News Archive

The Tampa Palms Branch held its first Holiday party on the evening of Dec. 20th. The Dawson family hosted and organized the team's first party at their residence in Tampa Palms.  Each swim family brought in their specialty dishes to share for the occasion which translated to a lot of great food!  Our swimmers enjoyed the gift exchange that was conducted by the senior swimmers.  Each swimmer received a gift from their colleagues, but it was mostly the spirit of giving and "stealing" that made it a lot of fun!  To top off the icing on the cake, CC Chatterjee and Elisa Berson handed out the Paper Plate Awards.  The awards were both fun awards using CC's voting system and some semi-serious recommendations by Coach Gary.  Overall, Kara Wilkins described the party as "The best-est party I have ever had!".  With about twenty-something kids at the party, it surely was a night to remember!

On December 12-14, 2008 the Tampa Bay Aquatics, sent in a contingent of 63 elite swimmers to compete in the 2008 CAT Jingle Bell Invitational.  The event, a 25 Yard Short Course Finals, took place at the Long Center in Clearwater, home to the Clearwater Aquatics Team (CAT).  Amongst the TBAY swimmers that participated were 16 swimmers from the TBAY – Tampa Palms branch in the New Tampa area.  The grueling long weekend ended with the Tampa Bay Aquatics taking home the 1^st place Team Trophy award with a combined score of 797 points.

The team’s nine-year-old Kara Wilkins won the 2^nd place High Points Trophy in the 10 & Under Girls individual events.  She brought home 5 Gold medals, 2 Silver Medals and 1 Bronze Medal. Gold – 100 Yd Freestyle (1:02.65), 200 Yd Freestyle (2:16.15), 500 Freestyle (5:54.31), 50 Backstroke (33.96), 100 IM (1:14.49).  Silver – 100 Backstroke (1:11.70) and 100 Butterfly (1:12.40).  Bronze – 50 Butterfly (32.61)

Twelve-year-old Jed Rodriguez won the 3^rd place High Points Trophy in the 11-12 Boys events.  He collected 2 Gold medals, and 3 Bronze Medals.  Gold – 50 Breaststroke (32.17) and 100 Breaststroke (1:10.01).  Bronze – 50 Freestyle (26.70), 500 Freestyle (5:35.06) and the 100 IM (1:05.33).

In the 11-12 Boys 200 Freestyle Relay, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler and Dillan Villavisanis from the TBAY - Tampa Palms branch swam with Rasmus Skjaerpe (TBAY – Central) to finish 3rd with a time of 1:54.61.   In the 11-12 Boys 200 Yd Medley Relay, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler, Matthew Lee (also from TBAY – Tampa Palms) and Rasmus Skjaerpe took the 1^st place spot with a time of 2:01.15.

Jordan Wheeler, Dillan Villavisanis, Sayan Chatterjee, Krystin Demsher and Marc Berson swam fast enough to contribute individual points for the total team score.  In the 11-12 Boys events, Jordan finished 8^th overall and Dillan at 19th overall.  Sayan finished 14^th overall in the 10 & under Boys events.  Krystin finished 30^th overall in the 13-14 Girls events and Marc finished 18^th overall in the 13-14 Boys events.

Some of our first timers who had no time in some of the individual events astonished everyone with their swim times and the rest of the swimmers showed improved swim times.  Samantha Lee, Kyndall Cardoso, Colin Wilkins, Grant Pawlak, Lara Lontoc, Isabel Hauber, CC Chatterjee and Alex Kovalenko all had clocked some of their best times at this event.

Overall, the TBAY Aquatics team of Tampa Palms had their best swim meet results in the last 2008 event for the year.  What a way to end the year!  Coach Gary Goodner and the TBAY – Tampa Palms swimmers are looking forward to another fantastic year in 2009.

Final Results: 2008 CAT Jingle Bell Invitational

GO TBAY!

Our team swam a grueling long weekend of competition at the 2008 Gator Holiday Classic. This was one of our team's best performance in a swim meet since the 2008 Halloween meet.

