GREATER PENSACOLA AQUATIC CLUB

Malone repeats as Most Outstanding, Clements wins title and GPAC takes 7th at SES Champs HUNTSVILLE, AL—Ian Malone and Taylor Clements notched new individual titles and a tremendous team effort led the GPAC team to a seventh-place finish at the 2022 Southeastern Swimming Long Course championships held in Huntsville, AL July 14-17. “It was a really exciting weekend,” said GPAC’s new age group coach Logan Cale. “The swimmers were very positive and very supportive of each other. Watching GPAC swimmers win their events and the team placing so well was...

It seemed a little more like paradise this year, as the clouds broke and sun shone on a large GPAC squad that captured second place at the Nike Paradise Invitational held in Panama City Beach September 19-21. GPAC had over 85 swimmers attend the meet; the most swimmers at an away meet in over five years! Friday night at the meet had the 13 and over swimmers racing in a sprint pentathlon, where each swimmer competed in a 50-yd race of each stroke, and a 100-yd individual medley. Scores were...

Southeastern Swimming announced this week its annual list of All-Star swimmers for 2013-2014, and eleven GPAC swimmers were among the best in the LSC. This is the most swimmers GPAC has had on the All-Star roster in four years, and ties the all-time high from 2008 and 2010. For the short course season, eight swimmers earned the honor of All-Star: Coulson Barfield, Braden Barkley, James Henderson, Renee Henderson, William Henderson, Cameron Jones, Makayla Ludwick and Walker Parra. Braden posted three events with top-five rankings (100 free (5th), 200 Fr (4th)...

In its annual list of who’s who in swimming and academia released this week, USA Swimming has named GPAC’s Tatiana Oberley and Nate Thomas to the Scholastic All-America team for 2013-2014. Tatiana, 16, is a junior at Pensacola Christian Academy and swims with Coach Phil on the Senior team. This is her first appointment to this prestigious list, and her impressive breaststroke swims posted last winter coupled with her GPA exceeded the requirements to make the team. Nate Thomas, 18, is now a freshman at Purdue University, and made the...

For the second year running, GPAC is proud to award special t-shirts to the team members who made the efforts to attend a majority of the home meets, as well as a majority of all meets on the schedule. The shirts are not mutually exclusive, and many swimmers will be awarded both shirts. “Meet Monster” t-shirts are being awarded to swimmers who attended 13 out of the 16 meets on the schedule for both the short course and long course seasons. This year, GPAC had 37 swimmers meet this impressive...

It’s hard to believe that another new swim season has begun. GPAC team members opened the 2014-15 short course season with the second annual team photo day and time trials meet at the UWF Aquatic Center on August 23. The morning began with over 130 new and returning swimmers lined up for a handful of new “goodies,” including the team shirt and cap. In addition to the team uniform, swimmers were treated to some cool GPAC shades and a ball cap, courtesy of the team support fund! Senior team parent...

Perhaps it was because it was his first event of the meet. Or perhaps it was the excitement of being selected to his first-ever Zone team representing Southeastern Swimming and GPAC. Either way, Walker Parra finished what was left over from his tremendous Southeastern Championships two weeks earlier to put his name in the GPAC record books for a fourth time in a season. Parra, 12, established a new team record in the 400-meter freestyle (4:39.26) at the Southern Zone Age Group Championship in San Antonio, TX July 29-August 2,...

The GPAC team record book contains a list of tremendous swimmers, some of which have gone on to be Olympians. So it goes to say that if your name is there, you are among giants. Led by record-setting performances by Coulson Barfield, Makayla Ludwick, Walker Parra and Heidi Schellin, twenty nine GPAC swimmers had an exciting and successful Southeastern Swimming Championships in Knoxville, TN July 17-20. GPAC, being the 13th largest team, finished an impressive 10th place overall. This was a six-team jump from last year’s meet. GPAC also had...

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...

Drawing teams from as far as Memphis, TN and Athens, GA, GPAC’s annual Tom Lalor Invitational continued to be the big summer event for many of the swimmers on GPAC. Swimmers from GPAC posted an impressive 63% best times, and the team gathered four new Southeastern qualifiers bringing the team total to 38. Junior group member Walker Parra, 12, emerged as the sole high point winner for GPAC, though several other swimmers were in the running for the award. Parra swam eight out of 11 individual best times, and nabbed...