MINDSET – Dare to Dream

Sherry Mueller

MINDSET – Dare to Dream

A goal is a dream with a deadline (Napoleon Hill)

Our team has been setting meet and season goals for the 2025-2026 season.  For a month now they’ve been dreaming of reaching some of those meet goals at the Sept RAA A/B C 13 & Over meet. 

Venus Williams said, “I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.”.  Our swimmers are learning to focus on their performance rather than the competition.  Success for our swimmers is reaching their goal.  They have something to shoot for.

Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."  Yes, we encourage our swimmers to find the courage to do what it takes to pursue their goals and Dare to Dream!

Coach Loren had the swimmers bring their goal sheets to the meet as encouragement and motivation.  Here’s how they did.

Notable Swims

Charles Emery dared to dream.  His TOTAL DROPS (-77.13) for 5 events surely helped him to reach some of those goals.  4 of his events were NEW B TIMES.  Dream on!

Elijah Dailey must have smashed his goals by picking up a NEW BB TIME for his 50 Breast and qualifying his 100 Free and 50 Breast for the WAG, JAG, and SumAG championship meets this season.

Regina Estrada Maravilla aged up just before the end of last season.  If her goal is to own most of the 15 & Over team records she is on her way, setting 3 TEAM RECORDS.

On the Watch List

For more than a year we have been watching Roy Nicasio.  He is the ‘poster child’ for setting and pursing goals.  He attends almost every meet, swims 6-8 events at each meet, and consistently drops time in the majority of his events.  At this meet he dropped time in 5 out of 6 events and picked up a NEW B TIME and 2 NEW BB TIMES.  Now, that’s how you work on your goals. 

TEAM RECORDS:

Our swimmers repeatedly demonstrate the highest level of personal performance as team records continue to be broken.  The latest records to fall are:

Individual Team Records

  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 IM);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 50 Back);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 500 Free);
  • Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back);
  • Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Fly)

NEW TIMES

More typical are the swimmers exhibiting personal excellence by moving up the time standards from C to B, or to BB, or to A, or to WAG / Age Group Champs (Spring and Summer formerly JO).  These swimmers demonstrate their hard work pays off.

New (5-8) B Times

  • Stephanie Bahena - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back)

New B Times

  • Charles Emery - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Back, 100 Free, 200 Back, 200 Free);
  • Reese Harriman - Age Grp Dev (13-14 50 Free);
  • Keith Johnson - Age Group (11-12 100 Free);
  • Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 Free);
  • Rolando Nicasio - Sr Dev (13-14 200 IM)

New BB Times

  • Ayden Cuevas - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 50 Breast);
  • Rolando Nicasio - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Free, 50 Free);
  • Jaime Phillips - Age Group (7-10 100 Free);
  • Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (13-14 200 IM)

New (5-8) A Times

  • Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back)

New A Times

  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 IM)

CHAMPIONSHIP TIMES

New WAG

  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 50 Breast);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 IM)

New JAG

  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 50 Breast)

New SumAG

  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 50 Breast)

TIME DROPS

BEST TOTAL TIME DROP was earned by Charles Emery - Sr Dev with a total (-11.13).  BEST SINGLE TIME DROP was earned by Jonathan Neely - Age Group for dropping (-36.25) for his 200  Free. 

Getting those harder to get time drops are: 

Charles Emery - Sr Dev (-77.13);  Jonathan Neely - Age Group (-37.76);  Silas Sims - Age Group (-19.26);  Ayden Cuevas - Sr Dev (-19.15);  Elijah Dailey - Age Group (-18.64);  Rolando Nicasio - Sr Dev (-16.54);  Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (-13.83);  Samantha Bahena - Age Group (-8.65);  Keith Johnson - Age Group (-6.99);  Jaime Phillips - Age Group (-6.88);  Reese Harriman - Age Grp Dev (-6.49);  Stephanie Bahena - Age Grp Dev (-5.32);  Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (-5.16);  Yvana Van Dyke - Sr Dev (-4.77);  Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (-4.76);  Jasmine Martinez - Age Group (-4.18);  Jeremy Bustamante - Sr Dev (-3.81);  Skylar Bahena - Age Grp Dev (-2.31);  Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (-2.17);  Elizabeth Devine - Sr Dev (-0.42)

IMX EVENTS

Recognizing our swimmers who stepped up to the IMX Challenge events.

The events to qualify for an IM eXtreme score are:

10 & Under: 200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Fly, 200 IM
11-12: 400 Free (LC) or 500 Free (SC), 100 Back, 100 Breast, 100 Fly, 200 IM
13-18: 400 Free (LC) or 500 Free (SC), 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 200 IM, 400 IM

IMX Challenge Achieved

These swimmers picked up the final event(s) they needed to complete all 5 events of the IMX Challenge for their age.  They qualified for the IMX Certificate from USA Swimming.

  • None

New IMX Swims

These swimmers added these new events to their IMX challenge for this season/age.

  • Ayden Cuevas - Sr Dev (Age: 13 500 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (Age: 9 100 Back);
  • Charles Emery - Sr Dev (Age: 13 200 Back);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (Age: 15 500 Free);
  • Keith Johnson - Age Group (Age: 12 100 Fly, 200 IM);
  • Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (Age: 16 200 Breast);
    Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (Age: 14 200 Fly, 500 Free)

AWARDS & POINTS

Our  22  swimmers brought home 18 awards.   3  1st place,  2  2nd place,   4  3rd place,  4  4th place, 5 5th place, 0 6th place.  These are our 1st thru 6th place winners.

1st place

  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 IM);
  • Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 Free);
  • Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back)

2nd place

  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 500 Free);
  • Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Fly)

3rd Place

  • Skylar Bahena - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Free, 50 Breast);
  • Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Fly)

4th  Place

  • Elizabeth Devine - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Back);
  • Reese Harriman - Age Grp Dev (13-14 50 Free);
  • Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 Breast);
  • Yvana Van Dyke - Sr Dev (15 & Over 50 Free);

5th  Place

  • Stephanie Bahena - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back);
  • Charles Emery - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Back, 200 Free);
  • Yvana Van Dyke - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Fly, 200 Free)

POINTS

Our swimmers earned a total of 500 points.  Taking TOP POINTS at this meet was Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev with 76 points followed closely by Myla Martinez - Sr Dev with 55 points and Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev with 54 points.

Congratulations to all our point getters.

Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (76);  Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (55);  Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (54);  Charles Emery - Sr Dev (53);  Yvana Van Dyke - Sr Dev (43);  Elijah Dailey - Age Group (41);  Rolando Nicasio - Sr Dev (23);  Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (20);  Elizabeth Devine - Sr Dev (19);  Keith Johnson - Age Group (19);  Skylar Bahena - Age Grp Dev (16);  Reese Harriman - Age Grp Dev (15);  Faith Rodriguez - Sr Dev (15);  Stephanie Bahena - Age Grp Dev (14);  Ayden Cuevas - Sr Dev (11);  Jasmine Martinez - Age Group (9);  Ozzie Dolan - Sr Dev (8);  Samantha Bahena - Age Group (4);  Jeremy Bustamante - Sr Dev (4);  Jaime Phillips - Age Group (1)

TOP 10 BEST TIMES

(All Top 10 Times can be found on the web under the Performance tab)

New Top 10

Placing their event in the ALL TIME TOP 10 PERSONAL BEST TIMES for the first time are:

  • Samantha Bahena - Age Group (11-12 100 Free, 50 Free);
  • Stephanie Bahena - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back);
  • Jeremy Bustamante - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Free);
  • Ayden Cuevas - Sr Dev (13-14 500 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Back);
  • Elizabeth Devine - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Back);
  • Charles Emery - Sr Dev (13-14 100 Back);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Free, 50 Back, 500 Free);
  • Keith Johnson - Age Group (11-12 100 Free, 50 Free);
  • Myla Martinez - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 Free);
  • Rolando Nicasio - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Free);
  • Jaime Phillips - Age Group (7-10 100 Free);
  • Faith Rodriguez - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Back, 100 Free, 200 IM)

Top 10

Updating their personal bests in the ALL TIME TOP 10 PERSONAL BEST TIMES are:

  • Samantha Bahena - Age Group (11-12 200 Free);
  • Skylar Bahena - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Free);
  • Elijah Dailey - Age Group (7-10 100 Free, 50 Breast);
  • Charles Emery - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Back);
  • Regina Estrada Maravilla - Sr Dev (15 & Over 200 IM);
  • Keith Johnson - Age Group (11-12 100 IM, 50 Fly);
  • Milan Ruvolo - Age Grp Dev (5-8 25 Back);
  • Yvana Van Dyke - Sr Dev (15 & Over 100 Fly);
  • Aaron Virgen-Caloca - Sr Dev (13-14 200 Fly, 200 IM)

RELAYS

Female 15 & Over 200 MR – 1st Place:  Regina Estrada Maravilla, Myla Martinez, Elizabeth Devine, Faith Rodriguez

WRAP UP

“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” - Oprah Winfrey.

My goal is to open and end meet recaps with meaningful and inspirational quotes. Quotes about dreams and goals emphasize that dreams require courage and action to become reality.  They highlight the need for hard work, determination, and perseverance to achieve them. They also underscore the importance of believing in your vision and setting lofty goals to inspire you, reminding you to never give up despite obstacles or doubts. 

GO THUNDERBOLTS

GMA Sherry