Saint Andrew's Swimming and Diving Blog
News and notes from the Saint Andrew's Swimming and Diving High School and Club Team coached by Sid Cassidy in Boca Raton, Florida

Day Two - A Beautiful Success

By Coach Sid Cassidy

What an awesome weekend underway and a flawless meet put on by a GREAT TEAM OF SAS VOLUNTEERS!


For Saturday Morning Results Click Here:

For Saturday Afternoon Results Click Here:

 
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5th Annual Scotty Invite

By Coach Sid Cassidy

The three day Scotty Invite meet got underway today the the Duff Tyler Aquatic Complex and meet results and splits for the 500 (12 & Unders) and 1000 (Open) are available Here
Lots of good swimming and a great group of volunteers look like it will be an awesome weekend ... stay tuned.

 
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Women's 200yd Medley Relay Heat 2 - 2011 SPEEDO Short Course Junior Nati...

By Coach Sid Cassidy
 
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SAS Women Win Junior National Title

By Coach Sid Cassidy


With a small but powerful swim team of four athletes, Saint Andrew’s Swimming managed to earn their first ever National Title at the 2011 Speedo Short Course Junior National Championships at University of Texas in Austin, Texas December 8-11. Tasija Karosas,Megan Moroney, Brenna Ruth and Lindsey McKnight led the club team to the unprecedented result ahead of swimming powerhouse teams from across the nation.

Head Coach Sid Cassidy said: “This is truly an amazing feat that to my knowledge has not occurred at the national level of swimming since the 1950’s. We were extremely fortunate to have four young ladies buy into the belief that they could swim multiple events and still perform at the highest level in five different relay events. It was an honor to coach them. “

Highlights include winning two of those five relays, the 200-yard Medley and the 800-yard Freestyle. The former was performed in record-breaking fashion as Tasija split 25.42 backstroke, Lindsey a spectacular 27.14 breaststroke, Megan a 25.44 fly and Brenna 23.63 in the freestyle. The same evening the girls came back to win an incredibly exciting 4 x 200-yard freestyle relay in 7:20.35, just four tenths ahead of the Dynamo Swim Club out of Atlanta, GA.  The strategy of front loading the three fastest swimmers paid off as Tasija, Lindsey and Megan built a lead for anchor leg Brenna who blasted out her first 100 and held for the victory improving her personal best time by three seconds!

Lindsey McKnight, who is a club swimmer from American Heritage Plantation, won two individual events, the 100 free in 49.30 and the 200 free in 1:45.37, good enough for another meet record. The senior headed for U of Florida next year also came out with the MVP award and provided great leadership for the AquaScots.

SAS Junior Tasija Karosas scored in four individual events and won the silver medal in the 100-yard backstroke (53.45).  Her tireless efforts did not go unnoticed as dozens if college coaches in attendance literally stood in line to speak with her coach to express interest in her attending their school.

Frosh Megan Moroney and Sophomore Brenna Ruth provided critical legs on all five relays – all finishing in the top five! 

The girls were joined by senior Wali Toulson and Junior Quinn Cassidy who both posted career personal best times over the weekend. Quinn also bettered the existing 200-yard Individual Medley school record. His time of 1:51.35 bettered the 1:52.40 mark set nearly twenty years ago in 1992 by Jeff Maki. That swim ranked him 28th out of the 121 best eighteen and under athletes in attendance at the prestigious gathering.

It was a historic week of swimming for Saint Andrew’s that took the swimming world by surprise and set many blog sites and internet pages abuzz with the news. Complete results, videos and related stories can be found at http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2146&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US



 
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SAINT ANDREW'S GIRLS WIN JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM TITLE!

