Four of our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers participated in the 2009 FHSAA Swimming Regional Championships, held on Saturday, November 7, 2009.

Kristin Martin (SO Tampa Catholic - Class 1A Regional 3) finished 4th in the girls 50 freestyle and 6th in the 100 girls freestyle finals. Elisa Berson (JR Freedom Class 3A Regional 2) made consolation finals in the 100 girls breaststroke event finishing in 10th.  Grant Pawlak (SO Land O'Lakes Class 2A Regional 2) also made consolation finals in the 500 boys freestyle and finished in 11th place. Alex Kovalenko (FR Wiregrass Ranch Wesley Chapel Class 2A Regional 2) finished in 16th place in the 100 boys butterfly consolation finals.

Results: Class 3A Region 2  Class 1A Regional 3  Class 2A Regional 2

The TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers participated at the Fast Lane Halloween open beginning October 23rd.  It was a small contigency but produced 62% best and new times. Kyndall Cardoso (8&U), Collin Wilkins (8&U), and Krystin Demsher (13-14) won 2nd Place High Points in their respective age groups. Kyndall finished 2nd in the 25 Fly, 3rd in the 50 Fly and 100 IM.  Collin finished 1st in the 50 Breast, 2nd in 25 Breast and Fly, and 3rd in the 25 Free.  Krystin finished 1st in the 100 Fly and 2nd in the 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Free in addition to a 2nd place finish in the 200 Fly.  Kara Wilkins (10&U) won 3rd Place in High Points.  She finished 2nd in the 50, 100, 500 Free, 50 and 100 Fly, 100 Back and 100 IM.  She also finished 3rd in the 200 and 100 Free.

Luke Wheeler (8&U) finished 3rd in the 50 Breast.  Matthew Lee (11-12) finished 1st in the 50 and 100 Fly, 2nd in the 50 and 100 Back and the 100 Free.  Marc Berson placed 2nd in the 100 Fly and 3rd in the 200 Fly and 400 IM.  Jed Rodriguez finished 2nd in the 100 and 200 Breast and 3rd in the 200 IM.

Marc Berson also made his Gator cut in the 100 Back, a Senior cut in the 200 Fly and a JO cut in the 200 Back.  Krystin Demsher made her Gator cut in the 200 Free and Fly. She also made a Senior and JO cut in the 100 Fly. Kristen Dawson (13-14) made her Gator cut in the 100 Free.  Jordan Wheeler (13-14) also made his Gator cut in the 200 Free.  Matthew Lee (11-12) made his JO cuts in the 50 Back, 500 Free and 200 IM. Kyndall Cardoso (8&U) made her Gator cut in the 100 IM.  Lara Lontoc (10&U) made her JO cuts in the 100 and 200 IM.

Dillan Villavisanis, Samantha Lee, and Ronit Dastidar also came up with their personal best times.

Final Results: 2009 Fast Lane Halloween Open 

With only thirty three combined swimmers from Tampa Palms and Lakeland, TBAY managed to finish 5th overall in team points. Seventeen TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers contributed to this points including three High Point winners.  Kara Wilkins (Girls 10 & U) led the way with a 1st place HP Trophy. Jordan Wheeler (Boys 11-12) followed with a 2nd place HP Trophy and Rishi Karpur (Boys 6 & U) with a 3rd place HP trophy.  Kara almost swam a perfect meet.  She finished 1st in the 100 & 200 free, 50 & 100 back, 50 & 100 fly, 100 &  200 IM and finished 3rd in the 50 free.  Jordan finished 1st in the 500 free, 50 & 100 back. He finished 2nd in the 100 & 200 IM and the 200 free. He also finished 3rd in the 100 free. Five year old Rishi competed in the 6 & under and the 8 & under. He finished 2nd in both the 25 free and 25 back in the 6 & under events.

Other podium finishes were the following. Kyndall Cardoso (Girls 8 & U) - 3rd place; 25 & 50 breast. Matthew Lee (Boys 11-12) - 3rd place; 50 & 100 fly. Marc Berson (Boys 13-14) - 3rd place; 100fly.  Jed Rodriguez (Boys 13-14) - 2nd place; 100 & 200 breast.

At the meet, ten year old Kara Wilkins made her Girls 11-12 JO cut in the 50 fly, 50 back, 100 Free, 100 IM and 200 IM. Marc Berson made his JO cut in the boys 13-14 200 IM.  In the Girls 10 & under, Samantha Lee made her JO cuts in the 50 fly, 100 free, 200 free, 100 IM and 200 IM.

Our assistant coach, Gary Lee, mentioned that Dillan Villavisanis, Krystin Demsher, Grant Pawlak, Collin Wilkins, Lara Lontoc, Kristen Dawson, Sayan Chatterjee, Allyson Bell and Luke Wheeler made their best times at the meet.  He says that every swimmer came home with at least 2 best times or new times and that 56% of our swimmers produced their best times.  

Final Results: 2009 Winter Haven SC Swim Meet

The TBAY Aquatics hosted the 13th Annual Sweet September Meet held at the Countryside Country Club last weekend.  Our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers took home several High Point Trophys with them. Congratulations to the following winners: Kyndall Cardoso - 1st place high points winner - Girls 8 & Under; Kristin Martin - 2nd place high points winner - Girls Senior; Kara Wilkins  -1st place high points winner - Girls 10 & Under; Rishi Karpur - 1st place high points winnner - Boys 6 & Under; and Jed Rodriguez - 2nd place high points winner - Boys 13-14.

