Meet of Champs Success for Messinger and Lee

Chelsa Messinger Makes A Statement at Meet of Champions!

December 5, 2005……Chelsa Messinger, a Senior at Gallatin High School and swimming for Excel Aquatics turned heads of both swimmers and coaches alike at the annual Meet of Champions in Brentwood TN this past weekend, swimming to personal best times in 5 of 6 events, reaching Finals in all 6 events, and placing in the Top 6 in each event. “Chelsa broke through two significant time barriers tonight. In the 100 Yard Butterfly she broke a minute, turning a :59.95, and in the 50 Yard Freestyle she broke the 25 second barrier, turning a :24.98.” Excel Aquatics Assistant Coach and Sumner County Site Coordinator John Barnes explained. “Chelsa has been training hard for a while now and was due for a meet where everything came together for her. She has taken a couple of official visits to colleges interested in her, and has a couple more visits to take. This performance certainly will catch the attention of those coaches she is talking to.” Messinger placed 2^nd in the 50 Free, 3^rd in the 100 Back, 3^rd in the 200 Back, 4^th in the 100 Free, 6^th in the 100 Fly, and 6^th in the 200 Free.

“The Meet of Champions was a Prelim/Finals format meet with qualifying times required in distances greater than 200 yards, thus it was a great opportunity for the local Excel Swimmers to see how they match up against the top swimmers from the Southeast. No other club in the area is taking this number of Sumner County swimmers to this type of high level meet this year.” Barnes noted. “Excel is continuing its unsurpassed history of successfully developing our Sumner County swimmers to step up and compete at the championship level meets. The experience from the Meet of Champs will benefit them when they get to other championship level meets coming up, such as the State High School Championships, the Southeastern Swimming Short and Long Course Championship Meets, Sectionals, Junior Nationals, and the Summer League Championships.”

18 other Sumner County residents competed in the meet: Bryce Anderson, Mary Catherine Binkley, Jimmie Joe Boone, Kaitlin Daughtry, Nathan Fulps, Nikki Fulps, Haley George, Kathryn George, Lauren Gilroy, Alyson Gomer, Brittany Henderson, Madison Kolbe, Chelsa Messinger, Katie Mize, Hannah Ray, Michael Scheriger, Paige Scheriger, and Brittany Zobl.

Swimmers who made Finals during this Meet of Champs were Nikki Fulps, Haley George, Kathryn George, Lauren Gilroy, Kyle Lee, Chelsa Messinger, Paige Scheriger and Brittany Zobl.

“All of these swimmers did very well; our younger swimmers continue to progress very nicely in terms of stroke development and conditioning. Coaches Andreea Ianoli-Mitrofan and AJ Miley will keep on working those issues so that the swimmers keep improving.” Barnes noted. Among the older swimmers we had some fantastic performances. For instance Kyle Lee posted personal best times in 4 of 5 events with a Junior Nationals Qualifying Time in the 400 Yard Individual Medley; and Kathryn George came within less than 3 seconds of a Senior Sectional Cut in the 200 Butterfly, something of great significance for a 13 year old to do in that event.”

“I encourage anyone interested in swimming to contact us at Excel. If anyone knows one of the families who attended this meet, feel free to ask them about the qualitative difference gained from training with Excel.” For more information and complete Meet Results, visit www.ExcelAquatics.org. The next meet for swimmers from Excel Aquatics’ will be the Baylor Invitational in Chattanooga TN in January.