Tsunamis Open Long Course Season With 7 New Southeastern Qualifiers!

Tsunamis Thrive Even In Poor Weather Conditions at the "Paradise" Invitational!

While the terminology "Tsunamis" and "Paradise Invitational" can be somewhat contradictory, they both proved to be accurate for our season opener meet this past weekend.  The meet started off with a number of great swims in absolutely gorgeous "paradise-like" weather........but that was Friday.  Wow what a difference a night can make.  Saturday morning brought dark clouds, thunder and lightning as our seniors were only able to swim relays and one event.  That didn't stop us from breaking an all-time relay record though! 

Just as soon as they darkened, the skies cleared up temporarily for our 12 & younger swimmers to get going in the afternoon session.  And get going they did!  Even with the dark clouds and monsoon-like condititions, our age group and novice swimmers swam like it was a perfect day with loads of massive best times and new Southeastern qualifying cuts.  Then came Sunday...........and the cold.............and the WIND!!  In spite of it all, our 13 & older swimmers were finally able to get in a full session, leaving us anxious to get back into the next meet with all of the new best times we were having.  They kept their spirits high even in the wind chilled temperatures.  And then..........almost literally, in a blink of an eye, the sun came out and the entire crowd of nearly 550 swimmers and families literally said "ahhhhhhh" simultaneously.  Paradise weather ensued and so did even MORE Southeastern cuts for the Tsunamis! 

All in all, it was a heck of a weekend..............rollercoaster, if you will.  Our visiting teams had tons of great swims and it proved to be the most competitive Long Course Paradise Invitational we have ever had in the 6 years we have had the meet.  So sit back and enjoy all of the amazing statistics we have for you, because with our improved team depth, you will see that in many age groups, we have 3, 4 and sometimes 5 or more swimmers finishing in the all-time top 10 for their age group in the history of our team.  That is an INCREDIBLE sign for the great things to come in Panama City Beach!

Tsunamis Finish 4th Overall As ATAC Shows Their Strength Again
One of the benefits of being a large team is having the relay strength where your points count double.  With the meet losing all of the 12 & Under relays due to weather and time constraints, PCST essentially lost a large part of our overall power.  Throw on top of that the fact that we lost a senior session which is a strength for us, then I'm honestly pretty darn happy with a 4th place finish.  What a season opener really comes down to is improvement.............and we showed a TON of that!  The rest of the summer is going to be amazing after seeing our efforts and times from this first meet of the season!

Team Scores
Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club (ATAC)...............1,038 points
City of Mobile Swim Association (CMSA)..............652 points
Coast Aquatics (CA)............................................480 points
Panama City Swim Team (PCST)......................412.50 points
Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club (GPAC)...............294.50 points

Season Opener Proves To Be Coming Out Party For PCST Age Groupers!!
In the last few coaches meetings, Coach Brian has been reassuring me that the Age Group swimmers have been making huge strides lately.  While I fully believed him and have seen the improvement in attendance and efforts at practice, I had no idea that we were going to add 7 new Southeastern Qualifiers in the very first meet of the season!!!  This means we now have over 30 qualifiers for the championship meet in Knoxville in July, helping us get one step closer to our team goal of being in the "Large Team Category" for the first time ever at Southeasterns.  We need 30 swimmers or more to attend and I want to blow that away Tsunamis!!

New SES Qualifiers!!
Isa Gobel (10 & Under Girls)
Bailey Brady (10 & Under Girls)
Reagan Swindler (10 & Under Girls)
Theryn Compoc (11-12 Girls)
Nico Gobel (11-12 Boys)
Cole Tillman (11-12 Boys)
Reid Metcalf (11-12 Boys)

7 Different Tsunamis Come Home With High Point Awards
As I have said before, this is the most competitive PCST Long Course Paradise Invitational we have ever had.  To get Top 5 overall for high point is no easy task!  We are especially proud of Lily Bradford for receiving her first ever high point award!  And Luke Maggiore and Fallon Gelsleichter got their first ever long course high point awards too!  Well done Tsunamis!