Results: TBAY Sweet September Meet

Photos courtesy of Michelle Cardoso

Florida Swimming and USA Swimming has published their individual age group rankings for the period 09/01/2008 - 08/31/2009.  Congratulations to Kara Wilkins, Matthew Lee, Jed Rodriguez and Jordan Wheeler.  All 4 TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers were ranked in the top 3 of their individual events and age groups by FL Swimming!  Also published was USA Swimming's top relay teams.  Details: TBAY Accolades

Congratulations to our Summer League swimmers!  A combined TBAY (Tampa Palms, Hunter's Green, Westchase and Lakeland) finished 1st place in points to win the championship meet held at the University of Tampa. Kyndall Cardoso won 1st place and took home the High Points Trophy in the Girls 8 and Under events.  On the boys side, Rishi Karpur won 1st place to take home the High Points trophy in the Boys 6 & Under.  Results of the top 3 finishes are as follows: 6&Under Girls - Kendall Mendoza 1st - 25 Backstroke; Time: 27.16 6&Under Girls - Gracie Langton 3rd - 25 Freestyle; Time: 22.54 8&Under Girls - Kyndall Cardoso 1st - 25 Breaststroke: Time: 23.41 2nd - 25 Butterfly; Time: 20.73 1st - 100 IM; Time:1:35.32 6&Under Boys - Rishi Karpur 1st - 25 Backstroke;Time: 23.15 1st - 25 Butterfly; Time: 25.97 1st - 100 IM; Time: 2:05.86 11-12 Boys - Sayan Chatterjee 1st - 50 Butterfly; Time: 36.45 Special mention goies to Luke Wheeler, Marina Chang and Matthew Chang for also making contributions in points for TBAY.

It's time for our swimmers to begin making their JO cuts for the FL Short Course season.  To kick off the season, our swimmers attended the St. Petes's Aquatic Area 3/5 short course meet.  Swimmers who already made their cuts in the age group events swam in the Senior events.  The rest of the swimmers battled their way in their respective age group events.

Here are the individual event results:  Kyndall Cardoso who swam in the Girls 8 & Under events finished 2nd in the 25 Breaststroke with a time of 22.99 and 3rd in the 25 Fly with a time of 19.46. Jed Rodriguez placed 3rd in the Boys 13-14 100 Fly with a time of 1:03.94.  Marc Berson, also in the same age group, finished 1st in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:36.05.  Marc also finished 2nd in the 100 breaststroke event with a time of 1:10.49.  Krystin Demsher placed 2nd in the Girls 13-14 100 Fly with a time of 1:05.00.  Lara Lontoc swam in the Girls 9-10 events finished 2nd in the 100 Back with a time of 1:21.22.  Lara also finished 3rd in the 100  Free (1:10.18) and 50 Back (38.41). She also swam in the Girls 10 & Under 200 Free and finished 3rd with a time of 2:30.46.

In the Relay events, Rishi Karpur and Colin Wilkins both swam in the 8 & Under 100 Free relay and finished 3rd for TBAY.  Mathew Lee swam in the TBAY Boys 11-12 200 Free and 200 Medley relay and finished 2nd in both events.  Lara Lontoc swam with the TBAY team for the 10 & under Free relay and took 2nd place.  In the Girls 10 & under 100 Free Relay, Kyndall Cardoso and the TBAY team finished 3rd.  Kendall also swam with the 8 & Under team 100 medley relay and they finished in 3rd place as well.  Morgan Harkness swam with the TBAY Girls 200 Freestyle relay to win 2nd place.

The following also competed in the meet: Elisa Berson, Kristen Dawson, Kristin Martin, Kara Collins, Samantha Lee, Sayan Chatterjee and Grant Pawlak.

Final Results: 2009 SPA Area 3/5  Photos: 2009 SPA Area 3/5

Photos courtesy of Michelle Cardoso

Congratulations to our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers, Chad Ankers, Kristin Martin and Jed Rodriguez for attending the 2009 LC Senior Champs at Ft. Pierce.  In the Boys 15-16 events, Chad Ankers, made it to the finals in the 200 Free (12th), 400 Free (13th), 800 Free (10th) and 100 Fly (11th).  Kristin Martin, who swam in the Girls 15-16 events finished 13th in the 800 and 9th in the 1500 Freestyle events.  Thirteen year old Jed Rodriguez who swam in the Seniors events, also made it to the finals in 2 events.  Jed finished 15th in the 100 breaststroke and 13th in the 200 breaststroke events.  Coach Gary Goodner was on deck to oversee all three swimmers.

Results: 2009 LC SR Champs 

Photos:2009 LC SR Champs - Photos courtesy of Denise Ankers, Zoe Martinand Jackie Rodriguez

The Tampa Bay Aquatics Community team won 2nd Overall at the hot an humid 2009 LC Junior Olympic Championships at Ft. Myers.  Our Tampa Palms branch sent 11 athletes to the championships.  Despite the weather, thunder and lightning held off until the Sunday finals which delayed the event for just a few minutes.  TBAY also broke 2 records during the event. 

Records: 2009 LC JO Records

The following are the results from our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers: Kara Wilkins in the Girls 10 & Under brought home 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 2 Bronze medals.  Kara finished 2nd overall in High Points for her age group.  She finished 1st in the 100 Free (2:25.46) and 200 IM (2:46.31).  She also finished 2nd in the 100 Fly (1:15.82) and was part of the teams that won 2nd place in the 200 Free Relay and 200 Medley Relay. She captured 3rd place in the 100 Free (1:08.19) and 100 Back (1:19.45).  Samantha Lee took home a Silver. She was part of the team that placed 2nd in the 200 Medley Relay.

