SMACtastic Swimmer of the Month: June

Catfish

Mercerwood Shore Club: Fiona Lim

Quickly ascending, Fiona is a growing catfish preparing to move to the stroke development pond. Her hard work and effort don’t get overlooked, and we appreciate the way she listens to instructions; always giving her best. We look forward to seeing her progress next year.

Mt. Rainier and Kent/KCAC: Nico Troncales

Nico has been incredibly welcoming to others. He is quick to lend a hand to his teammates. Additionally, Nico has made some great progress in learning butterfly stroke and his endurance in kick.

Stroke Development

Mercerwood Shore Club: Eliana Zapata

Eliana is winning SMAC-tastic for the second time this year! She won before as a Catfish and has proven that she can lead and thrive in a more challenging environment to earn it again. Her dedication and persistence work as a catalyst to her steady growth in speed and techniques.

Mt. Rainier and Kent/KCAC: Mackenzie Bernier

Mackenzie has made leaps from when she first started SMAC. She shows leadership skills through her ability to implement feedback from her coaches and take on challenges. Mackenzie brings a lot of spunk to the MR stroke development group, which brings light-heartedness to practice.

Tukwila: Nico Chen

Nico is always, always willing to try new things to improve. He does an excellent job of applying new skills to swimming at full speed, which can sometimes be a challenge at the developmental level. The ability to make that connection will serve him well in this sport.

Age Group

Mercerwood Shore Club: Pratyay Sharma

Pratyay had his best meet yet this June and is showing a new level of competition at swim meets. His performance at practice remains steady and focused on meeting any goal he makes for himself. Pratyay consistently brings a positive attitude and manners to the pool deck, highlighting himself even brighter for this award.

Kent/KCAC: Spencer Carter

Spencer Carter is the Kent June SMACtastic swimmer of the month. Spencer has continued to make outstanding progress since moving up to Age Group in April. The effort that Spencer demonstrates in making technique changes has been key to his rapid improvement. Congratulations Spencer!

Mt. Rainier: Oliver Wahlborg

Oliver continues to make great strides to become a better swimmer. He recently qualified for zones for 100 butterfly. Oliver displays leadership behaviors through his consistency in working hard.

View Ridge: Daniel Mkrtchyan

Daniel was chosen, with the help of Coach Laura, due to Daniel’s consistency and quality of practice. Daniel shows up every day wanting to push himself against his teammates and is always eager and pushing for the times he wants. Daniel has shown great progress over the course of the season, improving his intensity and endurance.

Age Group Performance

Central/MIBC: Kalyn Kennedy

This season Kalyn has been swimming through discomfort and PT issues with her shoulders, but she has stayed positive, committed, and has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for her teammates in practice and at meets. In June Kalyn had to spend portions of our practices kicking, but she continued to work hard, and she was able to achieve two champs cuts this past month. Swimming is a difficult sport, so it has been great to have Kalyn in the group to be a model of the resilience and commitment that the sport can demand.

Kent/KCAC: Anna Nishizawa

Anna Nishizawa is the Kent June SMACtastic swimmer of the month. Anna has demonstrated a work ethic that is a model for everyone in the group. Anna has nearly perfect attendance, a great attitude every day, and is always responsive to feedback. Congratulations Anna!!!

Mt. Rainier: Joe Lauinger

Joe Lauinger has shown major improvement over the past several months. He has put in an immense amount of work in fine-tuning his backstroke. Joe's work paid off in qualifying in the 100 backstroke for champs. (Editor’s note: Joe also gives a great inspirational speech.)

View Ridge: Jenny Zhao

Jenny is the VR AGP SMACtastic swimmer of the month. Jenny demonstrates consistency in her trainings and his constantly aiming to improve and do her best. Jenny is a great leader by example for the AGP groups and is always willing to push herself out of her comfort zone- like following through with all of the 200 Fly races I have been putting her in.

Senior

Mt. Rainier: Eden O'Donnell

Eden ended the month of June with huge, significant time drops, which didn't surprise anyone who has seen the work she's done over the last several months and this season as a whole. Eden has been at the top of her training game – mentally and physically – since December, and it's thrilling to see that show up for her in meets.

View Ridge: Lucas Chang

Lucas is the VR Senior SMACtastic swimmer of the month. Lucas has been extremely consistent in his attendance through all of the schedule changes the group has faced. Lucas gets to practice and is in the right mindset to practice with quality and intention. Lucas is a great influence on the Senior group.

Senior Performance

View Ridge:

Over the last month, the entire group has been working and competing together to improve. They have all shown deliberateness in their actions and effort and put lots of hard work to make sure they are ready to perform at an extremely high level during our end of July championship stretch.

National

Central/MIBC: Catherine Andrews

Catherine  has been great in training. She’s been consistently getting outside her comfort zone in how hard she works, making technical changes, having a good attitude, and being a great leader by example to those around her. Cat really cares about the people in the group and has been a big influence on making the culture as supportive as it is.