May 10, 2012  The class of 2012 is composed of 12 coaches. The ASCA Fellows program is a mentoring program for swimming coaches, designed to foster the future coach-leaders of American swimming. The program annually takes a select group of coaches and pairs them with a mentor coach to work on a year-long project. For the 2012 class, the Fellows will be looking into how existing profession sports tours/leagues developed, researching strategies for possible Swimming implementation.  Congratulations to Coach Strader-Bordi.

May 9, 2012  The process has gone totally electronic. Applicants will log into their account on the USA Swimming website (use My USA Swimming). Each year, USA Swimming recognizes its members who excel both in the classroom and in the pool. The Scholastic All-America Team is made up of high school student-athletes who have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher and who have achieved the required time standard in a single event.

To be eligible for this recognition, swimmers must have completed 10th, 11th or 12th grade and must be a USA Swimming member athlete. Eligible times must be swum between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. The application must be completed by August 15. 

Open Water applicants and IPC applicants must upload (scan and electronically upload a file) results to the web application. The meets that are qualification meets are clearly named. All applicants must upload an official transcript from their school to the web application.
 

May 8, 2012  Led (staff roster) by former Middle Atlantic coach Charlie Fry (LAC and OCCC), several of our current Middle Atlantic athletes will be represented at the USA Swimming Zone Select Camp  May 31-June 3, 2012 on the campus of UMBC in Baltimore, Md.  28 male and 28 female athletes are selected in each of the four Zones. Full qualifying criteria is here. The list of athletes selected from the Eastern Zone is here
 

May 8, 2012  USA Swimming announced the swimmers named to its 2012-2013 USA Swimming Open Water National Team and its 2012-2013 Open Water Junior National Team.  Named to the USA Swimming National Team were Andrew Gemmell (DST) and Arthur Frayler (GAAC).  Named to the USA Swimming National Junior Team were Bryan Draganosky and Rachel Zilinskas both of GAAC

Swimmers were selected for the USA Swimming Open Water National Team based upon their finish at the 2012 USA Swimming 10K Open Water National Championships that took place April 27 in Miromar Lakes, Fla.

The 2012-2013 Open Water Junior National Team features a total of six swimmers, three men and three women. Swimmers, aged 18-and-under at the time of qualifying and who finished in the top three at the 2012 USA Swimming 10K Open Water National Championships, qualified for the Junior National Team.
 

May 7, 2012  Through three days of training, motivational and team building sessions USA Swimming will seek to inspire athletes and coaches from underrepresented populations to become leaders and role models not only in their club but also in their communities. [video]  36 athletes were selected. The 3-day camp program includes a combination of pool training, motivational and education sessions, and team building activities.  Yang Yang Lu from York Y, Isabel Obregon and Steven Shek from Jersey Wahoos represented Middle Atlantic swimming at this camp.
 

May 4, 2012  As many of our Middle Atlantic athletes are working hard in the pool with their final preparations for USA Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, USA Swimming recently released the list of meet officials who were selected to officiate at the meet at the end of June.  Middle Atlantic's very own Dr Cecil Gordon was selected to be one of the Chief Judge's at the trials meet.  The full list is here.  The Middle Atlantic Officials committee as well as all athletes and parents within the LSC would like to congratulate Cecil on this very well deserved honor
 

April 28, 2012 MIROMAR LAKES, Fla. – Andrew Gemmell (Wilmington, Del.) won the 10K Open Water National Championship Miromar Lakes Beach and Golf Club in Miromar Lakes, Fla. It was his first Open Water National Titles as he finished third in last year’s race. [video]

Germantown Academy’s Arthur Frayler, headed to Florida next year, swam like a veteran in this race. He saved his legs for much of the race, and holding the lead for much of the race even rolled over on his back a few times in the race to check out his competition without giving up any ground. Arthur Frayler (Ambler, Pa.) and Gemmell would flip-flop at the front for most of the final two laps before Gemmell made a surge and touched the finishing structure first in 1:58:03.87. Frayler would finish in fifth place in 1:58:19.67 while Mission Viejo pair Janardan Burns (1:58:12.45) and David Heron (1:58:15.86) would place second and third, respectively. Coming in fourth place was Joey Pedraza (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) in 1:58:15.91.

Other notable MA finishes include Bryan Dragonowsky, who is Frayler’s high school teammate at Germantown, in 7th at 1:58:31.6

For complete results from both 10K races, visit the Open Water landing page.

 

April 25, 2012 USA Swimming’s Safety Education Committee  is asking athletes to create a poster about safety in the pool (competition or training) or open water (competition or training) or dryland training, the rest is up to their imagination.

The objective of the Safety Poster Contest is build awareness for safety in the competitive swimming environment. The Committee is looking for each LSC to get the word out to their athletes to submit ideas using their talent and vision and the Committee is very excited to see what the athletes can come up with in their original poster designs.

The posters can be created in any medium, but must be submitted in an electronic format (scanned, photographed, electronically created, etc.) to the LSC at safety@maswim.org  for submission to the Committee. Posters must be 20”x24” for display at the Olympic Trials. All athletes are eligible; each LSC will pick one winner for submission to the Committee, and the Committee will select 10 posters from the LSC submissions for display at the Olympic Trials. The Grand Prize will be selected at the Olympic Trials based on voting by visitors to the display.  More info here
 

April 16, 2012 The Middle Atlantic Diversity Committee held a Diversity Outreach Clinic at the Boys & Girls Club of  Camden County on Friday April 13th. We reached over 130 kids. 50 kids from the city of Camden and an amazing group of almost 100 USS Swimmers from the tri-state area and more than a dozen teams were represented. Olympian Anthony Ervin and a great group of volunteer coaches worked with the swimmers to make this clinic a success. Camden Mayor Redd even awarded us with
a Proclamation in honor of the clinic and our outreach efforts