NOVA News
October 16th, 2023
NOVA wrapped up the Senior State Meet with an outstanding performance, earning the Men’s, Women’s, and Combined Team titles while scoring just over 25% of all available points at the meet. It was an impressive result, especially considering many swimmers came in at different points in their training cycles — some on full, half, or three-day tapers, and many coming straight off high school state championships. Despite that, our swimmers did an incredible job pushing through fatigue and racing tough, particularly in the later sessions of the meet.
If you look at the Sunday morning prelim results, you’ll notice a lot of slower times across teams on Meet Mobile as the long weekend began to take its toll. NOVA swimmers, however, used that fatigue to their advantage. Time and again they out-raced their competition, earning spots in the evening finals showing that NOVA can race tired at a higher level than the competition
50s were also introduced this year with NOVA grabbing exactly 25% of all A-final spots in the splash and dashes including state title in every stroke 50 (Women’s Free / Back and Men’s Fly / Breast)
We’ve also worked hard to build a reputation in the longer races and we lived up to it once again this year. NOVA grabbed 31% of Top-8 swims in the 1650, 1000, 500 & 400IM. Including state titles in Men's / Women's 1650 and the Men’s 400 IM. Honorable mention to NOVA ladies grabbing 2nd - 4th in 400 IM as well.
Another championship performance adds to NOVA’s legacy as the #1 team in Virginia Swimming and we have every intention of keeping it that way. Now we turn our focus to Orlando, where our NCSA qualifiers will get another week of rest before taking on the national stage.
-Coach Matt
Swim A Thon Q&A
Swim A Thon is SATURDAY April 11.
- Do I need to sign up? NO. Come to NOVA Regency on Saturday at your group’s assigned time. Please check in to pick up a free t-shirt and a log sheet. Head into the pool to find your coaches and friends, and start swimming laps!
SATURDAY GROUP SCHEDULE
6-8 am National, Senior Gold, Senior Silver, Senior Bronze
8-10 am Senior Dev. Bronze, SDS and SDG
10am - 12pm Age Group Bronze, Age Group Silver, Age Group Gold
12pm - 2pm Age Group Dev. Bronze, Age Group Dev. Silver, AGDG
2pm - 4 pm Novice Bronze, Novice Silver, Novice Gold
Do I have to stay the whole time? NO. You may come and go any time during your group’s assigned time slot.
Does my swimmer have to complete 200 laps? NO. 200 laps is a reach goal for many swimmers. They can use fins, paddles, and kickboards to help. They can take breaks as needed.
What will be provided? Your swimmer will get a free 2026 Out of this World Swim A Thon t-shirt, and a sheet to count laps. There will be water, Gatorade and some light snacks such as Goldfish, bananas, and fruit chews.
What else will be going on at the pool? There will be photo opportunities, time to chat with teammates and fun aliens to dodge.
Will there be volunteer opportunities? YES! Volunteer sign ups will go live on Monday April 6th at 7pm.
Here is a link to a step by step video with instructions for completing your swimmer profile and asking for donations created by Coach Kevin. Setting up your swimmer’s profile ( as with almost all team unify tasks) should be done on a desktop or laptop. It does not work well in the mobile version.
Thanks for participating and helping NOVA reach our team goal!
Julie Farney
julie.farney@novaswim.org
Championship Season
Senior Gold- Matt Bailey and Mike Wenert
How many swimmers are in the Senior Gold group? There are 55 swimmers in Senior Gold
Matt, what is Senior Gold working on this week?
We are coming off Senior Champs so we are taking some days to recover while either refocusing for NCSA, Short Course Send Off or just waiting for spring break!
Matt, what is your favorite part of working with Senior Gold?
Watching young athletes learn to make better and better personal choices that help reach their goal - seeing them succeed from making the right decisions is incredibly rewarding!
Mike, what is your favorite part of working with Senior Gold?
Helping athletes prepare for the next step in their swimming career-whether that be college or moving into the National group.
Matt, what is your favorite part of working with Mike?
The man has an incredibly deep knowledge of the sport and has been a great resource to the swimmers and myself. A lot of light bulb moments come from me rambling about an idea and Mike going “Oh yeah i did that before and it did (or didn’t) work great” followed by us finding a way to implement it in practice.
Mike, what is your favorite part of working with Matt?
Watching the way Matt creatively develops and implements a seasonal plan. We share a lot of the same core coaching philosophies so the pairing has been a perfect fit.
Matt, what is your favorite part of the championship season?
Hard to beat seeing the reactions when hard work pays off! We’re not always so lucky so we make sure to enjoy it when it happens
Mike, what is your favorite part of the championship season?
A swimmer's reaction at a meet when they accomplish something they didn’t think was possible.
Championship Meets
March 5th-8th - NOVA's Senior swimmers competed and won Virginia's Senior Championship meet at Collegiate School Aquatic Center. Swimmers raced hard, achieved many new best times, time standards, and new cuts.
Congratulations swimmers and coaches on an amazing win!
