Friday night Ally Donahue finished her 100 Breaststroke, glanced at the clock and saw her time of 1:03.81(Automatic All-American Standard).  Although that is a blistering time she was more concerned about the single number that popped up next to her lane 4, “1”.  She had reached her goal of becoming FHSAA Class 3A State Champion.  Ally along with Maddie Hess(Newsome) became the first individuals from Hillsborough County to win state championships since 2007.  Earlier in the evening Carter Flynn joined...

              This Thursday-Saturday the best high school swimmers in the state of Florida will convene on the YMCA in Orlando.  GTSA will have eight different swimmers representing four different area schools.              The weekend kicks off with 2A on Thursday.  Margaret Shumake and Julia Cogdill will both represent Academy of Holy Names.  Margaret will swim the 200 IM and 100 BR, while Julia will swim the 100BR.             Friday will be 3A’s turn in the pool.  This meet will include Alexandria Donahue, Emma Donahue,...

              In a meet where pumpkins went to the winner of each heat, GTSA went home with more pumpkins than parents will know what to do with.  All of these great swims led to 217 points over the 2 day meet, which was good enough for 6th place in the 15 team meet. The team had 12 different swimmers score points including 3 swimmers who finished in the top 5 in their age group high point races (Reese Friar 5th, Gabby Donahue 2nd, and...

                 GTSA is pleased to announce, with help from our recent success, a new sponsorship deal with ARENA.  The company is a household name in Europe and is making a strong push in the United States led by Olympic stars such as Aaron Peirsol, Julia Smit, Eric Shanteau, and Rebecca Soni.              The sponsorship has countless benefits to GTSA and our members.  We will receive a banner, training equipment, and multiple discount opportunities on apparel products.  One of the most exciting portions of...

             This weekend Emma Donahue will represent GTSA and the state of Florida at the 2012 USA Swimming Convention in Greensboro, NC.  United States Swimming is an organization that consists of over 300,000 athletes. Emma is a part of select group that will represent all of these swimmers. Below is an excerpt from an email sent to email detailing her responsibilities and what she has to look forward to. There are many leadership and educational opportunities for athletes at this event, which will be attended...

Over Labor Day weekend a group of GTSA swimmers made the trek over to the east coast of Florida to do a little surfing.  After a couple of lessons the swimmers were ripping up the waves. It was an absolute blast of a weekend! 

             Over this past week the best 18&under swimmers in the United States gathered at the IUPUI Aquatic Center, in Indianapolis, for USA Swimming’s Junior Nationals.  This is a facility with tons of history; they hosted US Olympic Trials on four different occasions.  For the first time in a long time GTSA was represented at a USA Swimming national level competition.  Ally Donahue swam the 100 Breaststroke.  She also time trialed the 200 Breaststroke and the 50 Freestyle, where she went a lifetime best.                This was a great experience...

GTSA PRACTICE SCHEDULE (August 6-26) SENIOR GROUP: August 6-12 W/Th/F- 6:30-8:30am S- 8:00-10:00a August 13-19 M-F- 6:30-8:30am S- 8:00-10:00am August 20-26 M-F- 5:00-7:00pm S- 8:00-10:00am   AGE GROUP I: August 6-12 NO PRACTICE August 13-26 M-Th- 6:00-7:30pm F-5:00-6:30pm S- 8:00-10:00am   AGE GROUP II: August 6-12 NO PRACTICE August 13-26 M-F- 5:00-6:00pm S- 8:00-9:00am   MINNOWS: August 6-12 NO PRACTICE August 13-26 Minnows I: M/W/F- 5:00-6:00pm Minnows II: T/Th/F- 5:00-6:00pm *Please talk to coach Kelsey about which Minnows group your swimmer is in.   **ATTENTION** Due to the RNC practice...

               For those of you who weren’t at Area 3/5’s it was a long meet, but I can assure you it was not because of GTSA swimmers.  An astounding 93% of the time a GTSA swimmer hit the water it was a best time.  This included 5 GTSA swimmers combining to drop 2:30 in their 500 freestyles.  100% personal bests came from Ibett Aneiros, William Aneiros, Victor Cogdill, Christopher Dieffenthaller, Matthew Dieffenthaller, Gabby Donahue, and Veronica Francis.  While 5 other swimmers had all but one best time.                 GTSA had...

              This past weekend Florida Swimming’s best senior swimmers met in Sarasota for Senior Championships.  GTSA was well represented with 11 swimmers all of which had wonderful meets.  The team accumulated 52 points over the weekend and gained another top 25 finish at a championship meet.                 Best times were happening left and right, with 28 of them on the weekend.  That number included 100% personal bests from Ally Donahue, and Jeremy Parker.  Multiple other swimmers came within one race of all best times.                 The weekend ended with a bang...