PCST Earns Highest Team Finish Ever At Long Course Southeasterns!

Largest PCST Championship Team Ever Brings Home Large Results!

Before the first splash drenched the feet of the volunteer timers at the end of each lane at the home of the Tennessee Volunteers, your Tsunamis had already broken two major team records at the Long Course Southeastern Championships.  While this year's team on paper was not the strongest we had ever had, they ended up proving to be the best ever by finishing higher than all other PCST teams at the summer LSC championship meet.  Our 31 Tsunamis came together to become the largest team we had ever had at a Southeastern Championship meet, putting us in the coveted "large team category" for the first time ever.  In addition to that, our 14 relays was the most we had ever had, and even helped us achieve another goal of having a relay in each age group.

While our senior group was only half represented at the meet, they still proved to be a tremendous strength for us as they provided a large majority of the points for the team.  However, not to be outdone, the 13-14 girls (who had a "B" relay for the first time ever) scored MAJOR team points in both relays after smashing our team records.  In addition to that, they put a hurtin on nearly 3/4 of our 13-14 girls team records.  Yet, the most improvement in our championship team came in the 12 & Under program.  Coach Brian and Coach Phillip have got that group on track and they are deeper and stronger than we have EVER had!!  This means so many exciting days are ahead of us, especially in February at the short course championship meet. 

When all was said and done, our largest team ever, with the most relays ever, finished 15th overall..............our highest long course finish EVER!  And although our team goals will most certainly be putting us further down the line in the Top 10 at our upcoming championship meets, you can't ask for better than you best ever, especially with how bright the future is for our Tsunamis!  I am so proud of all of you for the boat loads of great swims in Knoxville.  You set the pool on fire once again, had great attitudes the entire weekend and were constantly cheering on your teammates without the coaches reminding you.  (That makes me so much happier than you realize!)  :)  Well done Tsunamis!  Here are some highlights from our best ever Southeastern Championships.

Duderstadt Misses Winning Southeasterns By A Blink Of An Eye!
All summer long our Age Group Development and Junior Group swimmers have been lighting it up at each and every meet!  I'm especially looking your direction 10 & Under Girls and 11-12 Boys!!  While the Southeasterns Championships brought a TON of new best times for our largest 12 & under contingent ever at the meet, it was our elders who brought home most of the individual points.  Leading the way for the senior swimmers was our first ever Olympic Trials qualifier, Michael Duderstadt.  He finished 2nd in two races that included a touch-out finish in the 100 Free that could have gone either way, and a runner-up finish to former Olympian Mark Gangloff in the 100 Breast.  We now call him the "Non-Former-Olympian Southeastern Champion", haha!  Congratulations to all of the following swimmers who scored major points at the end of the season meet.................especially our highest 13-14 girls relays ever!!!

Michael Duderstadt (Senior Boys)
100 Free 2nd (53.47)........missed winning by only 0.13!
100 Breast 2nd (1:05.98)......lost to an Olympian, but was with him on the start and break out (and I have the video to prove it!)
50 Free 7th (24.52)
100 Back 14th (1:00.66)

Jonathan Ratliff (Senior Boys)
400 Free 6th (4:12.22)
800 Free 7th (8:47.16)
1500 Free 8th (16:50.92)
200 Fly 10th (2:10.59)

Astrid Escobar (Senior Girls)
100 Breast 6th (1:17.35)
200 Breast 7th (2:47.65)

Victoria Hove (Senior Girls)
200 IM 8th (2:28.37)
100 Free 15th (1:01.18)
100 Breast 15th (1:19.26)

13-14 Girls
400 Medley Relay 6th (Hannah Retherford, Kyla Hallam, Kalanne Krause, Kari Troia)
400 Free Relay 6th (Kalanne Krause, Hannah Retherford, Kari Troia, Kyla Hallam)

Senior Boys
400 Free Relay 13th (Michael Duderstadt, Jonathan Ratliff, Casey Pridgen, Mitchell Christensen)
400 Medley Relay 15th (Casey Pridgen, Michael Duderstadt, Mitchell Christensen, Jonathan Ratliff)

Senior Girls
400 Free Relay 14th (Taylor Wilder, Alysiah Stock, Astrid Escobar, Victoria Hove)

Close But No Cigars (PCST 9th Place Finishes!)
These swimmers had incredible swims that were oh so close to scoring points, but were just tenths or even hundreths of seconds off.  Great swims guys!

