7 Place at Regions

7 Wilson County Swimmers Place at High School Region Swim Meet

January 30, 2010….Seven Wilson County residents placed in the Top 16 at the MTHSSA Region High School Championship Meet on Friday in Nashville.

There were 37 swimmers who live in Wilson County in the meet, representing 5 high schools, Friendship Christian, Home School, Lebanon, Mt Juliet, Pope John Paul II, and Wilson Central.

Placing in the Top 16 in their individual events were:
• Taylor Charles, FR, Home School, 7th in the Boy’s 100 Yard Backstroke.
• Tommy Bailey, SR, MJHS, 8th in the Boy’s 50 Yard Freestyle.
• Christian Roberts, SR, MJHS, 9th in the Boy’s 100 Yard Butterfly.
• Spencer Bracey, SO, MJHS, 12th in the Boy’s 100 Yard Breaststroke and 16th in the Boy’s 100 Yard Freestyle.
• Rachel Sandoval, SR, FCS, 12th in the Girl’s 100 Yard Freestyle, and 13th in the Girl’s 200 Yard Freestyle.
• Blake Parsons, SO, WCHS, 14th in the Boy’s 50 Yard Freestyle.
• Alek Nochowicz, SR, JP2HS, 15th in the Boy’s 500 Yard Freestyle.

The Mount Juliet Boy’s Swim Team, led by Bailey, Roberts and Bracey led the Golden Bears to a 10th Place Finish in the Meet. Charle’s Home School Boy’s team finished 2nd, while Nochowicz’s JP2 Boy’s team finished 15th.

The State of Tennessee High School Swimming and Diving Championships will be held February 12th and 13th in Nashville.

Full results of the Region meet may be found at www.ExcelAquatics.com. For more information on swimming in Wilson County, visit www.SwimWilsonCounty.com.

4 New State Cuts!

Barnes, Bailey, Bracey, and Curtis qualify for High School State Swim Meet

January 16, 2010….Wilson County resident swimmers, representing Mt Juliet HS and Pope John Paul II HS participated in Excel Aquatics’ High School Invitational.

Four boys, three from Mt Juliet HS, and one from Pope JP2 HS, posted High School State Qualifying Times during the meet.

Spencer Bracey, Tommy Bailey, and Nathan Curtis attained State cuts for Mt Juliet HS.

Bailey, a senior, placed 11th in the Boy’s 50 Yard Freestyle, turning a best time of 0:23.57. Bracey, a Sophomore, placed 19th in the Boy’s 50 Yard Free in a best time of 0:24.14, and 11th in the 100 Yard Freestyle with a time of 0:52.94. Nathan Curtis, a Freshman, placed 11th in the Boy’s 200 Yard Freestyle with a time of 2:00.43; and 20th in the 100 Yard Freestyle, turning a 0:53.89.

Barnes, a senior at JP2, attained a State qualifying time in the Boy’s 500 Yard Freestyle, turning a 5:40.85, good enough for a 10th Place finish in the event. For Barnes it was his first State qualifying time in his High School career, and was the result of a total of 24 seconds dropped from his best time in the event as a junior.

“Austin swam his heart out, he had set qualifying for State as his goal for this year, and to see him accomplish that goal was great,” JP2 Coach Sheree Zobl noted. “As a freshman, Austin was over two minutes away from a State time in the event; each year he progressed, and each year he moved closer to State. He trains daily with Bradley Gillilan (Lebanon resident and Michigan State signee) and success breeds success. There is no substitute for hard work in swimming.”

Barnes will join fellow JP2 senior and Mt Juliet resident Alek Nochowicz at State. Nochowicz has previously qualified in 7 different events and missed the meet this weekend due to a college visit to the Coast Guard Academy.

For more information on High School swimming in Wilson County, visit www.SwimWilsonCounty.com.

Gillilan Signs with Michigan State!!!

November 16, 2009....

Bradley Gillilan, a senior at Lebanon High School and a year-round swimmer with Excel Aquatics, signed a National Letter of Intent on November 11th to continue his swimming career at Michigan State University next Fall.

Gillilan, the most prolific distance specialist from Wilson County in recent history, weighed several offers from different schools before finally choosing Michigan State. Michigan State was one of the first teams to contact Bradley when recruiting opened up in July, and was the last place he visited in the process. Gillilan also visited Western Kentucky and the University of Alabama.

Excel Aquatics has been the one and only home for Bradley, training with the coaching staff in Gallatin for the past 12 years, and progressing through the different squad levels. Coach Mike Ballard trained Bradley for his first six years with Excel, taking a raw elementary school child and teaching Bradley the stroke basics which would make him one of the top distance swimmers in the nation. In Middle School, Bradley swam for Excel's Andreea Ianoli-Mitrofan, a former Romanian National Champion, who further refined Bradley into the Excel record holder in the 800 Meter and 1500 Meter Freestyles in the 11&12 age group category. At the start of High School Bradley moved up into Coach John Barnes' training squad.

While in Barnes' squad, Bradley has attained multiple qualifying times for the Southeastern Swimming Championships, Senior Sectional Championships, NCSA Junior National Championships, USA-Swimming Junior National Championships, and USA-Swimming Senior National Championships.

"Many schools were drawn to Gillilan because of the breakthrough swims he had as a Junior, as well as the 1,650 time he posted this Fall", Coach Barnes explained. "As of November 1st, Gillilan was ranked first in the nation among boys 15 to 18 years of age in the 1,650 Freestyle event for the 2009-2010 Short Course Season. His personal best time is 15:41.26, a pace of 57.04 seconds per 100 yards swam."

"Bradley wanted to make his decision in the early signing period this Fall, and get the process completed so he could focus on the upcoming Senior National Championships in Seattle WA next month. He limited his visits to just 3 of the allotted 5, and chose Michigan State in the end. State is an outstanding academic school, and their swim team is a force in the Big 10."

"I was really attracted by the opportunity to swim for the Spartans against Michigan and Indiana on a yearly basis", Gillian said. "The Big 10 Conference top to bottom has the best distance swimmers in terms of depth, and I look forward to being able to go to the next level of training and swim against the best of the best on a regular basis. My goal is to win a Big 10 Conference title before I graduate."

Gillilan will swim in the Fall of 2010 for Spartan's Head Coach Matt Gianiodis and Assistant Coach Tim Loeffer who is in charge of Distance training.

For more information on swimming opportunities, visit SwimWilsonCounty.com.

Victory at SES!

Gillilan Wins Southeastern 800 Meter Freestyle

July 23, 2009…. The Southeastern Swimming Long Course Championship started Thursday at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville. Southeastern Swimming consists of club swimmers from all of Tennessee and Alabama, and the Panhandle region of Florida.

Bradley Gillilan, a senior at LHS, won the Senior Men’s 800 Meter Freestyle in convincing fashion in a time of eight minutes, twenty-nine seconds and sixty-six hundredths of a second (8:29.66). He finished ahead of the second place finisher by nearly eight seconds.

The time was a 3.44 seconds from Gillilan’s best time in the event achieved last week at the Senior Sectional meet at UT-Knoxville, and qualified in the event for the USA-Swimming Short Course Senior National Championships in December.

This was Gillilan’s second Short Course Senior National cut, having achieved a cut in the 1,500 Meter Freestyle just four days earlier at Senior Sectionals.

“It’s hard to swim in back-to-back championship level meets just four days apart,” Excel Coach and Lebanon resident John Barnes noted. “Bradley had such a great meet last week with some emotional swims, and he really stepped it up this in the 800 Meters tonight.”

“His goal coming in the meet was to win the event and score points for Excel Aquatics, and he accomplished both on the first night. Nabbing a Senior National qualifying time in the process was just gravy on the mash potatoes.”

Gillilan continues to swim in six more events, two each day through Sunday. To follow results of the top distance swimmer in Wilson County swimming history, visit www.ExcelAquatics.org/age_group and click on “Real Time Results”.