Strong Showing at ATAC for Tsunamis in Spite of Power Outage

Tsunamis Swim Great at Mac Crutchfield Invitational!

In a meet that honored the great memory of a terrific young swimmer named Mac Crutchfield, the Tsunamis showed that they are still one of the top teams in all of North Florida.  In spite of a crazy ending to a fast meet, PCST swimmers managed many best times and a team finish that does not look nearly as strong as it truly was.  We brought 26 swimmers to the ATAC Meet, but all of them were Seniors and Pre-Seniors.  With the exception of one 12 year old swimmer on Saturday only, the Tsunamis had only 13 and older swimmers, making it difficult to compete with the teams that scored lots of points in the afternoon session with lots of younger swimmers. **(Please read the other news article about our 35 younger swimmers at the ECS meet that brought home the 2nd place visiting team trophy!!)

After Day 2 (out of 3), PCST was in 3rd place overall out of 18 teams behind ATAC (who we knew would dominate everyone with their 179 swimmers) and SPAC from Jacksonville.  The way things were heading, PCST was well on their way to a 2nd place visiting team trophy considering how far we were ahead of the 3rd-5th place teams.  However, on the final morning of the meet, an unfortunate power outage cancelled the entire morning session, leaving the our swimmers pointless for the day and stuck with our final score for the meet.  Once the power was restored, the meet continued with the afternoon session (where PCST had no swimmers) and many teams went flying past us in the team points category, leaving PCST in 7th place out of 17 visiting teams.  Not too bad for only swimming Fri and Sat night only with no younger swimmers!

Wait until you see all of the great results we had from a meet where we only swam 1/2 of our events!  Enjoy and great job Tsunamis!

Cody Bronnenberg Wins Senior Boys High Point Award!  Congratulations to Cody for his incredible swims where he dominated the Senior Boys division!  Anytime you can go to an ATAC meet and win a high point against them, you know you’re doing something right.  Thanks to Cody’s efforts, I had multiple coaches telling me what a great job I was doing with Cody and I said it’s not me........it’s all Cody!  He’s a great kid, a hard worker and a great inspiration to the rest of the Tsunamis.  Way to go Co!

4 Swimmers Get New Southeastern Championship Times!  With the addition of Phoenix Rine and Matt Reece to the Southeastern Championship Team, we now have 26 swimmers who have qualified for the short course championships (our most ever!)!  Matt qualified in the 200 Breast, and Phoenix in the 200 Breast.  Also, Sara Evans (200 Fly) and Nicole Gazia (200 Free, 200 IM, 400 IM) added to their already impressive collections of qualified swims.

New PCST Team Record!  For the record, although Cody Bronnenberg came home with 1 team record from the weekend, I want everyone to know that he was literally a blink away from 3 other records at the meet!!

Cody Bronnenberg 15-16 Boys 200 Back (1:58.87),  Previously Cody Bronnenberg (1:59.55) from 2008

New All-Time Top 10 Swims!  Nearly 1/4 of the Tsunami swimmers ended up moving themselves up in the All-Time team rankings regardless of age group.  Here they are:

Cody Bronnenberg: 500 Free 4th (4:57.03), 200 Back 2nd (1:58.87), 400 IM 2nd (4:21.21), 200 Breast 3rd (2:13.69) Michael Perdomo: 200 Fly 4th (2:08.85) Matt Reece: 50 Breast 7th (31.66), 200 Breast (2:28.79) Nicole Gazia:  200 Free 9th (2:04.38) Kyle Olstad: 200 Breast 6th (2:35.90) Sara Evans: 200 Fly 2nd (2:15.85)

 New Top 10 All-Time Swims by Age Group

(11-12) Jonathan Ratliff 100 Free 7th (1:00.36)

(13-14) Nicole Gazia 200 Free 4th (2:04.38), 200 IM 3rd (2:21.46), 400 IM 6th (5:01.82), Michael Whitehead 200 Free 10th (2:04.00), 200 Back 8th (2:18.94), Jamie McDonald 500 Free 10th (5:51.33), Dylan Mock 500 Free 10th (5:41.36), 400 IM 8th (5:02.50), Phoenix Rine 200 Breast 9th (2:40.42)

(15-16) Carlee McDonald 200 Free 10th (2:07.43), 500 Free 6th (5:35.74), 200 Back 7th (2:23.82), Victoria Hove 500 Free 4th (5:30.02), 200 IM 6th (2:20.66), Cody Bronnenberg 500 Free 2nd (4:57.03), 200 Back 1st (1:58.87), 200 Breast (2:13.69), 400 IM 2nd (4:21.21), Kyle Olstad 200 Breast 3rd (2:35.90), Chet Seaman 200 Breast 7th (2:32.81)

(Senior) Sara Evans 200 Free 3rd (2:00.01), 200 Fly 2nd (2:15.85), Staci Lehman 200 Back 6th (2:30.03), Brielle Seaman 200 Back 7th (2:30.66), 200 Fly 6th (2:27.67), 200 IM 10th (2:28.04), Michael Perdomo 200 Fly 3rd (2:08.85), 200 IM 7th (2:09.56)

New 2009 Short Course Tsunami Awards!  Keep in mind that this list starts over Jan 1st each year and I announce the highest club each swimmer achieves an award for.

"B" Emily Churchwell (500 Fr, 200 Fr)

"BB" JD Clutch (200 Ba, 200 IM), Michael Commins (200 Fr), Cassidy Cunningham (200 Fr, 200 Br), Anthony Hill (200 Fr), Staci Lehman (500 Fr, 200 Fr, 200 Ba, 200 IM), Duncan McIntyre (200 Fr, 200 IM), Chet Seaman (200 Fr, 200 Br), Shane Young (200 Fr, 200 IM)

"A" Laura Kearns (500 Fr), Carlee McDonald (500 Fr, 200 Fr, 200 Ba, 200 IM), Jamie McDonald (500 Fr, 200 Fr), Michael Perdomo (200 Fl, 200 IM), Matt Reece (200 Br), Michael Whitehead (200 Fr), Max White (200 Fr)

"AA" Sara Evans (200 Fr, 200 Fl, 200 Br), Nicole Gazia (400 IM, 200 Br, 200 IM), Kyle Olstad (200 Br), Jonathan Ratliff (50 Fl)

"AAA" Cody Bronnenberg (500 Fr, 400 IM, 200 Ba, 200 Br, 200 IM), Victoria Hove (400 IM)

"Sectionals" Cody Bronnenberg (200 Back, 200 Breast)

As you can see, it turned out to be a great meet for our older Tsunami Swimmers!  It’s a shame we did not get to swim on Sunday because I know for a fact that we would have had more Southeastern qualifying times, many best times and we would have achieved my goal of coming home with a trophy from two meets in the same weekend. :)  Great job Tsunamis!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan