Mesa Aquatics Club
April, 2011
Welcome To Our Team!!!!!!
Mesa Aquatics Club is VERY proud to introduce you to our phenomenal new coaches!!!! Jack Giles will coaching the Senior
Team at Kino. Glen, Meg and Laura will still be at Kino coaching the Age Group gang. Jon Shaw is stepping down from his full
time teaching career, and stepping up to a full time coaching career! Jon will be the Senior Team coach at Skyline, and will also
be coaching the evening Masters (which he has been doing at Kino since the team’s inception!). Tiffany Forbes has come to us
from Boulder, Colorado and will be leading the Red, Bronze, Silver and Gold groups, as well as coaching the morning Masters.
Apparently, this women doesn’t require sleep to survive!!!
Jack Giles joins our team with long history of coaching in Arizona. He graduated from Saguaro High school, where he swam
for the Varsity Team. From there, he coached a summer Rec league at South Lake Tahoe, a team of 80
kids. He came back to the valley and spent 13 years with the City of Scottsdale working as the summer
team coach, team program coordinator and pool manager. He graduated from Lewis and Clark College
in Portland, Oregon in 1983 with a BS in Psychology and Child Development. He was the Assistant
Coach for the Marcos de Niza swim team for two years before moving to the Arcadia district where he
coached Arcadia High School to 9 State Championships! Jack was the Aquatics Director at the Village
Athletic Club for three years before returning to school to obtain his Law Degree from ASU. He has
always been a fan of swimming, a participant of swimming, and his passion and knowledge of the sport has led to the success
of his swimmers.
Tiffany Forbes not only has an impressive swimming career, but her coaching career will knock your socks off! She graduated
from Southern Illinois University with a B.S. in Exercise Science then headed out to Colorado to get
her Master’s Degree in the same field. She was the Age Group Coach of the Year in 1996. She was
selected to two USMS World Masters Championships working for the USA. Tiffany was the founder
and director of the Boulder Swimming Academy which is a hugely well respected program
encompassing Learn to Swim (kids and adults), clinics, lessons, and video analysis and a “Women
Only” swim program. She worked as a Masters Coach for 13 years for the Boulder Aquatics Masters,
and became a beloved part of the Boulder community.` Her accomplishments go on and on….so just
trust me here: the girl knows what she’s doing, and we are very lucky to have her as a part of the
team!!!
Jon Shaw grew up in Indiana where he was a standout age group swimmer and achieved the #1 ranking in US in the 100 fly &
400IM, set state records in the 100 fly, won multiple state age group and senior championships and is still ranked in the top
100 in 4 events (40th all time in the 400IM as a 13-14 year old).
Jon was recruited by and swam for ASU from 2000-2004 where he was a Pac 10 semi-finalist in the 200
fly and 400IM, he graduated with a BA in Elementary Education and currently teaches 7th grade Social
Studies, but is resigning to coach full-time at the end of the school year. Jon's passion for swimming
continues to grow! He has coached for Sun Devil Aquatics as well as Sun Devil Masters and joined the
MAC family in September of 2009. Jon's forte is technical instruction. In addition to coaching MAC's
Senior group and Masters, Jon also does private instruction.
Notes from: Coach Meg
Red Group:
What a fantastic showing we had of our youngest MAC competitors, last weekend in Anthem. These youngsters remind us all
why we do what we do…..because WE LOVE IT! They had so much fun with the parade, the wacky relays and their individual
events. You all made your parents and coaches proud.
We are looking forward to a great summer and we have some special meets planned especially for
this age group. Your energy and enthusiasm brings a smile to our face every day. Keep up the hard
work and remember how important those streamlines are off of every wall.
Bronze Group:
We had a few kids from this group, compete in the 8 and under championships as well. They did a
super job encouraging the younger, less experienced swimmers and setting a wonderful example of
working hard and playing hard.
We are heading back to basics for the next few weeks. We will be stressing streamlines, turns and kicking. The coaches will be
reminding swimmers to tighten up the streamlines and a high emphasis will be placed on body position. On this note; we are
highly encouraging the kids in this group to all have a snorkel and a pair of fins. These items will help the swimmers
tremendously as swimmers progress through our program. This equipment is available at the pool office, from Erin and Paul.
Silver Group:
We had many swimmers compete in the Short Course State Championship Meet at the beginning of March. Once again we
brought home a number of best times and some additional competitive experience. Congratulations to
our individual qualifiers: Danika Duffalo, Kyle Gunzy, Skylar Nicholas, Trevor Alford, Wesley Hendricks,
William Casap, Daniel Brooks, and Bobby Johnson. A BIG thank you to all of you who came out to help
us with relays: Thomas Anderson, Bryce Kuchan, Chris Weser, Jake Zajdzinski, Grant Zajdzinski, Luke
Nicholas, Mandy Zajdzinski, Sarah Johnson, and Regan Gunzy. We love doing relays at State and you all
helped make it possible for MAC.
