BLAST
LONG COURSE 2008
BLAST NATION:
By now you've heard that the BLAST finished a surprising third in the
Louisiana State Long Course Championships. But the numbers behind
the story are even more incredible! Here are some:
One - Damon McCoy Female winner - Kara Kopcso won the award for
the third state meet in a row!
Two - National Top 16 times turned in by Griffin Guzan in the 50 fly and
100 fly
Three - Individual High point winners - Kristen Jennings [11-12 girls],
Griffin Guzan [10 & under boys] and Kara Kopcso, [19 & under girls],
8 - 11-12 girls state records broken; Kara - 200 free, 400 free, 800 free,
200 back, and 400 IM, Alex Cloutet, 200 breast,
400 free and medley relays, [Brooke Vinturella, Kristen Jennings, Alex
C, and Kara K.]
9 - National Top Ten times turned in by our 11-12 girls
37 - individual and relay state champions - team record for a state meet
and the most for any team in the meet.
Individual Champions breakdown:
Kristen Jennings - 4 - 11-12 girls, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly and 200 IM
Brooke Vinturella - 3 - 11-12 girls, 200 free, 400 free and 100 fly.
Alex Cloutet - 2 - 11-12 girls, 50 breast and 100 breast
Jesi Kopcso - 5 - 15-16 girls, 100 breast, 200 breast and 100 fly, 19 &
under 100 and 200 breast.
Kara Kopcso - 6 - 19 & under girls, 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 200
back, 200 IM and 400 IM
Harrison Prieto - 3 - 10 & under boys 50 free, 50 and 100 back.
Griffin Guzan - 5 - 10 & under boys 100 free, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 fly
and 200 IM.
Andrew Knudsen -2 - 11-12 boys 400 free and 100 fly.
Colin Babcock - 1 - 15-16 boys 400 IM.
Relay Champions:
10 & under boys: 200 free and medley relays - Trey James, Grant
Gallaspy, Griffin Guzan and Harrison Prieto.
11-12 girls: 200 free - Kara, Claire Rasmus, Brooke and Alex
11-12 girls: medley relays - Kara, Kristen, Brooke and Alex
11-12 boys: 200 free and medley relays - Andrew Knudsen, Mason
Drouant, Gianni [JQ] Scramuzza and Will Warwick.
2961.50 points scored by team -most ever for a state meet.
And I'm just getting started, but shut eye is needed.
BB
BLAST NATION:
I hope everyone gets to read this before you hit the highway for Sulphur.
I know you've all had a chance to check out the state psyche sheet and everyone is bubbling over with anticipation. All of you veteran state meet swimmers know that psyche sheet seedings and final results are very different. It's what you do in the pool that scores.
But everyone know this: we have the largest entry we've ever had in state meet. Our 50 swimmers entered in individual events is a team record, 265 individual entries vs 235 tops last year's long course state and we have 36 relays entered to the 29 we swam in 2007.
We have many experienced veteran, state meet champions, but to get to this team record, we couldn't do it without a large group of first time state qualifiers. Many of these swimmers have been in swimming for several years and are finally seeing the fruits of their labors.
This state meet, we have seven first time state qualifiers. Here they are:
10 & under girls -
Sydney Dupont - qualified for state by leading off the 200 free relay in Biloxi in her first swim back with the team in two years. Has great explosive speed and also will swim backstroke in the medley relay.
Anna Rawls - a dramatic state qualifier in the district meet, Anna came back from a distant third to win the 100 breast at districts. Anna can finish a race like a true champion and will have a great opportunity to score in her event.
Hope Winkler - easily our "Comeback Swimmer of the Year". Hope injured her knee this fall when playing field games with her sister. She had to have surgery and missed the entire short course season. She came back gingerly in May and practiced fairly lightly until June. She was able to step up the training pace and when she swam her first meet in nearly a year at TAQ, She made five state times! She wrapped up her state slate of events at Biloxi and now is qualified in every event that she is physically able to swim. I say that because Hope has a knee condition which prevents her from kicking breaststroke legally and without pain, so she is unable to swim the breast and IM events at meets. But in spite of that handicap, Hope has persevered and now will stand on the starting block at state in total triumph regardless of where she places in her races.
However, she is seeded very well in all of her events; she can score in every event and can even finish in the top eight in a few.
Hope is proof positive that patience and perseverance pays off!!!!
