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CONGRATULATIONS GBSA! What a fantastic State Championship meet! We had several exciting accomplishments as well as some incredible swims. First of all we compiled the most points ever and finished 12th overall as a team - our best finish ever! We had two swimmers, Erin Shea and Kristi Hedrick, qualify for the Sectional Championships - WAY TO GO LADIES! This is only the second time GBSA has had multiple swimmers qualify! And the team was led in scoring by 12 year old Aidan Merryman who scored the 2nd most points in the meet for 11-12 boys; Aidan had four 1st place finishes, two 2nd places, one 4th and one 7th place finish! WOW! Aidan also set 6 team records and was a part of two more as a member of the 11-12 relays. An INCREDIBLE INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE! CONGRATULATIONS AIDAN! GBSA set 15 TEAM RECORDS along the way as well! GREAT MEET EVERYBODY!

Please look over the whole State Team's list of accomplishments below; this was an inspiring and inspired group of GBSA swimmers - I hope everyone catches the fever they have! I look forward to seeing these and other GBSA kids continue to move up through the ranks and achieve greater and more impressive feats!

Finals swimmers:

• Michael Brady: 500 free – 9th

• Aidan Merryman: 50 free – 2nd, 100 free – 2nd, 200 free – 1st, 500 free – 4th, 50 back – 1st, 100 back – 1st, 200 back – 1st, 100 IM – 7th
• Connor Ganley, Aidan Merryman, Holden Rohr, Kevin Zgorski : 200 medley relay – 7th
• Alex Ewart, Connor Ganley, Aidan Merryman, Kevin Zgorski: 200 free relay – 6th

• Colin Ault: 100 fly – 14th
• David Bracken: 100 breast – 12th, 200 breast – 8th
• Ben Dean: 100 back – 15th, 100 breast – 14th, 100 fly – 10th, 200 IM – 7th
• Colin Ault, David Bracken, Ben Dean, Lance Taweel: 400 medley relay – 7th, 400 free relay – 6th

• Erin Shea: 200 free – 16th, 100 fly – 16th
• Kristi Hedrick: 200 back – 15th

• Boys 9-10 500 free (Michael Brady) 6:30.06
• Boys 11-12 200 free (Aidan Merryman) 1:58.38
• Boys 11-12 500 free (Aidan Merryman) 5:20.88
• Boys 11-12 50 Back (Aidan Merryman) 28.61
• Boys 11-12 100 Back (Aidan Merryman) 1:01.36
• Boys 11-12 200 Back (Aidan Merryman) 2:09.20
• Boys 11-12 100 IM (Aidan Merryman) 1:04.65
• Boys 11-12 200 Medley Relay (Merryman, Rohr, Zgorski, Ganley) 2:06.30
• Boys 11-12 200 Free Relay (Merryman, Ganley, Ewart, Zgorski) 1:52.50
• Boys 13-14 100 Fly (Ben Dean) 57.71
• Boys 13-14 400 Free Relay (Ault, Dean, Taweel, Bracken) 3:43.11
• Girls Open 200 Free (Erin Shea) 1:56.44
• Girls Open 100 Fly (Erin Shea) 1:00.10
• Girls Open 200 IM (Erin Shea) 2:15.22
• Girls Open 400 Medley Relay (Kennedy, Rebechi, Ault, Shea) 4:16.43

The GBSA Sunday Stroke Clinic Returns!!!
Registration is currently closed, but please contact Coach Patrick with any questions/concerns or for more information...
Clinic Info: DOC / PDF

Way to go GBSA 8 & Unders!!! Fantastic meet at the CAA mini meet - please read below the exciting highlights:

OUTSTANDING TIME IMPROVEMENTS BY STROKE:

• FREESTYLE: Matthew Lessler – 5.92s improvement in the 25 Free!
• BACKSTROKE: Angeline Luther – 4.13s improvement in the 25 Back!
• BREASTSTROKE: Lana Shahine – 3.98s improvement in the 50 Breast!
• BUTTERFLY: Omar Abuhassan – 1.80s improvement in the 25 Fly!
• INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: James Glover -- 12.77s improvement in the 100 IM!

• Matthew Lessler – an incredible 24.7% improvement in the 25 Back!

The kids are getting better and better! Thank you to the parents for encouraging the kids and to the coaches for teaching them so well!!

GBSA Last Chance State Qualifier Meet Results

Congratulations to our 10 and Under swimmers for a fantastic performance at the MAC mini meet!! The following GBSA swimmers achieved 100% personal bests on their swims:

• Omar Abuhassan
• Shannon Cucchiaro
• Aaron Luther
• Isaac Luther
• Sophie Pollard
• Maggie Roman
• Grace Sharkey
• Gabby Thompson

• Shannon Cucchiaro, for a 10.21 second improvement in the 25 Fly!
• Gabby Thompson, for taking a total of 42.66 seconds off her personal bests!
• Michael Brady, for finishing in the top three for all of his swims!

• Omar Abuhassan, for a new team record in the 8 & Under 25 freestyle (15.45s)!

We also have some new swimmers to the team who are as of now "Unattached." Special congratulations also to Julia Lamparella for her great meet and what would have been a new team record in the 8 and Under 25 free!!! Super job!!

