Poseidon Swimming Finishes 3^rd at Age Group Champs.

After 4 days of intense high level swimming Poseidon proved once again that it is among the best Virginia has to offer. In a close battle for third with the Virginia Gators, Poseidon Swimming edged out the Gators by 8 points on the final event of the meet. This was a total team effort for the weekend. Going into the weekend Poseidon was on the outside looking in for many of the events on the table; it was our time to break the pecking order.

All throughout the weekend Poseidon was winning heats and moving up to score in the top 16 and the top 8. Some of the highlights from these big jumps was spear headed by our boys 13-14 1000 in which we won 3 consecutive heats with Morgan Latimer, Josh Reynolds, and Travis Kerner who finished 1^st, 4^th, and 9^th, respectively. This momentum helped carry and lift Poseidon to more outstanding swimming for the weekend.

On Friday, the morning started out with Olivia Ross swimming to her first Junior National cut in the 100 Breaststroke in a time of 1:06.45, then coming back at night to win the event in a time of 1:05.63. In the same event, Meaghan Godwin moved from 28^th to 15^th and swam a best time of 1:11.79 at night. On the boy’s side in the 100 BR, Kerner and Patrick O’Keefe moved from 24^th and 33^rd to 11^th and 16^th respectively. Kelsey Hahn got the 11-12 girls moving up in the 200 Free by going from 19^th into the top 16 followed by Madison Boswell who went from 9^th to 3^rd overall.  The 11-12 boys, with Nicholas Mauricio who went from 22^nd to 9^th in the 100 IM, Andrew Drummond who was seeded 22^nd in the 100 fly and moved into the top 16, and Conrad Zamparello who bounced back from a disappointing morning swim in the 200 Free to move from 16^th to 10^th in the finals. The 13-14 boys continued swimming well and moving up in all events capped off by Austin Zoldork’s performance in the 100 fly moving from 27^th with a time of 1:01.16 to 13^th in prelims with a drop of over 2 seconds to a time of 58.78.

Moving on to Saturday with the momentum on our side, Poseidon Swimming started the day with  Austin continuing to move up the charts in the 200 fly moving from 24^th to 16^th dropping over 4 seconds and Patrick dropping more than 6 seconds in the 200 Breast to move from 26^th to 16^th.  On the girl’s side, there was moving up all over the charts. With the meet being so close in the end it’s hard to overlook small move ups, but one in particular was Maria Maurer who moved from 9^th to 8^th to make the big final in the 200 fly. The day was capped off by Josh and Darren Barlow finishing 9^th and 10^th in the 500 Free after qualifying 13^th and 15^th in the morning session, as evidenced by them giving each other a HIGH FIVE after winning the heat. By the way, Josh started the meet ranked 29^th.

After 3 days of fast swimming Poseidon Swimming was looking to cap off a stellar weekend of swimming with some more impressive swims that were moving up the charts faster than a No. 1 music hit. Gabby Gelozin started the day off by moving into the top 8 of the 200 Breast after starting 10^th. Darren again had another impressive swim in the 200 back moving from 18^th to 9^th. Joining Darren in the 9^th spot was Nicholas and Kelsey Hahn in the 100 back and 100 free, one of the biggest jumps of the weekend for Kelsey, she started 37^th. Another one of the biggest jumps on the weekend came in the 13-14 girls 100 free, Elizabeth Maltby moved from 35^th to 10^th. Both Kelsey and Elizabeth dropped over 2 second on the weekend in the 100.

The defining moment of being part of this special team came in the 11-12 boys 100 free at finals. After feeling sick and not thinking he could swim, Andy Branin, came to me wanting to let Conrad swim in his place, since Conrad was the alternate, but since Andy was in the finals, after a great swim in the morning, alternates are not allowed to take finals positions. After asking Andy if he thought he could swim, he showed great courage and determination to finish the 100 free final. Even though Andy finished in 8^th place, those points were worth 11 points giving Poseidon Swimming an 8 point victory over 4^th place Gators. If you see Andy on the pool deck, give him a pat on the back for putting his team first, and making the sacrifice to swim when he could have easily given up.

Poseidon Swimming overall top performances came from Eileen Cunningham and Morgan Latimer. Eileen was victorious in the 500 free and 200 IM and continued to finish in the top 3 in many other events. Eileen was so successful that she was the high point winner for 10 and under girls. On the weekend, Eileen qualified for Zones (top 2) in the 200 and 500 free and 100 and 200 IM. Morgan Latimer in his final meet as an Age Grouper recorded 5 victories in the 500 and 1000 free, 100 and 200 fly and 400 IM. On the weekend, Morgan finished as high point winner for the 13-14 boys.

Poseidon Swimming will be sending 3 swimmers to Zones, Eileen in the events mentioned above, Madison Boswell in the 100 and 200 fly, and 200 and 500 free. Sommer Harris will be joining the other two in the 100 IM and 200 BR.

Congratulations to all who participated in Age Group Champs, it was truly a team effort. Thanks for a memorable weekend.

Mike