In the Boys 11-12, Jordan Wheeler brought home 1 Silver and 4 Bronze medals.  He finished third in the 800 Free with a time of 9:48.78.  He was also part of the relay teams the finished 3rd in the 200 Free Relay, 400 Free Relay and 200 Medley Relay.  He was also part of the relay team that won 2nd place in the 400 Medley Relay.  Matthew Lee brought home 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.  Mathew was part of the relay team that finished 2nd in the 400 Medley Relay and 3rd in the 200 Medley Relay.

In the Boys 13-14, Jed Rodriguez, came home with 2 Silver medals.  Jed was part of the relay teams that finished 2nd in the 200 Medley and 400 Medley relays.  Jed who swam in the finals in the 100 Breast (1:15.75) and 200 Breast (2:48.02) made sectional (SUSE) cuts in both events.

Congratulations to all our TBAY swimmers!

JO Swimmers: Alex Kovalenko, Dillan Villavisanis, Grant Pawlak, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler, Kara Wilkins, Krystin Demsher, Lara Lontoc, Marc Berson, Matthew Lee and Samantha Lee.  They all contributed to earn points for team TBAY.  Details are on the link below.

Final Results: 2009 LC JO Championships

Thanks to all the parents and swimmers for supporting and cheering for our kids.

Photos: 2009 LC JOs - Photos courtesy of Dindo Lontoc and Rob Villavisanis

Congratulations to our JO TBAY Tampa Palms Swimmers!

After months of hard work, practice, preparation and coaching, our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers finally have arrived to what is considered be the highlight of their goals for the Long Course season.  Our swimmers will be attending the 2009 FL Swimming Junior Olympic Championships this week at Ft. Myers.  Prior to the event, our swimmers attended a TBAY JO party to celebrate their accomplishments, got organized for the meet, practiced the new TBAY cheers and had dinner.  They will be receiving their 2009 JO Champ TBAY shirts, tattoos and JO caps at the JO championships.

Good Luck, Swim Hard and Have Fun!

JO Swimmers: Alex Kovalenko, Dillan Villavisanis, Grant Pawlak, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler, Kara Wilkins, Krystin Demsher, Lara Lontoc, Marc Berson, Matthew Lee and Samantha Lee.

Congratulations to our swimmer who attended the TBAY Invitational Swim Meet.

In the Boys 6 & under Rishi Karpur placed 1st in the 25 Back, 2nd in the 25 Fly and 3rd in the 25 Free.  Colin Wilkins won 1st in the 25 Free and 25 Breast.  Rishi and Collin were team mates in the 100 Free relay that finished 1st place.  Colin also won the 1st Place High Points Trophy Award. 

In the Girls 8 & Under, Kyndall Cardoso finished 2nd in the 25 Breast and 3rd in the 50 Breast.

In the Boys 8 & Under, Max Michel and his team mates finished 3rd in the 100 Free Relay.

In the Boys 10 & Under, Max Pierovich finished 1st in the 50 Breast, 50 Fly, 100 Fly, 100 IM, 200 IM, 2nd in the 100 Breast nd Medley Relay, and 3rd in the 100 Free. Max also won the 1st place High Points Trophy.

In the Boys 11-12, Sayan Chatterjee finished 2nd with his team mates in the 200 Free Relay and 200 Medley Relay.

In the Girls 11-12, Morgan Harkness, dropped time in all her events.

In the Girls 13-14, Kyrstin Demsher finished 3rd in the 100 Fly and 200 IM. Alex Pierovich finished 1st in the 200 Free, 200 Breast, 100 Fly, 200 Fly, and 200 IM.  She finished 2nd in the 100 Free and 100 Back.  Alex also won the 1st Place High Point Trophy.

A week after the meet at Ft.Lauderdale, Coach Gary sent out a handful of our swimmers to attend the SPA Long Course Invitational.  He entered only the swimmers who were close to making their JO cuts and some of our younger kids to swim in some of their first events.  Ten swimmers from the Tampa Palms branch represented TBAY.

The results were still phenomenal as Team TBAY managed to win second overall in Team Points.  Lara Lontoc, Samantha Lee, Matthew Lee made their JO cuts.  Lara Lontoc made her cut in the Girls 10 & Under 200 IM with a time of 3:12.56 and finished in third place.  Lara also finished third in the 200 Free. Samantha Lee made her cut in the Girls 10 & Under 400 Free with a time of 5:54.10 and finished in second place.  Eleven year old Matthew Lee made his cut in the Boys 13-14 200 Fly with a time of 2:37.80.  Thirteen year old Jed Rodriguez made his 400 IM Senior cut in the Boys Seniors 400 IM with a time of 5:21.56 finishing in first place.

Special mention goes to Max Michel who swam for the first time in the Boys 8 & Under 50 Free, 50 Back and the 50 Breast.  Five year old Rishi Karpur swam six events in the Boys 8 & under and managed to drop times in five of those events. Sayan Chatterjee was the busiest swimmer from Tampa Palms.  Sayan swam in nine events and dropped times in six events.  Dillan Villavisanis dropped time in the Boys 11-12 50 Fly with a time of 38.82.  Krystin Demsher dropped time in the Girls 13-14 100 Fly with a time of 1:14.10.  Alex Kovalenko who only swam in the Boys 13-14 100 Fly came close to making the cut.

Go TBAY!

