Mosley Boys Win Regionals; Myers Earns Junior National Time!
PCST Swimmers Shine At Florida High School Regional Championships!!
I absolutely loved going through all of the Regional High School meet results to write this article because the impressive number of amazing swims was a pure delight to relive over and over. Last Friday, PCST swimmers competed at two different high school regional championship meets as a second step on to the final piece of the FHSAA post season. The last championship meet, of course, being the State Championships held this week in Orlando. Our Tsunamis showed up for the second week in a row with a tremendous number of awesome races in Pensacola for the 2A Regional Meet as well as Jacksonville for the 1A Regional Meet! So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy reading through all of these wonderful results from last week's latest high school championship meet.
I have a new Junior National Qualifier, new Sectional qualifiers, a Regional Champion, new PCST records, new county records, new school records, and all sorts of great swims to tell you about. And guess what else??? With 11 Tsunamis heading to the State Championships on Thursday, you better believe I'll have plenty more to share with you this time next week! Enjoy and congratulations to all of our Tsunamis who had such amazing swims over the weekend.
Mosley Boys Win 4th Straight Regional Championship!
A few years ago, the Mosley High Dolphins won the Regional Championships for the illustrious high school post season. Little did they know that the young up and coming swimmers in Bay County behind them would continue the streak to four straight seasons!!! While this may have seemed like a foregone conclusion based on the fact that our boys finished as the State Runner-Up team in 2011, the Dolphins actually lost a very powerful senior class this last year. It was so uncertain in fact, that Coach Steve Burdeshaw made a deal with the boys. If they won...........he would do a 50 fly in his full coaching attire. So you can imagine the enjoyment our PCST swimmers had when they watched Steve in the water, khakis and all, struggling to get his arms out of the water to fullfill his promise, haha! Congratulations boys! Now let's go show them what you've got at State!
A special congratulations also goes out to our Mosley High girls who finished 4th overall, as well as our Niceville Girls who finished 7th, and our Arnold High girls who finished 18th overall. With our best Tsunami girls split up between a number of high schools, it makes it very difficult for any one program to truly dominate. So congratulations to each of our schools who swam exceptionally well!
Caitlin Myers Becomes Newest Member Of PCST National Team!
For those of you who may not remember, in 2010 I was in Orlando, Fl at the NCSA Spring Junior National Meet with our National Team. Of course, it was only 2 years ago that our entire "National Team" consisted of one swimmer; Cody Bronnenberg. Well, Cody and I were determined to have a true "TEAM" at Junior Nationals, so we made our own team banner that each Junior National Qualifier would get to sign in the future. Since then, our banner (which was a piece of notebook paper and a sharpie with the words "National Team" scribbled on there) has become a team treasure and a source of motivation for our Tsunami swimmers. I am proud to say that we have added our 11th swimmer and 3rd girl since 2006 to that banner!
Congratulations to Caitlin Myers, who officially qualified for the prestigious spring Junior National meet in the 50 Free (24.17) and 100 Free (52.33). She joins the likes of Sara Evans and Victoria Hove as the only Tsunami girls in recent years to qualify for Juniors. Her incredible swims also help put our PCST girl's team in a position to potentially qualify for Junior Nationals in a relay for the first time ever. We're getting close! Way to go Caitlin! More great swims to come. :)
Retherford, Krause & Stock Join PCST Sectional Team!
For the first time ever, PCST is going to have two major travel teams in the spring. Not only are we taking our National Team to Orlando in March, but we will also be sending our Sectional Team to Nashville during that exact same week. Well guess what??? The National Team is not the only one growing! Congratulations to Hannah Retherford and Kalanne Krause who have added their names to the impressive list of Sectional qualifiers for PCST. Hannah swam a blistering 59.98 in the 100 Back, and Kalanne a smoking 2:12.32 in the 200 IM to not only become the fastest 13-14 girls in the history of the team, but also to make their way on that travel trip in March.
