Gillilan Signs with Michigan State!!!

November 16, 2009....

Bradley Gillilan, a senior at Lebanon High School and a year-round swimmer with Excel Aquatics, signed a National Letter of Intent on November 11th to continue his swimming career at Michigan State University next Fall.

Gillilan, the most prolific distance specialist from Wilson County in recent history, weighed several offers from different schools before finally choosing Michigan State. Michigan State was one of the first teams to contact Bradley when recruiting opened up in July, and was the last place he visited in the process. Gillilan also visited Western Kentucky and the University of Alabama.

Excel Aquatics has been the one and only home for Bradley, training with the coaching staff in Gallatin for the past 12 years, and progressing through the different squad levels. Coach Mike Ballard trained Bradley for his first six years with Excel, taking a raw elementary school child and teaching Bradley the stroke basics which would make him one of the top distance swimmers in the nation. In Middle School, Bradley swam for Excel's Andreea Ianoli-Mitrofan, a former Romanian National Champion, who further refined Bradley into the Excel record holder in the 800 Meter and 1500 Meter Freestyles in the 11&12 age group category. At the start of High School Bradley moved up into Coach John Barnes' training squad.

While in Barnes' squad, Bradley has attained multiple qualifying times for the Southeastern Swimming Championships, Senior Sectional Championships, NCSA Junior National Championships, USA-Swimming Junior National Championships, and USA-Swimming Senior National Championships.

"Many schools were drawn to Gillilan because of the breakthrough swims he had as a Junior, as well as the 1,650 time he posted this Fall", Coach Barnes explained. "As of November 1st, Gillilan was ranked first in the nation among boys 15 to 18 years of age in the 1,650 Freestyle event for the 2009-2010 Short Course Season. His personal best time is 15:41.26, a pace of 57.04 seconds per 100 yards swam."

"Bradley wanted to make his decision in the early signing period this Fall, and get the process completed so he could focus on the upcoming Senior National Championships in Seattle WA next month. He limited his visits to just 3 of the allotted 5, and chose Michigan State in the end. State is an outstanding academic school, and their swim team is a force in the Big 10."

"I was really attracted by the opportunity to swim for the Spartans against Michigan and Indiana on a yearly basis", Gillian said. "The Big 10 Conference top to bottom has the best distance swimmers in terms of depth, and I look forward to being able to go to the next level of training and swim against the best of the best on a regular basis. My goal is to win a Big 10 Conference title before I graduate."

Gillilan will swim in the Fall of 2010 for Spartan's Head Coach Matt Gianiodis and Assistant Coach Tim Loeffer who is in charge of Distance training.

For more information on swimming opportunities, visit SwimWilsonCounty.com.