WELCOME

The Stillwater Starz is a developmental summer swim team and a member of the Naperville Swim Conference (NSC). A volunteer-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit, our mission is to develop confident, capable young swimmers and foster a love of competitive swimming in a safe, supportive, and fun environment.

Our swimmers range from 4-18 years of age, and most are residents of the Stillwater subdivision and other nearby communities in southwest Naperville, Plainfield, and Oswego. For our youngest swimmers, their time on the Starz is often their first experience with competitive swimming. It’s also where many of our returning swimmers, some of whom now swim year-round in club and school programs, got their start. Join us this summer, and find out what fun you can have when we shoot for the Starz together!

Time Trials Tomorrow: Important Info

Lea Fortkamp

Good Afternoon, Starz Families!

This is your Time Trials preview. Swimmer/worker lists are located at the end of this email, but please take time to review ALL the information below.

 

TIME TRIALS

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Positive Check-in Opens: 7:30 a.m.

Positive Check-in Closes: 7:45 a.m. (any not checked in will be scratched)

Worker Check-In: 7:30-7:45 a.m., after checking in swimmer (by small pool)

Meet Start: 8:30 a.m.

Estimated Meet Completion: 11:00 a.m.

 

GEAR PICKUP

If you haven't picked up your gear or yard sign order and will be at Time Trials, I will distribute from my car, a silver VW Atlas, until 8:00 a.m. Look for me in the far east corner of the parking lot.

 

CONCESSIONS

Please enjoy the offerings of our world-famous concessions stand!  We’ll have plenty of options to get your morning going with donuts, bagels, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches, plus candy and drinks to keep swimmers cheerful throughout the meet. We now accept credit cards and Zelle in addition to cash. Here's the full menu:

 

ARRIVAL, POSITIVE CHECK-IN, AND TARDINESS SCRATCHES

Positive check-In (for swimmers) begins at 7:30 a.m. along the outside of the western pool fence (bordering our team area in the field). Check-in closes promptly at 7:45 a.m.

Please help your swimmer find the clipboard for the portion of the alphabet covering HIS/HER last name, then HIGHLIGHT your swimmer’s name with the provided highlighters to check in. This MUST be done before positive check-in closes at 7:45 a.m. At 7:45, warm-ups begin, and any swimmers who aren’t checked in WILL BE SCRATCHED from the meet by our computers team.

IMPORTANT: Once a swimmer is scratched due to tardiness, he or she CANNOT be added back to the meet. While it may seem like there’s plenty of time between the end of positive check-in and meet start, the computers team needs every minute to seed and combine heats, print heat sheets, and distribute them. We know that meet morning scratches make us seem like the bad guys, but when swimmers don’t arrive until after positive check-in closes, it's necessary. To avoid frustration and tears, please don’t be late. Your timeliness is the only way that we’re able to start (and finish) our meets on time.

 

SHARPIES and WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

Your swimmer will likely be participating in more than one event tomorrow. Within each event, there are usually multiple heats, and within each heat, there is often a swimmer in each of six numbered lanes.

Bull pen volunteers will gather athletes for staging prior to each event and will, with the assistance of coaches, walk younger swimmers from the bull pen area at the west end of the pool deck to the starting blocks.

While in the team area, please know where your swimmer is and listen for the bull pen workers’ announcements. Make sure your swimmer is listening, too! Bull pen workers do all they can to get swimmers to the blocks on time, but if a swimmer can’t be found, events are sometimes missed. To avoid disappointment, keep your eyes and ears on the bull pen.

To help swimmers keep track of their events, parents can borrow the Sharpies provided near positive check-in to write their swimmer’s Event, Heat, and Lane numbers on the back of their hands. An example of how to do this can be found in our Family Handbook (p. 10). It’s also copied below.

Need help? Check with a returning parent. Our coaches are typically busy setting up the meet and beginning warmups, and other parents are a wealth of information and happy to help!

Events are typically available in SportsEngineMotion on the morning of the meet. Heats and lanes will be visible closer to meet start, via the Meet Mobile app, once all scratches have been processed and the heat sheet is final. A heat sheet will be posted on deck, by the patio entrance, for your reference, too.

