Greatest Southeastern Championships Ever!

PCST Jumps From 28th to 13th Place In Team Rankings In Only One Year!

2010 Short Course Southeasterns Prove To Be a Breakthrough Meet For Tsunamis!
About a year and a half ago, some coaching friends of mine made a comment that they could see PCST was "about to pop" in the next year.  They had been following our improvements and could tell that something big was coming.  Since then, our championship shirts have had quotes on them that refer to that comment like "Ready to Explode", etc.  This short course season, the shirt simply said "BANG!".  Looks like I was right!

Never before had a PCST team finished higher than 26th overall at the short course championships.  Not only have we moved up drastically in the overall national rankings this season, but it was confirmed by our massive jump all the way up to 13th place this past weekend in Nashville at the Southeastern Championships!  It was a remarkable meet and the best part is that it was not a perfect meet or perfect season by any means.  That excites me because it means we're just seeing the beginning of all of our Tsunamis' hard work paying off and we have even more room to improve!

New Record Achievements For PCST
-Most Swimmers Qualified (34; previous record 29 from 2009!)
-Most Swimmers at SC Southeasterns (23; previous record 21 from 2009!)
-Most Points Scored (404; previous record 99 from 2009!)
-Highest Team Finish (13th; previous record 26th from 2003!)
-Most Number of Top 8 Swims (25; previous record nowhere near this!)

**I could go on forever on our record achievements from this meet but must move on cause I have so much to talk about!  :)

PCST Team Scores and Rankings
Last season we scored 99 points at the meet and had a good chunk of that (about 2/3 of the points) coming from relay points.  For those of you who don't know, relays are worth twice as many points as individual events and are a great way to move up in the team rankings.  What's truly incredible about our jump to breaking the 400 point barrier this season after never before even breaking the 100 point benchmark is that only 6 points came from a single relay!  That means that 398 points came from individual swims, beating our total from last year by nearly TEN TIMES!!

Girls Team Ranking (16th Overall with 172 points)
Boys Team Ranking (11th Overall with 232 points)
Overall Team Ranking (13th Overall with 404 points)

PCST Individual Scorers
One of my favorite statistics when looking at where our points came from this season is the fact that they come from every single age group.  What happens often when you see a team move up in the rankings is that they have one or two swimmers who score a ton of team points and that's all they get.  We have worked hard over the past few years to build a solid team from the ground up and the fact that we scored points in every age group and had points come from 13 different swimmers on the team shows that we are on the right track for having a strong all around team in the future.

10 & Under Girls: Kari Troia 9th (72 points)
11-12 Girls: Kalanne Krause 12th (47 points), Hannah Retherford 29th (12 points)
11-12 Boys: Aden Mackenzie 10th (62 points)
13-14 Boys: Michael Whitehead 5th (87 points)
Senior Girls: Carlee McDonald 42nd (14 points), Astrid Escobar 43rd (13 points), Allison Troia 49th (10 points), Kyle Olstad 65th (4 points)
Senior Boys: Cody Bronnenberg 9th (64 points), Chet Seaman 54th (13 points)

Overall Top 5 Teams at Southeastern
1st Nashville Aquatic Club 3,111.50 points
2nd Excel Aquatics 1892.50 points
3rd Memphis Tiger Aquatics 1623 points
4th City of Mobile Swim Association 1429.50 points
5th Pilot Aquatic Club 1209 points

7 Tsunamis Combine For 25 Championship Finals Swims
If my memory serves me correctly, last year we had two different swimmers finish in the Top 8 in individual swims.  And here we are only one season later with 7!!!  Wow!  I think we had 3 or 4 Top 8 swims last season and now we had 25!  I have to admit, it was pretty exciting to see how heavy our bag of awards (all medals) was this year at the end of the meet!

Kari Troia; 10 & Under Girls: 100 Breast (2nd), 50 Breast (3rd), 100 IM (5th), 500 free (6th), 200 IM (7th)
Kalanne Krause; 11-12 Girls: 200 Free (3rd), 100 IM (3rd), 100 Free (4th)
Michael Whitehead; 13-14 Boys: 500 Free (3rd), 100 Back (3rd), 1000 Free (4th), 1650 Free (5th), 400 IM (6th), 200 Back (6th)
Cody Bronnenberg; Senior Boys: 200 Breast (5th), 400 IM (5th), 200 Back (8th), 200 Breast (8th)
Aden Mackenzie; 11-12 Boys: 50 Fly (5th), 50 Free (6th), 50 Back (7th), 100 Free (7th), 100 Back (8th)
Chet Seaman; Senior Boys: 200 Breast (6th)

Many, Many Swims Just Outside of Championship Finals in the 9-16 Range!
What's incredible about this is that we have a large contingent of swimmers that are within a very close striking distance of scoring very major points for the team!  In fact, any senior swimmer who finished in the Top 16 actually did help out with valuable team points.  It did seem, however, as if we were the kinds of 9th and 10th place this weekend, and sometimes 17th & 18th for seniors, haha.  This means that we were literally hundreths and tenths of a second away from potentially scoring loads and loads of more points!  Can somebody say.............Summer Long Course Southeasterns????  I can't wait!

Carlee McDonald: 1650 Free (9th), 1000 Free (12th)
Allison Troia: 1650 Free (11th), 1000 Free (13th)
Dylan Mock: 1000 Free (14th), 1650 Free (14th)
Jonathan Ratliff: 1000 Free (16th), 1650 Free (15th)
Reis Gordon: 200 Free (15th), 100 Fly (10th), 500 Free (10th), 100 Free (15th)
Dylan Gandy: 50 Breast (10th), 500 Free (14th), 100 Breast (9th)
Aden Mackenzie: 50 Breast (11th), 100 Fly (10th)
Astrid Escobar: 100 Breast (10th), 200 Breast (11th)
Kyle Olstad: 100 Breast (13th)
Cody Bronnenberg: 100 Back (12th), 200 IM (12th), 1650 Free (13th)
Michael Whitehead: 200 Fly (12th)
Kalanne Krause: 100 Fly (14th), 50 Free (10th), 50 Fly (9th)
Kari Troia: 100 Fly (15th), 100 Back (12th)
Hannah Retherford: 100 Back (10th), 50 Fly (13th)

20 Team Records!  Are You Kidding Me?
Honestly...........how on earth do you guys keep breaking so many team records!  Every single meet this season has been full of new team records and here I am announcing another 20!  I'm sure it has to slow down at some point, but I'm glad it's not slowing down yet.  Keep setting your goals high Tsunamis...............each and every one of you can become the fastest in team history!

Kari Troia, 10 & Under Girls 50 Breast (36.22); previously Kari Troia (36.99) from 2010
Kari Troia, 10 & Under Girls 100 Breast (1:19.02); previously Kari Troia (1:19.52) from 2009
Dylan Gandy, 10 & Under Boys 100 Breast (1:26.89); previously Chad McGuire (1:26.95) from 2009
Reis Gordon, 10 & Under Boys 100 Fly (1:16.66); previously Reis Gordon (1:19.11) from 2009
Kalanne Krause, 11-12 Girls 50 Free (26.56); previously Kalanne Krause (26.59) from 2009
Kalanne Krause, 11-12 Girls 100 Free (56.47); previously Kalanne Krause (56.64) from 2009
Kalanne Krause, 11-12 Girls 200 Free (2:00.57); previously Kalanne Krause (2:06.88) from 2009
Kalanne Krause, 11-12 Girls 50 Fly (29.18); previously Kalanne Krause (29.24) from 2009
Kalanne Krause, 11-12 Girls 100 IM (1:04.65); previously Nicole Blais (1:07.83) from 2002
Hannah Retherford, 11-12 Girls 50 Back (30.34); previously Hannah Retherford (31.04) from 2010
Aden Mackenzie, 11-12 Boys 50 Breast (33.76); previously Aden Mackenzie (34.54) from 2009
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 500 Free (4:50.41); previously Michael Whitehead (4:56.10) from 2009
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 1000 Free (9:56.67); previously Michael Whitehead (10:28.75) from 2010
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 1650 Free (16:56.18); previously Michael Whitehead (17:14.99) from 2010
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 100 Back (55.97); previously Greg Rhinehart (56.21) from 1999
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 200 Back (2:02.25); previously Michael Whitehead (2:03.55) from 2009
Michael Whitehead, 13-14 Boys 400 IM (4:25.40); previously Michael Whitehead (4:26.77) from 2009
Chet Seaman, 15-16 Boys 200 Breast (2:13.13); previously Kevin Faulhber (2:13.41) from 2007
Cody Bronnenberg, Senior Boys 400 IM (4:09.92); previously Cody Bronnenberg (4:15.21) from 2010
Senior Boys 400 Medley Relay (3:44.12); C. Bronnenberg, C. Seaman, T. vonBlankenburg, J. Clutch
previously (3:49.74) C. Bronnenberg, C. Seaman, M. White, E. Escobar from 2010

Loads and Loads of All-Time Top 10 Swims!
This list is certainly becoming something to be very proud of!  It's kinda fun to do a comparison of what it took to make the All-Time Top 10 list about 3-4 years ago vs. what it takes now.  It's pretty awesome to see!  I can't wait to see what it's going to take to make this prestigious list in 3-4 more years!  Based on all of the new swims below, it's going to be incredibly tough to get there.  But you can do it!

