Monday, May 26, 2008

Wilson County Swimmers Score Victories in Swim Meet

Blackwell and Gillilan Score Wins at Stars and Stripes Meet

May 25, 2008…. At a time when many schools are winding down for the year and families are celebrating a long weekend, eight swimmers from Wilson County spent their weekend at the Annual Memorial Day Weekend Stars and Stripes Long Course Meet in Brentwood TN.

Leading the way with victories in their age categories were Bradley Gillilan, and Luke Blackwell.

Gillilan, swimming in the Senior Boy’s category, scored a first place victory in the 800 Meter Freestyle, dropping 3.92 seconds to finish in eight minutes, fifty one seconds and thirty seven one-hundredths of a second (8:51.37). Gillilan also finished second in the 400 Meter Freestyle (4:21.32) and the 1500 Meter Freestyle (17:06.99). His performances in the 200 Meter Butterfly and 200 Meter Backstroke qualified him for the Southeastern Swimming (SES) Long Course Championships in those events in July.

“Bradley has now qualified for 10 events at the SES meet, however he can only swim in seven of them by meet rules,” Excel Coach John Barnes explained. “Bradley’s time in the 1500 Meter Free was a Summer Senior Sectional Qualifying Cut. The summer cuts for Sectionals are much harder than the spring Sectional cuts, and he has been working hard to get these cuts for this next step in his long range goals. The 1500 is his second Summer Sectional cut, the first one was in the 800 Free a few months ago.”

The Summer Senior Sectional meet will be held in Atlanta in early July, at the same pool that the 1996 Olympics were held in.

Luke Blackwell scored first place finishes in the 13&14 Year Old Boy’s category in the 100 Meter and 200 Meter Breaststroke events. Luke also scored second place finishes in the 400 Meter Individual Medley (IM), 200 Meter IM, 100 Meter Backstroke, 200 Meter Freestyle, 200 Meter Backstroke and 1500 Meter Backstroke in his age category.

“Luke is getting even stronger in his non-Free events, and that is showing up in his Individual Medley events which consist of all four strokes swum in the sequence of Fly, Back, Breast and Free.”

“His 400 Meter Individual Medley was perhaps his best swum event of the meet in my analysis, the splitting was good, and we identified some areas of improvement which he will be working on in the coming months.”

Also competing in the meet were Madison Blackwell, Samuel Blackwell, Austin Barnes, Andrew Barnes, Alek Nochowicz, and Taylor Wallace.

“Nochowicz swam in his first Long Course meet ever, in prior years he has only trained with his summer league team, the Willoughby Waves, however this year he is committed to training long course and swimming in those meets along with his separate summer league meets.”

“Wallace dropped some nice times in the Individual Medley events, the 200 and 400 IM’s. Taylor has some talent in those events, transitioning from one stroke to another.”

For more information on swimming in Wilson County visit www.SwimWilsonCounty.com

0 comments: