ECI Wrap Up

Benicia Stingrays

Hi Team,

 

It was a long and hot weekend. AND it was an amazing weekend of PR's, fast times, a few heartbreaks, and amazing coaching!  

  • THANK YOU to ALL of our coaches for showing up.  This is what invitationals are about; this is why our kids always drop so much time at these big meets.  Coaches Mariska, Miguel, Karissa, Elias, Inessa, Aden, and Elian were all in attendance.  Each swimmer received pep talks in clerk of the course and behind the blocks, saw multiple coaches screaming and whistling for them on their turns, and finished with immediate feedback from our coaches behind the blocks. 
  • Our coaches were there to celebrate, critique, and occasionally console after every single race for every single swimmer. If you don't attend these big invitationals, you are missing an opportunity for your swimmer to get so much personalized attention and to grow as an athlete.  Swimming against fast kids in fast pools with great coaching is how kids learn to compete.
  • If you have pictures or short video clips from ECI, please DM them to the Benicia Stingrays IG or FB accounts so Brieanne Marshall can put together a quick wrap-up reel of our weekend!  
  • ECI had approximately 1,000 swimmers in attendance and was highlighted by:

 

Evan Magno (13/14) winning every one of his individual races, swimming 5 County Gold Times, and winning high-point for the entire meet with a perfect score of 100!

 

 

Valerie Vargas (11/12) breaking the Stingrays 11/12 year-old girls' backstroke record with a time of 32.78.  Valerie is just 11 years old so she has all of next year to keep breaking her record!

 

Caden Clements (11/12) achieving two more County Qualifying Gold Times, this time in freestyle and IM (and he also swam gold times in Breast and Back, which he already had!)  That is four County Gold Times in one meet for Caden!  Only one more gold time to go in butterfly for him to earn the elusive unicorn status of swimming all 5 individual gold times in one season!!!  You can do it Caden!

 

Justin Magno (15-18) earning his first two gold times for the season in 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke!  

 

Memphis Vargas (6/under) swimming his first gold time EVER in freestyle!  He has been so determined to follow in big sister Valerie's footsteps and it has been so much fun watching him grow as a swimmer over the past 3 years!  

 

Rowan Neuner (9/10) won the B division high point for 9/10 boys at his first ever ECI!

  • Sorry, no picture yet but check social media once he gets his trophy and we get a picture!

 

Alexander Hedberg (7/8) won the B division high point for 7/8 boys at his first ever ECI!

  • Sorry, no picture yet but check social media once he gets his trophy and we get a picture!

 

And our coaches (Aden, Elias, Miguel, and Elian) absolutely dominated the coaches' relay, winning by over 6 seconds!  Our swimmers are in the presence of greatness with these 4 swimmers/coaches.  We are so grateful to have all of them on our coaching staff.  The youth of three of these coaches (sorry Miguel!) and the excitement that they all bring to the team and competition is so motivating for our kids!  If you haven't seen the coaches' relay, check it out on FB and IG bc it's pretty cool!!!

 

 

Great job swimmers!!!!  Here are the Stingray results!!!!