South Bay Swim Team Places FIRST at 2012 SCAA Winter Champs-Congratulations!

CONGRATULATIONS on a fantastic Winter Championship Meet on Saturday January 28, at El Camino College in Torrance. SOBA earned the most points at the SCAA Winter Championship Meet, coming in first in Division I and winning the entire meet, winning a huge trophy.

Each and every swimmer who participated in the SCAA Winter Champs Meet scored points for the team – this was truly a TEAM EFFORT! That means everyone earned at least one medal, and some of you even more.
  79% of you had at least one personal best time at Winter Champs – WOW!!
    26% had one best time
     32% had two best times, and
      22% had best time in ALL THREE EVENTS – that is FANTASTIC – so proud of you, swimmers!

Most Time Dropped – Drea Gonzalez 32.46 total
She gets to take the trophy home for the entire winter break. Way to go Drea! Close runners-up are Kate Kramer with a total drop of 24.78; Brian Chiu with 19.59; then Ryan F with 17.05.

High point earner – 147 Points – 2-Way Tie - WOW!!!
1^st place in their three individual events (3 x 21 points) + 1^st place in two relays (2 x 42 points) – Congratulations, Vincent, and Lexie! They each get to take the trophy home one night each, this week.

The Big Trophy
After Vincent, Lexie and Drea have had their time with the trophy, each swimmer will have the opportunity to take it home for a few days at a time. We’ll go in order of most time dropped (i.e. ‘best’ of the personal best times)

New Team Records
We had 5 new team records set at Saturday’s Winter Champs meet. Congratulations to:
   Ryan Brankovic: B 13-14 100 Freestyle 55.52 (2003 Fleming)
   Ryan Brankovic: B 13-14 100 Breaststroke 1:12.57 (2009 Paz)
   Oscar Chen: B 15-18 100 Breaststroke 1:03.11 (2010 Paz)
   Johnathon Combs: B 15-18 100 Freestyle 52.48 (2008 Allison)
   Johnathon Combs: B 15-18 200 Freestyle 1:55.63 (2008 Allison)
          (+ at JO qualifier meet week before: Lexie Tecun: G 9-10 100 Butterfly 1:19.12)

Special SOBA Champs “Milestones”
-Congrats to our ‘first timers’ at a Championship Meet: Nicholas C, Oscar C, Brian C, Johnathon C, Drea G, Jay H, Andrew H, Jacky H, Makenna H, Max J, Michael M, Lars S, Katie S
-Honored for participating in FIVE championship meets: Alyssa B, Cade B, Ariana C, Andrew D, Paola G, Adam H, Lucas H, Allie J, Jenna P, Britney R, and Nina V
-Recognized for participating in SEVEN championship meets: Alexandra B, Daniel B, Seven C, Christina G, Kaitlyn R, and Kevin Z
-Shout out for participating in TEN championship meets: Bridgette A
-11 Champs: Blaze, Paola, Kyle & Lexie. 12 Champs: Jacob. 13 Champs: Breana, Leana, Gabi
-Most champs to date: Two-Way Tie with Kimberly Gamez & Julianna Gomez at 14 champs!!
-YES, we do have swimmers with 6, 8, 9 champs to their credit (you know who you are!); the aforementioned swimmers hit certain ‘milestones’ which we recognized at Awards Day.

Relays at Champs
-We don’t get to do relays often, so it’s really special when we have so many relay teams at champs meets!
-This year, we had a relay entered in every gender and age group
-Relays are important to the team, because they earn DOUBLE points
-Medals are awarded for teams who place 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd BUT points are awarded to all teams who place 1^st thru 6^th

Parents
THANK YOU for all your help with all the ‘jobs’ we were assigned by the league. We really appreciate you pitching in to help make this meet run as smoothly as possible. We are lucky to have so many fantastic team families with SOBA!

Congratulations on Promotions!
At the conclusion of each season, we often promote swimmers who are ready for the next skill level group. Congratulations to the swimmers whom we are promoting!
-Promoted from C to C1: Vaughn D, Lily K, Nina V (and earlier in the season, Jay H)
-Promoted from C1 to B: Seven C, Ryan F, Ina G, Collin G, Jacky H,
-Promoted from B to B1: Tony D, Carolina G, Audrey M, Katie S
-Promoted from B1 to A: Cade B, Kaitlyn R
   plus we know a couple more of you are really close to promotion to the next group,
   so work hard, and stay tuned for details!

Way to go swimmers – we are so proud of you!

This was a FANTASTIC way to end the season! We are so thrilled for our team, and so excited for all of your successes at summer champs.