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CAMARENA IS SUPER IN AND OUT OF POOL.


Byline: John Knoll John Knoll is an Academy-award winning motion picture visual effects specialist at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). One of the original creators of Adobe Photoshop (along with his brother, Thomas), he is recently best known for his work as Visual Effects Supervisor on the , for the NM

By John Knoll

For The New Mexican New Mexico Abbr. NM or N.M. or N.Mex.

A state of the southwest United States on the Mexican border. It was admitted as the 47th state in 1912.
 

Monse Camarena's swimming coach, Lois Daignuelant, calls her Mighty Mouse Noun 1. Mighty Mouse - a fictional mouse endowed with great strength and courage  because the 4-foot, 55-pound swimmer performs incredible feats in the swimming pool.

Camarena lives up to her nickname. The 9-year-old holds three state records in the 8-and-under category. She turned 9 on Jan. 21, midway through the swimming season.

On Nov. 9, Camarena, a fourth-grader at Santo Ni[+ or -]o Cathedral School The first cathedral schools originated in the Early Middle Ages. They were run by the cathedral clergy and typically had fewer than 100 students. At first they generally functioned as seminaries to train future priests, but later accepted lay students. , broke two state records at the Tops High Point Open in Colorado Springs Colorado Springs, city (1990 pop. 281,140), seat of El Paso co., central Colo., on Monument and Fountain creeks, at the foot of Pikes Peak; inc. 1886. It is a year-round resort and a booming military, technological, and commercial city. , Colo. She stopped the clock at 3:22.29 in the 200-meter individual medley and swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:43.18

Three days before her ninth birthday, she swam the 100-meter backstroke at the Los Alamos Los Alamos (lôs ăl`əmōs', lŏs), uninc. town (1990 pop. 11,455), seat of Los Alamos co., N central N.Mex. It is on a long mesa extending from the Jemez Mts. The U.S.  High Altitude Conventionally, an altitude above 10,000 meters (33,000 feet). See also altitude.  Invitational in·vi·ta·tion·al  
adj.
Restricted to invited participants: an invitational golf tournament.

n.
An event, especially a sports tournament, restricted to invited participants.

Adj. 1.
 in a record breaking time of 1:35.12.

"Monse is quick and powerful," Daignuelant said, standing beside the Genoveva Chavez Community Center pool where Camarena trains. "She has Olympic swimmer potential."

The soft spoken, intelligent Camarena- -- she's a straight A student -- is a bit more understated in talking about her goals.

She said she's not looking forward to the Olympics. Rather, she's focused on the now, which is an indication of her maturity.

"My goal is to do well on our elementary-school team, then I'll think about high school," she said. "I'll just see where life carries me with swimming."

Camarena, who said "she hates to lose," knows that success comes with hard work.

She practices three to four times a week after school for two to three hours. In the summer months, she's up early and in the pool by 7 a.m. for a two hour session under the watchful eye of Daignuelant, an All-American swimmer at the University of Miami This article is about the university in Coral Gables, Florida. For the university in Oxford, Ohio, see Miami University.

The University of Miami (also known as Miami of Florida,[2] UM,[3] or just The U
 and a swimming coach with 25 years coaching experience at the national and international level.

"Lois not only teaches technique, she also helps me with visualization exercises, where I see myself winning before the race starts," Camarena said. "I'm lucky to have good coaches like Lois and Atiba Wade, who holds a bunch of state swimming records."

Camarena said she loves to swim and compete but she admitted swimming isn't her favorite sport.

When she's not swimming, playing basketball or being a cheerleader for the boy's basketball team at Santo Ni[+ or -]o, the high-energy student-athlete plays her favorite sport, soccer.

"Swimming is my second favorite sport," she said, while sitting on a bench in the 8 a.m. sunlight just outside the Genoveva Chavez pool. "Soccer's my favorite because it's outdoors. I love nature and being in the sun, and my dad's my coach."

Unlike many kids her age, who idolize i·dol·ize  
tr.v. i·dol·ized, i·dol·iz·ing, i·dol·iz·es
1. To regard with blind admiration or devotion. See Synonyms at revere1.

2. To worship as an idol.
 sports or movie stars, her father and mother, Alfonso and Gaby Camarena are her role models.

"I look up to my mom and dad," she said. "There always there for me, whether I win or lose. When I grow up, I want to be like my mom and dad."

Camarena is a champion in the pool, on the pitch and in the school room. That's why her coaches gave her a T-shirt that reads: "Up, up and away."

"We made the T-shirt for Monse for a couple of reasons," Daignuelant said. "One, she's young and up and coming. And two, 'Up, up and away' is what Superman says when he sets out to win and save the day."

The super metaphor came up a lot when Daignuelant discussed the young swimmer. She called her Mighty Mouse, compared her to Superman and said "her record-breaking times place her in the Top 10 of her age group in America."

"I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed)

"Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party.
 where I'm going," Camarena said. "I plan to keep visualizing success and just see what happens."

Such wisdom from the heart and mouth of a 9-year-old who says, "On a scale of one to 10, I'd say I'm a level seven swimmer. I still have a lot to learn. But I'm getting there."

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Title Annotation:Neighbors
Publication:The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM)
Date:Sep 7, 2008
Words:670
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