal
• Most Improved - Brooke Brody and Niko Au
• Courageous - Austen Speer and AJ Eaton

If you were not able to attend the banquet or Raft and Splash, you can pick up your awards etc. from the front porch at 20525 Beaver Ridge Rd. Montgomery Village, 20886. They will be out from around 8 AM to 10 PM daily. Take your items but please leave your family folder in the box. All items that are not claimed by Saturday, August 1st will be reused or recycled.

Raft and Splash

It was great to see everyone last night for our end of season pool party! Congratulations to these swimmers for earning the most points for personal bests this season:

• 18 points - Ally Valencia
• 17 points - Eli Hunter
• 14 points - Aiden Chavarria and Daniel Zhelyazkov
• 13 points - Makenna Ravas
• 12 points - Maddie Arias and Kien Nguyen
• 11 points - Sophie Burakiewicz, Alice Kuminov, Eddie Kuminov, Tyler Niemiec, Ben Page, Austin Seager, and Tanner Seager
• 10 points - Luke Falcone, Andrew Niemiec, and Elliot Redman

Thank you to Nadine Tolbert for compiling all of the personal best data throughout the season, and to Nadine and Coach Tolbert for running the prize shop last night!

More Thank Yous

Thank you to our coaches - Head Coach Nick Keeler, Assistant Coach Rachel Sharp, and swimmer coaches Izzy Najarro, Ellie Mikula, and Austin Seager. We were so lucky to have such a talented coaching staff!

Our team couldn't function without the time and efforts of all of the volunteers at all of our events. Thank you to everyone who fulfilled their volunteer roles, and those who went above and beyond. We could not have had such a successful season without all of you!

End of Season Survey and Feedback

Thank you for reading to the end of this email! It has been a great season - that isn’t quite over yet until All Star Weekend concludes - and we are already looking forward to next year! To that end, we ask you to share your interest in a number of volunteer opportunities available as we begin to plan for next season. Please let us know by filling out this brief interest survey. And be on the lookout for our end of season feedback survey that Alison Torres will send to you in the near future. Of course, feel free to share any feedback you have about the season with any board member so we can continue to grow and improve next year!

Thanks for a fabulous swim team summer!

Daria, on behalf of the LMST Board