Kyla Hallam (13-14 Girls 100 Breast) 9th place
Kari Troia (13-14 Girls 200 Breast) 9th place
11-12 Boys 200 Free & Medley Relays (Nico Gobel, Ben Hicks, Reid Metcalf, Cole Tillman)

Jonathan Ratliff Becomes First PCST Male Swimmer To Qualify For Southeastern Zone All-Star Team!
In 2011, Victoria Hove became the first PCST swimmer ever to make her way onto the prestigious SES Southern Zone All-Star Team.  Clearly, she paved the way for other Tsunamis to follow as Senior Group swimmer, Jonathan Ratliff, earned his spot on the team this summer.  And my favorite part is that it's got more of our up and coming stars asking the questions "What do I need to do to get on the All-Star Team next summer?"...............and my favorite response from Coach Brian so far has been "I have to be able to count on two hands how many practices you miss between now and then.  Do that and you've got a great shot."  I love it!!

Back to Jonathan though........................as if we didn't know it already, but this just proves that Jonathan is one of the overall best swimmers in all of Southeastern Swimming!  He was elected to represent SES on their championship team for the 15-18 age group even though he just turned 16 in mid June.  The championship meet is in Rockwall, TX and will bring the best of the best from each LSC and state ranging from Florida, to Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and North Carolina.  Congratulations Jonathan for this incredible honor!!!  His events will be the 100 Fly, 200 Fly, 200 Free, 400 Free, 1500 Free and 400 IM.  (Don't worry...........he gets his own news article soon about this incredible achievement!

Tsunamis Break 22 Team Records Across All Age Groups!
They just kept falling I tell you!  It seemed like everytime I would turn around we would have another team record broken.  I think our 13-14 girls were on a war hunt!  Can you believe 12 out of the 17 records from that age group were set this summer alone??  Wow!  And for those of you who know me and read our news article, you should know by now just how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE relay records!  Well..............we broke relay records for the 10 & Under, 11-12 and 13-14 age groups, and just barely missed a senior girls record too.  I love that because this means Marisa, Reagan, Bailey and Isa are officially our best 0 & Under group of all-time, and Reid, Nico, Ben and Cole are the greatest 11-12 boys group we have ever had!!  I think all of our swimmers and parents better go buy some new polarized sun glasses to wear this coming year because the future is BRIGHT!

New Individual Team Records

11-12 Girls
Amelia Talkington 800 Free (10:28.22) breaks Laura Kearns (10:31.64) from 2006

13-14 Girls
Kalanne Krause 50 Free (28.49) breaks Lindsay Scott (29.05) from 1994
Kalanne Krause 100 Free (1:02.14) breaks Kalanne Krause (1:03.94) from 2012
Kalanne Krause 100 Back (1:10.21) breaks Hannah Retherford (1:13.84) from 2011
Kalanne Krause 100 Fly (1:10.74) breaks Carlee McDonald (1:13.26) from 2007
Kalanne Krause 200 IM (2:36.07) breaks Victoria Hove (2:40.44) from 2008
Hannah Retherford 50 Back (34.26) breaks Kalanne Krause (34.91) from 2012
Hannah Retherford 200 Back (2:36.20) breaks Victoria Hove (2:37.05) from 2008
Kyla Hallam 50 Breast (38.05) breaks Kari Troia (38.08) from 2012
Kyla Hallam 100 Breast (1:20.15) breaks Kyle Olstad (1:20.98) from 2007

15-16 Boys
Jonathan Ratliff 1500 Free (16:50.92) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (16:58.29) from 2011
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Fly (2:11.06) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (2:11.68) from 2012
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Fly (2:10.59) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (2:11.06) from 2012
Jonathan Ratliff 400 IM (4:51.94) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (4:53.85) from 2012
Jonathan Ratliff 400 IM (4:48.47) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (4:51.94) from 2012

Senior Boys
Michael Duderstadt 200 Fly (2:14.62) breaks Cody Bronnenberg (2:17.00) from 2010
Michael Duderstadt 400 Free (4:17.00) breaks Cody Bronnenberg (4:23.05) from 2010

New Relay Team Records

10 & Under Girls
200 Free Relay (2:32.88) Marisa Ashley, Reagan Swindler, Isa Gobel, Bailey Brady breaks
(2:33.19) Marisa Ashley, Isa Gobel, Reagan Swindler, Sarah Kate Paine from 2012

11-12 Boys
200 Free Relay (2:12.47) Reid Metcalf, Cole Tillman, Ben Hicks, Nico Gobel breaks
(2:17.03) Matt Dean, Reid Metcalf, Ben Hicks, Nico Gobel from 2012
200 Medley Relay (2:31.77) Reid Metcalf, Ben Hicks, Cole Tillman, Nico Gobel breaks
(2:35.75) Reid Metcalf, Cole Tillman, Nico Gobel, Matt Dean from 2012

13-14 Girls
400 Free Relay (4:16.60) Kalanne Krause, Hannah Retherford, Kari Troia, Kyla Hallam breaks
(4:29.33) Jamie McDonald, Victoria Hove, Nicole Gazia, Laura Kearns from 2008
400 Medley Relay (4:48.39) Hannah Retherford, Kyla Hallam, Kalanne Krause, Kari Troia breaks
(4:58.98) Laura Kearns, Kyle Olstad, Carlee McDonald, Nicoe Gazia from 2007

Loads of New All-Time Top 10 Swims!
While our girls have been continuously improving the All-Time Top 10 list for all ages throughout the past year, our boys team has been demolishing their list.  It seems though...............as if the girls said enough is enough............it's OUR TIME!!  And you wanna guess what the best part is?  Out of the 27 new and improved all-time top 10 swims for the girls that were set at the Southeastern Championships in at the University of Tennessee pool, 24 of them came from girls who were between the ages of 12-16 (22 of them were 14 & Under!).  But the boys would not be outdone as they provided plenty of new super fast swims.  A special congratulations go out to Kalanne Krause, Hannah Retherford and Jonathan Ratliff for swimming times that were the fastest in PCST history for ALL AGES!

New Girls All-Time Top 10 Swims (all ages)
50 Free: Kalanne Krause 2nd (28.49), Victoria Hove 10th (29.41)
100 Free: Victoria Hove 2nd (1:01.18), Kalanne Krause 4th (1:02.14), Kyla Hallam 9th (1:04.37)
400 Free: Kari Troia 10th (4:58.70)
800 Free: Amelia Talkington 9th (10:28.22)
50 Back: Hannah Retherford 1st (34.26)
100 Back: Kalanne Krause 1st (1:10.21), Hannah Retherford 2nd (1:11.31), Taylor Wilder 5th (1:13.21)
200 Back: Taylor Wilder 2nd (2:33.53), Hannah Retherford 3rd (2:36.20), Alexis Hall 8th (2:43.65)
50 Breast: Kyla Hallam 7th (38.05)
100 Breast: Kyla Hallam 7th (1:20.15), Kari Troia 8th (1:22.30)
200 Breast: Alysiah Stock 4th (2:55.21), Kari Troia 6th (2:55.83)
50 Fly: Kyla Hallam 9th (33.59)
100 Fly: Kalanne Krause 4th (1:10.74), Hannah Retherford 6th (1:11.34), Kyla Hallam 7th (1:11.78)
200 Fly: Fallon Gelsleichter 9th (2:49.01)
200 IM: Kalanne Krause 3rd (2:36.07), Kari Troia 5th (2:39.17)
400 IM: Kari Troia 6th (5:39.21)

New Boys All-Time Top 10 Swims (all ages)
100 Free: Michael Duderstadt 2nd (53.47)
400 Free: Michael Duderstadt 3rd (4:17.00)
1500 Free: Jonathan Ratliff 1st (16:50.92)
50 Back: Casey Pridgen 5th (32.03)
100 Back: Michael Duderstadt 3rd (1:00.66), Casey Pridgen 9th (1:07.58)
50 Fly: Michael Duderstadt 2nd (27.10), Casey Pridgen 9th (29.65)
100 Fly: Michael Duderstadt 3rd (59.62), Jonathan Ratliff 5th (1:01.48)
200 Fly: Jonathan Ratliff 1st (2:10.59), Michael Duderstadt 2nd (2:14.62)
400 IM: Jonathan Ratliff 2nd (4:48.47)

Updated All-Time Top 10 List For Each Age Group
**This list can be found under the "Team Rankings" tab at the top of our website, as well as our complete All-Time Top 10 List for all ages and our complete 2012 team rankings.

While the SES Championship meet may have been the final long course racing of the season for many of our top swimmers, we are not done yet by any means.  Keep an eye out soon for the news article about Jonathan Ratliff and his UNBELIEVABLE swims at the Zone All-Star meet!  And as I type this, I am getting ready for a week of fantastic racing with Michael Duderstadt in Indianapolis at the Junior National Championships.  More to come soon!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan