3rd Place Visiting Team Finish Caps Off Great Weekend For Tsunamis In Tallahasse
Tsunami Girls Make Big Waves at ATAC Meet in Tallahassee!
Over the years, PCST has had a lot of fantastic female swimmers reach inredible heights. In knowing that, it should not come as a surprise that the Tsunami girls on the team absolutely rocked it at the Mac Crutchfield Invitational Meet hosted by the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club. This year though, they showed up in full force covering all age groups and providing an incredible number of points for the team. We did have quite a few boys that swam very well in the meet as well. But when you check through the new records, new all-time top 10 rankings and overall point scorers from the meet, you'll see what I'm talking about. Congratulations to all of our Tsunamis on their great swims because we had a lot of success to get excited about at the ATAC meet.
PCST Finishes 4th Overall (3rd Place Visiting Team)
In a meet the boasted over 500 swimmers from 17 teams, you would expect there to be great competition. While PCST has won the overall visiting team trophy in the past, never before has it been so difficult to pull off such a feat at the ATAC meet. In my opinion, this was the most competitive ATAC swim meet of all time. And I've been going to their meets since 1999! Your Tsunamis though, tied a team record with 46 swimmers and came away with a very accomplished 3rd place visiting team finish. Well done Tsunamis!
Team Scores
Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club (ATAC)...................7075.70 points
City of Mobile Swim Association (CMSA).................4279.50 points
Maclay Northside Dolfins (DOLF)..............................1921 points
Panama City Swim Team (PCST).............................1830 points
Makos Aquatic Club of Gainesville (MACG)..............1491 points
Retherford Breaks 13-14 Girls 100 Fly Record!
We had a lot of swimmers who were fantastic all weekend long. One Tsunami though, moved herself into a clear position as one of the greatest 13-14 year old swimmers we have ever had! Hannah Retherford may have broken just one record this weeked in the 100 Fly, but she was incredibly close in multiple other events, often ranking her 2nd or 3rd all-time in the age group. With her very hard training lately, I have a feeling you may be hearing more about Hannah Retherford records soon!
New Team Record
Hannah Retherford 13-14 Girls 100 Fly (1:02.68) breaks Hannah Retherford (1:02.70) from 2011
11-12 and 13-14 Girls Break Very Old Relay Records!
As I mentioned before, our girls were just on fire at this meet! And for those of you who may be thinking.............."okay Coach Jonathan; show me some proof".................alright, you got it. Not only did we break the all-time relay record in the 11-12 Girls 200 Free Relay, we also broke both 13-14 Girls 400 Free and 400 Medley Relay records. With the great swimmers we have had come through this program over the years, breaking relay records has become increasingly difficult to do. It means that you have to have a group of 4 high level swimmers to pull it off, and here we are................with plenty of great swimmers in each age group doing just that. Congratulations to all of our new record holders on being the best of all-time!
New Relay Team Records
11-12 Girls 200 Free Relay (1:54.95) Kyla Hallam, Theryn Compoc, Amelia Talkington, Kari Troia
breaks (1:57.20) Nicole Gazia, Victoria Hove, Erin Branham, Jamie McDonald from 2006
13-14 Girls 400 Free Relay (4:04.01) Hannah Retherford, Fallon Gelsleichter, Alexis Hall, Shannon Doyle
breaks (4:07.45) Carlee McDonald, Laura Kearns, Victoria Hove, Sarah McDermott from 2007
13-14 Girls 400 Medley Relay (4:28.09) Alexis Hall, Fallon Gelsleichter, Hannah Retherford, Shannon Doyle
breaks (4:30.81) Carlee McDonald, Allison Troia, Mary McDermott, Sarah McDermott from 2007
Tsunamis Earn High Point Top 10 Finishes
When I was looking through the psych sheet before the meet, I remember thinking how incredible it was that so many teams were represented in the Top 8 for each age group and event. This means that the competition was spread out over a lot of different teams and that does not happen at every meet. I also remember thinking that in some cases, finishing in the Top 5 was almost as difficult as making it to the Championship Finals at Southeasterns! This means finishing in the Top 10 for a high point award was going to be one heck of an accomplishment! Congratulations to Michael Duderstadt for having the only event victory this weekend in the Senior Boys 100 Freestyle while compiling enough points to finish at team high 3rd Place overall.
High Point Top 10 Finishers
3rd Place: Michael Duderstadt (Sen Boys)
5th Place: Kari Troia (11-12 Girls), Victoria Hove (Sen Girls)
7th Place: Kyla Hallam (11-12 Girls)
9th Place: JD Clutch (Sen Boys)
10th Place: Michael Whitehead (Sen Boys)
Loads of Swimmers Score Points!
I have talked a lot about our girls so far...............and I'm gonna keep it going! While our 11-14 year olds have received a lot of attention thus far, we also had terrific swims in the 10 & Under age group as well. One of our brightest up and comers is a young 8 & Under girl named Natalie McKenzie. While she is still quiet at a meet and slowly learning just how good she is, it was fun to watch her keep up with some of the best swimmers in the meet! Throw on top of that our very strong 9-10 year old girls and we have a lot of exciting years ahead of us! In addition to that, our Senior Girls and Senior Boys were as tough as always and continue to raise the bar for these young'ins coming up through the ranks.
