The Future of CSA

CSA swimmers finished very strong as the season heads to the Christmas break. All the swimmers worked so hard during the fall and with a small taper dropped time for the big meets at the half way point of the season.

The month of December started with the State High School meet in Tuscaloosa. Cullman area swimmers making individual finals were lead by Bennett Glasscock finishing 10th in 100 Backstroke, Michelle Pilcher 14th in 100 Breaststroke and Brian Leiter 16th in 500 Freestyle.

Neil Norris and Sara Peel competed in the Excel Aquatics "Meet of Champions", in Brentwood, TN. Both swimmers made finals with Sara finishing 13th in 100 Breaststroke and Neil finishing 4th in the 100 IM and 5th in 100 and 200 Freestyles. Great swimming in a super competitive meet.

The future of CSA, the 8-under girls headed to Brentwood to swim in the Excel Aquatics "St. Nick Invitational". If these girls stick together they are going to be dangerous fast one day. Leading the way for the swimmers was Claire Ogstad finishing 2nd in the Breaststroke, Cabri Adams 4th in Butterfly, 7th in Backstroke and Reese McNeal 7th in 50 Freestyle. With Reagan Martin the girls finished 4th in the Medley and Free Relays. Wow!

The CSA swimmers now enjoy the holidays and will be competing next at Baylor Swim Club in January.

CSA Completes Tough Week!

Cullman Swim Association had a busy week in the pools. The week started with the HSA meet last weekend followed by the Cullman High School Invitational and ending with the MSA Thanksgiving meet this past weekend. Whew! The big news is times are still dropping with many outstanding performances.

The highlight of the HSA meet was Claire Ogstad winning the 8-Under girls breaststroke. At the Cullman Invitational Michelle Pilcher put in an outstanding performance winning the 200 Freestyle. The star of the MSA meet was Neil Norris winning several of the 9-10 boys events and a highpoint award. Hot on the time cutting trail was Reese McNeil dropping an incredible 6 seconds in the 50 Backstroke.

The picture below shows what a hard work smile looks like. Christyl Hillis hammered the 50 free to go under 30 seconds. Outstanding! That smile says it all and makes the coaches happy also.

Master Swimmers Place 3rd at Crimson Tide Sprint Cup

About Time Masters Swimmers Drew Bagwell, Arnold Caylor, Bo Shirey, and Al Woods competed in the annual Crimson Tide Masters Sprint Cup on October 30th at the University of Alabama. The team placed third overall losing to Auburn and the Birmingham Swim League with just 11 point separating 1st from 3rd place. Drew won the mens 25 to 29 age group division as top point getter. Being a sprint cup, all races were limited to 50 or 100 yards in length with swimmers allowed to swim up to 5 individual events plus relays. the pool was fast and the host team did a great job of controlling the tempo of the meet. the swimmers came home with a bunch of ribbons and a trophy for their effort. The next local masters swim meet will be in Auburn on February 12th and 13th. Keep an eye out on the About Time Masters swimming face book page for further information.

CSA Swims Fast in Auburn!

Twenty Cullman Swim Association swimmers competed in the 2010 War Eagle Invitational in Auburn this past weekend. Coaches attending were Allison Norris and Jackie Donaldson. All the swimmers hard work and dedication over the past two months is really showing with all the improvements and faster times.

CSA was lead by Neil Norris who finished 5th in overall points for 9-10 boys and made an incredible 6 Southeastern cut times. Based on last years Sectional times he has several of those.

Jillian Richard and Crystal Hillis both had a great meet cutting time in most of their events, with Jillian placing overall in several events.

Chis McAlpin represented the senior swimmers well with his fine performance in 100 Butterfly which qualified him for the AHSAA Championships.

Coach Allison and Jolanda Hutson put together a Halloween party for the swimmers which included trunk or treating, a scavenger hunt, candy corn relay and guessing game. Great team building for all those attending!

Anna Evans Makes the Cut!

Anna Evans was definitely the Star this past Saturday at SSA. She swam three events and made three Southeastern qualifying times. The first event I told her was good for a Snickers bar...well she ended up collecting some good bounty.

The CSA swimmers all did well with most cutting time in all their events. As one coach told me if they are not getting faster we as coaches arent doing our job. A super meet with Coaches John, Jackie and Carson on deck.

Video of Anna swimming the 100 IM, of course making the SE Cut, Dianne and JW better go ahead and make there reservations in Nashville!

AnnaSEQ from Carson Glasscock on Vimeo.

Big Week

Its a big week for Cullman Swim Association as we approach the first month of meets. CSA will be represented in Scottsboro, Bob Jones, Auburn and Hoover in the month of October. A lot of action for the team with the season kicking off in full swing.

