MISSION MARLINS NEWSLETTER

It’s so hard to believe that we are nearing the end of another swim season already! While the Marlins’ time each summer is quite short, it’s incredible to watch how each of you improve so much over the course of just a few weeks! We still have this next week to prepare for Championships and I want to challenge each of you to be at practice as much as possible. Remember: You will get out of each practice all that you put into it. Challenge yourself this week and let’s make a strong showing at Championships!

We want to wish each of you a happy and safe 4th of July! Enjoy the long weekend and stay safe!

Please continue to communicate with the coaches when your swimmer will be absent from a meet. The easiest way to do this is to mark your swimmer as ATTENDING THE MEET or NOT ATTENDING THE MEET for each meet in Swimtopia. You can also shoot Coach Katie an email as well. Remember, a swimmer must participate in a minimum of 2 swim meets in order to be eligible for Champs.

Novice Championship entries are submitted on Saturday, July 11th! It is incredibly important that your swimmer's availability for Champs be communicated to Coach Katie as soon as possible. This meet is not like other meets in regard to deck entries or changes. What is submitted on July 11th at 9:30am is what will be final for the meet on Tuesday for Novice Championships. Thank you!

- Save the dates:

• Pre-competitive Swim Meet (For GREEN Teamers Only) is Monday, July 6th at Homestead Country Club.
• Championships are Tuesday, 7/14, and Thursday, 7/16 (during the day). Please keep these dates open. These will be day meets, not evening meets, so letting you know now to plan accordingly. See below for rough timelines for those days.
• End of the Season Picnic/Awards ceremony is Friday, July 17th at 7pm!
• Picnic & Awards: 7:00-8:30pm; Pool Party: 8:30-10:00pm
• Every single swimmer will have something to pick up!

Tuesday, 7/7: Regular Practice

Wednesday, 7/8: Regular Practice

Thursday, 7/9: Regular Practice

Friday, 7/10: Regular Practice; Last practice for Green Team!

Tuesday, 6/30: MMSC - 265, BGC - 62

Thursday, 7/2: MMSC - 589, BGC - 103

Combined Score: MMSC - 854 , BGC - 165

**Tuesday Night Families: Brookridge is a METER pool, not a yard pool. Times in the results are in meters and were compared to the league meter pool time standards.

New Level II Times:

Finn Alexander - 50 Fly

Liam Naylor – 50 Free

Nancy Logan – 50 Free, 50 Breast

Mitch O’Laughlin – 100 IM

Luke Swob – 100 IM

Cade Simonsen – 50 Back

Sophia Ritz – 50 Back

Elaine Giroux – 100 Back

Bexley Geis – 100 Back

Jack Kingston – 100 Back

Nicholas Cara – 100 Free

Sam Trost – 100 Free

Lacey Geis – 100 Breast

New “A” Times:

Dominic Cara – 50 Free

Leah Kroening – 50 Back

Caleb Guild – 50 Breast

Monday, July 6th: Precompet Meet (Green Teamers Only) at Homestead Country Club

• See details below!

Bye Week: This week is Mission's bye week from dual meets. No regular Tuesday or Thursday night meets this week.

Our annual precompetitive meet is this week! This is for our green team swimmers. It's a great way for them to experience the joy of participating in a stress-free meet. Info about the meet:

Where: Homestead Country Club

Address: 4100 Homestead Ct, Prairie Village, KS 66208

When: Monday, July 6, 2026

Please arrive at Homestead by 5:15 to check in with coaches. Look for your coaches wearing their team shirts and they'll help you get to the right place!

Warmups will begin at 5:30 and the meet will begin at 6pm. We should be done in an hour or less.

Things to bring:

- a towel (or two)

- water bottle

- goggles

- something to sit on; swimmers will be in a team crash area

**Volunteer positions have been added to Swimtopia. This is a low-key meet, but please help us by filling those spots!

Looking forward to seeing these young swimmers race and celebrate the progress they've made!