8 & Under Girls High Point
Lily Bradford (5th)

8 & Under Boys High Point
Luke Maggiore (4th)

11-12 Girls High Point
Kari Troia (2nd)

13-14 Girls High Point
Fallon Gelsleichter (5th)

Senior Girls High Point
Victoria Hove (2nd)

Senior Boys High Point
Jonathan Ratliff (2nd), Michael Duderstadt (3rd)

5 Team Records Fall at Paradise Invitational
Congatulations to the three following swimmers who have pushed themselves up to the top of the all-time list.  Victoria Hove is our Senior swimmer who will be competing for the University of Alabama next year.  Fallon Gelsleichter is the swimmer who is literally a hair off of Victoria's 13-14 records, and Kari Troia is still on the warpath towards smashing every breaststroke record that comes here way!  Did I mention that Kari is also exceptional at the IM too??  :)  We sure love the IM here in Panama City!

New All-Time Team Records
Victoria Hove 200 Fly (2:35.89) breaks Sara Evans (2:37.79) from 2009
Kari Troia 50 Breast (37.31) breaks Kari Troia (39.13) from 2011
Kari Troia 100 Breast (1:23.80) breaks Kari Troia (1:25.15) from 2002
Fallon Gelsleichter 50 Breast (40.79) breaks Kyle Olstad (41.43) from 2006
Senior Boys 200 Free Relay (1:45.17) Evan Escobar, Dylan Mock, Jonathan Ratliff, Michael Duderstadt breaks
(1:45.71) Evan Escobar, Cody Bronnenberg, Chet Seaman, Michael Whitehead from 2010

NEW All Time Top 10 Long Course Swims
Finally!.................we don't have a billion of these to announce.  This just means that our Top 10 list is getting more and more difficult to get into.  Congratulations to the following swimmers who have new swims that rank them among the ten fastest of all ages in the history of the team.  Based on how our seniors have been training, I get the sense that we are going to be rewriting this list all summer long!!

Taylor Wilder: 5^th 50 Back (35.34), 5^th 200 Back (2:40.97)
Kari Troia: 7^th 50 Back (36.09), 4^th 50 Breast (37.31), 8^th 100 Breast (1:23.80)
Fallon Gelsleichter: 8^th 200 Back (2:46.07), 10^th 200 Fly (2:55.65), 10^th 200 IM (2:41.39), 7^th 400 IM (5:43.19)
Victoria Hove: 5^th 50 Breast (37.57), 1^st 200 Fly (2:35.89)
Michael Duderstadt: 5^th 400 Free (4:23.62), 2^nd 50 Back (29.13),  4^th 400 IM (4:58.97)
Jonathan Ratliff: 10^th 200 IM (2:23.02)

NEW Age Group Top 10 Long Course Swims
This particular statistic is one of my favorites because it gives us a great sneak peek into the future.  It's hard enough to be ranked as one of the ten fastest swimmers of all time in your age group.  But we have SO MANY new swimmers in these rankings that you cannot help but sit back and think............"man.....you think we're good now??  Just wait until 1-2 years from now!!".  Congratulations to all of the swimmers who ranked so highly among the best we have ever had.  Keep working hard because we want these lists to be ridiculously difficult to get on some day.

New 8 & Under All-Time Top 10 Swims 
Lily Bradford 100 Free (10^th), 50 Back (9^th)
Luke Maggiore 50 Free (8^th), 100 Free (10^th), 50 Back (7^th)
Alex Fulton 100 Free (9^th), 50 Back (10^th), 50 Fly (7^th)
Noah Vaden 50 Back (9^th)
Joshua Dean 50 Breast (6^th), 50 Fly (9^th)
Lucas Champagne 50 Breast (9^th), 50 Fly (8^th)

