Excel Extra 4-4-25

We have just learned that Ensworth's Spring Splash is cancelled due to flooding in the parking area. While this is disappointed, we obviously support any decisions made in the name of safety.

While we don't know exactly what the next step is, we are working together with Ensworth to see if there is any way that we can schedule a potential make up. Please keep an eye on our social media, website and emails for updates.

Until then, we are going to revert to our normal weekend practice schedule.

Zaki Ibrahim to attend National Diversity Camp

Every year, USA Swimming offers different select camps both at the Zone and National Levels. While they are all extremely competitive to participate, they all offer a unique experience to many of the very top athletes in the country. One of those is the National Diversity Camp held May 1st through the 4th in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center. This year, our very own Zaki Ibrahim has been selected to attend and along with Coach JJ Langhals, will be representing Excel Aquatics there in a couple of weeks. Congratulations to Zaki!

Zara Kocak and Bryce Winzenread to Compete in London

The National Swimming Club Swimming Association has selected their All-Star Team from last week's NCSA Junior National Championships and Excel will be sending 2 of our athletes to compete at the Adam Peaty Race International meet in London, UK. Zara earned her spot by co-winning the 200 Butterfly in a team record 1:58.09 while Bryce punched her ticket in the 100 Breast, also with a team record swim of 1:01.30.
Earning a spot on the NCSA All-Star team is highly competitive that this is the first time in Excel Aquatics' history that we have ever placed 2 swimmers on the same team.
Congratulations to both Zara and Bryce!

Open Water Zones and Nationals

One of the lesser known branches of our sport is Open Water Swimming. Open water races can be in freshwater lakes and rivers, oceans or even indoor pools (usually with the lane lines removed). Like conventional swim meets, races can be different lengths but open water meets usually only occur in the summer months. While open water races are generally open to anyone who wants to swim, we have two coming up that have highly competitive selection processes.

The first is Open Water Nationals held next week, April 4-6th, in Sarasota Fl and qualifying is extremely difficult. Only those swimmers who have achieved the national cuts in distance events qualified. However, we are thrilled to have 5 Excel Swimmers qualified based on their distance races over this last short course season.
Sarah Carrico Open Girls
Zara Kocak Open Girls
Campbell Johnson 13-14 Boys
Matthew Amodio Open Boys
Zaki Ibrahim Open Boys

Just three weeks later, Open Water Zones will be held on April 25-27 in Fort Meyers Beach Fl, where the Southeastern Swimming LSC will send a team to compete against the other LSCs in the Southern Zone. Swimmers are selected for this race based on their distance events in the short course season. This year, 9 Excel swimmers were selected which is the highest number from any team in our LSC (TNAQ was second with 6).
Brooklyn Lewis 11-12 Girls
Sarah Carrico 15-16 Girls
Zara Kocak 15-16 Girls
Boston Boyd 11-12 Boys
Henry Schopfer 11-12 Boys
Campbell Johnson 13-14 Boys
Caleb Blair 15-16 Boys
Zaki Ibrahim 15-16 Boys
Matthew Amodio 17-18 Boys

Congratulations to all our distance swimmers who have achieved this very elite level!

MTHSAA Awards

The Middle Tennessee High School Swimming Association hosted their annual awards banquet this week where Excel spent a little time on the big screen. The female athlete of the year was Excel Swimmer Zara Kocak who swims for Station Camp High School. Her incredible performances at the High School State meet where she won the 100 Fly (53.88) and the 500 Free (4.51.73) where enough to earn her this prestigious honor.

Additionally, Excel Summer League Coach Jim Chapman who coaches at Brentwood Academy was the Tom Fay Award recipient for his efforts of leading BA's teams to 14th (women) and 12th (men) place finishes.

Announcements

USA Swimming's Virtual Club Championship

Throughout the long course season, we will be carefully following our team's national ranking as we aim to break into the top 40 for the first time every. You can follow along here!

Excel Recognition Programs

Over the course of the short course season, our club will be tracking a series of recognition programs to help motivate our swimmers to succeed un a multitude of events. While ultimately these programs do reward success, they are designed to be achievable by any level of swimmers, not just those with the most experience. You can always find the running totals for each at the bottom of the Excel Extras.

Heat Winner: Place in the top three swimmers in your age group for number of races won throughout the year. This award tends to favor those athletes that are attending meets, swimming a lot of events, racing hard but most importantly, improving throughout the year. Winners will receive a "Heat Winner" bag tag.
IM Hall of Fame Level 1- Attain a Southeastern Championship Qualifying time standard in every event available for your age group.
IM Hall of Fame Level 2- Attain an Age Group Sectionals Championship Qualifying time standard in every event available for your age group.
IM Hall of Fame Level 3- Attain an NCSA Junior National Championship Qualifying time standard in every event available for your age group.

Want to become an official?

All of our parent volunteers play a vital role in hosting meets. We simply could not host meets in your absence. While most jobs take little training or experience, meet officials go through an educational and training process that enables them to help officiate at all meets. In fact, our own Excel officials have outnumbered the host team officials in both our first two meets. We are very grateful to our officiating crew but are always looking for new members. Meet officials

Ensure a safe and fair competition for all our athletes
Satisfy all their volunteer requirements
Have the best seat in the pool
Have access to hospitality

If you have any interest in becoming a USA Swimming Certified official, please contact Laura DeMotte at officials@excelaquatics.org

Upcoming Dates

4/6 Senior Dinner
5/4 Awards Ceremony

5/3-4 Ensworth Spring Splash

Weekly Update Video

Our Weekly Update for 4-4-25 has been released so check it out! You may have noticed that we are receiving intros from a wide variety of sources. Olympians, SEC Champions, officials, swim moms and vendors are just some of the folks who have made an appearance. If you are traveling and want to send us an intro from a unique location, we'll be sure to include it. Interested in seeing where they all come from so far? Check out Excel Aquatics from around the world below!

Coaching Staff

Looking for information on any of our coaches? Check out our Coaching Tab the website. If you have questions for a coach this will help guide you-

2025 Short Course Season Running Totals

NCSA Junior National Qualifiers: 28
Age Group Sectional Qualifiers: 46
SES Summer Championship Qualifiers: 108
USA Swimming Virtual Club Rankings (~3,500 Teams):

SES Teams National Rankings
Excel #41
HSA #69
TNAQ #82
Ensworth #126
NAC #166

SwimCloud.com Excel Rankings in the SES Conference (73 teams):
8 & U Girls 1st 8 & U Boys 1st
9-10 Girls 1st 9-10 Boys 1st
11-12 Girls 1st 11-12 Boys 1st
13-14 Girls 2nd 13-14 Boys 1st
15-18 Girls 1st 15-18 Boys 2nd

IM Hall of Fame: Achieved a cut in every event:
Level 1: SES Level 2: Age Group Sectionals Level 3: NCSA Junior Nationals
Owen Akard Caroline Dealy
Boston Boyd Brooklyn Lewis
Jack Calhoun Boston Boyd

Gavin Chen Gabe Gortarez
Caroline Dealy Campbell Johnson

Arden Ford
Gabe Gortarez
Josh Hession
Keaton Hubbard
Zaki Ibrahim
Campbell Johnson
Zara Kocak
Brooklyn Lewis
Chris McMurtray
Silas Rowe
Henry Schopfer
Charlie Turner
Bryce Winzenread

IM Tough Qualifiers
8 & Under 50 Fly, 50 Back, 50 Breast, 200 Free & 200 IM in the one season

Farley Beth Brown

Abi Brownyard

Savannah Copa-Brzozowski

Maya Foerster

Emily Georgieva

Walker Lewis
Bode Mello

Nico Panatana

Henry Reed

Addie Willard

9-10 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 FR, 500 Free & 200 IM in one season
Hayes Akard

Owen Akard

Artie Boyd

June Buffington

Ellery Carson

Elizabeth Conti

Savannah Copa-Brzozowski

Parker Dyatlovitsky

Maya Foerester

Arden Ford

Katy Francisco
Lily Furlong

Harper Grant

Emerson Grauzer

Lincoln Kelly

Walker Lewis

Chris McMurtray

Emma Nguyen

Leo Pantana

Lily Park

Gracie Preseley

Alice Reseland

Silas Rowe

Abby Simkins

Hannah Simkins

Ryder Smith

Nora Tice

Violet Vitale

Heat Winners (as of SES)

8 & Under Girls

Abi Brownyard 13

Katelyn Xu 8
Alexa Copa Brzozowski 7

Makena Nelson 7

8 & Under Boys
James Dyatlovitsky 15

Bode Mello 15

Nico Pantana 7

9 & 10 Girls
Arden Ford 29
Savannah Copa Brzozowski 24

Violet Vitale 14
Maya Foerester 14

Anna Busteed 14

9 & 10 Boys

Owen Akard 20

Walker Lewis 17
Chris McMurtray 14

11 & 12 Girls

Caroline Dealy 55
Brooklyn Lewis 26
Maya Li 17

11 & 12 Boys

Boston Boyd 43
Charlie Turner 35
Henry Schopfer 30

13 & 14 Girls
Mae Li 34
Lily Irvine 14

Millie Wood 10

13 & 14 Boys
Gabe Gortarez 22
Campbell Johnson 17

Callum Farneth 15

15-18 Girls
Allie Joyce 32
Zara Kocak 25
Bryce Winzenread 22

15-18 Boys

Zaki Ibrahim 22

Evan Xu 16

Gavin Fu 16