PCST Finishes 2nd In Largest Home Long Course Meet Ever!

Tsunamis Break Team Records and Win High Point Awards at Paradise Invitational!

Nearly five years ago, I remember sitting in a room with our board of directors trying to figure out when would be a good time to host our home long course meet.  We decided on April because I felt there was a need for an early season opener meet.  I knew it would take off, but never did I imagine we would have 512 kids from 18 different teams in a meet that we actually had to turn away over 50 swimmers from!  Teams from as far east as Jacksonville, northeast as west Georgia, north as Tennessee & Birmingham and west as Jackson and Biloxi, Mississippi came to compete in our Paradise Inviational this year.  This was a fantastic meet with gorgeous weather and I would love to thank all of our incredible volunteers for working so hard to ensure a great weekend.

Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club Dominates 5th Annual PCST Long Course Paradise Invitational
Even though PCST had the most swimmers we have ever had in a meet with 111 total, the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club came to Panama City Beach with one goal in mind...........dominate.  They came with a powerful force of 90 swimmers, giving our Tsunamis and other competitors something higher to strive for.  Congratulations to ATAC on all of their great swims.  I would also like to congratulate CMSA, ECS and AJAX for terrific performances to put them in the Top 5 overall for teams.  CMSA might have even been the strongest team "pound for pound" at the meet.  However, the 2nd place performance by your Tsunamis is very impressive, showing that we are still one of the top teams in the region!

Top 5 Team Scores
1) Area Tallahasse Aquatic Club...............1390 points
2) Panama City Swim Team......................656 points
3) City of Mobile Swim Association............572 points
4) Emerald Coast Swimming.....................285.5 points
5) Episcopal Amberjax................................162 points

Six Tsunamis Finish in Top 5 Overall For High Point
With the competition at this meet getting tougher and tougher each year, it's becoming inreasingly difficult to finish in the Top 5 overall for your age group.  Congratulations to the following swimmers who achieved that task!  A special congratulations go out to Amelia Talkington, Jonathan Ratliff and Evan Escobar for winning their age groups, proving they are among the best in the entire Southeastern United States for their age!

8 & Under Girls High Point
Marisa Ashley (3rd)

10 & Under Girls High Point
Amelia Talkington (1st)

11-12 Boys High Point
Alex Phlegar (5th)

13-14 Boys High Point
Jonathan Ratliff (1st)

Senior Boys High Point
Evan Escobar (1st)
Cody Bronnenberg (5th)

Tsunami Take Down 17 Records in the First Meet of the Season!
We have a lot of time and a lot of meets still to go this long course season.  And yet, here we are breaking 17 team records already!  This is a goooooood sign of things to come for the rest of the year!  Congratulations to the following swimmers who are the greatest of all time in PCST history!

10 & Under Girls
Amelia Talkington 100 Free (1:09.58), 200 Free (2:33.45), 400 Free (5:27.70), 100 Back (1:22.90), 50 Fly (35.70), 100 Fly (1:22.08), 200 IM (2:55.28)

11-12 Girls
Kari Troia 50 Breast (39.44), 100 Breast (1:25.67)

11-12 Boys
Chad McGuire 100 Breast (1:28.55)..............was also under the 50 Breast record!
Alex Phlegar 50 Breast (40.20)...........was also under the 100 Breast record!
200 Free Relay (2:19.70) with Alex Phlegar, Chad McGuire, Josh Vaden, Sami Rifai
200 Medley Relay (2:38.50) with Sami Rifai, Chad McGuire, Alex Phlegar, Josh Vaden

13-14 Boys
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Free (2:04.62), 100 Fly (1:03.00), 200 IM (2:26.69)

15-16 Boys
Evan Escobar 200 Fly (2:20.11)

Congratulations to everyone who swam well this weekend!  Tsunamis............you've got me pretty darn excited about this summer.  So let's get to work so I have plenty more great articles to write!

PCST Newsletter Coming Soon!
For a more extensive look into the meet results, new all-time top ten swims, new all-time top ten age group rankings, first time competing swimmers, and team news/awards, etc....................be sure to keep an eye out for the brand new PCST Newsletter email that will be coming out early May! 

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan