In Redland's Christmas Parade!

12-6-08 The RST participated in the annual Redlands Christmas Parade this year. The team rode on this big float, while some of the older kids walked besides. Everyone seemed to have a great time!
Nice antlers, Coach Matt!
Parent/Board Member Dwayne has nice antlers, too!
The coaches ride at the front of the float.

Out-of-the-pool, part 2

10-5-08: The RST kids are a talented bunch, in more ways than one. Check out these 3 examples....

Jingfu (standing) is a very talented pianist. Read about his story, featured in a recent Press Enterprise article.

These 3 swimmers are not only fast in the water, but also out of the water. This was the 1st of 5 RUSD Middle School Cross Country Invitationals for the Fall of 2008.

Holly Resh - Beattie MS, 8th Grade: Remains undefeated in Middle School finishing the 2 mile course in 13:12 (Fastest Girl of the Meet)
Kyle Gornay - Moore MS, 7th Grade: In his very first Middle School Cross Country Meet, Kyle won with a time of 12:53! WOW!
Collin Green - Moore MD, 6th Grade: Also in his very first Middle School Cross Country Meet, Collin bested 30 other 6th graders and took the bronze medal with a time of 14:13. FABULOUS!
Way to go, RST swimmers!

Just yesterday, some other swimmers also exhibited not only speed but endurance, covering 10 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail near Silverwood Lake, in 50-deg. temps and misting fog. At times, the winds were almost strong enough to blow them off the side of the trail! And yet, these 3 swimmers-Jennifer Makowski, Michelle Sabangan, and Summer Medina, charged ahead, covering the 10 miles in just over 4 hours. Amazingly, they seemed to have plenty of energy to keep going while us parents were ready to crash by the fire pit back at camp!

Since I couldn't leave with them at the start, Summer filled in nicely as the photographer, taking this group picture at the start of the trail--just over 300 miles to Mexico and over 2200 miles to Canada from this point1
Summer took this quick shot as they kids climbed ever higher along the single track on the side of these hills with Silverwood Lake far down below. Jenny is here at the front.

After chasing after the group for over 3 hours, Thomas Makowski (at right end) and I finally caught up with them with just a couple of miles to go. They were moving faster than we anticipated! (Getting lost and taking many course corrections didn't help us in catching up with them, even though we were jogging at times!)

Dryland workout by Age Group

10-5-08: As the swimmers get older, the coaches add "dry land" workouts to improve their swimming. Given the heat so far, the kids can't wait to get in the pool!

RST Awards Banquet

9-28-08: Our annual awards banquet and business meeting, held at the historic Redlands Bowl.

Age Groupers go climbing

9-28-08: The Age Group swimmers had an out-of-pool bonding experience at Hanger 18, organized by Coach Matt. It was neat to see the kids push themselves in something other than water!

RST home meet

9-18-08: RST hosted our first home meet of the season. Lots of RST swimmers competed for the first time, so it was good to do it at home! Enjoy the pictures...

RST Fundraisers

8-24-08: There were 2 fundraisers going on this Sunday: one at Jamba Juice and one at XRtainment Zone. I don't know how much the Jamba Juice fund raiser did, but our XRGames raised almost $200 for RST!

Here are some shots of RST swimmers competing in various exergames like the Wii Olympics, DDR, and Makoto. Some of them hadn't played the games before so this was their first time. Summer just practiced on the Wii a couple of hours before the tourney started! All had a good time working up a sweat, earning medals and prizes, and raising some funds for RST. Thx to all those who came out, including Coach James and family!

Hemet meet Aug.

Aug. '08 - Our first meet after summer jo's was held at Hemet. Lots of new RST swimmers were at this meet. Check out the pictures!

Summer JO's

8-3-08 Finally getting some pictures up from Summer JO's at Santa Clarita. Thanks to Nina Cunnan and the Sabangans for passing on their pictures! Congrats to all the RST swimmers for doing a great job there.

On the pool deck and in the pool...


Fun eating out with the team!


RST has a huge medal haul!!! Way to go, RST!!!

JO's on live web cam!

8-1-08: Summer JO's are going on right now at Santa Clarita. You can see some of the action at the Canyon's website on their live web cam (which keeps showing even during non-swimming hours). I was watching several events and it was cool to see several of our RST guys and gals in the finals, and I also saw some parents timing, too! You can go to the website here.

Overall, sounds like RST is doing very well at JO's. Way to go RST!

Secret training weapon

7-15-08: Here 3 of our B+ swimmers, Shea, Isaac, and Melissa, model one of Coach Vicky's secret training weapons: the high-drag flowered swim cap. It creates tremendous drag in the water, increasing the intensity of the workout. When they take those off and swim with their normal swim caps, you feel like a watermelon seed shooting out from between your fingers! I'm sure we don't pay our coaches enough for coming up with such innovative swimming aids to make our kids the fastest in the pool!

Last Ditch Meet in Hemet

7-14-08: It was HOT this weekend in Hemet...so what else is new? But it was also the Last Ditch...meaning the last meet to make any JO times for JO's in Aug. Some did it, like Mei, while others came close. But all did their best and there will be other meets to come! Enjoy the slide show:







Love Johnny's cap!

Saw lots of examples of RST Good Sportsmanship there--here are a few I was able to capture. Great job, ya'll!



After this meet, I realized that this is probably the last meet that I will be able to shoot the Cunnan kids, since their last meet with RST will be at JO's (Summer just aged up to 11/12 on July 3 and missed her 100m fly JO time by less than a second, so we're not going to JO's this summer.). After JO's, the Cunnan family will be moving up to northern Cal where their dad is now working. We'll miss them all and wish them the best in their new home. We've had a lot of memories with the Cunnans and Summer has enjoyed being teammates with them. I've enjoyed racing Calvin as well--watch for some special video footage of one of our last races together!

First RST at Trials: Austin in 200 fly!

6-30-08: Tomorrow, July 1, the first of 4 RST swimmers, Austin Brown, will be swimming at the Olympic trials in the 200 fly. We wish him will! Check him out in Heat 2, lane 4. Go Austin! Hope you're enjoying watching the rest of the trials. Exciting stuff! (If you can't watch it on TV, you can catch all the action on video at NBC's website.)

RST 4 in Press Enterprise!

6-28-08: Check out the article on RST's 4 teens heading to the Olympic trials this weekend.

Krug Press Enterprise swimmer of year

6-26-08: Karl Krug, Yucaipa High School senior and Redlands Swim Team swimmer, rec'd this honor for a second straight year. Read all about it at the PE's website. Congrats Karl!

Olympic trials send-off!

6-25-08: The last time RST sent someone to the Olympic trials was when Coach Vicky West was a club swimmer. Now, history repeats itself, and what's even more amazing is that we're sending FOUR HIGHSCHOOL boys to the Olympic Trials...something that is very rarely, if ever, done.

So to honor these 4 guys, their coaches, and parents, we had a special send-off, signing, and ice cream social as they prepare to leave for Omaha.

The swimmers are Austin Brown (200-meter butterfly), Tyler Harp (100-meter freestyle) and Joey Hale (50 free) - all of Redlands High School - and Karl Krug (50 free) of Yucaipa High School. (Source: John Murphy's blog, "Prep Dog", on the The Sun's website)

Good luck to these 4 guys!

Coach Vicky waves as she is recognized as our club's previous multiple Olympic trials swimmer.














Signing the 4 guys' banners, wishing them well!
President Neal talks about this historic occasion to the team.
Their coach, Head Coach Chuck, talks about the sacrifices and hard work that these guys, and their parents, have made to get where they are at.

Kim Pepper gives them going away gift bags as they begin their journey to Omaha.

Here are a few more candids from the ice cream social and send-off.

Staying COOL at last day of AA meet

6-21-08: Sun was the last day of the 4-day AA meet in Irvine and it was a scorcher! Some families were there ALL 4 days--now those are diehard swimmers and parents!

Here are just a few shots from Sunday--I actually spent that afternoon shooting mostly video for a change, doing interviews, etc. You'll be seeing those again someday!

Congrats to all the swimmers--I heard that it was a "hot" meet for most of them...and I'm not talking temperature-wise, either!

Melissa demonstrates how to keep cool--with a swim cap full of water and ice!

Calvin (on the ladder) thinks to himself, "What a bunch of crazy girls!" Are they practicing for the first RST Synchronized Swimming Team?

One of 3 sites where RST parents had enjoyed their sauna, fully clothed.

It was so hot that even the homeless took shelter nearby...
...oh wait, that isn't a homeless family, that is the Cunan family! My bad....

First day of AA meet!

6-21-08: Some of our swimmers made it to the AA meet in Irvine, which started Thur. and goes thru tomorrow (Sun). We thought it would be cool there on the coast, but it's HOT, ave. in the high 90's. Whew! Trying to keep the kids cool and out of the sun. Check out the pictures from Friday and watch for Sunday's pictures!

Redland's Hale wins duel!

6-11-08: A great article in the Press Enterprise on the CIF-SS Division 1 at Long Beach. Joey Hale wins 50-m free in 19.95 seconds....amazing! Read more about the story at PE's website: PE Article on swim meet

Swim-a-thon 2008

6-6-08 Today was our swim-a-thon, our major fund raiser of the year. The club raises $$ to help purchase equipment, subsidize the cost of gear, pay for social events and awards, and basically everything else that our monthly dues do not cover.

You could swim whatever laps or for however long; many kids were shooting for 200 laps (lengths) or just over 3 miles (5000 yards). Parents had to count laps and time.

Since the money doesn't have to be turned in till later, we won't know how much was raised by this swimathon.

Congrats to all the swimmers who helped out with this fundraiser!

Fun at team picture

6-2-08: Photographing all these kids is a huge task, so they can't help but have some fun while they wait. Thanks to Coach Audy for sending me these pictures!

