Thanks to all the workers at the 2000 Fall Frenzy Meet, especially those who went above and beyond by working extra sessions.  The meet was a great success and we received  many compliments from coaches and officials.  Our committee chairs did an incredible job and spent most of their weekend at the Nat.  The committee chairpeople included Troy Rector, Brad Hardesty, Randy Phipps, Jim Brook, Kay Wieczorek, Bonnie Brook, Kris Lombardi, Val Sparks, Capi Scheidler, Bill Doron, Colleen Bonnane, Paul Stauder, Cheryl Koch, Susan Twer, Karen Napier-Johnson, and Gil Gomez.  They made the meet run smoothly with very few problems and also made it "easy" to be a meet director!  A big thank you to Cheri Heck who solicited many of the food items in Hospitality  keeping the expenses down there.  Leslie Gould donated the stuffed animal heat winner gifts and John Davis, a former CSC parent,  continues to help at our meets with the computer.  Thank you both. A special thanks goes to the Hammerhead White and Red parents who worked just for "fun".  We all know it was a long hard weekend, but we do it for the swimmers and they seemed to have a wonderful time.  Congratulations to all the swimmers and coaches for a great effort at the meet.
The volunteer T-Shirts were a huge success and we, the workers, reflected the same team spirit as our swimmers.  The following sponsors made them possible:  Carmel OB-GYN, Carrier/Puron, Indiana-American Water Company, Inc., and The Runners Forum.  Other important sponsors of the meet include Culligan Water Company for our delicious water served in Hospitality and on deck, (It was said that the on-deck water coolers took us to the "next level").  Hughie's Subs, Salads, and Pizzas for 27 lbs. of potato chips, Hambones for 2 honey baked hams, Einstein's Bagels on Carmel Drive for 200 bagels, The Broad Ripple Pie company for the 5 pies that were used as door prizes, 542 Salon on N. Rangeline for the hair care products, Hogan Mayflower for moving us down to and back from the Natatorium, and Prime Tech for heat sheet and psyche sheet printing.  Due in part to their generosity, CSC ran a financially successful meet.  The best way to say thanks is to support these businesses. 
Sign-up for our January Invitational at the IUPUI Natatorium will be posted on the High School pool bulletin board between Dec 15, 2000 and Jan. 5, 2001.  Each family will be required to work 5 sessions one of those must be a finals session.  Any Hammerhead families who would like to be on deck may also sign up to work.  For those families who were fined for the Fall Frenzy Meet, your fines may be worked off at the January Invite.
If this past meet is any indication of the enthusiasm and commitment of our families, this season is off to a good start and the Carmel Swim Club is stronger than ever.  Thanks again for everyone's support and hard work. 

The Meet Directors,

Carmel's first meet of the season not only ran well, but was a great start to the 2000-2001 season for the Stingray group.  All  of the swimmers in the group came away from the meet with at least one lifetime best time and most of the group began the season leaps and bounds ahead of the start of last season. 
Carmel won the meet with 4,476 points with the second place Hamilton Southeastern team scoring 3,300.5 points and the third place team, Caritas Swim Team out of Kentucky, with a score of 2,779 points.  Nice job Carmel. 
The Stingrays group earned a total of 123 champion points for the group and that takes all of them a step closer to earning their red C caps.  In our post-meet meeting the group voted for swimmers to earn an extra champion point based on special things they accomplished during the meet.  Dustin Koch earned a champion point from his teammates for the great job he did encouraging his fellow swimmers.  Taylor Baughman earned a champion point, also based on the votes from her teammates, for being the Queen of the 50's on Friday evening.  Bill Scheidler was the third recipient of a champion point for his teammates for his great swim in the 400 IM.  Mary Koss was the big time dropper of the meet dropping over a minute in her mile and Chris Bonanne was the most improved swimmer for the meet exceeding even the goals he set for himself for the end of the season.  Many of the swimmers from the Stingray group achieved 100% best times and I'd like to recognize them for this.  The following are the swimmers who achieved this: Chris Belcher, Chris Bonanne, Sebastian Cousins, Jamie Gomez, Dustin Koch, Christina Liwski, Isabella Lledos, and Sara Sharp.  Great job to all of the Club for the excellent job at the meet.
Our Fall Frenzy was fantastic and thanks goes out to all  of the parents for helping with the meet and a special thanks to Pam Cousins and Carol Moore for all of their hard work and for putting up with quite a few sleepless nights. 
Four Stingrays achieved 100% best time status.  Congratulations to Sebastian Cousins, Lindsey Kinker, Dustin Koch, and Ali Stauder.  There were some outstanding swims over the course of the weekend including Katie Alonso, Lauren Hardesty, Taylor Stauffer, and Christie Gomez in the 500 free (all of the girls dropped over 10 seconds). Taylor Baughman's seven second drop in the 200 breast, Chris Belcher (4:44.52) and Bill Scheidler (28 seconds) in the 400 IM, Elizabeth Brook's 30 second drop in the 200 breast and Mary Koss' 23 second drop in the 200 breast, Kim DeMeester's 21 second drop in the 400 IM, and Max Enoch had two drops in excess of 20 seconds. 
Moving on to the next meet in Cincinnati.  It gave us some perspective on what swimming is like outside of Indiana.  Carmel came in second next to the Marlins with the third place team coming in hundreds of point behind the two lead teams.  Our most improved swimmer of the meet was Sara Sharp who dropped time in 11 out of 12 of her events.   To hit some of the highlights of the meet Katie Alonso swam a fantastic 200 free dropping in both the prelim and the final swims for a total of over 7 seconds.  Elizabeth Brook broke through in the last event of a long weekend.  In the 200 fly she dropped 2.15 seconds in the morning session and then came back in finals to drop another second.  Christie Gomez had a terrific meet dropping over four seconds in three of her events.  Her sister, Jamie, swam best times in 10 of her events achieving some extra state times in the process.  Meag Fisher seemed to love the Cincinnati pool with all of the great swims she had over the weekend.  Meag placed 1st in three of her events with best times in all of them.  Lisa Moore swam a great 200 IM dropping over 5 seconds in the event and over all dropped time in nine of her swims.  Bill Scheidler dropped over 8 seconds in the 200 breast bringing him well within reach of the State Age Group cut.  Great job to all of the swimmers at the meet.
At practice the Stingrays have been challenged daily with a rigorous dry land routine, work in the water, and some test sets in the water.  In dry land cudos goes out to Tyler Davis and Chris Belcher for their hard work during our stretch cord/medicine ball workout.   Our two most improved 30 minute swims were from Ashley Clifford and Bill Scheidler.  Both improved their swims by 10 lengths.  In the normal water workouts some of the standout swims have come from Elizabeth Brook, who has now strengthened  her breaststroke enough where she should have a tough IM.  Mary Koss has done a great job concentrating on her technique and improving her reach during freestyle sets. 
I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season.  I hope all of you will get the chance to be with your family and friends. 
See you on deck,