Final Results: 2009 SPA LC Invitational

Three days after having swam in the Lightning Invitational at Largo, Team TBAY Tampa Palms sent their swimmers running to Fort Lauderdale for the 2009 FLA International Age Group Invitational in a grueling wet and wild four day swim meet.  TBAY Tampa Palms enlisted an entry of twelve athletes and one athlete from Hunter's Green who joined the Tampa Palms team under Coach Gary Goodner's watchful guidance and with the assistance of Gary Lee Goodner and Jay Wilkins.

Leading once again for Tampa Palms was Kara Wilkins.  Kara swam incredibly strong in all her events to capture first place and win the high points tropy award in the Girls 10 & under.  Kara placed 1st in the 200 Free, 100 Back, 200 IM, 50 Back, 50 Fly, and 100 Fly.  She finished 2nd in the 50 Free and 100 Free.  Even though she finished 4th in the 50 Breast, there were no other swimmers that came close to contesting her in high points.  Congratulations Kara!

Despite the intense competition from 59 other very competitive teams, TBAY-Tampa Palms managed to send 83.34 % of our athletes to the finals!  Congratulations Chad Ankers, Elisa Berson, Marc Berson, Krystin Demsher, Lara Lontoc, Kristin Martin, Michael Melendez, Grant Pawlak, Alex Pierovich, Jed Rodriguez, Dillan Villavisanis, Jordan Wheeler and Kara Wilkins.

A milliion thanks to all the parents, grand parents, families, and friends for their endless support of our athletes and the TBAY team!  Our swimmers could not have made these fanatastic results without their presence, support and assistance.

Final Results: 2009 FLA Int'l Age Group Invitation

Photos: 2009 FLA Int'l Age Group - Photos courtesy of Denise Ankers

The weather at the Lightning Invitational was hot and humid.  Temperatures reached the hundreds. Although, expected to be a challenging meet for our athletes, Team TBAY managed to snatch the 3rd place (712 Points) team overall despite some of our swimmers missing. They were attending the TBAY swim camp in Tennessee and therefore had to miss the weekend meet.  Our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers that made contributions to the overall team points are Kyndall Cardoso (4th-14 pts), Colin Wilkins (12th-2 pts), Samantha Lee (7th-23 pts), Lara Lontoc (8th-21 pts), Kara Wilkins (10th-16pts), Jordan Wheeler (12th-19 pts), Matthew Lee (16th-4 pts), Jed Rodriguez (11th-14pts) and Alex Kovalenko (20th-1pt).

Alex Kovalenko made two JO cuts in the Boys 13-14 events in the 100 Breast (1:23.40) and 200 Breast (3:05.21).  Thirteen year old Jed Rodriguez made two Senior cuts in the 100 Breast (2:47.14) and 200 Breast (1:15.56). Lara Lontok made her Ft.Lauderdale cut in the Girls 10 & U 200 Free with a time of 2:57.08.  Krystin Demsher also made her Ft. Lauuderdale cut in the 13-14 Girls 100 Fly with a time of 1:16.32.

Kara Wilkins, who only swam on Friday finished 1st in the Girls 10 & under 200 Free with a time of 2:26.52.  She also finished 2nd in the 200 IM and clocked in at 2:53.18. Samantha Lee who joined the A squad in the Girls 10 & Under 200 Medley Relay finished third with her teammates with a time of 3:02.00.

Jordan Wheeler finished third in the finals of the Boys 11-12 400 Free with a time of 4:54.91. In the Boys 13-14 events, Jed Rodriguez, finished third in the 100 Breast and 2nd in the 200 Breast.

Sayan Chaterjee, Dillan Villavisanis, Luke Wheeler and five year old Rishi Kapur who all swam at the meet dropped time in their events.  Special mention goes to Niki Kovalenko for attending his first swim meet in the Boys 13-14 age group.

The final results are found on the link below.

Final Results: 2009 Lightning Invitational

The school year 2008-2009 has ended and summer vacation is here!  To celebrate the start of summer, the TBAY Tampa Palms Team organized it's first summer field trip to where else?  Typhoon Lagoon!  What better way to spend the hot humid summer months than to spend a day cooling off at Mickey's pool.  Our TBAY Tampa Palms team invited all the other swimmers, parents and coaches from the other TBAY branches for the event.  It was great to see all our athletes have fun together other than at a swim meet.  Everyone had a blast riding all the water rides that Typhoon Lagoon had to offer.  Photos are posted in the following links:

Typhoon Lagoon 1 - Photos courtesy of Rachel Sellers and Star Swanson.

Typhoon Lagoon 2 - Photos courtesy of Denise Ankers and Linda Demsher.

Hot and windy was the weather at the NTC Fast Lane Summer LC Invite at Clermont, Florida and so were the TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers!  Our swimmers were both flying and on fire.  Each athlete had at least one best time or more in his or her event.

Starting with the Girls events, Kara Wilkins, once again lead the way by winning the High Points Award in the 10 & Under Girls.  To win the High points Award, Kara finished first in all her events (100 Free, 200 Free, 50 Back, 100 Back, 50 Fly, 100 Fly and 200 IM) except for the 100 Breast were she finished second.  Samantha Lee finished third in the 100 Back and made her JO cut with a time of 1:31.19. Lara Lontoc made her JO cut in the 50 Breast with a time of 48.34.  In the Girls 11-12 age group, Morgan Harkness dropped  her time in the 50 Breast.  In the Girls 13-14, Alex Pierovich finished third in the 200 Breast, second in the 100 Breast and second in the 200 IM. Krystin Demsher made her Fort Lauderdale cut in the 200 Free (2:29.22) and the 200 IM (2:50.21). In the Girls 15-16 events, Kristin Martin made her Fort Lauderdale cut and Senior cut in the 400 IM with a time of 5:57.94.  Elisa Berson dropped time in the 100 Free and the 100 Fly.

