WMST member Mark Harmon has been competing in the 2023 South Central Zone Open Water Grand Prix Series.  Having completed the Lake Longhorn RoundUp OW Swim (Houston) and the North Texas Swim de Mayo (Dallas) events, he is currently in 2nd Place in the Mens 1.25K Division! 

The final stop in the OW Grand Prix Challenge will be on July 30th at Cedar Hill State Park in Cedar Hill, TX. Mark alternates being WMST pool work outs and braving the open waters of Lake Conroe!

According to Mark, “It has has been an exciting season so far!!! I want to give a shout out THANK YOU to Coach Ted for all of his help on adjusting my freestyle swim stroke. My competition times this season are 2+ minutes faster than the same event times last year!”

Good luck to Mark at the conclusion of the series coming up on July 30 at Cedar Hill State Park!!

https://usmssouthcentralzone.org/open-water-challenge

Congratulations to WMST swimmer Mark Harmon!  He competed in the South Central Zone Open Water Grand Prix Challenge this year. The Challenge consisted of three (3) Open Water Swims with the final event held on September 25th in northwest Arkansas (Beaver Lake). Mark won First Place Overall in the Men's Short Distance (1-mile) Swim Challenge!! He is already excited for the 2023 Swim Challenge!!

WMST has more exciting news to share as WMST Coach Mike Nordmann’s two eldest daughters will be swimming in the 2^nd wave of the Olympic Trials coming up this next week.

Lucie Nordmann graduated from The Woodlands High School in 2018 and currently is a Junior at Stanford University.  She is in the School of Engineering pursuing a degree in Architectural Design.  Lucie redshirted her Junior season due to surgery on her left knee to correct a dislocated patella in October of 2020.  She was cleared to return to competition in April of this year. Click HERE to view Lucie’s bio on the Stanford University Women’s Swimming and Diving Team website.

Lucie’s events:100 Butterfly
100 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke         

Lillie Nordmann graduated from The Woodlands High School in 2020 and will start her Freshman year at Stanford University this fall.  Lillie decided to take a gap year to train for this year’s Trials in Palo Alto with USA Olympic Women’s Team Head Coach, Greg Meehan, alongside other USA Swimming National Team Members Simone Manuel, Katie Ledecky, and Katie Drabot.  Click HERE to view Lillie’s bio on the USA Swimming National Team website.

Lillie’s events:100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
200 Butterfly
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
50 Freestyle

Nordmann Girls’ Schedule:

WMST wishes these young ladies the best of luck at Trials!

-Alana Wilson
WMST President

Some of you may have had the pleasure of swimming with Andrew Seliskar on our team while he was home visiting his parents.  He will be swimming in the 2^nd wave of the US Olympic Trials this coming week.

The following is shared from Dan Seliskar about Andrew’s schedule:

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Thanks to the pandemic, this is the biggest meet since 2019.  Swimmers have had to find very creative ways to practice when pools and weight rooms were shut down.  

You can leave a good luck message for Andrew here:  https://toyotagoodluckblvd.com/?fbclid=IwAR0UMYCeSR-j0xoJxNupVt_8DJPzle_sz3G32fIRycStEIGTipQajkXpGBM

This year, USA Swimming divided Olympic Trials into two smaller meets with Wave 1 qualifiers having already competed and a few advancing to the Wave 2 trials.  The US Olympic Team will be selected from the Wave 2 Trials which start THIS SUNDAY (6/13).  

All events 200M and shorter will be swum as morning prelims with the top 16 finishers advancing to semi-finals that evening.  Top 8 advance to finals which are swum the next evening.  For non-freestyle events, the top 2 are named to the US Olympic Team to compete in that event, starting July 24 in Tokyo.  For the 100 and 200 freestyle, in addition to the top 2 who are named to the team, an additional 2-4 swimmers in each of these 2 events are named to the team to compete in the 4x100 free relay and the 4x200 free relay.  

Andrew is entered in 4 events**:

Men’s 200 freestyle (seeded 1st out of 61 wave 2 qualifiers)

Men’s 100 freestyle (seeded 11th out of 71 wave 2 qualifiers)

Men’s 200 Individual Medley (seeded 7th out of 63 wave 2 qualifiers)

Men’s 100 butterfly (seeded 5th out of 69 wave 2 qualifiers)

**Please note, swimmers can scratch an event after the meet starts so he may not swim all of these entries.

That said, here below (and attached) is Andrew's projected schedule based on his pre-scratch entries:

The prelims session will begin at 11 am eastern and can be viewed on saswimming.org or on a delay on NBCSN starting at 6:30 pm Eastern.  

Semi-finals and finals will be televised live nightly on NBC.  Please check your local schedule, because it looks like the nightly live coverage will begin at 8 pm Eastern time on Sunday-Thursday,  then at 9 pm Eastern on Friday and Saturday, and the final Sunday, 6/20 at 8:15 pm Eastern.  

Thanks for your support of Andrew as he chases his Olympic dream!

Go USA!!
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WMST wishes Andrew and his family the best of luck!

-Alana Wilson, WMST President

05/24/2021

As we approach the end of the CISD school year, I wanted to inform you all of some changes that will be coming at the NAT, and how we will be conducting practices.  Throughout the pandemic, the CISD Natatorium has been very gracious during the COVID-19 global pandemic in allowing us to spread out across lanes when available to protect our more “mature” population.

Beginning June 1, the NAT will transition to a majority Long course configuration:

• M/W/F 5:30am – 3 lanes Long course
• T/Th 9:00am – 4 lanes Short course
• M-F 12:00pm – 5 lanes Long course
• M-Th 7:00pm – 4 lanes Short course
• Sat 11:00am – 8 lanes Short course
• Sun 1:00pm – 5 lanes Long course
• Our T/Th 5:30am workouts at Northampton remain unchanged

What does this mean for WMST practices and the Sign Up Genius?  Well, it means that we will be opening up our workouts to an unlimited number of people for the Sign Up Genius.  We will still be requiring you to sign up for practices on the Sign Up Genius for a few reasons: namely that our weekly waiver is included in it, and also so that swimmers will have an idea of how crowded practice may be to determine if they are comfortable attending.  We will continue this through the month of June as we transition.

Additionally, beginning June 1, the CISD Natatorium will no longer be requiring masks for their employees and patrons.  WMST will be following CDC guidelines, allowing for those who are fully vaccinated to be on deck and in the locker rooms without a mask if they so choose, and those who are not fully vaccinated must continue to wear their masks.

If you have not yet had an opportunity to get your COVID-19 vaccine and your primary care physician has recommended you to do so, you are encouraged to get your vaccine to protect yourself and others.  WMST Vice President Ted Eicks (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) is still receiving emails from members with their vaccine information – as of this email, WMST is above a 60% vaccination rate for active swimmers.  We will still abide by the restrictions put in place by the NAT at a minimum. 

WMST will not be separating lanes into “vaccinated” and “un-vaccinated” lanes.  The onus is on the individual swimmer to make decisions that are safest for themselves, and the rest of our team.  For those swimmers who wish to be in a less crowded environment – you will be allowed to swim from the far end of the pool.  You are welcome to group up with your regular swimming buddies with whom you are comfortable swimming with.

Alana Wilson, PA-C
WMST President