For the next few weeks we will be working on streamlines, turns, body position and doing a large
amount of kicking. If your legs are feeling a little more tired than usual, or possibly feeling like they are
burning off, that’s a good thing. Towards the end of April we will once again get back into test sets. In
the meantime take advantage of slowing down the pace a little and concentrating more on technique. Remember, you all
need fins and snorkels. If you do not own this equipment, you may purchase it in the swim office from Erin and Paul.
Coach Jon
We have had a great first week back of training. Everyone has had a great attitude and have been very enthusiastic in the
water. I'm really excited for the change the club has made and know we are going to have a successful summer season and
beyond.
Keep in mind that the beginning of the season is geared towards drills and kicking with some aerobic base training. The
volume and intensity will grow as we progress through the month of April into May. Now is the time to really focus
on technique and not worry about speed. The goal is to fix any stroke problems early when there is time for the body to build
the strength it needs to hold the new stroke. Any fixes need to be thought about on every single stroke...not just for a 50 or
two. This emphasis on technique, now, will help limit or prevent injuries later on when our volume and intensity picks up.
Last but not least, have fun and get excited for our summer racing season!
Coach Jack
Our MAC seniors took one of their longest and well attended trips in team history last month to Federal Way, WA. For many of
our swimmers it was their first trip out of state, and competing against regional competition. The meet included top seniors
from 18 western states and our group of 17 qualifying swimmers more than held their own. Nearly every swimmer had a
lifetime best swim while there, and a few even set MAC team records. The boys team started the meet with a bang on the first
night as Dion Nielsen, Payton Sorenson, John Dowd and Seth Maddy held off all comers and won the 200 free relay in meet
record time. Our Mac B team scored points in the same event as Hugh Berryman, Abraham Hendryx, Jake Stoll and Ross
McDonnell placed 14th, all with LTB's for their efforts. Payton placed 9th in his 50 free with a team record 20.77, and set
another team record in the 100 back at 53.48. John followed up on his high school championship with a MAC record 100 free
winning his heat at 46.02, and added a LTB and team record in the 200 free at 1:43.99. Spencer Tippetts led our talented
breastroke crew with MAC records and LTB's in the 100 and 200 breast, 59.46 and 2:13.47 respectively. Lincoln Randall swam a
LTB 100 breast and broke through the 60 second barrier as part of the 400 Medley Relay. Hugh Berryman had a nearly perfect
meet as he set 4 LTB's one in each of his events, and congratulations to Seth, Ross, Jake and Elijah Peters who all had LTB's in
addition to their great relay swims.
The girls were no less impressive, even though they had a smaller group this trip. Sammi Guttmacher led the way with two 2
Team Records in the 100 fly 55.66 for 12th, and 50 free 23.79 for 10th place. Hannah Caldas knocked off a team record in the
100 free with a swim of 51.75 Aubree Allen had two LTB's and team records in the 100 and 200 backstrokes at 58.80 and
2:06.69 respectively. Bailey Finkelstein and Lindsay Urbatchka teamed up with Aubree and Sammi for a quality 400 medley
relay to finish out the meet. Congrats to all our MAC team, and we look forward to more great swims in the future.
8 and Under Championships!!!!!
The MAC 8 and under swimmers were in rare form last weekend as they took on a pool full of
opponents in their very own championship meet. We marched in with cowboy hats and boots,
raring to go. The weekend began with the parade of athletes, and the red shirts and cowboy apparel
of MAC was the talk of the deck. We had a grand showing of 15 swimmers compete in individual
and relay events. This was truly one of the most fun meets we have ever attended. It was such a
joy to see the kids encouraging one another and finding plenty of time to play in between events.
Congratulations to the “Fabulous Fifteen” Teegan Mashore, Reagan Shields, Chloe and Charolette
Stenmark, Kate and Emma Ellingson, Makayla Larntz, Morgan Kunz, Regan Gunzy, Mackenzie
Goldman, Amanda Zajdzinski, Cade McCoy, Connor Fornoff, Daniela Iniquez, and Toa Wolfgramm,
you made MAC proud. A special thanks to Dave Shields for sharing his amazing photography with
us!!!
A HUGE Congratulations!!!!!!
Let’s hear it for the boys!!!
John Dowd, Dion Hart, Seth Maddy and Peyton Sorenson CRUSHED it at Sectionals in the 200
Freestyle Relay. Not only did they WIN Sectionals becoming the 2011 Champions, but broke the
esteemed Arizona State Record while doing so! WOW! A huge MAC round of applause, gentlemen!!
We are so proud of ALL of our swimmers, from our little tiny Red Groupers, through our big strong
Seniors!!! What a phenomenal group of athletes we have!!! Keep up the great work, gang!!! Let’s have
some fun this summer!!!
GO M.A.C!!!