GPAC Takes 5^th at Southeastern Champs

               HUNTSVILLE, AL- Led by four individual champions tallying 10 wins, many scoring relays and a number of team record-setting performances, the 25-member GPAC team finished fifth among over 30 teams at the 2023 Southeastern Swimming short course championships held in Huntsville, AL February 24-26.

               “The team performed superbly,” said GPAC head coach Greg Johnson. “We knew we had some great scoring potential going into the meet, but some things we didn’t account for fell into place for us, and we were able to take advantage and score some more points.”

               Lane Robinson, 10, had a tremendous meet—winning five out of his six individual events over the weekend. Lane swept the wins in all three of his events on Saturday, including setting two new GPAC team records. Lane first erased the old team mark in the 500-yd freestyle by over 5 seconds, and then reset his own team record in the 100-yd butterfly. On Sunday, Lane won two more events and erased a 33-year-old team record in the 100-yd freestyle. Robinson swam all life-best times at the meet and was just 2.5 points away from winning the meet’s high-point award.

               Logan Robinson, 16, joined his younger brother in the champions circle with three individual event wins of his own. Logan won the 200-yd freestyle, the 200-yd individual medley and the 200-yd butterfly. Logan set new a new team record in the 200-yd fly enroute to his gold medal. Logan’s time in the 200 fly was good for a new Junior National qualifying time, as well as a potential qualifying time for the US Open. Logan made the medal podium in the other three individual events as well—placing 3^rd in the 400-yd IM and 100-yd free and nabbing the silver medal in the 50-yd free.

               Logan, along with teammates Noah Day, 17, Braedan Jacobs, 16, and Ian Malone, 15, captured the silver medal in the 400-yd free relay, setting another new team record. The same combination of boys took 4^th in 200 free relay and set a new team record in that event. Logan Robinson, Ian Malone, Max Little, 15, and Hudson Trammell, 18, swam the medley relays together and set new team records in both the 200 and 400 relays. The boys won the bronze medal in the 400 medley relay.

               Taylor Clements, 14, won her second Southeastern Swimming title in the 13-14 girls’ 50-yd breaststroke on the final evening of the meet. Taylor also picked up a pair of silver medals. In the 100-yd breaststroke Clements set a new record and erased the 4-year-old team mark. Taylor also swam a new personal-best time in her second-place finish in the 50-yd freestyle.

               Aidan Hall, 14, tallied 96 points for GPAC and won his first-ever individual title, as he upset the top-seeded swimmer and won the gold in the 50-yd butterfly. Aiden took silver in the 100-yd butterfly and won bronze medals in the 50 and 100-yd breaststrokes.

               Relays are worth double points at the championship meet, and GPAC’s relays came through with nearly 300 points added to the team totals. GPAC scored in all nine of the 13-14 relays, including a fourth-place finish by Clements, Hall, Lily Walker and Landon Garcia in the mixed 200-yd medley relay.

               “This team did not place fifth just on the big swims of a few,” said GPAC head age group coach Nathan Smith. “We had many points scored by supporting swimmers who made the championship finals and placed well.”

               Axel Phillips, 10, was nipping at Lane Robinson’s heels into the wall in the 200-yd individual medley and gave GPAC the 1-2 win in the race. Phillips also took home the silver medal in the 100-yd backstroke. Axel also scored a pair of third-place finishes in the 500 free and 50 backstroke. Phillips hauled in an impressive 81 points for the team.

               Landon Garcia, 14, proved to be one of the most versatile in scoring for his age group. Landon made the championship finals in all six of his events, ranging from the 100-yd breaststroke to the mile, in which he finished fourth and sixth, respectively. He also placed fourth in the 200-yd breaststroke, fifth in the 200-yd backstroke and seventh in the 200 IM.

               Fourteen-year-old Noah Jacobs made the finals in the 50-yd breaststroke (6^th) and 500-yd freestyle (8^th) and added 24 points to the team total. Noah was also a member of the 13-14 boys’ relays that scored.

               Senior Sara Lypko, 18, in her final Southeastern Swimming championship brought in 37 points behind a pair of fifth-place finishes in the 400 IM and 1650-yd freestyle (the mile). Sara posted a new best time in both events. Sara has committed to swim for University of West Florida next year.

               Jillian Beardsley, 15, joined Sara in the championship final of the 400-yd IM, where she dropped over five seconds from her best time to place eighth. She also swam a new ‘AA’ time in the 200-yd butterfly.

               After winning his age group at the meet last year as a 14-year-old, Ian Malone, 15, stepped up into the senior age group at this year’s meet and threw down big swims to add 61 points. Ian, who has a knack for freestyle, made the championship finals in the 50, 100 and 200-yd freestyle events and finished sixth, fourth and fourth, respectively. His times in the 50 and 100 were new ‘AAAA’ times. He also placed fifth in the 200-yd IM with a new NCSA junior national qualifying time.

               Lane and Logan’s sister Abi Robinson, 14, dropped big time in both her distance events, and added 13 points to the team’s tally in the 1650-yd free. Her time was a personal best by nearly 20 seconds and qualifies her for the ESSZ Age Group Championships in Cary, NC next month.

               Senior Hudson Trammell, 18, claimed bronze on the final night of the meet in his prime event—the 100-yd butterfly. Hudson also placed sixth in the 50-yd fly and 10^th in the 200-yd fly, which scored 36 points.

               Lily Walker, 14, representing GPAC distance corps, won the bronze medal in the 1650-yd free, good for 16 points. She also nabbed seventh place in the 500-yd free, worth another 12 points.

               Jordana Wright, the only 11-12 competitor from GPAC in the meet, swam life-best times in both her butterfly races, and made the championship finals in the 50-yd event, finishing eighth.

               Braedan Jacobs and Max Little, along with their supporting roles on the record-setting relays, each scored a pair of consolation finals swims and set their first national-level meet qualifying times. Jacobs had to compete in a “swim-off” to earn the spot in the finals of the 50-yd freestyle, which he posted a best time on the day and a 16^th-place finish at night. He dropped 1.3 seconds in his 100-yd free to finish 13^th and earn a bid to the NCSA Spring Championships, which one of the fastest meets in the nation this spring.

               Max Little punched his ticket to the NCSA meet in the 200-yd breaststroke during the finals. Max’s time of two minutes, 9.19 seconds was over a four second drop for Little, who placed 12^th overall. He also made the consolation finals of the 400-yd IM, which he dropped over 10 seconds on the day and came with a .70 seconds of making that cut for the NCSA meet.

               Jack Hebert, 16, came through on the last day of the meet to pick up two scoring swims. Jack qualified for the consolation finals in the 200-yd IM and finished 16^th. But between the morning preliminaries and the finals swim of the 200 IM, Jack also swam the 1650 free, which he dropped over 25 seconds to garner a 14^th-place finish.

               Overall, GPAC posted 59% personal best times among all swimmers. The team continues through the championship season, hosting the Southeastern Swimming regional championships at UWF the first weekend in March. Then, several of the swimmers will attend sectional championships in North Carolina, which will feature clubs from around the Southeast, and a few will head to Orlando for the NCSA spring championships.

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