Greetings to everyone and congratulations to all the swimmers that participated in the 2011 Age Group SC Championships at Chatham County Swim Facility this year. Georgia Coastal Aquatics hosted the meet this year. This meet was a full 3 day competition where prelims and finals are on the same day and the 10 and unders perform in between sessions. These meets are very challenging and our swimmers as usual performed up to the task as we saw big improvements from most the kids all the way up to the final session on the 3rd day. Meets like these are very mentally draining on everyone and require a healthy perspective on this as our experiences build up over the years and we draw on these when big competitions arrive and are called on to perform.
10 and under girls
Joining us for her first state meet, Mattison Frank made the trip to SAV and swam in 4 events. She dropped time in all events including a 6 second drop in her 200 free and a 5 second reduction in her 100 fly while hanging in the top 30 for these events. Another new swimmer joining us at state the first time this year is Kensley Morris. She qualified in 6 events and dropped in every one. She had an impressive showing in the 500 free as she knocked off over half a minute in this race to rally into 7th place overall. 9 year old Maggie Pokorny has been improving steadily since she joined the team last year. Showing up for 10 events this year she dropped in 6 of those while scoring 3 top 10 finishes in the state for the Marlins this year. Also qualifying for the max number of events was Sophie Taylor. With only 1 finish in the 5th position Sophie won 2 events and scored 2nd and 3rd in all the rest of her swims earning her one of highest scoring athletes for the Marlins at State this year with over 100 points scored for the team. Grace Yund is another swimmer we are fortunate to have this year as she qualified in 5 events and dropped over 5 seconds in her 200 free, she continues to improve.
10 and under boys
Same Braid joined us for 3 events this year at state. He qualified in the 100 free, fly and sprint free events while dropping over 8 seconds in his fly to reach the top 20. Riley Croker made it to SAV for state for the first time and qualified in 3 events and dropping over 6 seconds in his 200 free. In his first state meet at 8 years old Brendan Hausdorf made the trip while qualifying in 4 events, and had a ton of fun doing it, while improving at every meet he has swam in this year. Making it to state in 9 events, 10 year old Ananda Lim busted through the top 15 5 times and made time reductions across the board.
11-12 Girls
New swimmer Abbey Barrett is joining the Marlins for the first time this year at state. She swam in 4 events while dropping time in all of those she scored a top 20 time for the 200 breast while also having some fun in the relay events. Another new swimmer for the team that had a great meets this year is Kamryn Carter. Kamryn made it back to finals in 3 events and scored 2 top 10 finishes while dropping time in nearly every event. While scoring 3 top 15 finishes Katie Heilman also had a great meet while dropping time across the board and swimming some impressive back to back finals swims her butterfly is now almost as fast her freestyle – watch out. Swimming in two events and dropping whopping amounts of time in her performance was Molly Layde; in the 200 Breast and 400 IM. Making the trip to SAV for the first time was a new swimmer, Nicole Licciardello. She shaved several seconds off her old 200 fly time and helped complete some more relays for the girls as well. While shedding time in her distance events, Grace Nekrasas joined us again at state this year, this time as an 11 year old. With 3 top 10 finishes Caitlin Oh made her mark at state this year for the team while scoring the most points for her group and reducing time in all but one event – she never placed lower than 16th overall. Another fresh 11 year old this year to swim in state was Mariah Prendes. She qualified in the longer events and dropped massive time in all her swims and busted the top 20 in the 1000 free. Making the trip for 4 events this year is a now solid backstroker Taylor Tishendorf. While Taylor dropped time in her long events she helped shore up some relays for the Marlins and score some points for the team. Swimming I believe more events than anyone else at this meet was Britheny Joassaint. She swam up in the 13-14 group in all the relays and also had to hold down all her own age groups swims. With 7 top 10 finishes she had some impressive freestyle swims at this meet and started to race some people when she stepped up into finals.
11-12 Boys
Cooper Brownwell is an up and coming Marlin while he made state this year in 3 events. He broke the top 30 for his 200 breast and brought in a new best time reduction of 3 seconds. Resident fly guy Cullen Fields hung on to a strong finals swim in the 50 to come from behind and win the event while also bringing in several top 3 finishes and scoring a bunch of points for the team. Pulling out a top 10 finish in the 200, breastroker Nick Hatch dropped over 8 seconds in that event to score some much needed points in this division. Parker Johnson joined us again for state this year while dropping in 3 events he shredded 10 seconds in his 500 free swim. Busting the 3 minute barrier in the 200 fly James Johnston made the trip to score a top 30 finish in that event while dropping time in all but one swim. The always improving Ryan Marino made to state this year in 3 events and dropped time in his 100 fly for break into the top 30. Scoring bunches of points for the team this year was Alex Mayfield who dropped time across the board and sat in the top 5 for nearly every race. With a time of 1:00.00 Alex dropped into 2nd while coming from behind in finals in an awesome 100 fly swim. Colin Riley had a great meet at state this year with some awesome new times and exciting events to watch like when he got scratched in consoles and ended up winning the heat with a 3 second drop from his prelims time.
13-14 Girls
Our solo girl in this age group is Jane Watts. She is 14 years old and about to age up so well look forward to seeing her in more senior meets soon. Jane scored 3 top 10 swims as she dropped time nearly across the board and also was quite the inspiration for many 11-12 year old girls that got to swim up and lend a hand in a relay for the team.
13-14 Boys
Coming down to SAV this year joining his brother was Griffin Braid. Just turning 13 he swam a nice 200 fly time and lowered his best as a result. Dropping time in all but one event David Dingess had a nice showing this year as he pushed into the top 30 in his 200 back. Winning 5 events and having some really nice swims was Griffin Garratt. Continuing to drop time he impressed with many come from behind races and stellar usage of the walls with his turns. With some huge time reductions Stephen Johnston had a good meet this year and got into the top 30 a few times in his longer events including a 27 second drop in his 1000 free. Garrett Layde hooked up with us again for state this year while swimming some new best times and bettering our time on the 200 free relay. New swimmer Thomas Locke swam in the max events this year while better some of his times had some great finals performances while gutting out a few extra places for the team to score some more points. Finishing 2nd in the 100 and 50 free Thomas is looking to have a good meet at Divisionals. With 5 times qualified for state this year Ryan Peck turned in a huge swim in the 1000 and also dropped into the top 30 in his 200 breast, he scored best times in all but one event. Alex Riley scored 2 top 10 finishes in his backstroke events while pulling some points for the team he had to do a swim off for the 100 back and pulled out a best time and move one spot in consoles to score points for the team. Qualifying in the max amount allowed Andrew Tang joined us for state this year and dropped in several events while scoring in the top 10 for 50 free.
Coach Matt
