North Shore Swim Club Finishes Summer of Success

The following was submitted by North Shore Swim Club:

As the summer sun and heat beats down on us here on the North Shore, we think more of beaches, barbecues, and popsicles rather than practices and competitions. During these hot summer days and nights, the swimmers of North Shore Swim Club have been racing up and down the long course pools of Hanscom Air Force Base, University of Florida, Massachusetts Institue of Technology and Harvard University, chasing their season and year-long goals like the summer heat chases us to the comfort of out air conditioned living rooms.

After finishing up a spectacular short course season that ended with the team swimming at Speedo Super Southern Sectionals in Fort Lauderdale, and a one-week break in April, the swimmers of NSSC headed straight into long course training and racing, taking every chance, and opportunity they were given. Through all their hours , days, weeks, months, early mornings, and long weekends this group of young swimmers dedicated themselves to making themselves the best they could be both in and out of the pool. All their hard work has paid off over the past three weekends where the team competed at the Speedo Sectional Championship Series at the University of Florida, Gainesville, NewEngland Opens, and New England 14 & Under both at Harvard University.

Highlights form those meets:
SSS: Twelve swimmers traveled to Gainesville, Florida. Most notably Olivia Jamesonbroke the NSSC records in the 1500-meter freestyle (18.09.46) and the 200-meterbackstroke (2:25.18). The team placed 3rd among NE teams and 34th out of all.
New England Opens: NSSC placed 11th as a team out of over 90 teams! Over the course of this four-day meet, nine team records were broken, and two junior national qualifying times were achieved.

Olivia Jameson: 100/200 backstroke, 200/400 freestyles, TimStorer: 200/400 IM, Sam Mackie: 100/200 Breaststroke (both Jr National qualifying times) and Nate Courville 1500 freestyle!

New England 14 & Under: NSSC placed 30th sending nine athletes to this meet. Tom Edwards was a stand out at this meet finagling in all his events, and breaking four team records along the way 50/100/200 free and 100 backstroke.

Notable Swimmer in the NSSC Family: first year swimmer Ryan LeClare(8) broke a 8 & under record that had been on the books for over 10 years in the 50 backstroke, Ryan also was also one of the stand out players on the Salem Little League Rattlers Baseballteam!

Maggie Barden (11) competed in two triathlons and came in first in both! The first one of the two being the JCC Triathlon where she competed against many adults and won the 18 and under category. The second was a youth triathlon were she raced and won the 11-12 division. In both races she was the first out of the water . She contributes her success in this sport to being on NSSC and being part of Swampscott U12 soccer.

Zach Barden (7) competed in his first triathlon and won his age group as well as winning the swimming portion of the race!

Emma Gaguin (17) was recognized by USA Swimming for her Go Green initiative that she put in place for NSSC and their hosted meets.

NSSC is graduating 12 seniors this summer: Katie Cumnock-Francois - Rhodes College, Courtney Taylor-Roger Williams University, Michael Aster-UVM, Kelly McCarthy-Babson, Tim Storer-Claremont-McKenna, Michael McCartin-Johns Hopkins, MorganEvans -Tulane, Annie Fothergill-Boston College, Ben Kennedy-Ithaca, Nell Briggs-Bates, Danny Mock- Carniegie Mellon, Justin Tse-Providence.

Congratulations everyone!

North Shore Swim Club is now taking registrations for our Fall session which begins September, 12, 2011 for more information please about what NSSC has to offer or if you have any questions please contact coach Tony Padaskis at tonypad@aol.com or visit our website www.northshoreswimclub.com.