Gillilan and Wallace lead Wilson County Swimmers at the Meet of Champions
December 4, 2005……Nine Wilson County residents showed up in Brentwood TN to compete in one of the largest and most competitive swim meets in the South during the Christmas Season, the Excel Aquatics’ Meet of Champions. Excel Aquatics, a three-time USA Swimming Silver Medal Level Swim Club hosted the annual Meet of Champions December 2nd-4th. This year 657 swimmers from 34 clubs spread across Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Mississippi converged to see who the best among the best was.
Wilson County residents competing in the meet were Makensie Moses, Taylor Moses, Tay Needels, Luke Blackwell, Austin Barnes, Bradley Gillilan, Kelsey Copeland, Taylor Wallace, and Meagan Maxwell.
All nine Wilson County swimmers train with the host club, Excel Aquatics at their two training locations. “This was a Prelim/Finals format meet with qualifying times required in distances greater than 200 yards, thus it was a great opportunity for our Wilson County residents to see how they match up against the top swimmers from the Southeast. No other club in the area is taking this number of Wilson County swimmers to this type of high level meet this year.” Lebanon resident and Excel Assistant Coach John Barnes noted. “Excel is continuing its unsurpassed history of successfully developing our Wilson County swimmers to step up and compete at the championship level meets. The experience from the Meet of Champs will benefit them when they get to other championship level meets coming up, such as the State High School Championships, the Southeastern Swimming Short and Long Course Championship Meets, and the Summer League Championships.”
Gillilan, a 13 year old, posted the biggest time drop among the group, with an astounding 1 minute 54 second drop in the 1,650 Yard Freestyle, aka “The Mile”. Bradley got his Southeastern Qualifying time in this event, turning a 18:22.38, and posted the fastest 1650 Time for Wilson County residents in at least the last 4 years. Overall Gillilan dropped time in 5 of his 9 events and swam finals in 4 of them. Gillilan’s classmate at MJ Middle, Taylor Wallace, dropped times in 7 of his 9 events and swam in finals in 8 of those 9 events. Notable drops came in the 100 Free where he turned a :56.78, a 3.02 second drop, and the 100 Breaststroke, with a time of 1:10.00, a 1.26 second drop. Wallace has now taken over the title as the fastest Breaststroker and Individual Medley swimmer living in the County, with Gillilan the undisputed top Distance swimmer in the County. “These two boys are going to have a tremendous impact on High School swimming next year.” Coach Barnes stated. “They are competitors who push each other in class and in the water.”
Blackwell, a Lebanon resident and swimming for Excel Aquatics in a Short Course meet for the first time turned in times of :31.39 in the 50 Yard Freestyle, 1:40.24 in the 100 Back, :40.14 in the 50 Fly, 1:31.84 in the 100 Breaststroke, and a :38.11 in the 50 Back. Barnes, an 8th Grader at Carroll-Oakland School, dropped time in the 100 IM, 50 Free, 100 Back and the 50 Back.
Makensie Moses, a 7 year old from Mount Juliet competed in the 50 Breaststroke (1:15.48), 100 IM (2:50.84), 50 Free (1:09.26), and 50 Back (1:12.27). Her brother Taylor, 10 years old, had times of 1:28.86 in the 100 Free, 1:02.44 in the 50 Breast, 1:43.68 in the 100 IM, :38.65 in the 50 Free, and :48.62 in the 50 Back. Needels, 10 years old from Mount Juliet competed in the 100 IM (1:41.55), 50 Free (:41.47), 100 Back (1:55.28), 50 Fly (:49.57), 100 Breast (1:52.19), and the 50 Back (:49.50).
Amongst High School girls, MJHS Freshman Kelsey Copeland dropped time in the 500 Free with a time of 6:11.51 and competed in the 100 Free and 200 Back. WCHS Senior Meagan Maxwell competed in the 100 Free and the 200 IM.
“I encourage all of my fellow Wilson County neighbors interested in swimming to contact us at Excel. If anyone knows one of the families who attended this meet, feel free to ask them about the qualitative difference gained from training with Excel.” For more information and complete Meet Results, visit www.ExcelAquatics.org. The next meet for swimmers from Excel Aquatics’ will be the Baylor Invitational in Chattanooga TN in January.
