Hello, BKS! Hope you’re all having a great weekend despite the somewhat gloomy weather (but let’s be honest…the clouds are kind of nice this time of year)! We’re at the point in the season when it feels like the activity never stops, but we can (sadly) already see the finish line approaching over the horizon!

Poplar Tree A Meet Recap

Well…yesterday was probably the single most comfortable A Meet we’ve had in a couple years, even if it wasn’t *really* comfortable! Our kids put in a huge effort in Freestyle to get us started off on the right foot, but Poplar Tree battled back hard to make a real meet of it. We then put in another great effort in Butterfly to give us a 19-point lead going into the relays that was too much for our hosts to overcome. After a number of great swims in the relays, we ended up on the better end of a 224-195 win, which puts us at 2-2 on the season. This result means that we’re guaranteed to finish with a better record than we did in 2025, which is a real testament to the hard work that the kids and coaches have put in since we started practice at the end of May!

Final meet results are attached to this email.

Destroyers of the Week

Congratulations to John Cunningham and June Campbell for winning last week’s Destroyers of the Week! The coaches were happy to have the opportunity to recognize the effort and dedication that both June and John have displayed in and out of the pool over the past several weeks. Amazing job, John and June!

Team Photos - Monday, July 12 at 8:00 am

Team photos are tomorrow at 8:00 am! We ask that all Destroyers and Middies be there, but Juniors are also welcome if they’d like to be in the photo! Please bring a team t-shirt (if you have one) if your swimmer has a suit that clashes with the rest of the team's suits.

We want this to be a big turnout so that we have the best representation in the photo as possible. We have seen a decrease in the number of swimmers in the full photo in the last couple years, so we’d like to reverse that trend this year!

B Meet - Monday, July 12 - Woodley (Home)

Tomorrow is our final B Meet of the season (already)! We are swimming at home with Woodley tomorrow night at 6:00 pm. We hope to see a big turnout, lots of time drops, and some fun costumes this week!

Our warmups will begin at 5:00. Please arrive by 4:50 so that your swimmers are ready to go.

Tomorrow’s meet theme is “Western Night,” so grab your hats, tighten your goggles, and get ready for the fastest fins in the West!

Event Sign-up: Please declare swimmers by tomorrow, Monday, July 13, at 8:00 am. Swimmers can sign up for two events AND the IM. As always, swimmers cannot swim in an event in which they placed first, second, or third in yesterday’s A Meet (see attached meet results if you are unsure of your places). Instructions on How to Sign-Up.

We will swim IM in the middle of the meet.

With IM Carnival being postponed until this Wednesday, swimmers have one last opportunity to get legal IM times (or Fly times for 8&Unders) if they want to take part in IM Carnival!

Weather Details: Tomorrow looks almost as good as you can get for a July day in NoVA, so we don’t expect any weather issues. That said, we’ve had weather put a damper on two of our recent events, so you never know what’ll happen. All possible delays will be communicated via the SwimTopia app, as usual.

Volunteers: We still need LOTS of volunteers for tomorrow!

• Kitchen Workers (2)
• Marshal (1)
• Timers (4)
• Assistant Clerk of Course (1)

Please sign up on SwimTopia as soon as possible. We cannot have a meet without Timers, so please consider volunteering for one of those positions if you can help out.

Volunteers, please arrive ON TIME for your shifts. If you are going to be late, please let us know so we can find someone to step in. Many positions (especially at a home meet) are time-sensitive and start before warmups. Please make sure to double check your start time.

On-deck officials should come in white top/blue bottoms. Rain gear may be any color.

Meet Setup/Tear Down: Our 11-12 families will be responsible for meet setup (starting at 4:30 pm). Families of 8&Under swimmers will handle tear down after the meet. Both setup and tear down will happen quickly if we get all families out to help! Going forward, you can find the setup/tear down schedule on the Home Meet Setup/Tear Down page on the website.

A Meet Declaration Reminder

Please be sure to declare your swimmers’ availability for next Saturday’s Home A Meet against Brookfield (our final dual meet of the season 😢) by tomorrow (Monday) morning at 8:00 am. This is a crazy busy week with a home B Meet, All Start Relays, IM Carnival, and a home A Meet to top it all off, so we need declarations so that the coaches can get the lineup set early in the week.

IM Carnival - Wednesday, July 15 at BSSC

Just another reminder that IM Carnival (theme is Pirate Night) was rescheduled for this Wednesday at 6:30 pm at BSSC. Entries are open until Tuesday at noon to give kids a chance to get legal times in IM and 8&U Fly in tomorrow's B Meet. We still need one Marshal and one Concessions Sales worker for this meet, so please sign up if you can help us out!

All Star Relays - Wednesday, July 15

As most of you already know, our 13-14 Boys Freestyle Relay team will be swimming in this year's All Star Relay on Wednesday at Sleepy Hollow Bath & Rec. This event is a madhouse, so attending in person can be quite difficult, but we expect that the league will stream the event live on YouTube. The boys will likely swim in the late morning, so we'll send out an alert/email when we get the link in case any of you are interested in watching.

Friday Team Breakfast / Pizza Party Pep Rally

We’re having our normal Friday breakfast this week, with our Pizza Party pep rally at 6:00 pm. We’ll send more details a little later in the week, but we’re hoping that the weather holds off and we can get all the kids together for a fun evening at the pool before our final A Meet of the season!

We’ll see you all tomorrow!

- Deirdre, Mike, and Matt