Special mention goes to Kyndall Cardoso and Kristen Dawson.  Eight year old Kyndall swam in three of her events in the Girls 10 and under events and dropped time in all of them!  In the Girls 8 & under Kyndall finished 4th in the 50 Free, 50 Breast and 50 Fly.  In the Girls 13-14 events, Kristen Dawson was the most consistent in dropping times.  She dropped times in all of her seven events! (50 free, 100, Free, 200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Breast and the 200 IM)

In the Boys events, our team had three swimmers that were in competing in the Boys 8 & under and none of them were seven or eight years old.  Luke Wheeler (6) dropped time in two of his events, the 50 Free and the 50 Back.  Colin Wilkins (6) dropped time in the 50 Breast and the 50 Fly.  Our lone five year old swimmer, Rishi Karpur swam in eight events!  Rishi dropped time in the 50 Free, 50 back, 100 Free, and the 100 Back.  Rishi also passed swimmers that were much older than him. In the 10 & under Boys events, Max Pierovich finished second in the 50 Breast and third in the 100 Breast. Max also made several cuts.  He finished second in the 50 Free and made his JO cut with a time of 35.55.  In addition, he also made his JO cut in the 100 Free (1:19.26) and a Fort Lauderdale cut in the 50 back with a time of 44.69.  In the 11-12 Boys events, Jordan Wheeler finished third four events (100 Free, 50 Back, 100 Back, and the 100 Fly). Jordan also made his first JO cut inthe 100 Free with a time of 1:08.08.  Mathew Lee finished second in the 100 Fly and dropped time in three events (50 Free, 100 Free and 200 Free).  Also, making his first JO cut in the 50 Breast was  Dillan Villavisanis.  Dillan finished third in the 50 Breast with a time of 42.61.  Dillan also dropped time in the 50 Free, 200 Free, 100 Breast and 50 Fly. Sayan Chaterjee dropped time in the 100 Back, 100 Breast, 50 Fly and the 100 Fly.  In the 13-14 Boys, Grant Pawlak dropped time in the 50 Free, 400 Free and 200 IM.  Jed Rodriguez, who swam for the first time as a thirteen year old, managed to finish first in the 100 Breast, second in the 200 Breast and third in the 400 IM.  He also dropped time in the 100 Free, 200 Free, 800 Free and 100 Back. Alex Kovalenko dropped time in the 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free and 200 Breast.  Thirteen year old Marc Berson finished second in the 200 Fly and a cut in the Seniors event with a time of 2:33.27.  Marc also made another Senior cut in the 100 Fly with a time of 1:09.91.  Ronit Dastidar who was studying for his final exams at the meet, still managed to drop time in the 100 Breast, 200 Breast and 200 IM events.  In the Boys 15-16 age group, Chad Ankers dropped time in the 200 Back.

Great Job Everyone!  Keep up the Hard Work! Congratulations to Lara, Dillan, Samantha, Marc, Krystin, Max and Jordan for making their cuts over the weekend.

Final Results: NTC Fastlane Summer LC Invite

Memorial Day, May 25, 2009. After practicing in the morning, our TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers took a break and headed for the bowling alleys for a few games of bowling.  Swimmers, parents, Coach Gary Lee and their guests played against each other.  Our athletes never get tired of competition. They split up the group into 2 teams and played the best of 3. It was enough to get them to enjoy a few hours away from practice.  However, after bowling they were back in the pool for their second doubles.  The photos are posted on the following link:

Bowling - Photos courtesy of Denise Ankers.

Although the TBAY Tampa Palms team was not scheduled to swim at the SPA Races, our lone swimmer, Jed Rodriguez, requested to swim at the 2009 Friday/Saturday SPA Races to improve his times before he aged up.  Jed, who is ageing up, is the team's breaststroke swimmer that had the best opportunity to try and break the Boys 11-12 50 LCM breaststroke state record of 34.11.  The record, however, was meant to stay unbroken over the weekend.  Jed, came close, but not enough to break the state record.  He, however, set his best time in the 50 LCM breaststroke with a time of 34.50 and finished first in the event.  He also swam in the 100 breaststroke event and also finished first with a time of 1:18.65.  Coach Gary Lee was on deck to support and coach Jed at the meet.

Final Results: 2009 Friday/Saturday SPA Races

Congratulations TBAY Aquatics team for winning 2nd place at the 2009 WFLA Spring Open held at the Southwest Recreation Complex in Largo, FL.  The WFLA Spring Open's theme this year was a story of heart and courage, which all of our swimmers exemplified.  TBAY sent in an entry of 133 swimmers. Twenty one or 15.79% of these athletes were from the TBAY Tampa Palms Branch. Twelve or 57.14% of our contingency contributed individual points for our team.  The best news was that according to Coach Gary Lee, 63.58% of our contingency dropped time in some or all of their events.

Ten year old Kara Wilkins led the team by winning the High Points Trophy in the Girls 10 & Under events.  She finished first in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly and 100 fly.  And lastly, she finished second in the 200 IM.  Alex Pierovich finished second overall for the Girls 13-14 events and Jed Rodriguez finished third overall in the Boys 11-12 events.  Kyndall Cardoso, Samantha Lee, Lara Lontoc, Krystin Demsher, Jordan Wheeler, Mathew Lee, Dillan Villavisanis, Marc Berson, and Chad Ankers all earned points to help the team.

In the 200 Medley relays, Kara and Samantha were part of the relay time that finished first in the 10 & Under Girls. In the Boys 11-12 relays, Jed swam with the Westchase boys team that won first in the Boys 200 Medley Relay followed by another team that finished third with three of our swimmers, Jordan Wheeler, Mathew Lee and Dillan Villavisanis.  In the 200 freestyle relay, Jed swam again with Westchase's best swimmers to clinch first place.

Another story at the WFLA unfolded as our swimmers for the first time were also making cuts for the FL Long Course Junior Olympics and the International Meet at Fort Lauderdale.  Samantha Lee made her JO cut in the 200 IM (3:14.44) and the 200 freestyle (2:53.70), In addition, Samantha also made a Fort Lauderdale cut in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:35.48.  Twelve year old Jed Rodriguez made two JO cuts in the Boys 13-14 400 IM (5:34.93) and the 50 freestyle (29.89). He also made JO cuts in the Boys 11-12 events for the 100 Fly (1:17.34) and the 50 Fly (32.79).  Marc Berson made the JO cut in the Boys 13-14 200 IM (2:41.80).  Max Pierovich got his JO cut in the Boys 10 & Under for the 50 backstroke (43.48)and the 100 fly (1:36.63).  Mathew Lee made his cut in the Boys 11-12 50 backstroke (38.92) and Krystin Demsher made her Fort Lauderdale cut in the Girls 13-14 50 freestyle (32.00).

The following swimmers also did a great job in improving their best times by dropping seconds in most of their events.  Congratulations to Sayan Chaterjee, Kristen Dawson, Colin Wilkins, Rishi Karpur, Kristin Martin, Elisa Berson, Morgan Harkness and Akash Gupta!

Final Results: 2009 WFLA Results

The WFLA Spring Open began with the grueling long distance events on Friday night at the South West Recreation Complex pool in Largo. This was TBAY's second Long Course meet for 2009. The 200, 400 and the 800 meter events were all scheduled on this night.

Coach Gary Lee praised all our swimmers for being competitive and dropping times in the long distance events despite the fact that the team only swims in a short course pool.  He credits our swimmers with the hard work that they do at practice.

Hard work at practice is epitomized by Coach Gary's long distance swimmer, Jordan Wheeler, who proved himself to be the TBAY Tampa Palms' ironman of long distance swimming.  On Friday night, Jordan swam four long distance events in the 200IM (Boys 11-12) (Dropped 8.32 seconds) , 400 freestyle (Boys 11-12) (Dropped 4.89 seconds), 400 IM (Seniors) (Dropped 6.66 seconds), and the main event for Friday, the 800 freestyle (Seniors), he clocked in his first time at 10:27.43.

Jordan swam a total of 1,800 meters of competitive swimming in one night.  Not only did he swim the events, but he also beat his individual times in three events and clocked in his first time in the 800 meter freestyle.  An amazing iron-man feat, no doubt.  After the 800 freestyle event, Jordan got out of the pool and said, "That felt really good!"  Jordan is scheduled to swim the mile race next Friday at the Brandon meet to add on further to his long distance swimming accolades.

The Rowdy Cup meet hosted by the Winter Haven Stingrays signified the beginning of the Long Course season.  Having had a successful Short Course season, TBAY started the season by winning 1st place in team scores.  Coach Gary Lee said it best.  He said, "As a team we had a very productive meet, with all swimmers coming home with some best times achieved.  TBAY was able to bring home the team title with only three of our branches in attendance!"

Several of our TBAY swimmers won High Points during the meet, including our very own Kara Wilkins.  Kara finished second place in High Points in the Girls 10 & Under age group.  Kara placed 1st in the 100 Fly (1:19.33) and 200 IM (2:53.03), 2nd in the 100 Back (1:22.45) and 50 Fly (36.66) and 3rd in the 50 Free (33.38) 200 Free (2:35.34) and 50 Back (39.79).  In the Boys 11-12 age group, Jed Rodriguez finished 2nd in the 200 Free (2:24.58) and 100 Breast (1:19.95), and 3rd in the 50 Free (30.14).  Jordan Wheeler finished 3rd in the 400 Free (5:05.17) 50 Back (36.91) and 100 Back (1:18.91).  Matthew Lee finished 3rd in the 100 Fly (1:16.54).  In the 13-14 Boys age group, Alex Kovalenko finished 3rd in the 100 Breast (1:26.35) and 200 Breast (3:09.73).

Special congratulations to Lara Lontoc for making the cut for the Fort Lauderdale International Swim Meet in the Girls 10 & Under age group!  Lara made her cuts in the 50 Breast (49.21) 100 Breast (1:45.49) and 200 IM (3:22.92). Samantha Lee, also swimming in the girls 10 & Under age group, made her JO cut in the 100 Fly (1:35.64).  Krystin Demsher, in the Girls 13-14 age group, made a Fort Lauderdale cut in the 100 Free (1:11.09).

Good job to all our swimmers who attended this great meet and achieved their best times:  Rishi Karpur, Colin Wilkins, Sayan Chatterjee, Kristen Dawson, Kristin Martin, Dillan Villavisanis, Ronit Dastidar, Kyndall Cardoso, Morgan Harkness and Grant Pawlak.

Final Results: 2009 The Rowdy Cup

TBAY Hunter's Green branch hosted a developmental swim meet for our younger swimmers at the the Hunter's Green TAC on 04/11/09.  Coach Gary and Coach Gary Lee assisted Coach Julia, in running the swim meet.  This was a great opportunity for our younger swimmers to experience competition in preparation for bigger swim events.  Most of all, they had a lot of fun while learning new skills.

