PCST Finishes 22nd Overall At Junior Nationals!!

Ratliff and Duderstadt Lead Tsunamis With Finals Swims At Junior Nationals In Orlando!

Boy oh boy did we have a big week in Orlando at the Junior National Championships in Orlando, FL. This particular meet was not only the largest Spring NCSA Junior National championships ever, it was also the fastest in history!  While the Tsunamis have been going to this meet for the past 7 years, never before have we had so much overall success.  These are exciting times in the world of PCST, so sit back, relax, and take a few minutes to read this news article so that you can all soak in.  :)

It's not often that a program from a market as small as ours finishes in the Top 25 in the entire country!  Being in Orlando after a string of consecutive highly successful national level meets for the Tsunamis has reminded me very much of what it felt like to coach PCST during my first few years.  Back then, at the Southeastern Championships, I would consistently have coaches (many of whom I had never met before) stop me to pass on some positive words of praise and encouragement for the job we have done with the program.  Well..............that same thing is happening very consistently again................the only difference is that now the coaches approaching me are from all around the country, and they are often the head coaches of the best programs in the nation!  That is a HUGE tribute to you Tsunamis.............to our parents who have volunteered to work so hard for our team, and to the swimmers who work so hard to come to as many practices as possible to improve themselves each season.  Congratulations on an amazing short course season that is really catching the eye of the entire country!!  :)

PCST Boys Finish 22nd in The Nation at the 18 & Under Championships!
PCST finished 22nd overall out of 255 teams that had swimmers qualified for the meet. There are over 3,000 teams in USA Swimming, so to finish 22nd in the country in an event is a major honor for us. While all of our points came from Mosley Senior (and soon to be Auburn Tiger), Michael Duderstadt, we had great swims from other swimmers as well. This includes Mosley Junior, Jonathan Ratliff, who qualified for the AT&T Winter Nationals in the 200 Butterfly (1:50.07), coming up in December. This makes him only the 3rd PCST swimmer ever to qualify for Nationals including Michael Duderstadt and Cody Bronnenberg. That's really good company to be in!

Duderstadt Breaks Southeastern Swimming Record (AGAIN!)
Our top finish overall came from Michael Duderstadt who came in 3rd place overall in the country in the 200 Breaststroke! His time of 1:57.96 not only surpasses his previous best of 1:59.10, but it also sets a new SOUTHEASTERN SWIMMING RECORD!! This is huge because it means he is the fastest swimmer in the history of the Florida Panhandle, Alabama and Tennessee combined! He already has the 100 Breaststroke record from earlier at the Winter Junior Nationals in December.

Tsunamis Move Up In The Rankings!
A big congrats goes out to Caitlin Myers for not only moving up in the rankings in her 200 Free, but also for finishing in the top 1/3 of the meet in the 50 free.  That is no easy task, especially considering how hard it is to simply qualify for the meet in the first place!  Another major move up in rankings came from Jonathan Ratliff as he was seeded 239th overall going into the 100 fly, but then dropped a second and a half to go 51.19, placing him 98th overall!  Pretty awesome stuff!  Here are the rest of the results from the meet.

Michael Duderstadt
50 Free: (20.62) 11th out of 251 swimmers
100 Free: (45.29) 7th out of 245 swimmers
200 Free: (1:40.74) 32nd out of 280 swimmers
50 Breast: (25.35) 5th out of 162 swimmers
100 Breast: (54.97) 6th out of 185 swimmers
200 Breast: (1:57.96) 3rd out of 161 swimmers
100 Back: (49.86) 18th out of 256 swimmers
200 IM: (1:51.22) 18th out of 260 swimmers

**Duder also finished 15th overall in the high point rankings, although he could have been as high as 10th if we hadn't voluntarily scratched him from one of the finals races where he would have earned enough points to finish 10th overall.

Jonathan Ratliff
100 Fly: (51.19) 98th out of 255 swimmers
200 Fly: (1:50.07) 27th out of 157 swimmers (qualified for finals for the first time ever!)
200 Free: (1:42.34) 86th out of 280 swimmers
500 Free: (4:34.02) 38th out of 201 swimmers
400 IM: (4:10.07) 140th out of 183 swimmers

Caitlin Myers
50 Free: (24.36) 124th out of 350 swimmers
100 Free: (53.45) 237th out of 340 swimmers
200 Free: (1:56.49) 280th out of 330 swimmers

Tsunamis Participate In All Boys Relays For First Time Ever!
Never before have the Tsunamis qualified for every single relay, but in 2013 we finally reached that level.  As a result, we qualified more PCST swimmers for the most prestigious spring meet in the country for high school swimmers.  Those awesome swimmers were Michael Whitehead (Senior at Mosley swimming for Sewannee next year), Casey Pridgen (Soph at Mosley), and Liam Alexander (Fresh at Mosley). These boys competed in all 5 relays (200 Free Rel, 400 Free Rel, 800 Free Rel, 200 Medley Relay, 400 Medley Rel). Jonathan Ratliff joined them for all relays, while Michael Duderstadt joined them for the 200 Medley Relay.

