Ratliff Becomes Zone All-Star Champion!
Jonathan Ratliff Becomes First Ever PCST Swimmer To Win An Event at the Zone All-Star Championships!
For the second straight year, the Southeastern Championships bore unexpected fruit as the Tsunamis put their second ever swimmer on the Southeastern Swimming Zone All-Star Team. This year marked the first time PCST has put a boy on the team. Upcoming Mosley Junior, Jonathan Ratliff, earned a rare spot on the Zone All-Star team that is designed to put together the best of the best group of swimmers to represent our Local Swimming Committe (LSC) at the highly competitive annual Long Course All-Star Championships.
The competition was held in Rockwall, TX just outside of Dallas. Ratliff, who is one of only 8 PCST swimmers in team history to win a Southeastern Championship in an individual event, qualified as one of the eight 15-18 year old boys to make the team. He was chosen by a not so simple point system based on his swims at the Southeastern Championships in Knoxville, TN in mid July. Only one week later, Jonathan was on a bus to Texas with his new teammates holding all sorts of new free Southeastern Swimming Team shirts, bags, towels and apparel. I'm telling you.........those swimmers get hooked up like they are on the US Olympic team or something!
Not only was the trip an amazing experience because of the swimming competition it brought; it was an overall unforgettable lifetime experience for the freshly turned 16 year old. Jonathan made new friends that will last him a lifetime, had some incredibly hilarious (and sometimes head shaking) stories to share, and even learned a lot of great tricks on how to swim fast even when the conditions aren't perfect. I mean, for goodness sakes, the boy talked for 45 minutes straight at practice the day I finally saw him after the trip, haha! All in all it was a trip of a lifetime for our star Tsunami and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly for such a well deserving hard working young man.
Speaking of perfect.............wanna hear how great he swam??? You're going to love this! As if the mulitude of lifetime best times at the Southeastern Championships were not enough, Jonathan truly thrived in the environment that allowed him to take the pressure off of himself to perform. Instead, when he had an entire team depending on him, he really responding with vigor! Check out these incredible results from the Zone All-Star Championship Meet that hosted All-Star teams from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Ratliff Wins The 400 Free At All-Stars and Qualifies for Winter Junior Nationals!
You heard right................I'll share with you the greatest swim of the week right out of the gate here. Jonathan didn't go to just compete................Jonathan went TO WIN!!! After the preliminaries of the 400m freestyle, he had already dropped 3 seconds off of his lifetime best time to go a crazy fast 4:08.62. Seeded 2nd and 3rd right behind him were two of his three roommates on the trip. As the Southeastern swimming crew looked to go for the clean sweep at finals, Jonathan decided to not take any chances as he passed by the leader (and his roommate) with 200 meters to go. Once he got ahead, he never looked back, finishing first overall with ANOTHER 3 second drop in 4:05.73. This qualified Jonathan for his first ever Winter Junior Nationals time!!
The 400 Free though, was not his only great race of the weekend. He also went best times in the 100 Fly, 200 Free and 200 Fly, finishing in scoring position in the Championship Finals once again for the 200 Free and 200 Fly. The very first night of the meet, Ratliff went from 8th at the first 50 to 3rd overall by the end of the fourth lap in the 200 free, breaking the team record twice in the process. Then, on the final night of the meet, he earned his third trip to finals in his signature event, the 200 Fly. His 2:08.98 was once again the fastest in team history as he finished 4th overall, making him the first Tsunami to break the 2:10 mark.
Monday
1500 Free (finals) 16:52.88.............finished 11th overall
Tuesday
200 Free (prelims) 1:58.00
200 Free (finals) 1:57.26 ...............finished 3rd overall and breaks team record!
100 Fly (prelims) 1:00.13...............finished 19th overall
Wednesday
400 IM (prelims) 4:49.68................finished 10th overall
Thursday
400 Free (prelims) 4:08.62
400 Free (finals) 4:05.73...............ZONE ALL-STAR CHAMPION!...........and breaks team record!
Friday
200 Fly (prelims) 2:11.00
200 Fly (finals) 2:08.98...................finished 4th overall and breaks team record!
Ratliff Earns Plenty of New Qualifying Times
Not only did Jonathan get his Winter Juniors cut in the 400 Free, he earned a couple of other bonus cuts and also a new Sectionals qualifying time. Check out the other new events he qualified for just at this one meet.
100 Fly (Summer Sectionals)
200 Fly (NCSA Juniors; Winter Juniors Bonus)
200 Free (NCSA Juniors; Winter Juniors Bonus; Summer Juniors Bonus)
400 Free (NCSA Juniors; Winter Juniors, Summer Juniors Bonus, US Open Bonus)
**Was only 0.54 off of qualifying for the Summer Juniors Nationals in Indianapolis!
Southeastern Swimming Finishes 4th Overall!
Although last year our LSC (Southeastern Swimming) won the entire All-Star meet, it was simply not in the cards for 2012. They had a ton of great swims, and we certainly know that Jonathan contributed his fair share of points to the team! But in the end, Georgia Swimming simply had too much fire power this year for anyone to hold them off. Here are the final combined team scores for the zone meet. There were between 15-17 teams if I remember correctly.
1st Georgia Swimming (875 points)
2nd Florida Swimming (738.50 points)
3rd North Carolina Swimming (700.50 points)
4th Southeastern Swimming (669 points)
Congratulations again to Jonathan for not just making the team, but for also making Tsunami sized waves at the ultra competitive meet. Not only are we proud of you for coming back stronger than ever after Southeasterns, but I am particularly proud of the fact that you now have our up coming PCST swimmers asking the coaching staff "What do I need to do to qualify for the Zone All-Star Team next year??". Keep up the great work JRAT!!
CATCH THE WAVE!
Coach Jonathan