Also swimming in her first state meet in relays is Catherine Walker. Catherine's work ethic at practice pushed Hope, Anna, Sydney and others to swim better. Her improvement this year has been DRAMATIC, in the 200 IM at Districts, she dropped over 1 minute and 20 seconds!
10 & under boys -
Matthew Stegen - Matthew has been developing as a swimmer with our program for several years. This year we saw a real all around improvement in all of his strokes, He finally broke through in the TAQ meet and made the 50 back time. He will also do the 50 free as a bonus event. For Matthew, this meet is just the start of many more qualifying times and state swims. Matthew made it possible for the team to field an 10 & under boys B free and medley relays. The 20 - 30 points the relays will score will be very important in the final team tally.
Zachary Charles - Zachary was the No Time Ruler at Districts, he broke through in the 50 back and will swim that plus two relays at state. Zac is a "gamer" and knows to get up for big athletic contests. Look for some big swims from this weekend.
Other relay swimmers to watch: Alex Rawls, at six,our youngest state swimmer, and Zach Cloutet, a free and breast specialist.
11-12 Girls -
Julianna Toranto - before Districts, "JuJu" had the dubious distinction of holding the team record for most inhalers left at the pool at practice. She overcame illness, earaches, forgetfullness and adversity to win districts in the 100 fly. She came out this week and her fly stroke has improved tremendously. Look for a big race on Friday!
15-16 Boys -
Gavin Breaux - Gavin is a Blast Charter Member, he has been with us from the beginning. He has struggled at times, but most recently his practices have improved and he is beginning to see himself as an impact swimmer. At Districts he had the meet of his life when he won three events and just missed the COT in the 200 free, He will swim the 200 IM, 200 breast and 200 free at state. Look for continued improvement from him.
Notes and Thoughts: - At short course state, we finished a scant 18 points behind COSST, when we went over the meet and the absentees that were sick, at school or injured for the meet, we were amazed at how we really could see us getting third in the meet. This meet, with everyone entered making a splash, every relay battling to score, no key DQ's, we have real shot at THIRD! Some of our psyche sheet prognosticators have picked Blast to edge out HSC by a slim margin for third. Now it's up to us to show up ready to race, seize the day and hit this meet like a Tsunami on a Louisiana Levee. [pre-Katrina that is].
All of our previous Damon McCoy winners, high point winners and state champions will get us close to third, but the difference between fifth and third will be the points we score by B and C relays and by first time and unheralded state swimmers. If we can out score HSC and Cosst consistently in the 9 - 16 brackets we will have great chance to real our goal.
"THIRD IS THE WORD!"
Last year in Monroe, I received numerous admiring comments from coaches, parents, grandparents, officials and swimmers about how we impressed them with our team spirit and enthusiasm. Let's bring it to a whole other level ya'll!
BLAST NATION:
As hot as it was outside today, our District Blasters really brought the meet to a boiling point! Saturday's mojo rolled into Sunday magic and the wins just kept on comin'! After notching up seven wins, one state cut and eight new events, our District heroes racked up an additional nine wins and two more state cuts! The team totaled 16 wins, three individual state cuts and a total of nineteen new events to go into state meet. At short course district last March, we added 13 news swims, this time around we were almost 50% better!
This is a meet without a team score; so domination and victory can be measured with individual wins and state qualifiers. With only the seventh largest entry, the Blast had more individual wins than any other team:
Rachel Cogley wore her first Blast swim cap today and she immediately got the team off to a magic start by winning the 200 free, 2:38.38. She actually had a "Hat Trick" also winning the 100 fly, 1:20.73 and "capped" off a perfect day by winning the 50 free in a state qualifying 32.25. Wow! what an awesome first Blast meet!
Gavin Breaux was ready to go and won the 200 free, 2:20.63, giving him three state swims.
Rachel Strain won another exciting race by blasting ahead in the last 50 of her 200 free and notching a win and state qualifying time in 2:31.65. Rachel now has five events to swim at state.
Ronnie Drez added a 15-16 100 fly win to his state resume' which is now up to three events.
But the real story today, was how three swimmers overcame the frustration of near misses Saturday and earlier in the day Sunday to magically reach their goal of winning an event and qualifying for state.