• Tuesday, July 14th is Novice Championships. This is open to all 14 and younger Novice swimmers.
• Session 1: Any swimmer, 12 or younger, who has swam in a minimum of 2 meets this season, but did not achieve a NOV qualifying time.
• Estimated time is: 7:45-9:00am
• Session 2: Any swimmer, 14 or younger, who swam in a minimum of 2 meets this season with NOV qualifying times. (All 13-14 year olds are automatically NOV unless they have all Level IIs)
• Estimated time is: 9:00am-2:30pm

• Thursday, July 16th is Level II/A Championships. This is open to all swimmers of all ages who have achieved at least one Level II time. 15-18 year olds are automatically placed in the Level II division.
• Estimated time is: 7:30am-2:00pm

• If you’ve been keeping track of your swimmer’s times, you might’ve noticed a NOV or II next to their name. NOV indicates that a Novice qualifying time has been achieved in that particular event. This qualifies that swimmer for Novice Championships. If no novice times have been achieved, swimmers 14 and younger are still eligible to participate in Novice Championships! “II” indicates that a Level II time has been achieved and that swimmer is eligible to participate in Level II Championships.
• A table during the bye week will be sent out to help communicate which session/day your child has qualified for. I just can't send this out until our final week of meets has concluded.

• It is very important that you communicate to the coaches as soon as possible if you are unable to attend Championships. Every swimmer matters - each one of you is an important part to our success at Championships!

• Swimmers must have participated in at least TWO regular dual meets to be eligible to participate in Championships!

• We will have many volunteer spots to fill for our two days of Championships. Please see the volunteer sign-up links below.

• As a reminder, swimmers cannot wear a team suit or cap that represents another team (club, high school, etc.). A brand (like speedo, MP, Arena, etc.) is fine. We are also a no tech suit league, and are not allowed at championships.

• There will be a special practice for those swimmers who have qualified for Level II Championships on Wednesday, July 15th. It will be an adjusted practice schedule, so please take note:

Blue and Red Team Swimmers with Level II Times: 8:00-9:45am

Orange, White and Yellow Swimmers with Level II Times: 9:00-9:45am

Here is an explanation of time standards:

“A” Time – This is when a swimmer achieves an “A” time standard or faster in that event swam. An “A” time standard is set by USA Swimming.

Level II Time – This is when a swimmer achieves a Level II time standard set by the Mo-Kan League to swim in Level II and Level II Championship events.

Novice Time - This is when a swimmer achieves a Novice time standard set by the Mo-Kan League to swim in the Novice Championship events.

The rule in the Mo-Kan League is that everyone is guaranteed one individual event at the Novice Championships, but to swim two or three events, a swimmer must achieve a Novice Qualifying Time Standard for each event they will swim.

In the Level II/A Championships, a swimmer is permitted to swim up to three individual events in which the swimmer has a Level II qualifying time within that event. This is why it is important to swim fast – so we can enter you in as many events as possible at Championships.

All swimmers are eligible to swim at least one individual event and one relay, as long as they participated in at least two meets during the 2026 season. All swimmers can’t be in a relay, but we will do our best! Depending upon the swimmer’s times, they may be eligible to swim additional events.

A document with Championships allocations will be sent out on Thursday, July 10th (evening). The swimmer’s events for Novice Championships will be posted on Monday, 7/13. See the coaches if you have any questions about eligibility.

The Mission Marlins are known for their incredible team spirit! Our team theme this year for champs is "Unleash Your Inner Animal!" Anything and everything animal is recommended! Be creative! Don't you worry - your coaches participate, too! Start thinking about how you can participate!

Save the date for our end of season awards picnic & pool party. Every single swimmer who participated this summer will have an individualized award to pick up, and we do some specialized team award recognition as well. Please join us as we celebrate our amazing Summer 2026 season!

When: Friday, July 17th

7:00-8:30pm - Awards picnic at the shelter to the west of the pool (by the tennis courts)

8:30-10:00pm - Pool Party for Marlins & Families

What to Bring:

1. Chairs, Blankets, Bug Spray (🤪)

2. Your Own Drink

3. Swimsuit for the pool

4. Something to Share - To be determined and will be shared in a future newsletter!

I'm sending this on behalf of our parent volunteer board. Please read below. :)

Marlin Parents,

As the 2026 season is coming to an end, we have some special people we need to show our gratitude to. Each year we send out an end of the year link (see below) to collect surveys and ask for any donations to our coaches’ gifts. Below is a link for the survey. Please take a moment to go to the link and let us know how you feel about this season; we can only continue to improve this amazing team with honest and sincere feedback.

