Brendan Kerns, 10, who swims for the Bremerton YMCA Swim Team
set his 17th and 18th team records at the November Age Group Invite
at the Curtis High School pool last weekend.
Kerns broke Chuck Talcott’s 41-year record in the 50-yard
breastroke in 39.10 seconds and the 50 butterfly record in 32.78,
which had been held by Kenny Smith from 1977 in 32.90.
According to Greg Mackem, the assistant aquatics director for
YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, “there have been no other
swimmers on the team since it was reformed almost four years
ago that have broken records which stood as long as those, nor have
any swimmers set as many team records as Brendan.”
YMCA teammate Valencia Tang nearly broke the team record in the
50 fly. Her time of 30.71 was just off the record of 30.59, set in
1984 by Julie Richardson, who was a standout at Olympic High and
Puget sound Swim club.
Also, I’ll note that Kerns is listed among the top 25 for his
age group in the Pacific Northwest in the 50 breaststroke, the 100
breast, the 50 butterfly, and the 100 fly.
The Bremerton YMCA Swim Team, which found itself without a home
pool while the Jarstad Aquatic Center was being remodeled this
summer, finished second at the Fall Festival Swim Meet in Hoquiam.
The meet, which was hosted by Grays Harbor YMCA, was the kickoff to
the 2014-15 season. Grays Harbor won the team title, followed by
Bremerton. Bremerton won the meet last year.
Former Bainbridge Islander Kim Williams, who moved to Bellevue
and how swims for the Wolverines, verbally committed to Stanford
University on Wednesday according to Braden Keith of
swimswam.com.
Williams swam for Bainbridge Island Swim Club before
her family moved to Bellevue when she was 12. Keith calls Williams
an incredible all-around swimmer and a true IM star. She recently
competed for Team USA at the 2014 Junior Pan Pac Championships in
Hawaii where she placed third in the 200 individual medley in 2
minutes, 14.18 seconds. She is also the long-course Junior National
Champion in both the 200 IM and 400 IM.
Joining Williams for the 2015 freshman class at Stanford are
Olympic and world champion Katie Ledecky, the sixth-ranked recruit
in the nation Kaitlyn Albertoli.
Williams is the two-time defending state champion in the 3A 200
IM and the three-time champion in the 100 breaststroke.
Arianna Sapp of Silverdale and members of the Seattle University
swim team participated in the Swim Across America, an annual event
dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research,
prevention and treatment through swimming-related events.
Sapp, a redshirt sophomore, finished in seventh place in the
two-mile race that began at the Mercerwood Shore Club and ended at
Luther Burbank Park at Mercer Island. The team members raised
$4,460, part of more than $240,000 raised on behalf of the Seattle
Cancer Care Alliance.
Sapp graduated from Valhalla, California, High School, and
previously swam for Olympic Aquatic Club.
I received this release from the Bainbridge Aquatic Masters
regarding head coach April Cheadle:
April Cheadle
This week Bainbridge Aquatic Masters (BAM) head coach April
Cheadle will travel to Jacksonville, Florida, to accept the
Kerry O’Brien Coaching Award. This national award is given to a
handful of coaches each year who are building masters
membership in communities throughout the country.
Since Cheadle became the BAM coach in 2010, membership on the team
has doubled primarily because Cheadle’s passion, enthusiasm,
intelligence and patience with all levels of swimmers (and)
has become (a) local legend.
The Kerry O’Brien Coaching Award was created to honor the
namesake coach of the very successful Walnut Creek Masters
program, and the spirit and passion he brings to coaching.
Five principal areas of excellence are considered: Building
the Foundation, Reenergizing, Mentoring a New Club, Coaching
Education at the Local Level and Creating Opportunities
for Members. Cheadle was awarded for exceeding the criteria in
two areas: Reenergizing and Creating Opportunities for
Members.
Cheadle grew up in Central Washington and swam at the University
of Washington. She is certified as a coach at the United
States Masters Swimming Levels 1, 2 and 3, and was selected as
assistant coach for the
Puget Sound Masters National Team in 2011, and co-head coach of the
team in 2012 and head coach in 2014.
BAM is the local United States Masters team. They swim at the
Bainbridge Aquatic Center with 13 different swim practices
offered each week. To be a Masters swimmer, you must be age 18
or older and registered with United States Masters Swimming.
Skill level and ability varies from beginner to national competitor
and all are welcome. Get more info
at www.bainbridgeaquaticmasters.com.
Olympic Aquatic Club hired two new coaches for its senior and
age-group teams.