Top 8 Point Scorers in Individual Events
Natalie McKenzie, Sarah Kate Paine, Heidi Retherford, Kyla Hallam, Kari Troia, Amelia Talkington, Shannon Doyle, Fallon Gelsleichter, Hannah Retherford, Dillon Lehnhardt, Nicole Gazia, Victoria Hove, Jamie McDonald, Alysiah Stock, JD Clutch, Michael Duderstadt, Evan Escobar, Jonathan Ratliff, Chet Seaman, Michael Whitehead
9 Different Tsunamis Establish New All-Time Top 10 Swims!
With the ATAC meet being an "in season" meet, seeing new All-Time Top 10 swims is very exciting because our swimmers have not even peaked yet in their training. Between now and the District/Southeastern meets coming up in February, each group has more training and adjustments to be made to make sure we are primed and ready to swim our fastest at the championship meets. So for us to be wiping out the All-Time Top 10 list in so many ways already is great news for what is to come next month!
New All-Time Top 10 Swims
Lindsey Gurganus: 50 Free 7th (25.63), 200 Free 5th (1:58.35), 500 Free 6th (5:19.79), 200 Back 6th (2:17.62), 200 IM 10th (2:20.28)
Hannah Retherford: 100 Back 4th (1:03.52), 200 Back 7th (2:17.67), 100 Fly 7th (1:02.68), 400 IM 6th (4:52.66)
Taylor Wilder: 100 Back 8th (1:04.26)
Alysiah Stock: 50 Breast 6th (32.15), 200 Breast 5th (2:29.40)
Fallon Gelsleichter: 200 Breast 10th (2:38.62)
Victoria Hove: 100 Fly 4th (59.53)
Jamie McDonald: 200 IM 8th (2:19.59)
JD Clutch: 50 Free 9th (22.76), 200 Breast 8th (2:22.68)
Michael Duderstadt: 400 IM 3rd (4:09.07)
PCST Girls Dominate the Age Group All-Time Top 10 List!
The statistics speak for themselves. Our girls were awesome. You know though...............our Senior Boys were pretty darn strong too! And while our younger boys had some great swims and personal bests, we simply need to get more of our 14 & younger boys going to meets and swimming their best. Once we do, we are going to completely rewrite the Age Group All-Time Top 10 list across the board. For now though, take a look at all the swimmers who currently rank among the tops in their age group of all-time. Many of the 12 & Under swimmers are surpassing the best times of the current seniors when they were their age. And let's face it...........our seniors rock! I would imagine that means really happy days are coming for PCST in the future! :)
New 10 & Under Girls Top 10
Heidi Retherford: 50 Back (9th), 50 Fly (8th), 100 Fly (10th)
Sarah Kate Paine: 100 Fly (9th)
New 11-12 Girls Top 10
Kyla Hallam: 50 Free (2nd), 100 Free (6th), 50 Back (7th)
Amelia Talkington: 50 Free (6th), 100 Free (2nd), 200 Free (7th), 50 Fly (10th), 100 Fly (10th)
Kari Troia: 50 Free (9th), 200 Free (4th), 500 Free (3rd), 200 IM (2nd)
New 13-14 Girls Top 10
Hannah Retherford: 100 Back (2nd), 200 Back (2nd), 100 Fly (1st), 200 IM (5th), 400 IM (2nd)
Alexis Hall: 100 Back (7th), 200 Back (8th)
Fallon Gelsleichter: 200 Back (6th), 100 Breast (7th), 200 Breast (4th), 100 Fly (10th), 200 IM (6th), 400 IM (8th)
Shannon Doyle: 200 Back (9th), 100 Breast (8th)
New 15-16 Girls Top 10
Lindsey Gurganus: 50 Free (2nd), 200 Free (2nd), 500 Free (3rd), 200 Back (4th), 50 Fly (5th), 200 IM (7th)
Taylor Wilder: 100 Back (3rd), 400 IM (9th)
New Senior Girls Top 10
Jamie McDonald: 100 Free (8th), 500 Free (10th), 200 Fly (7th), 200 IM (5th)
Victoria Hove: 50 Back (4th), 100 Back (2nd), 100 Fly (4th)
Alysiah Stock: 50 Breast (5th), 100 Breast (5th), 200 Breast (4th)
Nicole Gazia: 400 IM (6th)
New Senior Boys Top 10
JD Clutch: 50 Free (7th), 500 Free (7th), 50 Breast (6th), 100 Breast (10th), 200 Breast (7th)
Michael Duderstadt: 100 Free (2nd), 200 Free (2nd), 200 IM (2nd), 400 IM (3rd)
Chet Seaman: 500 Free (6th)
Tsunamis Hope To Break Records at Districts and Southeasterns!
Next up for the Tsunamis come a pair of championship meets. Over the weekend of February 18-19, PCST hopes to break our team record for the number of swimmers in the District Championship meet. If we get to 75 swimmers, not only will we have a chance to be bigger and stronger than the host team, GPAC, but we will also earn the entire Tsunami team a PIZZA PARTY!! Then, the following week, we will have a great contingency of swimmers heading up to Knoxville, TN for the Southeastern Championships. We are the defending champions in the Medium Team Division and hope to put up yet another record breaking performance this year!
CATCH THE WAVE!
Coach Jonathan