But they were not the only ones to put together Sectional swims for the 2013 meet. While Alysiah Stock qualified for Sectionals in 2011, you have to re-qualify each year for the following season. Not only did Alysiah requalify, but she went a full half second faster in the 100 Breast (1:08.38) than she did this time last year! Who knows.......maybe all of these girls will end up skipping Sectionals to go ahead and join Caitlin on the NATIONAL TEAM! Keep up the great work girls, and I bet you get there sooner than you think! :)
11 Tsunami Swimmers Qualify For State Championships!
Each year our swimmers end up going through the same thing. Whether you swim for Mosley, Arnold, Niceville or Rutherford in the 2A Meet, or for Bay or North Bay Haven at the 1A Meet, you will be competing in the toughest Region in the state for your classification. In order to qualify for State, you have to be in the Top 8 in your region. That doesn't sound too unreasonable, except for the fact that in our regions, if you finish 9th-13th, your time is often fast enough to get you to State in another region. In spite of that fact, PCST was still able to qualify an astonishing 11 swimmers for the Florida High School State Championships this Thursday in Orlando!
We will have 6 swimmers competing in individual events, plus another 5 swimmers swimming on relays. And a small consolation prize goes out to three of our swimmers who would have EASILY qualified for State in their events if they had swum in another region. But we swim against the best of the best every year, and thankfully this year it brought out the best in our Tsunami swimmers. So we are proud of each of you, not only for your great swims at Regionals, but also for your unbridled desire to compete against the best year in and year out!
PCST State Qualifiers
Michael Duderstadt; Mosley High (200 IM, 100 Breast, 200 Med Rel, 400 Free Rel)
Lindsey Gurganus; Mosley High (200 Free, 100 Free, 200 Med Rel)
Kalanne Krause; Niceville High (200 IM, 200 Free Rel)
Jamie McDonald; Arnold High (200 Free)
Caitlin Myers; Niceville High (50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free Rel)
Jonathan Ratliff; Mosley High (200 Free, 500 Free, 200 Med Rel, 400 Fr Rel)
Casey Pridgen; Mosley High (200 Med Rel, 400 Fr, Rel)
Taylor Wilder; Mosley High (200 Med Rel)
Alysiah Stock; Mosley High (200 Med Rel)
Shannon Doyle; Mosley High (200 Med Rel)
Kyla Hallam; Mosley High (200 Med Rel)
9 PCST Records Fall At Regionals!
I love love love this time of the season! PCST records just keep falling out of the sky! You know me, I love team records. And our PCST records are getting so darn fast.............and yet they just keep breaking them. Keep it up Tsunamis!
New PCST Records!
13-14 Girls
Hannah Retherford 50 Back (27.79) breaks Hannah Retherford (28.33) from 2012
Hannah Retherford 100 Back (59.98) breaks Hannah Retherford (1:01.46) from 2012
Kyla Hallam 100 Breast (1:09.85) breaks Nicole Gazia (1:10.03) from 2009
Kalanne Krause 200 IM (2:12.78) breaks Kalanne Krause (2:12.87) from 2012
Kalanne Krause 200 IM (2:12.32) breaks Kalanne Krause (2:12.78) from 2012
15-16 Girls
Caitlin Myers 50 Free (24.17) breaks Cailtin Myers (24.46) from 2012
Cailtin Myers 100 Free (52.33) breaks Caitlin Myers (53.59) from 2012
Senior Girls
200 Medley Relay (1:54.60) Taylor Wilder, Alysiah Stock, Kyla Hallam, Lindsey Gurganus breaks
(1:56.31) Taylor Wilder, Alysiah Stock, Victoria Hove, Lindsey Gurganus from 2011
Senior Boys
Michael Duderstadt 200 IM (1:52.69) breaks Cody Bronnenberg (1:52.86) from 2010
PCST Swimmers Break 3 County and 8 School Records!
For the first time in PCST history, we have swimmer breaking County Records in TWO different counties! Not only did our Mosley Girls break the 200 Medley county record, but two of our swimmers were a part of the Niceville High 200 Free Relay that broke the Okaloosa County record. And just to add a little extra sugar to our sweet sweet regional meet.........Michael Duderstadt decided to go ahead and break his own 200 IM county record set the previous week at Districts, and Caitlin Myers broke a LONG standing 100 Free county record for Okaloosa. Here are our new county and individual school records.
New Bay County Records
Mosley High Girls 200 Medley Relay (1:54.60) Taylor Wilder, Alysiah Stock, Kyla Hallam, Lindsey Gurganus breaks
(1:55.08) Brielle Seaman, Sara Evans, Lauren Delaney, Candice Hilton from 2007
Michael Duderstadt 200 IM Mosley High (1:52.69) breaks Michael Duderstadt (1:52.87) from 2012
New Okaloosa County Records
Niceville High Girls 200 Free Relay (1:41.40) Caitlin Myers & Kalanne Krause breaks old County Record (1:41.60) from 1996 and breaks (1:43.97) school record from 1999
Caitlin Myers 100 Free (52.33) breaks Tonya Rasor (52.61) from 1998
New School Records
Mosley High Girls 200 Medley Relay (1:54.60); Taylor Wilder, Alysiah Stock, Kyla Hallam, Lindsey Gurganus
Michael Duderstadt; Mosley High 200 IM (1:52.69)
Jamie McDonald; Arnold High 200 Free (1:57.53)
Arnold High Girls 200 Medley Relay (1:59.14) Hannah Retherford, Michaela Ashley, Jamie McDonald
Alexis Hall; Bay High 200 IM (2:18.40)
Caitlin Myers; Niceville High 50 Free (24.17)
Caitlin Myers: Niceville High 100 Free (52.33)
Niceville High 200 Free Relay (1:41.40) Kalanne Krause, Caitlin Myers
9 Different Tsunamis Improve All-Time Top 10 List!
Congratulations to the following swimmers who have improved our All-Time Top 10 list once again! A special congrats go out to Caitlin Myers (50 Fr, 100 Fr), Hannah Retherford (50 Ba), and Michael Duderstadt (200 IM) for becoming the fastest swimmers in the history of PCST! Well done too all of you!
New All-Time Top 10 Swims
Girls
50 Free: Caitlin Myers 1st (24.17)
100 Free: Caitlin Myers 1st (52.33)
200 Free: Jamie McDonald 5th (1:57.53)
50 Back: Hannah Retherford 1st (27.79), Taylor Wilder 6th (29.56)
100 Back: Hannah Retherford 2nd (59.98), Taylor Wilder 4th (1:01.49)
50 Breast: Alysiah Stock 6th (32.13), Kyla Hallam 10th (33.17)
100 Breast: Alysiah Stock 5th (1:08.38), Kyla Hallam 8th (1:09.85)
200 IM: Kalanne Krause 4th (2:12.32), Taylor Wilder 7th (2:18.33), Alexis Hall 8th (2:18.40)
Boys
200 IM: Michael Duderstadt 1st (1:52.69)
Duderstadt Wins Regionals; Leads Tsunamis To Many Finals Swims!
With all of the amazing swims that the Tsunamis had at Regionals, it's hard to believe that only one of our swimmers came way with a Regional Championship swim in an individual event along with one relay champion. However, that just goes to show how much swimming has improved in North Florida in recent years and it's wonderful! Congratulations to Michael Duderstadt (200 IM, 100 Breast) and the Mosley Boys 200 Medley Relay for becoming Regional Champions. I would also like to congratulate all of the following swimmers on their impressive races for scoring points at Regionals.
Top 8 Individual Regional Swims
Michael Duderstadt 200 IM (1st), 100 Breast (1st)
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Free (2nd), 500 Free (2nd)
Caitlin Myers 100 Free (2nd), 50 Free (4th)
Kalanne Krause 200 IM (5th), 50 Free (11th)
Lindsey Gurganus 200 Free (6th), 100 Free (8th)
Jamie McDonald 200 Free (8th), 100 Fly (14th)
Fallon Gelsleichter 500 Free (8th), 200 IM (16th)
Alexis Hall 200 IM (9th), 100 Breast (9th)
Hannah Retherford 100 Back (9th)
Taylor Wilder 100 Back (10th), 200 IM (10th)
Alysiah Stock 100 Breast (10th)
Casey Pridgen 50 Free (13th)
Sarah Adams 100 Free (13th)
Kyla Hallam 100 Breast (13th), 100 Fly (15th)
Brandon Ramirez 500 Free (16th)
I am about to head off to Orlando for the 2A State Championship Finals! You will be hearing more from me soon!
CATCH THE WAVE!
Coach Jonathan