There were several other swimmers very close to breaking team records. With hard work between now and the next meet, those records are sure to fall!

The GBSA Sunday Stroke Clinic Returns!!!
Registration will be available at 9 AM on February 25th. Stay Tuned!!
Clinic Info: DOC / PDF

MSC Winter Invitational - Way to Go GBSA!!
At the MSC Winter Meet, as a team, we dropped 6 minutes, 17 seconds off our personal bests! Keep the hard work comin'! Special Congratulations to Aidan Merryman for his record setting swim in the Boy's 11-12 200 Back!

The following GBSA swimmers achieved personal bests on ALL their swims at the Mariner meet - 100% best times - WOW!!:

• Alia AbdelKader
• Ian Fyock
• Connor Ganley
• Karlie Kimball
• Darrick Ross
• Scott Seeman
• Gaby Shahine
• Kevin Zgorski

• Aidan Merryman (-14.16s in the 200 Free!)
• Darrick Ross (-13.31s in the 100 free and -12.99s in the 50 breast!)
• Andrew Schneider (-11.05s in the 200 IM!)
• Scott Seeman (-20.62s in the 100 Breast and -30.59 in the 100 Free!)
• Kevin Zgorski (-44.58s in the 100 Breast!)

• Aidan Merryman broke his own record in the 11-12 boys’ 200 back

RAC Meet
Congratulations to all our GBSA swimmers who qualified for the Retriever Classic meet. SIX team records were broken during this meet! Here are the swimmers who swam fast enough during the preliminaries to make it into the evening finals sessions:

• Colin Ault
• TJ Bland
• David Bracken
• Ben Dean (50 Free – 7th, 100 Fly – 6th)
• Aidan Merryman (50 Free – 4th, 100 Free – 5th, 500 Free – 4th, 50 Back – 3rd, 100 Back – 3rd, 200 Back – 4th)
• Erin Shea
• Anne Warren (100 Fly – 8th, 200 Fly – 8th)

• Michael Brady (Boys 9-10): 500 Free – 6:41.34 (A)
• Aidan Merryman (Boys 11-12): 500 Free – 5:25.25 (AAA), 50 Back – 0:28.83 (AAAA), 100 Back – 1:01.86 (AAAA), 200 Back – 2:11.31 (AAAA)
• Anne Warren (Girls 11-12): 200 Fly – 2:28.69 (AA)

Another Fine meet for GBSA 8 and Unders at the BAAC Winter Splash!! Great job and keep up the hard work!! Here are some highlights:

Top Ten GBSA Time-droppers at the BAAC Mini-meet:

• #10 – Lexi Cucchiaro (-3.89s)
• #9 – Luke Lockard (-5.22s)
• #8 – Grace Sharkey (-7.32s)
• #7 – Maggie Roman (-8.54s)
• #6 – Gabby Thompson (-8.56s)
• #5 – Matthew Lessler (-8.92s)
• #4 – Patrick Bauer (-12.79s)
• #3 – Carolyn Conron (-14.92s)
• #2 – Michael Conron (-15.28s)
• #1 - James Glover (-33.17 seconds!)

Also congratulations to the following swimmers with top ten finishes: Patrick Bauer, Michael Conron, Lexi Cucchiaro, Sophie Lovering, Angeline Luther, Katie Rice, Reagan Roberts, Madison Savje, and Grace Sharkey!

NEW TEAM RECORD!! Congratulations to Maddie Savje for breaking the GBSA team record in the 8 and under 25 free!!! Awesome job Maddie!!!

Congratulations GBSA on an outstanding meet at the ASC Holiday Invitational!! This was the best team performance that we have had in the time that I have been with GBSA!! Way to go!! Please read some of the highlights below...

BIGGEST TIME IMPROVEMENTS BY STROKE:

• FREESTYLE: Michael Smith – 28.32s improvement in the 200 Free!
• BACKSTROKE: Natalie Eakin – 16.19s improvement in the 100 Back!
• BREASTSTROKE: Lindsey Bishop – 36.03s improvement in the 100 Breast!
• BUTTERFLY: Matt Brady – 39.55s improvement in the 100 Fly!
• INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: Carlyn Brecht -- 17.43s improvement in the 100 IM!

BIGGEST PERCENTAGE IMPROVEMENT: Alec West – an incredible 29.1% improvement in the 50 Fly!

The following 10 GBSA swimmers achieved personal bests on every swim this weekend: Lindsey Bishop, Alison Bracken, David Bracken, Carlyn Brecht, Alex Ewart, Connor Ganley, Rebecca Hawley, Claire Iverson, Michael Smith, and Kevin Zgorski.

Special congratulations to the following swimmers for finishing in the top 8 for their events:

• Colin Ault (100/200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Fly, 100 Breast, 200 IM)
• David Bracken (100 Breast, 100 Fly)
• Michael Brady (50/100 Breast)
• Ben Dean (100/200 Back, 100 Fly, 100/200 Breast, 200/400 IM)
• Alec Pupshis (50 Breast)
• Erin Shea (200 Free, 200 Back *new team record!)
• Lance Taweel (50 Free)

Keep working hard and swimming fast in practice!! These kind of meets will be a constant if we push one another to be the best we can be!!!