New Girls All-Time Top 10
100 Free: Nicole Gazia 3rd (55.57); Kalanne Krause 7th (56.47); Jamie McDonald 10th (56.91)
200 Free: Kalanne Krause 4th (2:00.57)
500 Free: Carlee McDonald 5th (5:22.32)
1000 Free: Carlee McDonald 2nd (10:58.13); Allison Troia 4th (11:06.48)
1650 Free: Allison Troia 5th (18:28.75)
50 Back: Hannah Retherford 5th (30.34), Kalanne Krause 9th (31.42)
100 Back: Kalanne Krause 8th (1:05.22)
100 Breast: Kyle Olstad 3rd (1:08.91)
200 Breast: Kyle Olstad 4th (2:33.76), Nicole Gazia 5th (2:34.63), Allison Troia 8th (2:37.39)
50 Fly: Kalanne Krause 5th (29.18), Hannah Retherford 9th (29.54)
200 Fly: Jamie McDonald 4th (2:19.50)
100 IM: Kalanne Krause 1st (1:04.65)
400 IM: Nicole Gazia 5th (4:51.60)

New Boys All-Time Top 10
100 Free: Cody Bronnenberg 6th (50.04)
200 Free: Troy vonBlankenburg 8th (1:50.76)
500 Free: Michael Whitehead 2nd (4:50.41), Troy vonBlankenburg 7th (5:00.65)
1000 Free: Michael Whitehead 1st (9:56.67), Evan Escobar 5th (10:36.53), Troy vonBlankenburg 8th (10:39.43)
1650 Free: Michael Whitehead 2nd (16:56.18), Troy vonBlankenburg 4th (17:35.83), Evan Escoabar 8th (18:09.05), Dylan Mock 9th (18:14.03), Jonathan Ratliff 10th (18:17.70)
50 Back: Cody Bronnenberg 1st (25.62)
100 Back: Cody Bronnenberg 2nd (52.71), Michael Whitehead 3rd (55.97)
200 Back: Cody Bronnenberg 2nd (1:57.25), Michael Whitehead 3rd (2:02.25), JD Clutch 8th (2:07.92)
50 Breast: Chet Seaman 4th (29.41)
100 Breast: Chet Seaman 4th (1:02.22)
200 Breast: Chet Seaman 3rd (2:13.13)
200 IM: Chet Seaman 4th (2:01.16)
400 IM: Cody Bronnenberg 1st (4:09.92), Michael Whitehead 5th (4:25.40), Troy vonBlankenburg 7th (4:31.42)

Cody Bronnenberg Leads The Way For New Qualifying Times with NCSA Junior National Cut in 100 Back!
Well what do you know, I'm heading to Sectionals and Junior Nationals later this week and this month!  We have added a new Junior Nationals qualifying time to the list for Cody Bronnenberg and have added two brand new Sectional qualifiers.  Congrats to Michael Whitehead (14) and Chet Seaman (16) for breaking onto the scene with their first every Sectional cuts!

NCSA Junior Nationals
Cody Bronnenberg (100 Back; 400 IM Bonus Time)

Summer Sectionals
Michael Whitehead (1000 Free); Chet Seaman (200 Breast)

Spring Sectionals
Michael Whitehead (500 Free, 1650 Free), Chet Seaman (100 Breast)

Southeastern Championships
Allison Troia (1000 Free), Dylan Gandy (500 Free), Nicole Gazia (400 IM), Denver Dangerfield (50 Free, 100 Free)

Wait Until You See How Many New Age Group All-Time Top 10 Swims!!  Wow!
Are you kidding me?  Do any of you realize how much my hands hurt after typing out all of these new age group Top 10 times?  And I'm only telling you what place they are getting.  If you want to see the times, you'll have to check with me at practice or on the website under "Team Rankings".  Congrats to this massive list of swimmers who achieved times that rank them among the best in their age group in the history of the team.

10 & Under Girls: Kari Troia 500 Free (2nd), 100 Back (2nd), 50 Breast (1st), 100 Breast (1st), 100 Fly (3rd), 100 IM (2nd), 200 IM (2nd)
11-12 Girls: Kalanne Krause 50 Free (1st), 100 Free (1st), 200 Free (1st), 50 Back (3rd), 100 Back (2nd), 50 Fly (1st), 100 Fly (2nd), 100 IM (1st); Hannah Retherford 50 Free (2nd), 200 Free (6th), 50 Back (1st), 50 Fly (2nd)
15-16 Girls: Nicole Gazia 50 Free (2nd), 100 Free (2nd), 50 Breast (2nd), 100 Breast (4th), 200 Breast (3rd), 400 IM (3rd); Kyle Olstad 100 Breast (2nd), 200 Breast (2nd); Jamie McDonald 100 Free (6th), 200 Fly (2nd); Allison Troia 1000 Free (2nd), 1650 Free (2nd), 200 Breast (6th)
17 & Up Girls: Carlee McDonald 500 Free (4th), 1000 Free (2nd)