 

Nine year old Kara Wilkins finished 2nd Place overall in High Points in the 10 & Under Girls events.  She bagged 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.  Kara finished in the top 4 of her 9 individual events. 3rd 100 Fly (1:12.90), 2nd 100 Free (1:02.12),  2nd 200 Free (2:17.07), 2nd 200 IM (2:34.46), 3rd 50 Fly (32.77), and 3rd 50 Free (29.15).

 

Sayan Chatterjee and Samantha Lee swam in their first qualifiying meet in the 10 & Under and did an amazing job as first timers.

 

Matthew Lee, who recently aged up, managed to have 3 cuts in this meet.  His best swim was in the 11-12 Boys Butterfly event where he  finished in 9th place in the 200 Yard Butterfly event (2:34.08).

 

In the breaststroke events, Jed Rodriguez raked in 1 gold and 2 silver medals.  His best time was a 1st place finish in the 11-12 Boys 50 Yard Breaststroke event with a time of 31.63. He finished 2nd in the 100 Breast (1:09.08), and 2nd in the 200 Breast (2:32.00).

 

Meanwhile in the backstroke events, Jordan Wheeler, brought home a silver medal.  He did a great job finishing 2nd in the 11-12 200 Yard Backstroke event clocking in at 2:26.99. 

 

Congratulations to our team for having a fantastic meet!

 

Final Results: 2008 Gator Holiday Classic

Good Job to all our TBAY-Tampa Palms swimmers!

It was a nippy and tough early morning start at the Saturday Races.  Everyone was bundled up as the outside temperatures was in the 40's. Despite the cold and the technical difficulties, our team of 14 swimmers did their best to race in difficult conditions.  Some of our swimmers were swimming for the first time and still ended the day with competitive times.  Special mention goes to Matthew Lee, Jordan Wheeler, Jed Rodriguez, Kara Wilkins, and Max Michel for finishing in the top 3 of their individual events.

Good job to all the swimmers who also participated in this event: Samantha Lee, Sayan Chatterjee, Krystin Demsher, Dillan Villavisanis, Kyndall Cardoso, Lara Lontoc, Rishi Karpur, Alex Kovalenko, and Alex Michel.

 

Final Results: Midightsports.com

Congratulations to all the TBAY-Tampa Palms Swimmers!  Every swimmer did a good job of cutting time in their individual events.  The Sunday morning races meet produced a lot of best times for our swimmers.   Coach Gary has been preparing our swimmers for the big Gator meet which is scheduled for December 5-7, 2008.  The results at St. Pete’s gives us an indication of how prepared the swimmers are for the big event. With one more month of practice, our team should be able to make more cuts and perform their best swim at the Gator Swim Club meet.

Good job to all our swimmers: Collin Wilkins, Dillan Villavisanis, Grant Pawlak, Jed Rodriguez, Jordan Wheeler, Kara Wilkins, Krystin Demsher, Kyndall Cardoso, Luke Wheeler, Matthew Lee and Samantha Lee

Final Results: Midnightsports.com

Congratulations to all our Tampa Bay Swimmers!

The TBAY team garnered enough combined team points to finish second place at the WFLA Halloween Invitational meet held at .  Our TBAY - Tampa Palms contingent of 16 swimmers contributed 232 individual points despite the small contingency.  Kara Wilkins was our TBAY - Tampa Palms leader finishing 2nd in the 10 & Under Girls events.  Thanks to the following swimmers that participated and contributed in points for this event.  Matthew Lee, Samantha Lee, Jordan Wheeler, Luke Wheeler, Amanda Macchiarola, Sayan Chatterjee, Jed Rodriguez, Krystin Demsher, Cara Dawson, Kristen Dawson, Dillan Villavisanis, Kyndall Cardoso, Kara Wilkins, Colin Wilkins, Grant Pawlak and Lara Lontoc.

Final Results:  Midnightsports.com

GO TBAY!