Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club

Tallahassee, FL | 21st of November 2008

in the NEWS

Read all about ATAC swimmers in the news. You'll also find other interesting swimming-related articles.

FSU swimmer Young happy with fifth-place finish at Olympic Trials (7/7/2008)

FROM WWW.TALLAHASSEE.COM

BY DAVID SAEZ // DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — Excuse him if he's fulfilled with anything less than being No. 1.

But Kyle Young will gladly take his fifth-place finish in the 1,500-meter freestyle finals during the Olympic Swimming Trials on Sunday.

The Florida State distance swimmer did not earn a spot on the Olympic team, but his time of 15 minutes, 15.36 seconds more than fulfilled his expectations.

A day after swimming the 1,500 at a personal best (15:20.99), an already sore Young topped himself and edged out three of the top eight swimmers.

"I'm pretty happy," Young, 22, said. "I knew going into it that would be the best finish. I knew the best I could possibly do was finish fifth because I know how good the top four guys are."

Three of the top four swimmers finished the race under 15 minutes, a time that Young and his club coach knew would be too steep for him to achieve. In truth, Young simply wanted to avoid a lastplace finish.

The fastest two swimmers, and the swimmers who will represent the United States in the Beijing Olympic Games next month, were posted by Peter Vanderkaay (14:45.54) and Larsen Jensen (14:50.80). Vanderkaay's time was an Olympic trials record.

Having swum against these swimmers before, Young knew what he was up against. His lane assignment put him between Jensen, an Olympic silver medalist, and Josef Kinderwater, who had the slowest finals qualifying time.

While he initially caught himself swimming at Jensen's pace early in the race, Young plotted a pace that kept Jensen within 50 meters and Kinderwater behind him. He believed such a pace would help him reach his goal of a time less than 15:20.

"He was out faster than he was this morning (during warm-ups) so I was concerned," said Terry Maul, Young's coach and the coach for Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club.

Young's coach at FSU, Neil Harper, observed the same thing while watching on television.

"But then he settled back into his race, and I think it allowed him to come back at the end," Harper said.

For most of the race Young swam in seventh place. But with 200 meters left, he moved to sixth. On the turns, he had been watching his competition on the other side of the pool, specifically Tom Koucheravy, who was in Lane 2. His intention was to stay close enough to Koucheravy to race him at the end.

With 200 meters left in the race, Young advanced to sixth place. Then, in the final 100, Young sprinted at a speed faster than his overall pace to pass Koucheravy and take fifth. Throughout the race, Young had completed 100 meters one or two seconds over a minute. In that final 100, he finished in 58.1 seconds.

"It was an amazing swim," Harper said.

"In a 1,500 with 100 to go and Kyle is tied with someone, unless the guy's a world-record holder, my money goes on Kyle. And even if the guy's a record holder, I'll have second thoughts about not going with Kyle."

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Trials serves as positive learning experience for Leon graduate Shrestha (7/6/2008)

FROM WWW.TALLAHASSEE.COM

BY DAVID SAEZ // DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — Eric Shrestha has had better swims than the one he had Saturday.

On this occasion, it was as a participant in the 1,500-meter freestyle preliminaries during the Olympic Swimming Trials.

Minutes after completing his race at Qwest Center Omaha, the Leon High graduate and now University of Florida swimmer talked about swimming at the highest level of competition.

"Fun, I guess," he said. "I'm just going to get back into my training and go to the (U.S. Open). It builds my confidence because I made it here."

Swimming as a member of the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club, Shrestha finished the race in 16 minutes, 7.84 seconds, which placed him 70th out of 75 swimmers who competed for a top eight finish.

The top-eight swimmers advanced to the finals, held tonight at 8 p.m. Out of the eight, only the top two finishers in the finals will make the U.S. Olympic Team.

Another ATAC swimmer — FSU senior Kyle Young — did advance to the finals. Young finished in sixth place with a time of 15:20.99, and the slowest time by a finalist was 15:22.45.

The day before the race, Shrestha said he wanted to drop from his personal best of 15:48.18 to a time below 15:20. For most of the race, he alternated between seventh and eighth place in his heat.

With one length of the pool left to swim, Shrestha's time was already at 15:37.47.

"I knew things weren't going well when the rest of the field started going ahead of me," he said. "I tried to stay positive and to tell myself to hang in there."

Aside from Young, Florida State had three other swimmers seeking a top-eight finish.