Looks like fun on a Saturday morning at the CWAC. The team has been training so hard and anxiously awaits the upcoming meets.

The Season Has Begun!

Cullman Swim Association has begun its 2010-11 season this weekend. Swimmers will be competing at the BSL Fall Sprint Meet in Birmingham. Reports in from Coach Allison of some nice time drops. The USA season is a long one with many meets on the horizon. The CSA swimmers have show great dedication and have been working hard. This season we are following a planned season training program which includes some advanced parametric training. Going to be exciting to see how fast our swimmers swim this season.

Some of the Gold and Silver Group taking a break for a photo-op. That pace clock in the background is becoming the swimmers buddy. Lots of hard work by our team.

Saturday the swimmers who didn't compete at BSL watched a stroke film before practice. They watched Ian Crocker demonstrate the correct way to do butterfly drills. We did a butterfly practice with a great endurance set. The swimmers have been training hard with a huge effort being show making all the practices.

Fall Practice

CSA is off and swimming. The Bronze Group is officially full, who would have thought after year of a USA program we would be full. Good problem to have. The first meet will be at BSL next weekend, this should be a great meet for the swimmers to get some times in.

Cullman High School coached by Jackie Donaldson has completed two dual meets. The Bearcats performed well with several state meet qualifiers. CHS beat Hartselle and Sparkman in the first meet and in the second meet beat Bob Jones but fell to Scottsboro.

CSA Begins Practice

Cullman Swimming Association's gold group hit the water this past week after a month mandatory lay off. Silver and Bronze groups will begin practice this week. The USA season is a long one with several peaks during the season including the AHSAA meet in December. Cullman area will be represented with two high school teams, Cullman High School and Saint Bernard Prep. Coach Jackie has put together a CHS exclusive practices as an athletic period, fantastic.

CSA has 50 swimmers not including the high schoolers. This year a true gold group is formed with higher expectations and commitment. All groups will see fast times this winter.

Some of the Gold group after a nice practice Saturday morning, in one of our beautiful pools! We will be utilizing the outdoor pool as long as weather permits.

Golden Goggles

Cullman Swim Team had its version of the Golden Goggle Awards. The annual banquet was held Sunday night at the Cullman Civic Center. The swim moms had the decor perfect for the special event.

Cullman head coach Allison Norris did a great job being the master of ceremonies, quite a feat with 140 swimmers. So many highlights to the season so there were many awards.

CST had a great turnout at state this year with all the swimmers recognized. There were many team records broken this season indicating the trend of the Cullman Swimming program.

Also on the agenda was the diving program lead by Dianne Evans, in its second year the program finished 2nd in the state including a state champion.

Mike Jackson the team president closed out the banquet recognizing the coaches and the fantastic job they all did this season.

Cullman Swim Association will carry this momentum this fall with the USA program.

State Champion Diver

Molly Gambrill led Cullman Dive Team to second place overall at the 2010 ARPA State Diving Championships. The team finished behind to Hoover at the Auburn meet. Molly won the 9-10 Girls 1 meter competition. The CDT is coached by Diane Evans who is assisted by Steve Crawford.

Congradulations to this second year program!

CST Rocks State!

What can you say about our fabulous coaches? Allison and Jackie did an incredible job leading Cullman into 2nd place in the state in our division. Cullman Swim Team had an incredible run at State in Valley, Alabama. The team was led by the 13-14 Boys who won 3 individual events and both medley and free relays.

Anna Evans and Jillian Richard don't look too nervous before their relay. They put in great performances medaling in both the medley and free relays.

Neil Norris after joining the Gold Medal Club. Neil won the boys 9-10 100 freestyle.

Coach Allison and Jackie giving the 11-12 boys some feedback and splits. The boys swam strong and turned in best times in their relay splits.

More details coming soon, the CST swimmers and parents had a great time at the 2010 State Championships.

CST Finishes 3rd at Districts

Cullman Swim Team hosted districts this year at the CWAC and it was a fast and furious three days. Diving began on Thursday with several divers taking first places including Laura Evans who will lead them on to State at Auburn. Hopefully she can bring some spirit to the divers where earlier this year she placed in the Alabama State High School Meet.

Cullman swimmers continued time drops over Friday and Saturday which produced some wins and some heartbreaks. Because of the size of our district and the level of competition sometimes it appears that our district championships are tougher than the actual state swim meet.