New 9 - 10 All-Time Top 10 Swims
Sarah Kate Paine 50 Free (8^th), 100 Free (4^th), 200 Free (5^th), 100 Fly (6^th), 200 IM (7^th)
Heidi Retherford 100 Free (8^th), 100 Fly (8^th), 200 IM (9^th)
Marisa Ashley 100 Free (9^th), 200 Free (6^th), 50 Back (6^th), 50 Breast (6^th), 100 Breast (6^th), 50 Fly (7^th), 100 Fly (9^th), 200 IM (5^th)
Reagan Swindler 200 Free (7^th), 100 Fly (10^th), 200 IM (8^th)
Isabella Gobel 50 Back (10^th), 50 Breast (5^th), 100 Breast (5^th), 200 IM (10^th)
Bailey Brady 50 Breast (9^th)
Pate Brasfield 200 IM (10^th)

New 11 - 12 All-Time Top 10 Swims
Kari Troia 50 Free (4^th), 100 Free (3^rd), 200 Free (5^th), 50 Back (4^th), 100 Back (6^th), 50 Breast (1^st), 100 Breast (1^st), 50 Fly (7^th), 200 IM (3^rd)
Reid Metcalf 50 Back (7^th), 100 Breast (9^th)
Nicholas Gobel 100 Breast (8^th), 50 Fly (8^th), 100 Fly (9^th)
Cole Tillman 100 Breast (10^th)

New 13 - 14 All-Time Top 10 Swims
Fallon Gelsleichter 200 Free (6^th), 200 Back (4^th), 50 Breast (1^st), 100 Breast (5^th), 50 Fly (5^th), 200 Fly (4^th), 200 IM (2^nd), 400 IM (2^nd)
Alexis Hall 400 Free (8^th), 50 Back (3^rd), 100 Back (10^th), 200 Back (8^th), 50 Fly (9^th), 400 IM (7^th)
Kyla Hallam 50 Breast (3^rd), 100 Breast (9^th), 50 Fly (7^th)
Michaela Ashley 50 Breast (4^th), 100 Breast (10^th), 200 Fly (9^th)
Kylie McKinney 200 Fly (10^th)
Chad McGuire 50 Breast (4^th), 100 Breast (8^th), 400 IM (9^th)
Alex Phlegar 50 Breast (7^th), 200 Fly (10^th), 400 IM (8^th)

New 15 - 16 All-Time Top 10 Swims
Taylor Wilder 100 Free (9^th), 50 Back (3^rd), 200 Back (2^nd), 400 IM (7^th)
Lindsey Gurganus 400 Free (6^th)
Shannon Doyle 200 Back (10^th), 50 Breast (7^th), 50 Fly (9^th)
Alyssa Davenport 50 Breast (10^th)
Dylan Mock 50 Back (10^th)
Jonathan Ratliff 200 IM (9^th)

New 17 & Over All-Time Top 10 Swims
Jamie McDonald 200 Free (9^th), 100 Back (8^th), 200 Back (5^th), 400 IM (7^th)
Victoria Hove 50 Breast (4^th), 200 Fly (1^st)
Alysiah Stock 50 Breast (8^th), 100 Breast (6^th)
Evan Escobar 50 Free (9^th), 200 Free (10^th), 400 Free (10^th), 400 IM (5^th)
Michael Duderstadt 400 Free (2^nd), 50 Back (2^nd), 100 Back (3^rd), 50 Fly (4^th), 200 IM (3^rd), 400 IM (3^rd)
Brandon Ramirez 200 Fly (10^th)
 

While we may have had to weather all sorts of inclement conditions at random times throughout the weekend, our Tsunamis showed poise and excitement about their races in spite of it all.  I saw swimmers holding up signs to cheer on their "Pump up Pals", I saw them hanging out with them, coming to Coach Phillip to get their tattoos for best times (that ended up all over their bodies!), and all in all simply being excited about their races.  As a result, we are one step closer to our team goal this summer and are thrilled about what is in store for the rest of the long course season.  

Next up for the Age Groupers is the CMSA Meet in Mobile, while our Senior swimmers will be competing in Pensacola at the GPAC Distance Meet.  Be sure to sign up for those meets so you too can be a part of the excitement!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan