21 SPY Swimmers Shine at National Meet

There are approximately 360 days until SPY swimmers head to Fort Lauderdale for next year’s YMCA National Swim Meet.  If you want an exact number ask any of the 21 who have just returned from this year’s meet. 

The national meet is the reason behind everything the team does  - all of the training, all of the local meets against local clubs, all of the early mornings spent in the pool.  Each of the swimmers at SPY and all of the coaches have one goal – qualify and compete at Nationals.

With swimmers coming from all 50 states to compete at the event, qualifying is not an easy task.  This year 23 members of SPY, including 11 rookies qualified.  Of those, 21 made the trip to compete last week.

As the dreary spring weather hangs over Severna Park, a week in sunny Fort Lauderdale sounds like a lot of fun, but for these swimmers all but one day of their week long trip was dedicated to the pool.  Upon arriving, the team had three hours to check in to their hotel, get organized and changed and into the pool for their first training session. 

Each morning at 8 a.m., the girls competed in preliminary sesssions with the boys’ team following at 11 a.m. Each evening the teams would return to the pool for the finals which included the top 24 swimmers from each event from the morning’s preliminary sessions.

“It was a busy week for the coaches as well,” said Tracey Kirchoff, mom to senior, Jenna Kirchoff,

Three coaches, Crystee Ballard, Richard Heim and Maureen Kogut accompanied the teams to Florida and while the swimmers had time to rest between their sessions, the coaches were expected to be at all of the sessions.

In the end, all of the work paid off.  Getting a “best time” at Nationals is something each of the swimmers hopes to achieve.  Traditionally, Coach Heim has taken anybody who meets this goal out to lunch on the last day of the trip.  This year he had to take almost the entire team.  This is no small feat considering the wear and tear of traveling to Nationals and the heat and sun of an outdoor meet. 

According to Coach Ballard, “There were 51 personal best times spread across preliminary swims, finals swims and/or time trials.”

In addition to the “best times,” eight individuals and one relay team qualified for finals.  Dylan Davis placed 20th in the 100 back stroke. Matt McKenney placed 14 in the 100 butterfly.  Jack Bremmer placed 19 in the 100 butterfly and 10th  in the 200 butterfly.  Nicole Provenza who will be swimming at Brown University next year placed 21st t in the 200 Breast Stroke. Dylan Davis, Jack Bremer, Matt McKenney and Greg Kogut placed 12th in the men’s 400 Medley Relay.

In Severna Park it is not unusual to see a team of overachievers but based on the hard work that this team put in just to qualify for this meet, SPY puts a whole new meaning to the term, “The best of the best.”

Congratulations to the "rookies" who went to nationals for the first time. --Allie Muha, Marissa Hand, Molly Gallant, Jared Wasserman, Dylan Davis, Josh Vagts, Kevin Huntly, David Harmon, Dougie Kogut, Grant Murray and Matt McKenney.

And the 10 returning swimmers - Jack Bremer, Greg Kogut, Sean Brant, Dan Gallagher, Nicole Provena, Kim Weyand, Jenna Kirchoff, Tori Wood, Michaela Cunningham and Katie Parker.