Ashley and Gandy Break Records at PCST Season Opener!
The 8 & Unders Prove To Be All-Time Greatest at PCST Home Short Course Meet on August 27th!
It's not all that often that I get to type a news article where I can say the 8 & Unders lead the team. I am very proud to get to say that today. But while our three team records all came in the youngest age group on the team, we still had a ton of terrific swims to be proud of from our first short course meet of the season. All of our swimmers took either a one or two week break in early August, making it only natural to wonder if they were ready for a meet at the end of our second week back. One thing that is important to remember though, is that we improve from our hard work over the course of a season, not just from a couple weeks. And while I do not advocate taking a week or two off on your own in the middle of the season (that's bad news bears), I do want our families to know that we planned this meet as the perfect way to kick start the short course season. Judging by how well we swam, I'd say we are MORE than ready for our home Paradise Invitational Sept 23-25. (Sign up now!)
PCST Welcomes Two Visiting Teams To The Meet!
Our one day home meets are not designed to be large meets with a lot of visiting teams because we wanted to provide more racing opportunities in our own backyard. However, at each of these meets, we get visitors and we are very glad to have them. This time around we had great groups of swimmers from the Dothan Dolphins and Wiregrass Aquatics join us and they did a great job.
Three New Team Records Broken To Start The Season!
We do not have 8 & Under swimmers competing in the 500 free all that often, but when you have a couple as good as Marisa Ashley and Tristan Gandy, you're happy to put them in it. They both broke very good records from 2008, including Tristan breaking his older brother's record! Coach Brian also knew that we have the best group of four girls to put together a relay and wanted to see if they could break the record. Good thing he put that relay together because boy oh boy, he was right. They smashed the record by nearly 4 seconds in the 100 Free Relay!
Marisa Ashley 8 & Under Girls 500 Free (7:03.77) breaks Kari Troia (7:36.35) from 2008
Tristan Gandy 8 & Under Boys 500 Free (7:56.56) breaks Dylan Gandy (7:57.31) from 2008
8 & Under Girls 100 Free Relay (1:13.62) Kathryn-Annette McKinney, Isa Gobel, Valeria Veras, Marisa Ashley breaks
(1:17.19) Katie Hapgood, Emmie Muschek, Sarah Kate Paine, Heidi Retherford from 2010
New All-Time Top Ten Swims!
During the morning session at the one day meet, our Seniors and Age Groupers competed in distance events. Some swam the 1650, others the 1000 and 500. Many of these swimmers competed in these races for the first time ever and still did an amazing job! The swimmers below, however, moved up the ranks in the all-time top ten list proving they are among the best distance swimmers we have ever had. And surprise surprise, another 8 & Under girl is in there with a Top 10 All-Time swim! Congratulation Kathryn-Annette!
Kalanne Krause 1650 Free 10th (19:38.25)
Kathryn-Annette McKinney 25 Back 9th (21.09)
Chet Seaman 1650 Free 4th (17:27.10)
Evan Escobar 1650 Free 9th (17:48.60)
New Age Group Top Ten Swims!
Take a look at this! We had swimmers earn all-time top ten spots in their age group for all but one single age group on the team. That's not a bad way to start off the season. If you would like to look and see what events and places you have new rankings in, check out "Team Rankings" on the website for the AG Top 10 SC section.
8 & Under Girls: Marisa Ashley, Isa Gobel, Kathryn-Annette McKinney
11-12 Girls: Kari Troia, Kyla Hallam, Michaela Ashley, Theryn Compoc, Annika Reppen, Sarah Rifai
13-14 Girls: Kalanne Krause, Fallon Gelsleichter, Hannah Retherford
Senior Girls: Nicole Gazia
8 & Under Boys: Tristan Gandy
9-10 Boys: Javier Elias
11-12 Boys: Alex Phlegar, Chad McGuire, Nico Gobel, Josh Vaden, Sami Rifai
13-14 Boys: Casey Pridgen
15-16 Boys: Jonathan Ratliff, Evan Escobar, Dylan Mock
Senior Boys: Chet Seaman, Bryant Clayton, Brandon Templeton
Congratulations to all of our swimmers for kicking off the season by kicking some booty. You've got me all excited about the home Short Course Paradise Invitational now! Be sure to train hard between now and then so we are ready to be our best.
CATCH THE WAVE!
Coach Jonathan