6-1-08 TCC Meet

6-1-08 Unlike last year, this weekend's meet at TCC was a perfect temp., sunny, and not crowded! Had a good group of swimmers there today. Unfortunately, some weren't feeling well--Mia Ryan didn't make it today after getting sick yesterday, and Jared had to go home early today after not having eaten the last few days for some reason.

In this post, I've started a new "segment". One is called, "Caught looking" and will feature swimmers who I happen to catch obviously looking at the other swimmers! LOL! The other segment will be "Good Sports" and will feature those who exhibit good sportsmanship--shaking hands with the other swimmers, etc.

Way to go RST swimmers, coaches, and parents!



Good Sportsmanship Highlights (I know others do this, but I see Colin do it most)



Caught Looking Highlights

RST 3 rack up 250+ splash points!

5-26-08: This Memorial Day weekend was a "free" weekend for our team, so a number of families chose to enter meets outside of our section. If you've never done that before, it's a bit "different" because you don't your whole team there, you don't have any of your coaches there...you're basically, "on your own". Here's what it looks like (lots of space!):

Fortunately, the Ryans were there at this particular meet in Thousand Oaks, so we could share their EZ-Up the Sun. and Mon. we were there to race. BTW, Justin wouldn't have been alone if we didn't go, because the guy knows more people on other teams than anyone else I know! (Parents from Palm Springs and Temec were hanging out with us and stopping by).

The 3 RST members who represented the team well: Mia Ryan, Summer Medina, and Marcia Ryan.
Even though we only had 3 RST members, they earned us over 255 "splash points" as you can see on this paper. (I know it's more than that because this was not counting Marcia's top 3 placing in the 200 free). When we left, RST was ranked 4th in the "small team" category! In most of the 6 events each girl entered, they placed high enough to earn points for the team. Way to go, girls!
Because you have to warm up under a coache's supervision, you have to approach a coach there and ask if you can warm up with their team. We had the good fortune of warming up with Coach Todd, of COTO (Coyotes from La Brea). He was really nice to the girls and even commented on their swimming during the meet. He told the girls to be sure to tell him "Hi!" at the next meet they see him at.
Hopefully, those of you who did an away meet this holiday weekend had as good a meet as we did!

RST @ PossAbilities Tri & 5k

4-27-08 On this bright and clear Sun., the 6th annual PossAbilities Triathlon took place. Several RST members took part in both the adult (3 mile run, 10 mile bike, 150 yard (!) swim) and kid's tri. RST was well represented on the medal stand as well! Congrats to all the RST swimmers who showed they can also run and bike.

Summer getting her leg marked with your bib number for the adult tri..Besides the tri, there was also a 5k run as well. Here is Charlie waiting for the start of his first 5k race, which he did in 31:05. Way to go, Charlie!Coach James supports Helena (adult) and James (kids tri).

Sheila (mom) and Heather wait with Keri (mom) and Summer at the start of the run.

Summer and Keri after the turn-around. This is the only picture I was able to get of them since they left me behind!
I didn't get any bicycle shots because I was left behind so I spent all of my energy trying to catch up to Keri and Summer, who I never saw again till the finish.

Holly zooming in from the bike transition to the swim...

Heather swims under the lane line as she completes the swim portion of the race. (Of course, the easiest part for all the RST kids! There were many who had to REST on the wall!)

Holly showing that fine RST-trained swimming form.

A welcome sight for all the racers--the finish line! Heather coming across.

Holly coming down the chute to defend her age group title--way to go, Holly!

All the finishers rec'd a medal, and those who placed in their age group rec'd an additional medal--and RST ruled!

RST guys - Jonatan Olafsson (Boys 12-14 division) placed 2nd with a time of 1:00:58.

RST girls - In the Girls 12-14 division, Holly placed 1st (1:06:53) and Helena placed 2nd. In the Girls 11 and under division, Summer placed 1st (1:21:30). (sorry about the water spots on the photo below--I carried my camera in the pool while I swam).

The overall women's winner was Julie Swail, a pro triathlete who is on the US Olympic team heading to Bejing! Here she is holding her check with Summer.

Some of us RST parents participated in it as well. The Resh/Peoples Family each won their respective age-groups. Tom, 50 (53:57), Patty, 51 (58:26), Holly, 13 (1:06:53)

Here's one more photo of a RST parent doing the Triathlon. It's Jackie Hurst (mom to Daniel, Coach Chuck's swimmer) en route to winning her age-group (45-49) in 1:06:10. It just goes to show how brutal the swim can get in a tri.

Unlike the Resh/Peoples family where the parents are still faster than their child, Team Medina parents were left behind by their child! Here we are, before the start of the race--little did I know that this would be one of the last times I'd be with them the rest of the race. Keri and I both got a 1:25:45 (12th in our respective age divisions)--caught up to Keri on lap 2 of 6 in the pool while Summer cheered for us at the finish line.

Congrats again to all the RST kids who participated in this triathlon! Maybe next year, we can get even more kids (and parents!) to join in for this worthy cause.