PCST places 13th in Southeastern

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Twenty-three athletes representing the Panama City Swim Team Tsunamis helped the team place 13th overall at the 2010 Southeastern Swimming Championships. The meet, which featured more than 1,000 athletes ages 8-18, was the short course championship for the Southeastern Swimming LSC comprising more than 70 teams from Tennessee, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle.

PCST’s 13th-place finish represented the first time that the Bay County program had placed in the Top 20 at the meet. The Tsunamis also scored a team record 404 points, shattering their previous team record of 99 points in 2009.

The Tsunamis were led by 14-year-old Mosley freshman Michael Whitehead. He placed in the top eight in six of his seven individual events, highlighted by third-place finishes in the age 13-14 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke.

Lynn Haven Elementary student Kari Troia, 10, scored points in five events including the Tsunami’s highest placing swim, a second in the 10-under 100-yard breaststroke.

Additional swimmers scoring points in individual events included: Aden Mackenzie (five events), Cody Bronnenberg (four events), Kalanne Krause (three events), Astrid Escobar (two events), Carlee McDonald (two events), Allison Troia (two events) and Kyle Olstad, Hannah Retherford and Chet Seaman, all one event.

The swimmers combined to break 20 all-time PCST team records, some that had stood since 1999.

Although the Southeastern Championships serve as the end of the short-course season for the majority of the team, a select few high school athletes still had some regional and national level competition remaining.

Victoria Hove represented PCST this past weekend at the Speedo Champions Series Sectionals, a regional competition featuring some of the fastest swimmers in the Southeast.

Swimmers from the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina competed.

Hove, a 16-year-old sophomore at Mosley, swam three events. In the 100 backstroke (1:02.72) she finished 113th out of 120, in the 200 backstroke (2:11.46) she was 68th out of 119 and moved up from her seeding of 122nd, and in the 200 individual medley (2:13.67) she was 60th out of 99.

Cody Bronnenberg will compete at the NCSA Junior National Championships in Orlando from March 17-20 that includes most of the top 18-under swimmers in the country.

The PCST team will begin its long-course season in late April with a meet at Frank Brown Park.