FSU had more swimmers (4) than any other school or club team in the top three heats of the 1,500. That means FSU's distance program had four swimmers competing among the country's top 24, 1,500 swimmers.

Current FSU swimmer Ian Rowe placed 13th overall with a time of 15:30.08, Teammate Nick Graves finished right behind at 14th with a time of 15:31.58. Former Florida State swimmer Steve Roof placed 41st after swimming his heat in 15:48.31.

Graves came closest to his best time of 15:31.32. For Rowe, it was his second-fastest time.

"I was off by two seconds," Rowe said about his goal of 15:28. "It's not off by much, but I wanted my best time. A (15:28) would have been great. . .I'll be able to learn from it."

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FSU's Young already satisfied with trials performance (7/6/2008)

FROM WWW.TALLAHASSEE.COM

BY DAVID SAEZ // DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — There was only one word: Awesome.

The Florida State swimmer joked: This would justify an extra night at the hotel.

Just some of the thoughts dancing in Kyle Young's head as he warmed to the idea that he is among the eight-best swimmers of the 1,500-meter freestyle in the country.

Young, 22, clocked in at 15 minutes, 20.99 seconds — good enough for sixth place in the preliminaries and a spot in the finals of the 1,500 tonight on the final day of the Olympic Swimming Trials.

He used a personal-best time to extend his stay for another day of swimming at the Qwest Center Omaha.

Since April, Young has been training as a member of the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club. Young's performance makes him the first ATAC swimmer to advance to a final of an Olympic trials.

"It's huge," Young said. "It's exactly what I wanted. . .No matter what, I get top eight."

Young finished second in his heat to Olympian Peter Vanderkaay, who finished with the third-best time from the preliminaries (15:06.24). Also in the final race will be U.S.-record holder Larsen Jansen and Erik Vendt, who broke the trials record with his preliminary swim of 14:50.24.

The final race will be held during the last night of competition at 8 p.m. The two swimmers with the top-two times will make the team. ATAC coach Terry Maul said it will probably take a sub-15 minute swim to make the team.

"This will probably be one of the most exciting swimming evenings of his swimming career," Maul said.

Before Young went off to swim, Maul told him, "This is what you came here for, and this is what you worked for. Have a great one."

As he swam, Young said his strategy was to stay as close to Vanderkaay as possible. Doing so, he thought, would increase his chances of earning a top-eight finish.

Though he said he was happy with his swim, it didn't go as smoothly as he would have liked. About 600 meters into the swim, Young said he realized officials were following international rules and not dipping the lap-count boards into the water so swimmers could track their progress. He had not expected this and said other swimmers also thought officials would dip the boards into the water for the swimmers to see.

"When I realized there was no counter and I didn't know what distance I was at, I decided to go after Vanderkaay," Young said.

"I think it kind of helped not knowing. I could blindly keep charging forward."

Young was so uncertain about the lap count that he was incredulous when the officials rang the bell for the final 100 meters. Usually, swimmers sprint the last 100, but Young's disbelief overruled the "dinging" he could hear, and he didn't sprint.

This is one reason why Young thinks he could swim faster. He is particularly looking forward to swimming in the evening, when he tends to swim his best.

In earlier swims this week, Young appeared disappointed with his performances in the 400 freestyle and 200 backstroke. All along, though, he and Maul knew his best race and his best chance to swim an event twice was the 1,500.

"I had to keep reminding him that those ones weren't the ones we were here to get," Maul said. "This one was."

Usually, swimmers of the 1,500 only swim one race during a meet, making back-to-back swims in two days at the Trials unique. Knowing this, Maul said they put the second swim on their schedule.

"It's not surprising," he said. "It's what we planned on doing.

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Leon graduate represents Tallahassee today in 1500m at Olympic Swimming Trials (7/5/2008)

FROM WWW.TALLAHASSEE.COM

BY DAVID SAEZ // DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — Eric Shrestha has spent most of his time the last few years swimming for the University of Florida, but there's no doubt he'll be representing his hometown of Tallahassee when he swims this afternoon in the Olympic Swimming Trials.

Shrestha is one of five swimmers with Tallahassee ties scheduled to swim in the preliminary heats of the 1,500-meter freestyle today. While the other four came to Tallahassee to swim at Florida State, Shrestha is the only one who graduated from a Tallahassee high school.

As a junior at Leon High, Shrestha, now 21, was the 2003 Tallahassee Democrat Co-Swimmer of the Year, and he ended his career with state championship titles in the 200-yard freestyle and 500 free. He is the third Leon High graduate to compete against the country's best at the trials.

Joe Ziegler, a recent Leon graduate, and Amanda Hartley, who graduated in 2004 and who finished swimming for the University of Florida this past season, have already completed their events.

All three of these swimmers have chosen to swim as part of the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club rather than their universities.

While Ziegler and Hartley swam in multiple events, Shrestha has been waiting all week to swim in his one race. The 1,500, also known as "the mile," is the longest swim, and it is the last race to hold its preliminaries during this eight-day meet.

"One of my goals originally was to make it to the Olympic Trial," Shrestha said Friday. "But it's a whole other thing being here...I'm just ready to get in the water. I've been watching so many races."

Shrestha arrived with his University of Florida teammates on June 25, four days before the trials began, but he said being able to get acclimated to the environment, to swim , and to watch other swimmers compete at the Qwest Center Omaha has been beneficial.

"It's gotten me accustomed to the pool, and it gets you inspired," he said. "I just want to represent my hometown and (ATAC) and to keep on improving."

This fall Shrestha will return to Florida for his senior year. He enters the 1,500 race today with a personal-best time of 15 minutes, 48.18 seconds. His goal is to win his heat and to swim under 15:20. The top time by the 77 competitors who qualified for the trials is 14:46.78.

Of all the competitors with Tallahassee ties, Florida State swimmer Kyle Young's 12th-place ranking in the 1,500 is the highest.

That ranking assures that he will swim in one of the three fastest heats in the preliminaries this afternoon.

Perhaps more impressive is that FSU has three of its four 1,500-qualified swimmers placed to swim in those fast heats. The swimmers with the eight fastest times advance to the finals on Sunday, and the top earn a position on the Olympic team.

"Going to the finals would be everything," Young said. "That's the most I could possibly ask for, and it would be awesome. Most people don't come in thinking they will go anywhere, so it's nice to be in the position I am."

Also in those fast heats and positioned to compete for a finals lane are Ian Rowe and Nick Graves. Rowe's time ranks him 14th, and Graves is at 16th.

"It's kind of a relief that the race is almost here," Rowe said Friday. "It has just been an amazing atmosphere. I have a lot of friends who are swimming here who are swimming their best times, and being around it and being here, it makes you say to yourself, 'That could be me.' It really prepares you mentally."

FSU assistant coach Alex Braunfeld has been the distance coach at FSU for only one year, and he said he has never been one to make any predictions about how his swimmers will do.

"I never know how they are going to do," Braunfeld said. "They say they feel good, and it's the meet of the summer, so we'll see."

The fourth FSU qualifier is Steve Roof. With the 25th ranked time, Roof completed his swimming eligibility at FSU in 2007, but he just graduated with a double major. He deferred beginning a Ph.D. program at Ohio State for a semester in order to train for the race.

When Roof, 23, looks at the number of FSU swimmers in the top heats, he feels proud to have been able to help the university develop its distance program — even if it's meant helping the other three swim faster than him.

"It says a lot about the school and the distance program to have that many 1,500 swimmers," he said. "I helped recruit all those guys, so it's nice to have been there at the beginning. . .And if it means that they get to beat up on me in the pool, so be it. I want to see them do well, too."

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Renewed focus helps Leon grad Ziegler get close to his career-best times (7/4/2008)

FROM WWW.TALLAHASSEE.COM

BY DAVID SAEZ // DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — More than anything, Joe Ziegler's participation in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials was about getting himself back on track, about being respectable in his three trial events. By his coaches' account, the Leon High graduate accomplished just that.

He may not have advanced to the evening semifinal swims, but he did demonsrate that in a fiveweek span he was able to set aside distractions and get himself in shape enough to approach his top times in the 400-meter freestyle, 100 freestyle and the 200 backstroke.

On Thursday morning, Ziegler swam the 200-meter backstroke in 2 minutes, 4.95 seconds, his third best time in the event.

"That's fairly good . . . It felt great," he said about his performance in his final event at the trials. "After getting determined to get in shape and not embarrass myself, I think I did well to get near my best times."

About a month and a half ago, there had been some uncertainty about whether he could do that. During his senior year in high school, Ziegler became less committed to his training and more focused on his social life. Realizing he was not in good shape and that he had too many distractions in Tallahassee, the University of Alabama-bound swimmer moved to Tuscaloosa after graduating in May.

Why? So he could train with his future college teammates and coaches.