By Coach Sid Cassidy

A team of four determined young ladies come home today with the overall team title at the 2011 Junior National Swimming Championships in Austin, Texas. Stay tuned for more comment and photos - complete results and video from USA Swimming here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en


 
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Scots making a splash in Austin

By Coach Sid Cassidy

Saint Andrew's Swimming is off to a strong start at the 2011 USA Swimming Junior National Championships at the University of Texas in Austin. You can follow all the action via video (live or replays) and all results posted in Real Time here:


GO SCOTS!

 
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Scots Turn Heads at State Championship Meet

By Coach Sid Cassidy

Eleven/Eleven/Eleven will go down in the memory of many a young AquaScot as the day the rest of the state really took notice of the resurgence of the Saint Andrew's Swimming and Diving Program as a power to be reckoned with in Florida Scholastic Swimming. With a small boys team scrapping to a fifth place finish and a young powerful girls team surging to their second third place performance in three years the Scots have firmly entrenched themselves among the top teams in the Sunshine State. 
It was not so much the final team rankings as the dynamic achievements of some top performers that got the I-Drive Y crowd buzzing about the young team from Boca Raton. Freshman Megan Moroney captured the 100 fly with a very impressive 55.29 and Junior Tasija Karosas grabbed the gold (and nearly a new State Record) in the 100 back by crushing the field in the back half to post a 53.97. 
Perhaps the most exciting event was the ladies 200-yard Freestyle Relay that boiled down to a two team affair between the heralded Bolles Bulldogs and our sprint quartet. Reversing the order of finish from last year's duel and for the first time since 1989 our girls won a State Championship relay event! Tasija Karosas (JR-23.92), Brenna Ruth (SO-23.98), Hannah Coombs (JR-24.33) and Megan Moroney (FR-23.38) earned All-American status and a new team record in the 200 Free Relay with a 1:35.61.Old-timers might note the similarities to the 1989 girls team that also won two individual events and a relay, but that was at the end of the mid-eighties era when Boca was the epicenter of elite aquatics and the Mission Bay experiment was beginning to fail. This girls team of young student athletes has anything but failure on their minds. 
In addition to the sprint relay record we claimed the silver and surpassed All-American status again (with an even younger team) in the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay of Tasija Karosas (JR-51.49), Brenna Ruth (SO-53.21), Jessica Conway (SO-53.14) and Megan Moroney (FR-51.55) with a 3:29.39. Only American Heritage Plantation (buoyed by SAS club team member Lindsey McKnight) was able to better the Scots foursome. It was the first time in history that both of our freestyle relays finished ahead of well-known rivals Bolles and Pine Crest... and we are getting all of those back next year!
Another young Scot who narrowly missed getting her first State title was sophomore diving sensation Blaire Mulka. Blaire capped an outstanding season with a bronze medal podium performance score of  487.15 (just 3.10 points behind the winner) to catapult the Scots towards their highest team finish in twenty two years. Having her return for two more years is another reason for great optimism on the girls side. As a matter of fact, our girls will return 184 of our 187 points next year but still must respect the fact that the Bolles School won their 21st consecutive State Title by scoring more than 360 points, a formidable challenge to aspire to no doubt!
Our small but scrappy boys team moved up the ladder to finish in the top five courtesy some great relays and some top individual efforts from Senior Wali Toulson - 4th in the 50 Free (20.97) & 5th in the 100 free (46.29) - and from Junior Quinn Cassidy - 5th in the 200IM 1:52.83. The top boys relay proved to be the 200 Medley where the boys nosed out rival Pine Crest for the silver medal and an All-American performance turned in by Freshman Dionisio Carey (50 back- 24.82), Junior Quinn Cassidy (50 breast-26.05), Junior Shawn Warner (fly-23.90) & Senior Wali Toulson (50 free-20.60). 
Certainly our Saint Andrew's community is thrilled with the efforts of these and all of our swimmers and divers this season. A special thanks goes out to all the parents who contributed support this weekend and all year as our children pursued their dreams. We are extremely grateful for the excitement and good luck to all as we continue through the club seasons with renewed enthusiasm.   

 
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