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!

Starz Roundup: Thursday, July 3-- IMPORTANT DEADLINES

Lea Fortkamp

Starz Roundup

Wednesday, July 3, 2025

 

Good Morning, Starz Families!

 

We hope that many of our swimmers are enjoying this morning's 2nd Annual Try-a-Tri; thanks to Melissa Jones for planning and overseeing this fun event!

Here are a few Starz reminders for your 4th of July weekend:

  1. TODAY: Signup Deadline for Feed My Starving Children pack (July 10 team service opportunity)
  2. TODAY: Early Declarations DUE for Classic or City Championship meet. All swimmers are asked to represent the Starz at the Championship meet for which they qualify. Please check here to see which is the right meet for your swimmer and/or discuss with Coach Mary. These declarations are needed today so that we can provide accurate swimmer estimates to the NSC's meet planning committees, so please don't delay. If you are undeclared for either meet, you will receive a separate reminder to update your status later this morning.
  3. July 8 (Tuesday): Our next meet, and final home meet of the season, vs. Breckenridge. Declarations have closed for what will surely be a large and competitive dual meet. Look for a meet reminder email on Monday.
  4. July 12 (Saturday): Our final dual meet of the season at Tall Grass. Declarations remain open for this meet. Please commit to attend if your swimmer is available; it's sure to be a close, competitive contest!

 

Home vs. Huntington:

Meet Wrap-Up

The Starz were thrilled to pull out another team win vs. Huntington this week. Our teams matched up very well, and it was a very close, back-and-forth contest from the start.

I was chatting with a parent during the meet about why our team sometimes chooses to swim younger athletes UP an age group or two in relays rather than keeping those swimmers with their age group peers in B- or C-relay teams. The answer has to do with meet scoring.

By conference rule, only one relay per team can score points in any relay event. This means that if we field A- and B-relay teams in, for example, the 11/12 Girls 200 Freestyle Relay, and our A-relay group finishes ahead of the B-relay, our B-relay swimmers, no matter their finish position, will earn zero points for their efforts. However, if we have a relay hole to fill in the 15-18 Girls 200 Freestyle Relay, we may choose to swim one or more of those younger swimmers UP. This allows us to field a single relay team in the 15-18 event and earn at least second place points. This way, those swimmers who might have been part of a non-scoring relay in their own age groups are able to score points for the team--and possibly contribute to a team win!

 

Time Drops vs. Huntington

Congratulations to the following Starz swimmers, each of whom notched one or more time improvements at our meet vs. Huntington.

Molly Asch

Sreemukhi Bandlamudi

Parker Chaput

Anastasia Cornbleet

Madison Cummings

Macy Dalo

Chloe Dela Cruz

Lucy Eggert

Winne Eggert

Sophia Freudenberg

Joanne House

Sophia Jastrow

Emily Jin

Abby Jones

Grace Jones 

Nyra Kawdia

Ola Kurpiewski

Ekaterina Lagankina

Alisha Magomedova

Dalila Magomedova

Emily Murphy

Maddie O'Toole

AMara Pepoff

Iulia Pichkova

Mithra Ranjith

Caris Reddy

Shaina Sahani

Viona Samy

Charlotte Schurr

Prisha Shetty

Spruha Shunde

Lily Sluciak

Arden Spychala

Mikayla Szweda

Emma Todevski

Angelina Tucci

Arianna Tucci

Maya Vanegas

Emma Verdoorn

Olivia Wojdyla

Maria Wolff

Jackson Blaine

Owen Brown

Owen Cocallas

Russel Cook

Jacob Endres

Landon Frias

Samarth Gottemukala

Landon Jastrow

Kegan Johnston

Parker Jules

Rishank Kanegala

Arnav Kathuria

Avyan Kawdia

Hunter Li

Oliver Li

Luke Madsen

Dean Mastny

George Murphy

Lucas Nadtochiy

Apollon Papadimitriou

Leandros Papdimitriou

Dharan Prasanna

Mithun Ranjith

Henry Rosensweet

Rory Ryan

Shiv Sahani

Parker Simmer

Owen Sluciak

James Szweda

Luke Szweda

Kai Todevski

Noah Vanegas

Lincoln Wenner

Max Wenner

Gabriel Wu

Charlie Yu

Max Zhao

Shane Zhao

 

 

 

New City Qualifying Times vs. Huntington

Congratulations to the following Starz swimmers who earned City Championship qualifying times at our meet vs. Huntington. We had FIVE newly minted meet qualifiers on Tuesday; that's incredible, especially at this point in the season! Find the full list of City qualifiers, and the events in which they've qualified, HERE. 

Girls:
Macy Dalo 100IM
Chloe Dela Cruz 25BR
Lucy Eggert 25FL
Emily Jin 50FL
Katerina Lagankina 25FR **
Dalila Magomedova 50FR
Arden Spychala 25FR
Emma Verdoorn 25BR
 
Boys:
Owen Cocallas 25BK **
Kegan Johnston 50FR
Dean Mastny 25BK **
George Murphy 50FL, 100IM
Michael Paramonov 25BK **
Mithun Ranjith 50BR, 100IM
Philip Song 50BK, 50FL
Lincoln Wenner 50BK, 50FL **
Shane Zhao 50FL, 100IM
 
**new City Championship qualifier
 
 

 

That's it for today, folks. I'm reporting this morning from my hometown of Duxbury, Massachusetts, and we're headed to the beach! Enjoy your holiday weekend, stay safe, remember that there's NO PRACTICE on Friday. We'll see you on the flipside. Let's finish the season strong! 

 

Go Starz!

 

Lea Fortkamp

Stillwater Starz Parent Board

 


(Meet courtesy of the Stillwater Starz. Pyrotechnics courtesy of ChatGPT. Have a safe and happy 4th!)