The top relay finish would have been 36th in the 200 Medley Relay, but we were unfortunately disqualified for a slight early takeover on one of our swimmers. The time we ended up with was a second faster than the time we won the State Championship with in November too. Too bad, huh?

Current Overall National Rankings
It's not often that one of your teammates is among the best of the best in the entire country.  When you include all swimmers in America, from all competitions available throughout the year, it gets extremely competitive to earn a Top 10 ranking in the entire country.  Right now, Michael Duderstadt currently ranks 4th in the entire country for the year in the 100 Breast (54.56) among all 18 year olds, and is 6th in the country in the 200 Breast (1:57.96). This includes competing against the top 18 year olds who are in college swimming now. That's pretty amazing stuff, and is very encouraging as he heads into college to compete against the to swimmers in the world next year!  Well done Duder!

PCST Combines For 11 New Team Records At Juniors!
Check out how fast these records are getting!!!  While all swimmers on the list improved their own team records for the most part, there was one record that went down that had tremendous significance.  Beau Brothers, former Southeastern Champion in the 50 Free, had the previous team record for the Senior boys with 20.73.  But no longer!  Michael Duderstadt "finally" broke the record he wanted to break for so long.  Since Duder started his swimming career as a sprint freestyler, he looked up to Beau and always wanted to beat him.  During the year Beau had returned to the Tsunamis to set even more records, he had long strived to break that coveted short sprint record. 

However, as it turns out, Duder is pretty darn good at OTHER events...........like Breast, IM, and well..........everything, leaving him very few opportunities to swim a fully rested  50 freestyle.  So finally, we decided to make a good run at the record and give Duder the chance he deserved to have a shot at breaking it, which he did on the final evening of the meet.  Immediately following Duder's 20.62, we called Beau from my phone to break the news, and he was actually super excited for Duder and passed on some great words of encouragement.  That's the type of great sportsmanship that I love in this sport! 

15-16 Boys New Team Records
Jonathan Ratliff 500 Free (4:34.02) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (4:34.48) from 2012
Jonathan Ratliff 100 Fly (51.19) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (52.55) from 2011
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Fly (1:50.98) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (1:52.74) from 2012
Jonathan Ratliff 200 Fly (1:50.07) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (1:50.98) from 2013
Jonathan Ratliff 400 IM (4:10.07) breaks Jonathan Ratliff (4:10.63) from 2012

Senior Girls New Team Record
Caitlin Myers 50 Free (24.37) breaks Caitlin Myers (24.80) from 2013

Senior Boys New Team Records
Michael Duderstadt 200 Breast (1:57.96) breaks Michael Duderstadt (1:59.10) from 2012
Michael Duderstadt 100 Free (45.29) breaks Michael Duderstadt (45.34) from 2013
Michael Duderstadt 50 Breast (25.35) breaks Michael Duderstadt (25.67) from 2012
Michael Duderstadt 100 Back (49.86) breaks Michael Duderstadt (50.10) from 2012
Michael Duderstadt 50 Free (20.62) breaks Beau Brothers (20.73) from 2011

Ratliff Qualifies For Nationals!
I know I already mentioned this once in the article earlier, but it bears repeating because it's such a big deal!  For the first time ever, PCST had two different swimmers in finals at Junior Nationals.  On the surface, some may think that Duder is the reason PCST is getting the national recognition over the past couple years.  The truth, however, is that Duder AND the rest of the Tsunamis are the real reason!  Duder may catch the eye of other programs, swimmers and coaches around the country, but the real reason they are impressed is because as they look closer, they realize that we have a ton of other really great swimmers too!  Jonathan Ratliff's historic 1:50.07 in the 200 Fly is one of the latest swims that truly catches the eye of everyone in the nation.  He is in amazing company as he becomes the 3rd PCST swimmer to qualify for US Nationals, and we couldn't be prouder!  Great job JRat!!

Creating The High Level Positive Atmosphere!
While a few of our swimmers (Jonathan, Duder and Caitlin), made the most noise at the championship meet, it has taken a team for them to reach that level of success.  What I have noticed even in the short time since we returned to training since Junior Nationals (and Sectionals), is that our Tsunami Senior Group is hungrier than ever to reach true greatness!  The atmosphere is changing............it's getting more positive..................practices are becoming more spirited...............and competition is bringing the best out of each other everyday.  The highly charged atmosphere is the reason why I'm going to have A TON to write about over the next 12 months!!  Keep up the great work Tsunamis!

CATCH THE WAVE!

Coach Jonathan