PCST Excels in National Rankings!

Tsunamis Among Top Teams in USA Swimming With Duderstadt Leading The Way!

I have just recently received a couple of very cool items in the mail from USA Swimming that I wanted to pass along to our Tsunami swimmers and families.  While our official mission statement for the Panama City Swim Team is to "Promote youth swimming in Bay County," that does not even begin to express just how far we plan on "promoting" swimming among our youth.  As many of you know, PCST has come a very long way in recent years as we continue to earn higher national rankings, earn more team points at national level meets, and get more swimmers to the highest levels in the country.  With 2012 coming to a close, it's important that we celebrate for a minute just how far we have come so we can get back to work even harder than ever before.  :)

PCST Just Barely Misses Bronze Medal Club Excellence Recognition From USA Swimming!
I would imagine many of our swimmers and families either don't know what this means, or only vaguely have an idea of what it means.  So before you go any further, if you would like to read about it, here is the link to the portion of the USA Swimming website that explains what the Club Excellence Program is all about.

http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1616&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

The quick synopsis though, is that it is designed to recognize the best teams in the country that are putting up the most number of swimmers at the elite levels.  There is a point system they use that keeps getting tougher and tougher each year.  They award the Gold Medal distinction to the top 20 programs (plus any other program that put Olympians on the USA team, which was three others this year), then they give the Silver Medal honor to the remaining Top 100 teams.  The Bronze Medal is awarded to the 101-200 best teams in the country.  Just to give you an idea on how hard that is, there are over nearly 3,500 teams in the country!! 

In each of the previous two years, PCST has been eligible to submit an application for the Club Excellence Program, something that VERY few teams can even do.  And each of the past two years PCST has finished just out of the Top 200, but inside the Top 210.  Well, I wish I had more exciting news for you, but I am still very proud to say that PCST finished 207th in the entire country this year, once again just barely missing the Bronze Medal award.  We literally came within a half second on two different swims of getting the award, but I am still INCREDIBLY proud nonetheless!  The reason I'm so happy is because only 345 teams in the entire nation were even eligible to apply, and with the times getting harder and faster to achieve each year, PCST continues to rise to the occassion.  In fact, we were even eligible to apply for GOLD medal this year based on Michael Duderstadt's spectacular 200 Breast Olympic Trial time.

Panama City Swim Team: 207th Place 2,549 points (200th was 2,584 points)

Here's to PCST finally breaking into the Top 200 next year!!  We will likely need 5 Summer Junior National or better swims in 2013 in order to get there (with a max of 4 per swimmer).  So who's up for the challenge??  :)

Duderstadt Finishes 2011-2012 Long Course Season Ranked 8th In Country!
For USA Swimming the "year" begins September 1st and ends August 31st.  So when they do their "national rankings" each year, they go from 9/1-8/31.  Today, I just received official notifcation from USA Swimming that our very own Tsunami, Michael Duderstadt, has finished the '11-12 season ranking 8th in the entire country for all 17 year old boys in the long course 200 meter breaststroke!  His time of 2:19.26 earns him his first ever Top 10 distinction, making him only the 2nd PCST swimmers in history (that I'm aware of) that has received such an honor.  His predecessor, Cody Bronnenberg, finished 9th in the short course 200 Breast during the '10-'11 season for 18 year old boys.  We love our breaststroke, don't we??

There is also a strong chance that you will hear me reporting on this again next year because with four months of short course season already down, Duder is ranked very high in the country in numerous events!  He is currently 2nd in the 100 Breast (55.08) and 5th in the 200 Breast (2:01.06) for all 17 year olds.  Then, by turning 18 just a few days before Junior Nationals, he moved into a new age group that includes competing against college freshman.  For 18 year olds, he is currently ranked 3rd in the 100 Breast and 7th in the 200 Breast.  We will have to wait out the year to see how many new 17 year olds, if any, pass him up on the rankings list.  But for the 18 year old list, Duder still has great opportunities ahead of him to drop those times even further to move up in the rankings.  Only time and hard work will tell.  :)

But in the meantime..........congratulations Duder and congratulations to all of our hard working Tsunami swimmers who have helped our entire program get better.  Feel free to work your tail off every single day so that you too can help us earn points on the national level one day down the road!  Until then......keep practicing hard and kicking butt!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan