From the Head Coach
Our Fall Season Comes to a Close
With the last two meets ending, our 2025 Fall Season has officially come to a close. While we had lots of meets, and exciting swims, let's do a quick dive to see how we did. For starters, one of the metrics that we usually use is the number of SES qualifiers that achieve through December. This year, that becomes a little harder to assess as some of the qualifying standards have been relaxed. However, in the last three years, that number of qualifiers has crossed the 100 member mark in either our December Meet of Champs meet or our January Mardi Gras meet. This year, that number stands at an amazing 130 already! We can also assess our progress with national rankings. Looking at USA Swimming's Virtual Club Championships, we ended last short course season 46th (out of about 3,500) and never in our history have we finished in the top 40. Currently, we are ranked 33rd so it appears that we are on track for our best ever finish So congratulations on a fantastic start to the Short Course season. We have lots of work to do to win our 4th consecutive Triple Crown in February but this is certainly an encouraging start!
The next three weeks:
Adjusted Holiday Schedules: Brentwood Columbia Gallatin Murfreesboro Spring Hill
2025 Winter Juniors
Congratulations to the 9 Excel Swimmers who represented Excel Aquatics at Winter Junior Nationals this past week. National meets are an incredible experience as our athletes get to compete against the best in the country. At this level, even making a second swim is huge accomplishment. This is also an environment that can also create amazing results. This week, we set 5 new team records, a new Winter Juniors cut and a new Summer Juniors Cut. Our women's team scored 52 points placing us 19th one spot ahead of Huntsville, three spots ahead of NAC and 20 spots ahead of Ensworth.
By The Numbers
Pictures from the meet
2025 Ho Ho Ho 12 & Under Invite
Congratulations to our 12 & Under Swimmers who competed in the 2025 Ho Ho Ho Invite this past weekend. Every year, this is a fun meet hosted by Excel and it's aimed primarily at our younger swimmers who may be new to the sport. This year, the meet was fun and full of fast swimming! As always, we want to extend a huge "Thank You" to all our officials, parent volunteers and coaches who put in long hours to make this special meet happen.
By The Numbers
Pictures from the Meet
Announcements
A huge "Thank You" to all of our Excel Families who so generously and enthusiastically donated gifts this year to the Franktown Open Hearts families. This year, we were honored to sponsor three families and all the wishlists were filled almost immediately. Remember that you can drop off your wrapped gifts today or tomorrow before 10:00 at the Brentwood ISC. As a coach for this incredible organization, I would like to personally thank everyone who makes this team special through generosity like this, but also in a million other ways throughout the year.
Excel Aquatics Swim School
As you may know, Excel Aquatics has a swim school that offers lessons in multiple locations. While "creating" new swimmers is a nice benefit, the true purpose is offering what may be a life-saving skill to as many new swimmers as possible. In that vein, we are looking to expand our teaching staff and that's where our parents come in!
If you are one of the many of our parents that are already at the pool during practices we would love to recruit you! While there is no prior teaching experience necessary, this will be a paid position that even comes with a 50% discount for monthly dues for your swimmer at Excel (or for the highest level swimmer for families with multiple children).
If you are interested in signing up, please contact our Swim School Director Dawn Van Ryckeghem at coachdawn@excelaquatics.org
As you may know, Excel Aquatics offers a swimming lessons at multiple locations and we are looking to expand our staff
How are we stacking up?
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 on the "Running Total" report.
- 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.
- IMX Bronze- Earn an IMX score between 1,000-1,999
- IMX Silver- Earn an IMX score between 2,000-2,999
- IMX Gold- Earn a minimum score of 3,000
- 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 a swimming 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. What do officials do?
- 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
Excel Weekly Update
Our Weekly Update for 12-19-25 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!
Check out where our intros have come from on this World Map
Have a questions for a coach? Feel free to reach out.
- Brentwood High Performance: Steven Murry- Head Coach
- Brentwood Senior Groups: Benji DeMotte- Site Coordinator
- Brentwood Varsity Groups: Brennan Riddle
- Brentwood Junior Groups: McKenna Morello
- Brentwood Teal & Bronze: Daun Lutz
- Gallatin All Groups: Andreea Ianoli-Mitrofan- Site Coordinator
- Murfreesboro All Groups: JJ Langhals- Site Coordinator
- Spring Hill All Groups: Carrie Vaughan- Site Coordinator
- Muletown All Groups: Lynn Powell
- Administration: Shannon Oliver- Team Administrator
- Meet Director: Lori Biller
2025 Short Course Season Running Totals
Throughout each season, we track a number of metrics to see how we're stacking up against teams both locally and nationally. Check in here every week to keep up to date.
Sponsorship Corner
We are so grateful for all of our partners whose support of Excel Aquatics makes much of what we do possible. You can visit each of our sponsors using the links below.
Interested in becoming a sponsor of Excel Aquatics? Contact: Sponsorships@excelaquatics.org