The attachment below is information on how to donate to our annual coaches gifts. The Marlin coaches give so much of the summer to our kids and year after year show their commitment to each swimmer and this team. We would love your help showing them how much we appreciate what they do. You can either print off the PDF and return it via mail to the address listed, catch Reva McCauley at practice or Champs, or use the Venmo tag listed in the PDF. (Please do not give the donations to the coaches.) Thanks for signing your kids up to be part of this team and we look forward to great success at champs and seeing you in the 2027 swim season.

Sincerely,

Your Mission Marlins Parent Volunteers

MMSC Survey Link

Championships are just around the corner! We've been allotted a certain number of volunteer spots at both Novice and Level II Champs. We cannot run the meet without your help. Please see the sign-ups below for each day of champs and help out where you can. Thank you!

Novice Championships Volunteers - Tuesday, July 14th

Level II/A Championships Volunteers - Thursday, July 16th

• @swimblue26 (for Blue Team swimmers and families)
• @swimred26 (for Red Team swimmers and families)
• @swimora26 (for Orange Team swimmers and families)
• @swimwhi26 (for White Team swimmers and families)
• @swimyel26 (For Yellow Team swimmers and families)
• @swimgre26 (for Green Team swimmers and families)

Each Friday, the coaches recognize swimmers from each practice group for their outstanding weekly attendance, hard work, and positive attitudes. It is always a VERY hard decision, as we are full of AMAZING young people! These swimmers were recognized as this week's Top Tankers:

- BLUE: Elli Brunsvold, Caleb Guild, Quinn Laing, Dale Williams, Calvin Winkler

- RED: Hugh Dunker, Bexley Geis, Addi Hilleary, Nancy Logan, Sam Trost

- ORANGE: Annabelle Apt, Penny DeFrees, Grey Duffey, Claire Fulks, Olivia Guidry, Lucy Hanson, May Quinn, Beau Richards, Annie Williams, August Younger

- WHITE: Will Cardin, Jocelyn Luea, Edwin Quinn, Lola Stanley

- YELLOW: Dom Bell, Peter Bett, Lucy Burge, Owen Datu, Hannah Harrington, Dominic Martinez, Riley Meenen, Max Morris

- GREEN: Charlie Burge, Elsie Burge, Lanie Oliva, Maggie Pfeffer, Westley Sease

Top Tanker recipients need to return the shirt they were given next Friday CLEAN so we can award more Top Tankers. Thank you!!!

Top Tankers are sponsored by: Gabrielle Morris Real Estate by Compass Realty 🏠

Blue Team: I Believe I Can Fly Club (Captain's Class) - Members of this club are able to swim a 25 butterfly without taking a breath. Welcome to the club, blue teamers!

Lucy Adamo, Emily Atchity, Ashlyn Beckley, Joseph Beecher, Annika Berg, Tyson Boyer, Clara Breneman, Elli Brunsvold, Dominic Cara, Cassidy Carter, Ella Clutter, Ian Gonzalez, Maddox Harvey, Charlie Holloway, Juliana Jamison, Kaitlyn Kellerman, Jack Kingston, Darcy Kroening, Leah Kroening, Quinn Laing, Izzy Nely, Abe Nissen, Caroline Nissen, Zoey O'Keefe, Curtis O'Laughlin, Graham Peoples, Dakota Rominger, Declan Rydzel, Calvin Sawyer, Landon Solenberger, Eileen Smith, Blake Thompson, Lauren Trost, Ella Tylicki, Mirah Wade, Dale Williams, Hazel Williams, Alex Wingert, Zachary Wingert, Calvin Winkler

Red Team: Super Duper 50 Free Club - Red Teamers are given the opportunity to join this club by swimming a 50 freestyle at practice from a start either under 40 seconds (Captain's Class) or under 35 seconds (Captain's First Class). Welcome to the club, red teamers!

Captain's Class (Under 40 seconds):

Layla Busche, Nicholas Cara, Ellie Collier, Cale Connell, Isaac Datu, Morgan Dennis, Bexley Geis, Lacey Geis, Loren Gillette, Eliana Gonzalez, Eliana Guild, Nancy Logan, Isaac Schraeder, Luke Swob, Sam Trost

Captain's First Class (Under 35 seconds):

Charlie Gibson, Elaine Giroux, Mitch O'Laughlin

Things have been added with our championships theme! There is absolutely NO pressure for any of this, but wanted to create it for those who have asked. Thank you for supporting the Mission Marlins!

WOWWWWW - thanks for all the contributions. What an amazing community we are. 🩵

Gabrielle Morris Real Estate with Compass Realty 🏠