Greetings to everyone and congratulations to all the swimmers that participated in the 2010 Georgia Long Course Senior State meet. This meet was hosted by Swim Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in downtown Atlanta. It is a neat opportunity to compete in such a facility where some of our countries fastest swimmers train everyday. The Marlins once again this year came in second place overall behind Swim Atlanta and first in our division. The senior swimmers swam very well at this meet with a new record being set for the Marlins. This year was the first time where Marlins swimmers dominated the high point categories. Courtney Peters won high point for the girls while Marlins men placed top 3 for high point for the boys respectively, Drew Onken, Derek Onken, and Jordan Turner. The Marlins turned in a stellar performance as a team and would like to recognize these athletes for their achievements by age group.
Senior Women
With two top 10 finishes Liz Braun competed in 13 events for the Marlins. Liz also scored close to 40 points for team as she made finals in 6 events. With 3 new best times and many times within a second of her times with the old suit on, Alli Crenshaw placed in the top 5 for 200 free and scored a 6th place finish in the 800 free. In her final swim before going to school, Ansley Crenshaw made it back to finals in 3 events while pulling a top 20 finish and a new best time in 100 fly. Swimming three new best times and whole bunch of points scored, Madison Jacobi also won the 800 free and placed in the top 10 for numerous swims. Her sister OP after having a great meet at AG state scored an 8th place finish in 200 breast at Senior State. Micaela Janco made it back to finals in the backstroke events while dropping time in her 200 free and 50 breast swims as well as 50 fly and 100 back. Resident sprint artist Larissa Joassaint swam in at almost across the board best times while she finished in the top 10 for fly, and top 25 for 50 free. Soon to be senior swimmer Maggie Layde continues to drop time in her events since she’s been a Marlin. She dropped over 2 seconds in a beautiful 200 fly swim in which she placed 24th. With an impressive 6-second 50 back drop Afton Nourzad brought it back to finals in the 50 fly when she improved over half a second. High point female swimmer Courtney Peters barely missed her senior cut in an improvement of her 200 fly swim in which she came in second, she won two other events while knocking off time for a total of 5 swims. With a new best time in 200 free Stephanie Peters swam a great meet as she placed second place in 200, 400, and 800 freestyle including all best times in those as well. Dropping over 2 seconds in her 200 back Nicole Prendes keeps up the good work as she keeps improving and scoring points for the team. She shredded 9 seconds from and impressive 800 free swim and placed in the top 25. Amanda Tallman swooped in with some powerful 50 performances as she dropped over 7 seconds in her 50 fly. She also swam a new best time in her 50 breast. Fighting the good fight Jane Watts continues to show heart while she keeps her times going in the right direction with a big drop in her 400 IM and 200 IM swims. Kim Zachensky swam for the Marlins at state this year coming home from her first year at school and reeled in 3 top 10 finishes to score mega points for the team. Her younger sister Kristy came to swim 200 breast fresh off her improvement at AG state the week before.
Senior Men
With 6 new best times to aim for Dan Brady keeps up the tradition of swimming new times at big meets. He placed in the top 15 for 100 back and dropped a whopping 5 seconds off his 200 free time. Also crushing his old 200 free time was Krisztian Elek. Cameron Garratt swam a new best time in his 200 but crushed it in his 200 and 100 fly swims while dropping over 6 seconds and 2 seconds in his 200 and 100. His brother Griffin shedded more than 3 seconds off his backstroke time and also dropped in 2 other events while placing in the top 25 for 200 fly. While making finals in 6 events Henry Loong keeps up the pace as he dropped 8 seconds on his 400 free to break the top 20 and placed in the top 25 for several other events. Zack Marshall dropped time on a nice 50 fly swim while competing in 7 other events at SS this year. While swimming finals in 5 events Derek Onken dropped time in all of those swims including a 2 second drop in 100 back while Derek rounded out the meet as 2nd in high point for the Marlins. Dropping over 20 seconds in his 50 breast (no typo) Drew Onken was the male high point winner at this meet. Drew won the 2 and 400 IM events and placed in the 2nd spot for 2 breast. Alex Riley came back to finals for a 50 back swim in which he dropped several more tenths to place in the top 40. Dropping over a second in his 100 breast Nat Siwabut also placed in the top 25 for breast stroke. With his brother Non swimming a new best time in 50 fly he swam in 6 events at senior state this year. Andrew Tang showed up at SS this year to swim some events he qualified for while dropping in his 50s as well, he begins zone camp the following week. Another high point swimmer for the Marlins, Jordan Turner swam 6 top 10 places and dropped time in all those events. Some of the events that Jordan swam included time reductions of over 6 seconds for his 200 swims. I even over heard Lim saying under his voice while watching some of our boys this meet, “deez fools right here are da bomb”. NO lie. FYI, “fools” in this context is a term of endearment.
Next week we have a bunch of our swimmers heading out west to compete in our national championships. I believe this will be aired on TV at some point but we can always get the results online at USA swimming website. While this was a difficult training year the team once again did a great job and we look forward to getting a head start on a fresh short course season. We may have several new additions to the team this year we are hoping that can make our training a more enjoyable experience not that it isn’t peaches and cream already. Stay tuned for meet summary for your national end of the year meets.
Matt