Some of the highlights would have to be the 9-10 boys and girls. In every event CST had someone in the hunt for a top place, this really shows the future of the team. This age group will be well represented at state in both relays and individual events. Neil Norris led all with a first place finish in the 100 Freestyle. The incredible girls medley relay of Anna Evans, Sara Peel, Adora Ralph and Jillian Richard also won first.

13-14 boys ruled with first places in both relays and three firsts in individual events. The combination of Chris McAlpine, Lane Donaldson, Seth Donaldson, Chaz Brouillette, Zack Kane and Bennett Glasscock produced gold. Bennett won all three of his individual events in record time.

With state in two weeks the swimmers will have to stay focused on the upcoming meet and work hard. CST will be well represented.

Scottsboro 359 Cullman 314

CST held their own Thursday night to lose another close meet with SSA. We all knew it would be close and even closer this year. The value of the USA program is starting to show some colors with many great races again and CST records falling.

Looking at the younger age groups you can see the future of CST. Reagan Martin, Kelly Warren, Claire Ogstad, Aubree Skipper and Cabri Adams, swam great relays at SSA, its happening in the 8 and under and they are getting faster every meet.

Many Cullman swimmers made State Qualifying times over the past week. In the 13-14 girls Crystal Hillis and Kara Jackson continue to cut time.

District Championships will be at Cullman this weekend so expect great times and State qualifiers in the super fast CWAC pool. Seed times are very important for swimmers at State since the format is timed finals.

For some added entertainment is the video below. This is why we work on all strokes, you never know when a backstroker might become a breaststroker. Elite coaches preach training and swimming all strokes not only for Individual Medley but sometimes those breakthroughs that just fall into place.

Cullman 488-Arab 182

The future of Cullman Swim Team. These guys are part of the new wave of swimmers for CST.

With only one loss on the season CST hit Arab with a tidal wave. The team is shaping up for District next weekend fine tuning all the swimmers and relays for the BIG! meet held at the CWAC.

Even with the one sided victory Arab brought some excellent swimmers which produced some team and pool records (on both sides).

CST will swim against Scottsboro Thursday night to wrap up the dual meet season. Should be an excellent meet with hopefully more times falling to those state qualifying times.

Ouch!

Madison is always a nice venue, with all this heat the indoor pools offer a little cooler water and a little less sun. Seems MST came ready for a swim meet and didn't hold much back. CST held their own with some best times and great competition.

This must be how you look when you go a best time in fly. Kacie put together a great race with some girls that were fast, she made them earn it.

/

Hats off to Drake and Seth, they did their part to help the 13-14 boys dominate. Drake did a personal best in free on both relays and Seth put in a best time in breast on the relay and open race.

/

Great meet that was well run, CST made it a competitive meet with many great races and times.

CST Roars past Boaz

Even the assistant coaches get thrown in! Lauren Odell takes the plunge after Cullman Swim Teams victory over Boaz, 500-178. CST remains undefeated in dual meet and District 2 competition. Boaz had another huge team with over 100 swimmers.

CST goes to Madison Thursday night for arguably the best team in the state. Madison stacks a huge team with loads of talent in every age group. This will be another test for Cullman swimmers to see where they stand with state level competition.

TVC Heart Breaker

CST had a great showing at the TVC Championships, many great races and performances unfortunately ending with the meet decided by a controversial disqualification. Oh well what do you do? TVC is an independent league and a great stage for competitive swimming, something special we have in North Alabama. Guess we have to talk a little more at the planning meeting and lets make sure next year it isn't so close scoring wise.

Cullman was in control of the meet until the long free when Jasper made their surge. They won much of the long free races and continued that momentum through the Free Relay. You have to hand it to them they finished very strong.

The "Girls" enjoying some down time between races, is Kacie holding court?

The meet got so close local mathematician Nicholas Fillinger kept statistics going real time, where was Drake?

Great meet and well run by the Oneonta Swim Team. The meet was very efficiently run with no real delays including mother nature.

CST Beats Albertville and Guntersville

Cullman swimmers put in outstanding performances to beat Albertville Tuesday night then Guntersville Thursday night.

Albertville brought a huge team to the CWAC loaded in two buses. Sam Bates, swimming superstar from Boaz is a player/coach for the team. Once again the Butterfly was the turning point in the meet followed by Cullman swimming strong in the free relays.

Laura Lindsey after putting in a great Freestyle race.

Kacie Donaldson swam a personal best in the 100 Freestyle.

Hannah Williams after a great performance, she is one of our many strong senior girls.

Cullman Swim Team swam an away meet Thursday at Guntersville. CST came out on top by a mere 30 points, whew a great meet. Most races were well matched but towards the end of the meet Cullmans depth played another huge role. Several swimmers got best times which was awesome on a very hot night at the pool by the lake.

Kyle Norris cut huge time to swim to a personal best in the 11-12 100 Freestyle. Guntersville was strong in the 11-12 Boys.

Next stop TVC on Saturday.

MASTERS SWIMMING COMPETES AT ALABAMA SPORTS FESTIVAL

ABOUT TIME MASTERS SWIMMING members Drew Bagwell, Frank Odell, and Bo Shirey competed Sunday in Trussville at the Alabama Sports Festival. Drew swam 4 events while Frank and Bo each swam 3. Plenty of gold medals were brought home by all three members. To see all pictures of the event go to the About Time Master Swimming facebook page.

Way To Go Guys!!!!!!!

Madison Medal Meet

Cullman Swim Team had a great turn out for the Medal meet. This was an opportunity for the swimmers to do some USA events and also tweak times. Coach Allison and Jackie noted that the swimmers are not resting right now and training through the meets, which is fantastic since all are dropping times in events.

Another purpose of the meet gave the swimmers a chance to see where they stack up with the competition that they will be facing at district and state.


Towards the end of the meet things got long, we had a 2.5 hour lightning delay. The meet was well run and moved efficiently all things considered.

Cullman Dunks Jasper

CST goes to 5-0 with a big win over our oldest rival Jasper, and thats two years straight! With many swimmers out again with the choir trip and vacations the depth came through again. Can we say DEPTH one more time, if we have someone out we have several right there waiting to swim. Jasper has many great swimmers but so does Cullman now.

Butterfly was the turning point in the meet again. CST continued strong with great relays in every age group.

Kyle Norris and Nicholas Fillinger enjoying the meet.

Colby Hutson swam another personal best in the 9-10 Butterfly. Inching down towards that record.

Cullman 295-Florence 259

CST pulled off another great meet beating FAST Tuesday night at the CWAC. Although many Cullman swimmers did not put in best times they scored first places. Both teams had swimmers on vacation and trips etc, the meet was very evenly matched. The turning point was the butterfly stroke with CST winning many first places.

One of those butterflyers was Eric Pilcher, also swimming several other outstanding races. Depth of the team played another key role in the victory. CST will face FAST again at the TVC Championships later this month. Last year the margin of victory was 10 points coming down to the very last relay.

The meet also served as the now annual CST Alumni night with many former swimmers, coaches and parents attending the meet. The picture above is the "Famous" Ginger Holt's father, Dodd who actually coached the team one summer. Shown with him is Jeanette Buettner who's daughters Carol and Debbie were great swimmers.

At the conclusion of the meet, lead in by the Olympic theme the Cullman parents were challenged by the Florence parents to a friendly relay. Wes Warren, Bo Shirey, Jay Page and John Hilb finished the meet just like the age group swimmers!

CST Beats Sheffield 314-215

Cullman swimmers continued their undefeated dual meet season Thursday night, out swimming Sheffield 314-215. This was the first good test of the season for the team. Coach Allison was pleased with many swimmers who swam great races. Cullman who had swimmers out for the meet showed the value of having a big team, depth played a huge role especially in the relays.

CST will swim FAST Pirates (Florence) Tuesday night, this will be another test for the team. Expect more broken records and fast times!

Savannah Smith off to a great start this season. Personal bests in Freestyle and Breaststroke.

Cullman Scorches Oneonta

Cullman Swim Team got off to a blistering pace in the first two meets of the season. They continued the march towards District and State with a 435-75 victory over TVC host Oneonta.

Reagan Martin after another great race.

Coach Allison claims she enjoys a nice swim after the meets, lets hope so. I think its becoming a regular thing for the coaches.

CST First Week

Our first week of practice went awesome! All the swimmers are looking great in the water. The Black and Gold meet on June 1st went off without a hitch..and the swimmers look very promising and fast! This continued to be the case at our meet vs. Decatur on Thursday. Cullman won by a considerable amount. Most swimmers had best times, and all of our new swimmers that participated in the meet looked much improved, even since Tuesday!

This week we face Oneonta at Cullman on Tuesday and Cullman goes to Sheffield on Thursday. Let's swim our fastest and win both meets!

Bennett Goes to Camp

Bennett Glasscock is attending the Texas Longhorn Swim Camp in Austin, Texas. This is Eddie Resse's camp who is the head coach at NCAA champs Texas and Olympic head coach . The swimmers wasted no time Sunday with them hitting the water for the first practice. Not only is this a camp all about technique its a training camp so the swimmers train every morning.
.
Eddie giving his opening talk to the swimmers. The swimmers are placed into four groups based on their age and times. Bennett is placed in the "Blue" group which is the fastest, so far hes had to work hard to keep up.