Patrick Hamilton replaces Greg Mercer while Shona Jarboe takes
over for Taryn Beard.
Hamilton is a former high school All-American who swam at
Interlake High in Bellevue before graduating from Louisiana State
University and the University of Washington. Hamilton coached the
Pacific Northwest Swimming All-Stars in Las Vegas and was a PNW
zone team coach, age-group coach for King Aquatic Club in Seattle,
Issaquah Swim Team and the Central Area Aquatic Team head
coach.
Jarboe was coaching age-group swimming at Bangor Trident Swim
Team before joining OAC.
Also
OAC has open tryouts for all swimmers ages 6-18. For more
information, contact president@oacswim.org.
The Poulsbo Piranhas Swim Team hired Jerry Johnston as its new
head coach.
Johnston coached for Moses Lake Manta Rays, as well as high
school at Issaquah. While at Issaquah, Johnston was named the
KingCo Coach of the Year as the Eagles won three straight state
high school girls swimming titles. Johnson swam for Lake Washington
Swim Club and swam at the University of Washington where he was a
team captain and NCAA All-American.
Johnson has also earned Pacific Northwest Swim Association and
Inland Empire Swimming coach of the year honors and has coached
numerous masters, junior and senior national swimmers and champions
as well as Olympic trial qualifiers. Johnson also qualified for the
Olympic trials twice.
Johnson, who takes over for Patty Jenkins, will start Sept.
2.
I’m still catching up on my emails after vacation, so forgive
the delay in getting this info on my blog, but Ian Lipton continues
to produce as a 10-Under age-group swimmer for the Bainbridge
Island Swim Club.
Lipton won six individual titles at the Long Course
Championships at the King County Aquatic Center on July 23-27. More
than 1,000 swimmers participated in the meet. BISC finished fifth
overall among 34 teams.
Lipton won the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 400
freestyle, 50 backstroke, 100 back and was third in the 100
breaststroke and the 200 individual medley. Also in the 10U
category, Collin Bushey was third in the 50 butterfly, fourth in
the 100 fly, fifth in the 50 back, sixth in the 400 free, seventh
in the 100 free, and eighth in the 50 free.
In the 11-12 boys category, Jude Wenker placed second in the 50
free, 100 free and 200 free, fourth in the 50 breast, 100 breast,
50 fly and 200 IM. He was fifth in the 200 breast. James Sanchez
placed seventh in the 100 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, eighth in the 50
free, 50 breast, and eighth in the 100 breast. Aron Markow was
second in the 50 back, fifth in the 50 breast, sixth in the 100
back and 100 breast. Max Eyrich was second in the 800 free; Andrew
Witty placed seventh in 200 back.
In the 13-14 boys category, Garrett Waite was second in the 800
free, third in the 100 back and 200 back, fifth in the 200 free,
seventh in the 200 IM and 400 IM. Kevin Houseman finished second in
the 100 breast and fourth in the 200 breast; Makai Ingalls was
fourth in the 100 fly and Parker Bushey was fifth in the 50
free.
For the girls, Margaret Hayes was third in the 50 fly, fourth in
the 100 fly, sixth in the 200 IM and eighth in the 200 free in the
10-U category. Hannah Tonsmann, in the 11-12 category, was eighth
in the 1,500 free.
Kitsap swimmers were well represented on the Pacific Northwest
Swimming team that finished in second place overall at the Western
Zone Age Group Championships last week at King County Aquatic
Center in Federal Way.
PNS finished behind Colorado Swimming Zone Team with 3,283 points
to PNS 3,056. Local swimmers who competed were Amanda Ashmore and
Andrew Renninger of Olympic Aquatic Club; Eleanor Beers and Alex
Stefanski of Poulsbo Piranhas Swim Team; and Ian Lipton, Andrew
Markow, Jude Wenker and Parker Bushey of Bainbridge Island Swim
Club.
Lipton was the highest finisher among locals individually, placing
second in the 10U 100-meter backstroke in 1 minute, 14.01 seconds
and the 50 backstroke in 35.26 seconds. Lipton was the top seed
heading into the final. He was also third in the 200 individual
medley in 2:46.18, fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2:26.08, the 100
freestyle in 1:08.41 and the 50 free in 31.60. Lipton was part of
the PNS championship 400 medley relay in 5:11.52 and helped the 200
free relay to second place in 2:07.80.
Ashmore helped PNS place second in the 10-U 200 medley relay in
2:23.31, third in the 400 free relay in 4:43.84, third in the 200
free relay in 2:07.93, and sixth in the 400 medley relay in
5:11.11. Individually, Ashmore was fifth in the 50 freestyle in
31.62, 10th in the 50 butterfly in 34.77 and 13th in the 100
freestyle in 1:11.64.
Renninger placed 15th in the 10U 200 freestyle in 2:37.29 and the
200 individual medley in 2:55.52, and 19th in the 50 backstroke in
39.05. He also helped PNS finish eighth in the 400 free relay in
4:57.47, 10th in the 200 free relay in 2:15.47, and 10th in the 400
medley relay in 5:39.57.
Beers finished eighth in the 11-12 division in the 100 free in
1:03.90, and 13th in the 50 fly in 31.63. In the 400 medley relay,
Beers helped PNS place second in 400 medley relay in 4:40.15, third
in the 200 medley relay in 2:07.28, fourth in the 200 free relay in
1:56.52, and fifth in the 400 free relay in 4:17.74.
Stefanski placed 13th in the 11-12 100 breaststroke in 1:20.55 and
the 200 breast in 2:57.62.
Markow placed fourth in the 11-12 50 breast in 34.40, 13th in the
50 back in 33.54, and 14th in the 100 breast in 1:20.72.
Markow also helped the 200 free relay to eighth place in 1:56.73,
and the 400 free relay to a ninth-place finish in 4:22.13.
Wenker placed third in the 11-12 200 free in 2:12.09, fourth in the
50 free in 27.68 sixth in the 50 breast in 35.88, sixth in the 100
free in 1:01.64, seventh in the 200 breast in 2:51.83, and ninth in
the 100 breast in 1:18.32. He was also part of the three winning
relay teams, the 400 free relay that finished in 4:02.94 the 200
free relay in 1:50.41, and the 400 medley relay in 4:29.37. The 200
medley relay placed third in 2:07.36.
Bushey helped the 13-14 400 free relay to a first-place finish in
3:44.36 as well as the 200 free realy in 1:41.42. He finished 14th
in the 13-14 100 free in 56.99.
I think Nick Giovanni should have been dubbed “Mr.
Everything.”
He certainly did everything he could for the club during his
20-plus years volunteering for the swim club in Bremerton.
From seeing it through its transition from school-district
sponsored team to USA Swimming club. Giovanni served as board
president, board member, timer, official and bookkeeper.
On Saturday, Giovanni officially entered the world of
retirement. You can read the story I wrote about that
here. The photos are from former OAC age-group coach
Bonnie Burmaster, who is good friends with Nick and his wife,
Kathy.
Nick Giovanni is presented
flowers during a ceremony honoring his 20 years of volunteerism for
the Olympic Aquatic Club in Bremerton
(Courtesy photo)
Here’s what board member and meet director Ed Hamilton wrote to
me about Nick on Friday:
“As a non-profit group, as with most youth sports, OAC has to
have volunteers involved with every part of our operation, and this
isn’t limited to someone being on the pool deck for a swim
meet. Nick’s contribution to OAC has been in every part of
the Club’s operation. He has volunteered on our Board of
Directors, he has handled the finances for a great number of years
and, more visibly, he has volunteered for every job at our swim
meets.
So, Nick’s experience and knowledge of swimming has been vital
to OAC and the swimming community in Kitsap County. While
swimmers come and go, and parent volunteers come and go, Nick has
been the resource on how to properly get things done.
I’ve been
volunteering with OAC for over five years. During that time
I’ve served on the Board and helped at home swim meets. For
every one of those positions Nick is the person that I go to when I
need a question answered or I need advice for getting something
done.
Nick’s
contribution to swimming goes well beyond OAC. He has
volunteered his on-deck abilities for high school swimming, to OAC
and to other teams in our area who are holding events but don’t
have a head referree available. To put some perspective
around his contribution it can be easily calculated that he spends
150 hours volunteering on a pool deck every year. That’s
equivalent of almost a month of working a full time job. Add
to that the efforts behind the scenes, that for many years far
exceeded his on-deck time, for the last 20-plus years and you
realise he has contributed a significant part of his life to this
sport and to our community.
Nick will
be missed by the swimming community. Personally, I’ll miss
his wisdom around the pool, I’ll miss hearing the stories of the
swimmers over the years and I’ll especially miss him the next time
I show up at the pool at 6 am and he isn’t there with the
coffee.”
I don’t think anyone could have said it better.
Congratulations Nick and Kathy!!
Retiring Nick Giovanni receives
flowers from swimmers during the OAC Summer Splash meet in
Bremerton on Saturday.
(Courtesy photo)