His coaches Terry Maul and James Barber agreed it was the best thing for Ziegler, especially in light of his performances here.

"Like Terry said, in the last 30 days, he has managed to salvage his season, and he had respectable performances," said Barber, a former swimming coach at Florida State who is now at Alabama. "Joe came up, trained hard and got the job done.

"Now it's important for him to continue to train. I'm really excited to see where he's going to be a year from now."

Maul, who coaches the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club, said Ziegler must learn from this experience if he wants to be one of the swimmers who compete in the evening sessions at the 2012 Olympic trials. "He got in better condition and he got focused," Maul said. "If he is going to step it up a level, he has to do this not just for one month, but for four years."

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ATAC Swimmer Kyle Young: Optimistically Realistic (5/30/2008)

FROM WWW.USASWIMMING.ORG

BY MIKE WATKINS//Special Correspondent

When it comes to swimming, Kyle Young is optimistically realistic.

While his hopes are usually high about how he'll fare in the water, he doesn't go in believing more than he already knows. And whether or not it's a defense mechanism to keep from having his hopes dashed, Young is always on the up-and-up about what to expect.

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Getting Energy Out of a Can Might Give You the Jitters

FROM THE TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

BY MARINA BROWN • TO YOUR HEALTH • JUNE 2, 2008

With the summer beach season and the upcoming Olympics on our minds, many of us will be stealing covert glances at ourselves in storefront windows and bathroom mirrors. The slack stomach and pecs could use some pumping. Bottoms and thighs need some contouring. You're philosophically willing to go to the gym, the courts, the bicycle path but, let's face it, you often are just too darned tired.

So, how about an energy drink? How about a potion that purports to make you physically and mentally alert, increase your stamina and make you downright scream for a workout?

Those are just some of the claims of brilliantly marketed energy drinks such as Red Bull, Venom, Adrenaline Rush, 180 and Whoopass. With 43 times more caffeine in a large Red Bull than in a Coca Cola Classic you may well be screaming — and bouncing off the walls.

When Taylor Boylan, a certified personal trainer at Premier Health Center, was asked about energy drinks, he rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"They're filled with sugar, caffeine, guarana, taurine, sometimes ephedrine, and just have too many drawbacks. If you need energy quick, eat a banana, have some carbohydrates."

Let's look at those ingredients.

Caffeine — found in chocolates, colas, coffee, tea and natural products such as guarana — is a stimulant. It increases the heart rate, can cause insomnia, can alter blood pressure and is a diuretic. When one is sweating profusely during a strenuous workout, a jolt of a highly caffeinated energy drink can rapidly accelerate dehydration.

Taurine is an amino acid found in bulls. Urban legend has it that the secret power of taurine is that it is made from bull urine or bull semen. While this is not true, studies show that it does increase the stimulant properties of caffeine and the heart's stroke volume — or output of blood per beat. At peak power expenditure, severe heart irregularities have been reported.

Ephedrine also is implicated in cardiac events and has been banned in many athletic departments. Another problem with energy drinks is the letdown.

Andy Semones, a 20-something Premier member, says he's drunk Red Bull in the past, but the jitteriness that followed, was awful.

"When it wears off, you're just done. A protein shake, and I'm good to go," he said. But for some people, the shakiness that follows consuming 16 ounces of a highly-caffeinated drink is countered by downing another one.

A study done at the University of Georgia compares the addiction to such products to addiction to low doses of cocaine. Withdrawal can cause fatigue, intense headaches, insomnia and depression.

The most inappropriate use of energy drinks is in combination with alcohol — Red Bull mixed with vodka, for instance.

The energy drink does not counter the effect of alcohol, as some people believe. Instead, it masks it — at first. As a result, a person may consume a lot of alcohol without immediate symptoms. But when the caffeine drink's effect ebbs, the drinker is as impaired as the amount of alcohol he's consumed has made him. And the hangover is likely to be worse because of the diuretic effect of both the caffeine and the alcohol.

The energy-drink market has bulked up to a $4 billion industry. Projections are $10 billion by 2010.

No matter that France, Sweden, Norway and Finland have banned the products, Americans continue to want to power-pump, power-learn and power-party.

A home-cooked meal of pasta with meat sauce, vitamin water — and yep, a nice piece of chocolate — would do the same thing and leave you able to text message without twitching.

Marina Brown is a registered nurse, certified hospice and palliative care nurse and freelance writer living in Tallahassee. Her column will appear every other week.

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