Anna Rawls, after finishing a frustrating second in the 50 breast on Saturday, gave us a "Chariots of Fire" moment when she came back from a distant third in the 100 breast to win going away in 1:52.83. In her heat, Anna touched third among her 10 & under competition at the 50, but at the turn she came out roaring and swam down her rivals. As she pulled even and eventually away, it reminded me of the scene in Chariots where Eric Liddell falls down, but comes back to win his 400 meter race. I could almost hear the Vangelis music ringing through the Ketcham Natatorium. Anna's win was one where an athlete determinedly wills themselves into victory.
Zachary [No Time} Charles was the ruler of the 12 & under early NT heats. All meet he swam great, but kept just missing first place by swimmer's with established times. Finally, Zac broke through and won the 50 back and our 10 & under boys B relay just got a whole lot better.
And finally, Julianna Toranto set a goal to make state when she came out for the team last August. This summer, she battled asthma, ear aches and illness just to get to Districts. Because of her missed time, she struggled with stroke issues throughout the meet, but inspite of disappointments early, she never got down on herself. The meet came down to her last best shot to win an event, the 100 fly. Julianna raced even with her competition through the 50, she pulled away on the second 50, but her missed water time caught up to her. But her "refuse to lose" mindset got her through the race and on to state. I know she'd have a great week of practice.
On top of all this, all Blast swimmers led the meet with 79% best times, the highest of any team. This weekend we showed the state how deep the waters of our championship character runs. It's not just state record holders or high point winners, it's in every fiber of every swimmer who puts on a Blast swim suit and wears a Blast swim cap. For all the other swimmers at the meet: Brianna Harwell, Ashley Lyon, Catherine Walker, Connor Gruntz, Mia Genova, Jack Genova, Evan Harris, Greg Harris, Macie Breaux and Laura McCallum - you all improved greatly and gave the team much to be proud of. You gave Louisiana Swimming an early preview of the Blastastic Beast that will be unleashed July 17 - 20.
Extra thanks to all parents who helped time, cheer and support. And a special thanks to the Prietos and Knudsen's who came up Saturday and Sunday respectively to cheer the team. You gave us all a big lift!
The last four weeks could aptly be described as "Blast Wars" with each meet weekend being a special team episode. We had the marathon weekend at TAQ, the Winning Biloxi Blast, the MiniBlasters last weekend and this weekend the District Dominators!
Next weekend is the season's last regular episode at State Meet in Sulphur. [There will be a Blast postscript at Zones, but more on that later after state.]. The question is not, are we ready for state meet, but "Is the state meet ready for the Blast!" When it comes to big meets, NOBODY BRINGS IT LIKE THE BLAST!
LOUISIANA ARE YOU READY FOR US!
DISTRICTS AU GEAUX GEAUX!!!
BLAST NATION:
On the first day of the District Long Course Championships at Crawfish Aquatics, the Blast notched four new state qualifiers in eight new events!! The meet has an Olympic Trial feel to it, because in the end, there could be only one qualifer from each age group in each event. Unless there were multiple state time qualifiers, only the winner goes to state.
Rachel Cogley got her new Blast career and off to a rousing started by becoming the team's first state qualifier of the meet in her first ever swim with the Blast in the 200 IM. She raced to a solid 3:01.57 in the IM and won the 15-16 girls IM. To prove that her win was bonafide, Rachel expertly raced to two second place finishes in the 100 free and 100 back. Welcome to Blast, Rachel!
Rachel's winning swim got our meet mojo going. Gavin [Way to Geaux!] Breaux followed with a PR of 2:43.32 and captured the 15-16 boys 200 IM. He later dropped over 20 seconds in winning the 15-16 boys 200 breast in 3:03.52.
Rachel Strain won the "race of the day" when she sprinted from third to first in the last 15 meters of the 100 free and stuck her finish in 1:10.31 and captured the 13-14 girls 100 free. This time is a true state qualifying time so after the drops dry from the meet, Rachel gets to pick a bonus event also. She later out-toughed the field in the 200 fly and won it in 3:09.61.
Ronnie Drez seized the moment in another exciting 100 free race and outtouched the competion to win the 15-16 boys 100 free in 1:06.97. Ronnie later staged a classic race with fellow teammates Gavin Breaux and Greg Harris and won the 15-16 boys 200 fly in a time of 2:55.20. All winning times were best times and it reflected the great racing attitudes our swimmers displayed throughout the meet.
In addition to our state qualifiers we had three other second place finishes. Zachary Charles swimming in the NT heats raced to second in the 10 & under boys 100 free and 100 back, Anna Rawls dropped almost two seconds and placed second in the 10 & under girls 50 breast.
All 16 swimmers who raced today swam best times, Greg Harris, Evan Harris, Jack Genova, Mia Genova, Connor Gruntz, Julianna Toranto, Ashley Lyon, Catherine Walker, Laura McCallum and Macie Breaux all swam great, inspired your coaches and teamates and kept that Mojo working throughout the meet.
How many more qualifiers will we have tomorrow? Stay tuned!
Amazing TAQ Summer Classic
I can't remember such a successful team meet that occurred in the middle of training as this past weekend.
Congrats to all Blasters who competed so valiantly while still tired from training; enduring long hot sessions and going through many bags of ice for hurting shoulders.
Our experience and character gained from this meet will prove invaluable as we strive to meet our goals for LC state and beyond.
Sunday night finals proved exceptionally inspiring with what one thought would have been a difficult and tired final session.
Instead, Blast mojo appeared out of no where as if it was Sunday night of state.
Robert K. kicked us off with a smooth 200 free and continued on with a 3 for 3 LTB (life time best) performance.
Kara and Colin continued the mojo with outstanding 200 free races where they dueled gallantly with bigger, older, and in some cases, LSU college swimmers.
Kara was soon up again in the 100 fly where she powered to a 1:07 LTB swim.
Right after that, we witnessed some very impressive 200 back swims by Robert, Alex Knudsen, and Katie F
(lesson learned).
Then the race which led to a buzz by
all coaches on deck who witnessed it:
Kara winning the open 200 back with an 11-12 state record time of 2:33.00
and Kristen Jennings, on the eve of her 12th b-day, kicking into a never before seen finishing gear to place 3rd in the open race and log a time of 2:35, good enough for a National Top Ten time for 11 year olds!!
From there, our sprinters stepped up with strong 50's by Katie F and Amanda Gilbert.
Finally, the 200 breast provided our final drama of the evening with perennial breastroke favorite, Jessica K. in lane 2 and our always phenominal
Alex Cloutet in lane 1 next to her.
Jessie surged to the finish for 3rd place behind two LSU college swimmers with a non-shavead and
taperd best time of 2:48.
Alex Cloutet also wowed the crowd with her breastroke power in finishing with a LTB 2:57, only one tenth of a second off the 11-12 state record!(we know you'll get it)
Colin closed out the night with his new found favorite event; 200 breast with an
LTB and also led off the boys 400 free relay with a 59 second 100 free, his first time under 1:00.
Thanks to all athletes who stayed for the final"demand style" relays: Colin, Alex K, Robert K, and Andrew K for the boys and Amanda G., Katie F, Kara K, and Kristen J for the girls
Are you ready for state??? More like, are they ready for us!!!!!!
Coach Emmett
CONGRATULATIONS BLAST ZONE SWIMMERS!
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LAST UPDATED: April 18, 2010
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Covington
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REBUILDING LOUISIANA SWIMMING ONE STROKE AT A TIME!
BLAST SWIM TEAM
NATIONAL WEBSITE
NEW INTERESTED SWIMMERS
Join us any day at practice
MEET THE COACHES!
Try us out FREE for
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COACH EMMETT SMITH SELECTED AS ASSISTANT COACH USA SWIMMING SOUTHERN ZONE SELECT CAMP
CONGRATULATIONS
TO ALLISON JONES
ON SIGNING WITH
CENTENARY COLLEGE
OF LOUISIANA
ON SWIMMING SCHOLARSHIP
LOUISIANA
SWIMMING
AT ITS BEST
CONGRATULATIONS
ALISSA WINKLER
1ST HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE
CHARTER MEMBER
BLAST SWIM TEAM
BLAST BEST AT TNT BILOXI BEACH BLAST - RESULTS
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EIGHT
&
UNDER
REGIONALS
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SO AWESOME!!! BLAST TAKES 3RD
37 STATE CHAMPIONS
EIGHT NEW STATE RECORD
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ALEX CLOUTET
BROOKE VINTURELLA
JESI KOPCSO
KARA KOPCSO
ANDREW KNUDSEN
KRISTEN JENNINGS
*CONGRATULATIONS*
KARA KOPCSO AND GRIFFIN GUZAN
*12 & UNDER LA SWIMMERS OF THE YEAR*
