FORDIES’ FLYER

October 2019

Look out for...

UPCOMING EVENTS

11/2/19-11/3/19 - Harvest Splash Meet @ Moon Valley

11/2/19 - Arizona Swim and Dive Night

12/10/19 - HS Day After Meet

11/15/19 - 11/17/19 - IMX/IMR @ Mesa

11/23/19 - Copper Sprint Meet @ Sahuarita

12/5/19 - 12/8/19 - Winter Lights @ FAST

Scholastic All-American Congratulations to our Fordies that were named USA Swimming Scholastic All-American:

• Taylor Alicea-Jorgensen

• Skylar Dikeman

• Avery Spade

• Christiana Williams

• Riley Babson

• Scott Pekarske

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here to schedule an evaluation!!

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◦ Upcoming Events

◦ The Top 5 Ways to Support Your Child in Athletics

◦ Scholastic All-American Fordies!

◦ Patriot & Sahuarita Meet Recap

◦ Mexico Pictures & Meet Recap

◦ FordFanatics Link

◦ Senior College Commitments

◦ Pima County Hall of Fame

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Ford Fanatics

Are you looking for another way to support your Fordies?? Click here to learn more about our

Ford Fanatics Program. Ford Fanatics has many levels of sponsorship, so whether you are a

part of a small business or large corporation, there will be a perfect fit for you!

Nik Schere

Patriot Meet & Sahuarita Meet

The Patriot Meet was a great start to the short course

season for both our Senior and Age Group Fordies. Many

Fordies swam events for the first time and learned a lot

about how pre-race planning can make longer races less

intimidating. At the Sahuarita meet, the Age Groupers

threw down some new best times and focused on doing a

proper warmup and warm down after each race. Great job

starting off the season on a great note! This is definitely

going to be an exciting short course season for all of our

Ford swimmers!

Pima County Hall of Fame

Congratulations to our former Ford swimmers that have been inducted into the Pima County Hall of

Fame!

• Emma Darlington Munsch

• Marcus Titus

• Barry Roth (Ford Master’s)

Thank you to HS Classic Volunteers

The entire Ford staff would like to give a huge thank

you to all of the volunteers who made the High School

Classic possible! From the rubber ducky

pond, to the games on the promenade

and everything in between, this meet

would not have been possible without you

all!

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Mexico Meet

Last month, fourteen of our

Fordies were able to travel to

Hermosillo, Mexico to com-

pete at a meet hosted by

Centro De Entrenamiento.

Our swimmers were able to

race short course meters for a

weekend and make lots of

memories with their team-

mates. Great job Fordies!

Quotes from the Meet:

“I loved timing splits for the

seniors with Coach Matt. See-

ing dolphins swim around the

boat was amazing!”

- Connolly

“The indoor pool in Hermosillo

was awesome. I didn’t have to

put on sunscreen! I loved

snorkeling in San Carlos.”

- Blake

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Nik Schere

Great Job Gianna!

Over the summer Gianna Miltenberger competed in

the Maccabi games in Atlanta. She was the only

Tucson swimmer there, and won 7 medals represent-

ing Tucson and Ford! Great job Gianna!

Great Reads!

“The reasons that our kids should participate in sports are many—from boost-

ing cardiovascular health, to helping them develop self-control, to the positive impact that exercise

has on academic performance.

But today, the most pressing reason to encourage sports participation among our youth is their mental

health.”

Click Here to read the rest of the article.

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

College Commitment!!

Congratulations to Christiana Williams for committing to swim

and study at Tulane University!

Nik Schere

Fall 2 Development Session is Underway!

There is still time to register for the Fall 2 Development Session! Click here to register!

Amazon Shopper? Help support Ford Aquatics by selecting our organization through Amazon Smile!

With every purchase, Amazon Smile will donate 0.5% to Ford Aquatics. Follow the link and before you

start shopping you will be prompted to choose a charity, select Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics Inc. to

support your favorite swim team : smile.amazon.com

New Team Records!!!

This past Long Course Season some of our Fordies has some AMAZING swims and broke team

records! Congrats to our Fordies on a fantastic summer!

Skylar Dikeman - 17-18 200 BK

Colin Cosgrove - 13-14 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 BR, & 200 BR

Henry Bonomolo - 11-12 50 BR

Aidan Reagan - 15-16 100 FL, 200 FL, 200 FR, 800 FR, 1500 FR

AZ Senior Open Championship

Ford hosted the 2019 AZ Senior Open meet at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center July 25th-28th to cap the 2019 LC com-

petitive season. 675 athletes from Mexico, Canada and the US participated & Ford aquatics dominated the team

competition, winning the mens team title, women team title and combined title. The meet was an extension of the

fantastic performances at the Junior Olympic and Age Group State meets, and a huge breakout for Ford from an

individual perspective, and as a program. Ford athletes compiled 75% life time best times collectively, and we had

four swimmers achieve new Junior National qualifying standards. The breakout season I have been anticipating we

would get! Great job Fordies!!

TEAM SCORES:

MEN- FORD 724, SCOTTSDALE 413, RIO SOLADO 380

WOMEN- FORD 718, PITCHFORK 620, SCOTTS-

DALE 457

NEW JUNIOR NATIONAL QUALIFIERS:

RILEY BABSON- 1500 FREE, 800 FREE

CHRISTIANNA WILLIAMS- 200 BREAST

AVERY SPADE- 100 BREAST

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Thank you to our AMAZING sponsors! To become a Ford sponsor click here

Nik Schere

USA Swimming Junior Nationals

For the first time in several years, Ford fielded a team of 8 swimmers that qualified and attended the USA Swimming Junior National meet at Stanford University the first week in August. Ford quickly made an impact on the first day of competition. Aidan Reagan and Scott Pekarske both made the podium in the 1500 freestyle with Scott finishing in 4th place with an Olympic Trial qualifying time (15:33.86), and Aidan Reagan finishing in 5th, lowering his Olympic trial seed time (15:35.35). Ford was the only pro-gram in the country with two finalists in the distance free events, and ended day 1 of competition leading the men’s team scores. The momentum switched to our girls team on day 2 of competition, with Skylar

Dikeman finishing in 11th place in the 200 backstroke with an Olympic Trials qualifying time of 2:14.53.

The Ford men’s team finished in 26th place with 33 points, and with points in both women’s and men’s events, Ford ended up with a 25th place combined team finish with a total of 39 points. This is a huge breakthrough for our program to not only compete at a National level meet, but make a true im-pact. With most of our qualifiers experiencing this level of competition for the first time, we took our lumps toward the end of the meet, but we look forward to another group elevating to this level and join-ing this group to make an even bigger impact on future Junior / Senior National level meets. JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM: MEN- Aidan Reagan, Riley Babson, Scott Pekarske, and Grant Natioins

WOMEN- Taylor Alicea Jorgensen, Avery Spade, Christiana Williams, and Skylar Dikeman

College Commitment!!

Congratulations to Skylar Dikeman for committing to swim and

study at the University of Arizona!