Our advanced swimmers and parents voluntereed to get this event together.  They all volunteered as timers, starter, runners, concession and ribbon organizers. For the advanced swimmers, it was a change for them as they were at the meet as volunteers.  As for the parents, there is nothing more fun than volunteering to an event.

Coach Gary also took time out to thank the parents for their continued support to our swimmers.  Our younger swimmers are TBAY's future!  They will one day become our elite swimmers.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support!

Each year, after the short course season ends, the top 6 swimmers from the Florida Gold Coast and the Florida Swimming Junior Olympics are invited to compete in a dual meet at the Indian River State College pool located at Ft. Pierce. This year, Jed Rodriguez (Boys 11-12) and Kara Wilkins (Girls 10 & Under), from our TBAY Tampa Palms branch, qualified to attend the meet because of their outstanding performance at the 2009 FLSC Junior Olympics.

Jed Rodriguez brought home 2 Gold medals in the 50 an 100 breaststroke individual events with a time of 30.94 in the 50 and 1:06.60 in the 100.  He also served a lot of excitement in the 100 IM and the 200 IM.  It was a photo finish in the 100 IM.  He clocked in with a time of 1:03.78 settling for the Silver medal.  Jed finished 4th in the 200 IM coming from behind with a time of 2:17.62. In the 200 Medley relay, Jed swam the breaststroke for the Boys 11-12 Medley Relay A team.  The A team grabbed the Gold with a time of 1:49.33.  In the 200 Freestyle relay, this time swimming in a B freestyle relay team, Jed and his teammates managed to take the Bronze with a time of 1:45.35.

Kara Wilkins, in the individual events managed to finish fourth in the girls 10 & under backstroke event with a time of 1:11.25.  She also finished fifth in the 50 Fly, 100 Fly and the 200 IM.  In the 100 and 200 Free, she finished both in 6th place.  In the relay events, Kara and her A Medley Relay teammates bagged the Gold in the 200 Medley Relay, swimming in her best stroke, the butterfly.  Their team clocked in with a time of 2:07.57.

Aside from the competition, Jed and Kara had a great time and lots of fun at the All-Star meet.  They swam along side the best swimmers in Florida.  It was a great weekend of racing and a gathering of the best swimmers, friends and rivals!

Good job Kara and Jed!

Final Results:  2009 FGC vs. FLS All Star Meet

Good job to all our TBAY swimmers!

The weekend swim meet was nippy and windy.  Despite the weather adversities, our swimmers came out strong and finished racing!

In the individual events, Marc Berson bagged the silver in the Boys 13-14 200 Yd Backstroke event with a winning time of 2:19.90.  Lara Lontoc claimed the silver in the Girls 9-10 50 Yd Breaststroke with a time of 43.79.

In the relays, Lara and her team mates also took the gold in the Girls 9-10 100 Yd Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:04.93.  She was also was part of the team that took silver in the Girls 10 & Under 100 Yd Medley Relay.  They clocked in with a time of 1:13.29. Sayan Chatterjee and his team mates took the bronze in the Boys 9-10 100 Yd Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:08.18.  In the Boys 8 and Under 100 Yd Medley Relay, Max Michel and his team mates took home the bronze with a time of 1:35.09.

The rest of the team were able to beat their times and move closer to their goals.  Congratulatiions! Dillan Villavisanis, Ronit Dastidar, Lara Lontoc, Marc Berson, Elisa Berson, Alex Kavalenko, CC Chatterjee, Jed Rodriguez, Kyndall Cardoso, Rishi Karpur, Max Michel, Krystin Demsher, Morgan Harkness, and Samantha Jensen.

Final Results: 2009 Area 3/5 Championships

Congratulations to the following TBAY Tampa Palms swimmers that qualified for the 2009 All-Star Meet!  The event which is held once a year will be held at the Indian River State College Pool at Ft. Pierce, FL on April 4-5, 2009.

Jed Rodriguez and Kara Wilkins.

GO TBAY!

Complete Roster: 2009 All-Star Roster

Congratulations TBAY Aquatics for finishing 3rd overall in combined scores at the 2009 FLS Junior Olympic Championship! 

A week prior to the JO Championships, the TBAY Fire-Up Party literally set our swimmers "on fire" at the Florida University's Stephen O'Connell Center.  The TBAY Aquatics 11-12 boys medley relay teams rocked the O'Connell Center by shattering the JO and State Records in the 400 and 200 medley relay events.

In the 400 medley relay, the A-team squad of Rasmus Skjaerpe (Central), Austin Sellers (Westchase), Kyle Kimura (Westchase) and David Wong (Lakeland) took the Gold medal and broke the JO and state record wih a time of 4:04.75. The B-team composed of Jordan Wheeler (Tampa Palms), Jed Rodriguez (Tampa Palms), Jared Young (Westchase) and Michael Holdsworth (Central) bagged the Bronze medal with a time of 4:21.53.  

In the 200 medley relay, a different A-team composed of Rasmus Skjaerpe (Central), Jed Rodriguez (Tampa Palms), Kyle Kimura (Westchase) and David Wong (Lakeland)  grabbed the Gold medal and shattered the JO and state record with a time of 1:51.73.  Trailing not far behind with a Bronze medal, the B-team squad of Jordan Wheeler (Tampa Palms), Austin Sellers (Westchase), Jared Young (Westchase) and Michael Holdsworth (Central) clocked in with a time of 1:58.90.