 

POOL DECK NO-NO’s

Shallow End and Small Pool CLOSED: By conference rule, the pool MUST be closed during meets. If you see swimmers—yours or others’—swimming OR playing in the shallow end of the pool during the meet, please tell them kindly but firmly that they must get out of the water and remain on the deck side of the blue dividing chain. The small pool is also closed, and its gate must remain latched.

No Parents Behind the Blocks: Unless working as timers or passing through with hospitality offerings, parents are NEVER permitted behind the blocks at a swim meet. Parents in this area during meets will be asked to relocate. Please allow coaches to assist your swimmers and encourage your swimmers to ask questions when they need help.

 

PRIORITY PARKING RAFFLE

This season’s new priority parking spot raffle raised $285 for the team. Thanks to all who took a chance, and congratulations to this season’s winners, Roxana Dubash and Elena Kotili! Their parking spaces will be reserved tomorrow morning with marked orange cones. Feel free to look at those cones longingly, craning your necks and sighing resignedly and as you pass, while towing your wagon and tent. There's always 2026! (-:

We’re already considering ways to expand the priority parking opportunities for next season, including the possibility of a team “Family Sponsorship,” complete with parking space! Stay tuned.

 

DECLARED SWIMMERS: TIME TRIALS

ONLY the swimmers on this list have been declared to participate in tomorrow’s time trials. Declarations are closed; no additions can be made.

 

PARENT WORKERS: TIME TRIALS

Please see Asheley’s 5JUN25 email regarding jobs if you are scheduled to work a job tomorrow and need additional details. When you arrive, check in your swimmer first, then report to the small pool and see Asheley for Jobs Check-In by 7:45. Thanks for helping our meets run!

 

Announcer                           

Fortkamp, Mark

Backup/Sub Timer                

Kuppam, Kumar

Shinde, Bhagwat

Bag Tag Distributor              

Kurpiewski, Agnieszka

Lagankina, Daria

Clerk of Course/Bullpen       

Gwaliorkar, Abhay

Mohite, Abhishek (2)

Guo, Amy

Justin Jin

Musalaeva, Umamat

Computer and Scoring         

Rosensweet, Katie

Dubash, Roxana

Concessions                        

Shrikant Rao, Padmashree

Pepoff, Reetu

Pepoff, Reetu (Matt)

Shrikant Rao, Padmashree (Anesh)

Concessions Chairperson    

Wenner, Shaunna

Huang, Helen

Floater                                 

Parker, Brian/Heather

Paramonov, Alexander (Eleonora Shigabieva)

Griller/Concessions

Tsang, Autumn

Griller/Concessions Asst.     

Kotili, Elena

Pasta, Jessica

Head Clerk of Bullpen          

Murphy, Melissa

Spychala, Heather

Head Timer                          

Refai, Dahlia (Moe)

Meet Director                    

Fortkamp, Lea

Meet Runner                        

Colakovic, Ana

Barr, Jennifer

Officials (stroke and turn)     

Sluciak, Jason

Ryan, Mike

Cummings, Dan

Cocallas, David

Ponnada, Deepthi

Sadhu, Santosh

Official (starter)                    

Jones, Eric

Photographer                       

Conner, Katie

Scorer                                  

Thammineni, Namratha

Setup/Cleanup/Tear Down   

Puzakov, Viktor

Timer                                   

Melnyk, Darya

Melnyk, Darya

Kurpiewski, Agnieszka

Tucci, Carmine

Kanagala, Rajesh

Todevski, Zack

Todevski, Zack (Stela Ivanova)

Adaszczyk, Marzena (Jan Murgas)

Kaminski, John

Shetty, Charitra

Kathuria, Himanshu (Preeni)

Sundararaman, Soumya/Vikram

Mastny, Sarah (2)

Sasidharan, Vijay (2)

Zhao, Yan

Bandlamudi, Srikanth

Volunteer Coordinator          

Kram, Asheley

 

That's it for tonight! I look forward to seeing many of you in the morning. Please bear with us as we use tomorrow's time trials for its intended purpose: working out all the kinks for swimmers, coaches, families, and meet staff alike!

 

Have a great night, and GO STARZ!

 

Lea