10 & Under Boys: Dylan Gandy 100 Free (8th), 200 Free (5th), 500 Free (4th), 50 Breast (3rd), 100 Breast (1st); Reis Gordon 500 Free (3rd), 100 Fly (1st)
11-12 Boys: Denver Dangerfield 50 Free (9th), 100 Free (10th), 500 Free (8th); Aden Mackenzie 100 Free (3rd), 50 Back (2nd), 100 Back (4th), 50 Breast (1st), 100 Fly (2nd)
13-14 Boys: Michael Whitehead 100 Free (3rd), 500 Free (1st), 1000 Free (1st), 1650 Free (1st), 100 Back (1st), 200 Back (1st), 400 IM (1st); Jonathan Ratliff 200 Free (10th), 500 Free (3rd), 1000 Free (4th), 1650 Free (3rd), 400 IM (3rd); Dylan Mock 1000 Free (3rd), 1650 Free (3rd), 200 Fly (7th)
15-16 Boys: Troy vonBlankenburg 200 Free (3rd), 500 Free (4th), 1000 Free (5th), 1650 Free (3rd), 400 IM (3rd); Evan Escobar 200 Free (7th), 1000 Free (3rd), 1650 Free (5th); JD Clutch 1000 Free (7th), 1650 Free (6th), 50 Back (6th), 100 back (6th), 200 Back (5th); Chet Seaman 50 Breast (3rd), 100 Breast (4th), 200 Breast (1st), 50 Fly (3rd), 200 IM (3rd); Phoenix Rine 50 Breast (8th), 100 Breast (6th)
Seniors Boys: Cody Bronnenberg 100 Free (5th), 50 Back (1st), 100 Back (2nd), 200 Back (2nd), 400 IM (1st)

Swimmers Achieve USA Swimming's Highest Two Motivational Levels (AAA and AAAA)!
I remember when we were thrilled to get even one swimmer with a AAA time nearly 4 years ago and here we are only 2 months into the 2010 year and we already have 3 swimmers with multiple AAAA times!  These times rank our swimmers among some of the best in the entire nation for their age group.  It's very impressive and loads to be proud of!  If you want to see your actual ranking in the nation, go to www.usswim.org, click on "time/time standards" and check out to rankings.

AAA Swims at Southeasterns
Aden Mackenzie (50 Fr, 100 Fr, 50 Ba, 50 Br, 50 Fl)
Michael Whitehead (100 Fr, 1650 Fr, 200 Ba, 200 Fl, 400 IM)
Chet Seaman (100 Br, 200 Br, 200 IM)
Cody Bronnenberg (100 Ba, 200 Ba, 100 Br, 200 Br, 200 IM, 400 IM)
Kari Troia (500 Fr, 100 IM, 200 IM)
Nicole Gazia (100 Fr)
Kyle Olstad (100 Br)
Astrid Escobar (200 Br)

AAAA Swims at Southeasterns
Michael Whitehead (500 Fr, 1000 Fr, 100 Ba)
Kari Troia (50 Br, 100 Br)
Kalanne Krause (200 Fr, 100 IM)

New Tsunami Award Levels
Level 10: Chet Seaman (200 Breast)
Level 9: Dylan Gandy (100 Breast)
Level 8: Nicole Gazia (100 Breast, 200 Breast); Troy vonBlankenburg (1650 Free)
Level 7: Troy vonBlankenburg (200 Free, 500 Free, 1000 Free, 400 IM)

New Tsunami Award Improvements
+11 Points: Troy vonBlankenburg
+10 Points: JD Clutch
+9 Points: Nicole Gazia, Evan Escobar
+7 Points: Michael Whitehead
+6 Points: Kalanne Krause, Dylan Gandy
+4 Points: Carlee McDonald, Kari Troia, Cody Bronnenberg
+3 Points: Allison Troia, Jonathan Ratliff, Chet Seaman
+2 Points: Hannah Retherford, Denever Dangerfield, Reis Gordon, Dylan Mock, Phoenix Rine
+1 Point: Kyle Ostad, Aden Mackenzie

I cannot say enough great things about how well all of you swam this weekend.  You were a tremendous team and lots of people are starting to take notice.  We have already qualified 28 swimmers for the summer long course Southeastern Championships coming up in Knoxville, TN.  You think we made a "BANG" this season?  If you keep working hard like you did this short course season, just wait until you see how great you do this summer!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan