December 18, 2008

A Record Year of Records for the ORCA Swim Team
 
2008 was a particularly good year for the ORCA swim team, where their swimmers would swim to an astonishing 81 new club records.  Their year culminated over the past two weekends with two great meets; the ORCA December meet held at Villa Park High School, and the Southern California Swimming Winter Age Group (WAG) Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada, where their swimmers would swim to a combined 20 new team records.
 
At the Dec 6/7 ORCA meet, there were 86 ORCA swimmers who raced to 257 new best times and a total of 20 minutes 3.98 seconds of improvement.  A whopping 7 new ORCA records were set at the meet, with Madeline Harkey lowering the 5-6 Female 100 yard Freestyle record to 1:38.74, Harrison Lee set new standards in the 5-6 Male 50 Free (42.84), 50 Breast (59.94) and 50 Fly (52.32), and Jason Dinh captured records in the 7-8 Male 200 Free (2.58.09), 100 Breast (1.44.11) and 200 IM (3.21.41).
 
December 12th through 14th, 13 ORCA swimmers took to the pool at the SCS Winter Championships in Las Vegas, NV, where they swam to 13 new club records and 24 best times, to the tune of 58.37 seconds of improvement.
 
Just turning 15 the week of the meet, ORCA’s Madison Tedesco entered into the 15-18 Female age group with record setting fashion, lowering club standards in the 100 Fly (1:00.48), 200 Fly (2:12.95), 200 IM (2:17.38) and 400 IM (4:49.09).  Her time of 1:00.48 in the 100 fly also qualified her for the CA/NV Sectional Championships coming up in February.  With fierce competition from the 15-18 men, Lucas Spencer broke both the ORCA 15-18 Male 100 Breast (1:05.22) and 200 Breast (2:24.53) records in earlier heats, but not to be outdone, his teammate, Kristopher Tierney, came back in later heats to reclaim both records with times of 1:04.32 and 2:21.43 respectfully.  Tierney would also go on to break the ORCA 15-18 Male 200 IM record at the meet with a time of 2:08.24.  Graeme Flynn set new standards for ORCA in the 15-18 Male 200 Free (1:53.27) and 500 Free (5:10.30).  The 15-18 men also took down two ORCA relay records; Kristopher Tierney (24.24), Ryne Spejcher (24.96), Graeme Flynn (23.77) and Lucas Spencer (22.24) broke the previous ORCA 200 Free Relay record of 1:37.90 set at the 2004 WAG Championships with a blistering 1:35.21, and Connor Regan (28.53 back), Kristopher Tierney (29.96 breast), Graeme Flynn (25.91 fly) and Lucas Spencer (22.95 free) annihilated the previous 200 Medley Relay record of 1:52.68 also set at the 2004 WAG meet by going a sizzling 1:47.35, knocking more than five seconds off the previous mark.  In the 9-10 age group, Brooke Hayes set new ORCA records in the 100 Free (1:03.69) and 100 Back (1:12.57).  
 
ORCA attributes their success to the steadfast commitment of their swimmers, outstanding coaching staff and unwavering parental and community support.