A typical day right now is:

8:00 Breakfast, 8:30 Dry land, 9:30 6000 meters long course (ouch), 12:00 Lunch, 1:30 Stroke Drills, 3:30 - 5:30 Free time (nap), 5:30 Dinner, 6:30 Texas Relays (fun) and underwater analysis, then lights out at 10:30.

Coach Reese explaining the workout to the swimmers. He is very involved in every aspect of the camp and talks to the swimmers one on one, explaining always what they are doing and why.

.

Aaron Piersol did a backstroke clinic. One common theme is the underwater swimming. Very nice guy and personable.

Ian Crocker is in the house! All strokes covered who else to do a butterfly clinic? Another super guy and by the way ... tall ... He spent much of his time talking about underwater dolfining how you start with powerful kicks then sharp quick kicks as you surface. Hand placement is critical. Seemed a few of the parents almost fell over the rails of the peanut gallery for some reason. The swimmers had a meet and greet with the Olympians last night.

More later, how did the inter squad go? Update coming, hope we got some pictures.

McGee Moody Clinic

Cullman area swimmers were very fortunate to participate in a competitive swimming clinic conducted by McGee Moody, head swimming coach at the University of South Carolina. He has been a star of teaching and coaching achieving a high profile level at a young age and also through media outlets such as Flowswimming.

Coach McGee was born in Jasper, swam park and recreation swimming at Albertville, USA/ Swimming at Huntsville Swim Association then college at Eastern Carolina. McGee understands and teaches the whole process from small town swimming to the highest level of competitive swimming.

50 swimmers participated in the "Jump Start" clinic and were split into two groups, 13-up and 12-under. Sessions for the clinic were Friday night and a half day Saturday. Having two sessions gave more needed time and depth for technique.

Coach Mcgee began each session with an instructional talk, explaining what they would be working on before they entered the water.

McGee has some unique drills, above working on pushoffs. With his teaching skills he was able to grab all he swimmers attention and make it fun.

Saturdays session included dry-land instruction. Coach McGee stressed the importance of the core and strengthening it.

Mcgee closed out his clinic with and incredible PowerPoint presentation. He took the swimmers, parents and coaches through his evolution from an age group Park and Recreation swimmer to a head coach at a NCAA Division 1, Southeastern Conference School. An amazing journey.

The Cullman Wellness and Aquatic Center was very cooperative and provides outstanding facilities for clinics. Hopefully we can make this an annual event with Coach Mcgee Moody.

CSA Banquet

.

These are getting to be familiar faces, Sara Peel, Neil Norris and Colby Hutson received awards for being Southeastern qualifiers. They represent the future of Cullman Swimming, all are in the 9-10 age group. Look out Cullman Swim Team opponents!

Del Brock was the guest speaker. He was a teacher, football and track coach at Cullman High School and coach of Cullman Swim Team. Del became a successful businessman and community leader. Fantastic talk he gave.

Frank Odell gave Denise Peek an award for becoming a certified USA Swimming stroke and turn official. She had to pass an exam then complete an aprentice program by judging at several meets.

CSA Represented!

Cullman Swim Association was represented at Age Group Sectionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bennett Glasscock swam the 50 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke and 100 Butterfly in the meet. This is quite an honor for our team having a swimmer make it to this level. Bennett continued his taper from Southeasterns for this meet and cut more time off his personal and team bests. Coach Carson and John worked with Bennett solo in the two week addition to his season. Like Southeasterns hopefully we will see more swimmers next year at Age-Group Sectionals.

Age Group Sectionals is hosted by Mecklinburg Aquatic Club in Charlotte, NC. The host team MAC are coached by David Marsh former Auburn University head coach. It was a huge meet where everyone is fast.

Southeasterns

Cullman had four swimmers four swimmers who qualified and competed in the Southeastern/USA Championships meet in Nashville. In the first year of the year round program this is a great accomplishment. Swimmers qualifying were: Neil Norris 50 Free/Fly and 100 Free, Colby Hutson 50 Fly, Sara Peel 50 Breast and Bennett Glasscock 100 Back/Fly and 50 Free. Most notable were Colby and Sara both new to competitive swimming.

All the swimmers from Cullman worked hard this year and several more were close to making the very fast qualifying times. Next season we should have many more making the cuts. CSA being represented at SEUSA validates the program.

Traveling to Southeasterns was fun for the coaches, parents and swimmers. Competing on this level will give the swimmers confidence that they can compete well regionally.