In their first meet since early June, and their last home meet for the summer, 86 GPAC swimmers saw great time improvements, and celebrated several individual successes at the Summer Finale Invitational held July 5-6 at UWF.

“I think we had a great last meet,” said Head Age Group coach Greg Johnson. “We had an overwhelming number of best times and new Southeastern cuts.”

GPAC is proud to have had five individual high point winners from across three age groups at the meet. Maren Mackey and Noah Scoggins swept the 10 & Under high point awards, Manas Pandey took the 11-12 boys’ award, and Coulson Barfield and AJ Luth were the winners for the 13-14 age group.

Mackey, 10, in her last meet as a 10 & under swimmer, won seven of her eight individual events, and placed second in the other. Maren set a new ‘AAA’ time in her 200m freestyle, and posted two new ‘AA’ times on her way to setting six out of eight life-best times.

Noah Scoggins, 10, won all eight of his individual events, including a dramatic 52-second drop in his 400m freestyle to garner another Southeastern qualifying time. He posed a new ‘A’ time in the event, as well as in the 100m backstroke. He also swam a new ‘AA’ time in the 100m butterfly.

Newcomer Manas Pandey, 12, turned some heads as he posted six new Southeastern cuts at the meet. He was a top-three finisher in all eight of his events, winning the 50m fly, 50m free and 200m IM. All of his swims were life-best times.

AJ Luth, 14, won six out of seven of her individual events, and set six new life-best times. AJ swam new Southeastern qualifying times in the 200m and 400m freestyle, and the 200m backstroke. She swam three new ‘AA’ times (100 Br, 50 Fr, 200 Bk), and a new ‘A’ time in the 100m butterfly.

Coulson, 14, swam four out of eight life-best times en route to a dominating eight-event run of first places.  He dropped over two seconds in his 100m backstroke to set a new ‘AA’ time.

Three new team records were set during the meet. Although the event was not offered to their age group, Makayla Ludwick, 12 and Walker Parra swam a time trial to go for the team record in the 200m backstroke on Saturday. Walker, 12, broke teammate James Henderson’s record, set last summer, by over 3 seconds, while Ludwick missed her goal mark by a scant .09 seconds. She swam the race again on Sunday and smashed the mark set by GPAC alum Caroline Page in 2008. Both Parra and Ludwick set new ‘AAAA’ times with those swims. James Tracey, 12, took the gold in the 800m freestyle, and broke Walker’s record set last summer by almost 10 seconds. James’ swim was also good enough for a new ‘AAA’ time.  James also won the 50m breaststroke. Braden Barkley, 11, also finished the 800m race under record time, behind Tracey. All three boys will swim the 800m freestyle at the championship meet, so it is a record that is likely to fall again.

Sixteen GPAC swimmers accounted for 36 new Southeastern cuts at the meet: Jacob Bell, 12 (110 bk, 100 br), Caitlin Bridges, 13 (200 fly, 800 fr), Lexi DeJesus, 13 (100 br), Trinity Devanney, 10 (50, 100 br, 100, 400 fr, 50 bk), Sophia Diagne, 15 (50 fr), Kyle Longley, 10 (200, 400 fr, 200 IM), Malia Ludwick, 10 (100 fly, 50 br), AJ Luth (200, 400 fr, 200 bk), Jenna Luth, 16 (100, 200 br, 50 fr), Noah Scoggins (400 fr), Seth Scoggins, 12 (50 Fly) and Thomas Young, 14 (200 fly). Congratulations to Jenna Luth, 16, Sarah Marks, 10, Aiden Morgan, 10, and Manas Pandey who set their first-ever Southeastern cuts. Jenna swam a time trial of the 200m breaststoke and got both the 100m and 200m qualifying times in one race! She also picked up the 50m freestyle cut in a time trial. Sarah grabbed the 50 and 100m backstroke cuts. Aiden qualified in both 50 and 100 breaststroke, winning the 50m race. Manas qualified in the 50, 100, 200 freestyle, 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke. GPAC will take a team of 29 swimmers to the championship meet in Knoxville, TN July 17-20.

GPAC had many other individual event winners at the meet. Caitlin Bridges won the 200m fly and 800m free, and sister Paige Bridges, 10, won the 50 and 100m backstroke and the 400m free. Sophia Diagne, 15, won the 400m IM. Scott Griffith, 15 won the 200m breaststroke. The Henderson Trifecta accounted for seven individual wins, with James taking two (200 bk, 400 fr), Renee posting four wins (50 fly, 100 br, 100 fr, 200 IM), and William winning the 50m backstroke. Kyle Longley won the 200m free and 200 IM, while Catherine Petruska captured the 800m free and brother Nicholas won the 400m IM. Heidi Schellin, 16 took top honors in the 200m breaststroke, Seth Scoggins won the 100m freestyle, and Thomas Young won the 800m freestyle.

Congratulations to the following swimmers who posted all best times in their individual events: Lauren Baradon, 12, Stephen Baradon, 12, Braden Barkley, Kareem Bataineh, 14, Jacob Bell, Grant Bridges, 17, Lacie Day, 11, Sydney Dodson, 11, Nathan Durham, 9, Scott Griffith, 15, Bryce Howell, 13, Emily Johnson, 14, Izzy kent, 11, Ignacio Leon, 12, Anna Marks, 12, Geza Maruschak, 16, Gracie Matthews, 13, Catherine Petruska, 16, Nicholas Petruska, 15, James Tracey, Hope Waggoner, 8, and
Thomas Young.

GPAC is proud of these swimmers who achieved new motivational time standards in their events:

B:            Lauren Baradon, Jacob Bell, Amy Brown, Connor Devanney, Meghan Doyle, Cason Forst, Alexis Renee Heath, Landry Hadder, Bryce Howell, Izzy Kent, Anna Marks, Alexandra McCreary, Aiden Morgan, Manas Pandey, Joseph Richbourg, Hope Waggoner

BB:         Braden Barkley, Kareem Bataineh, Jacob Bell, Grant Bridges, Amy Brown, Trinity Devanney, Meghan Doyle, Landry Hadder, Ashton William Heath, Amelia Hoitt, Genna Hoitt, Rebecca Holliman, Bryce Howell, Cameron Jones, Izzy Kent, Kyle Longley, Ryan Longley, Anna Marks, Sarah Marks, Geza Maruschak, Gracie Matthews, Aiden Morgan, Manas Pandey, Adriana Rivera, Heidi Schellin, Thomas Young

A:            Caitlin Bridges, Lexi DeJesus, Trinity Devanney, Ashton William Heath, AJ Luth, Jenna Luth, Sarah Marks, Manas Pandey, Peyton Parra, Catherine Petruska, Nicholas Petruska, Noah Scoggins, Grace Sill, James Tracey, Thomas Young

AA:         Coulson Barfield, Caitlin Bridges, Lexi DeJesus, James Henderson, William Henderson, AJ Luth, Jenna Luth, Maren Mackey, Nicholas Petruska, Noah Scoggins

AAA:      Braden Barkley, Paige Bridges, Sophia Diagne, Makayla Ludwick, Maren Mackey, Walker Parra, James Tracey

AAAA:   Makayla Ludwick, Walker Parra

Congratulations to all the GPAC swimmers who competed at the meet, and congratulations on a very successful summer season!