Our Tampa Palms swimmers raked in individual medals and medley relay medals.  In the 10 & Under Girls events, Kara Wilkins brought home two Bronze medals in the 100 Yd Freestyle (1:02.38) and the 100 Yd Butterfly (1:12.74).  Meanwhile, in the 11-12 Boys events, Jed Rodriguez brought home two individual Gold medals for the 50 breaststroke (31.28), the 100 breaststroke (1:07.14), a Gold medal for him and his team mates in the 200 medley relay (Breaststroke) and a Bronze medal in the 400 medley relay (Breaststroke).  Jordan Wheeler and his medley relay team mates raked in two 2 bronze medals in the 200 medley relay (Backstroke) and 400 medley relay (Backstroke). 

2009 Junior Olympic Championship Results

TBAY on Tampa Tribune

A Fire Up Party was held on Febuary 14, 2009, Valentine's Day at Tampa Prep in the downtown area.  Every swimmer that will be competing at the Junior Olympics in Gainesville, the Senior Champs in Orlando and at the Area 3/5 Championship in Sarasota participated.  The Team conducted a warm up, starts and takeovers.  The brief practice which was conducted to help facilitate and familarize themselves in the relay events specially for the first time Junior Olympians. Coach Jason, who is the head coach of TBAY Tampa Prep and host for the event, gave all the swimmers a pep talk after practice after which hey proceeded to have lunch!

Good Luck to Coach Gary and our Junior Olympic swimmers!

Marc Berson, Sayan Chatterjee, Matthew Lee, Samantha Lee, Grant Pawlak, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler and Kara Wilkins.

JO Psych Sheet

Our TBAY Branch team had a great swim last weekend.  The purpose of the event was to give our swimmers a last chance to make their Junior Olympic cuts.  In the process a few of our swimmers made their JO cuts for both the Short Course Yards and Long Course Meters while some swimmers who already made their cuts tried to improve their times in preparation for the JOs in Gainseville.

Congratulations to Grant Pawlak, Marc Berson and Matthew Lee for making new JO cuts. Grant made cuts in the 13-14 age group in the 50 LC Freestyle event with a best time of 29.68.  Marc Berson in the same age group made his cuts in the 200 LC Butterfly (2:37.06), 50 LC Freestyle (30.02) and 100 LC Backstroke (1:14.94).  Matthew Lee made his cut in the 11-12 age group in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:23.46.

The rest of our swimmers produced outstanding results despite swimming in only 2 age group events. The final results are posted on the link below.  For our swimmers finishing in the top 3 over the weekend, go to the top column on right and double click on the word document entitled "Last Chance Results.doc".

GO TBAY!

Final Results: 2009 CAT Last Chance Meet

The Gasparilla Races was an age group and senior/open 25 yard short course timed finals hosted by our TBAY Aquatics Central team. It was also a chance for our swimmers to make cuts for the upcoming short course yards Junior Olympics that will be held in February at Gainesville.  Our swimmers also had the opportunity to get to know all the other TBAY swimmers from our satellite teams.

In the Boys 10 & Under events, Sayan Chatterjee led the way for our branch.  Sayan ended the weekend with finishes in the following events. A 3rd place finish in the 50 Free 34.87, 3rd in the 100 Free 1:14.06, 2nd in the 50 Back 41.74, 2nd in the 200 Free 2:34.51, and 2nd in the 100 Back 1:34.43.

In the Girls 10 & Under events, Samantha Lee finished 1st in the 200 Free 2:42.03, 1st in the 100 Fly 1:26.58 and 3rd in the 100 Back 1:26.83.

In the Boys Senior event, 12 year old, Jed Rodriguez, finished 3rd in the 200 Breast with a time of 2:32.10.

Congratulations to Sayan Chatterjee and Samantha Lee for making Junior Olympic cuts at the Gasparilla Races. Sayan clocked in at 2:34.51 to make the JO cut in the 10 & Under Boys 200 Yard Freestyle.  Samantha Lee's time of 1:26.58 was good enough to make the JO cut in the 10 & Under Girls 100 Butterfly following in the footsteps of her older brother, Matthew Lee.

GO TBAY!

Final Results: 2009 Gasparilla Races

Our TBAY Aquatics Team finished 3rd overall at the 2009 Al Soltis Winter Open.  This Year's meet used an unconventional  format using only 2 age groups for the boys and girls events.  The 11 and Under age group and the 12 and Over age group.  Despite the unfamiliar format our TBAY Aquatics team managed to finish 3rd in team points.  Of the 357 points we collected, two of our Tampa Palms swimmers contributed a total of 31 points to help lead our team.

Eleven year old, Matthew Lee, finished 9th overall in the 11 and Under Boys age group with 21 points. Matthew's best finish was a 3rd place in the 100 Butterfly event with a time of 1:18.35. He also finished a close 4th in the 50 Butterfly (35.37), 8th in the backstroke (1:27.34) and 8th in the 200 freestyle (2:43.20).

Ten year old, Kara Wilkins, finished 13th overall in the 11 and Under Girls age group earning 10 points. Kara finished 7th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:22.67.  She also finished 7th in the butterfly (36.60) and 9th in the 100 backstroke event (1:26.05).

An additional bonus and highlight for our swimmers was meeting 23 year old US Olympian Garrett Webber-Gale who was part of the Men's 4 x 100 Meter Freestyle Relay that won the Gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games along with fellow swimmers, Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak.  He also swam in the meet as part of an exhibition as he is now training with the CAT team.  He also graciously signed authographs and and held a 2 hour clinic prior to the meet.

Congratulations TBAY!

Final Results: 2008 Al Soltis Winter Open