Baldwin and Whitmer are finalists at YMCA NATIONALS

  Twenty Westfield Area Y Devilfish swimmers travelled to Greensboro, North Carolina, April 2-5 to compete at the YMCA Short Course National Swimming Championships. Congratulations to qualifying members of the 2012 WY National Team, the largest in Devilfish history:  Caroline Baldwin, Loren Ball,  Audrey Bangs, Aram Barmakian, Caroline Basil, Will Beckett, Alex Bond, Matt Daniel, Erika Daniel, Aidan Donadio, Nicandro Donadio, Dan Jones, Brennan Haley, Stephen Husch, Luke McGrory, Abby Pires, Max Shin, Ellie Reinhardt, Brooke Sweeney, Carly Whitmer.  At this new venue, the Greensboro Aquatic Center, Baldwin and Whitmer were clear standouts as they qualified for multiple individual event finals and reset their previous team records. Whitmer achieved the highest finish for the team with an eighth place in 100 Fly (55.52). She followed this performance with a powerful twenty-first place finish for 200 Fly (2.03.61). Both swims reset the Devilfish record board, records Whitmer had previously claimed. Baldwin placed twelfth in the 100 Backstroke (55.79), resetting her Devilfish record. She touched thirteenth in 100 Free, initially breaking the Devilfish 100 Free record in prelims (51.88), and then shaving off more time (51.78) at finals. Baldwin continued to represent the WY with strong swims, earning a nineteenth place in 50 Free and twenty-fourth place in 200 Back. In addition, three team relay records were broken and many best times were achieved by team members during prelims and time trials. Bond, Husch, Beckett, and Daniel reset the 15-18 Boys 200 Free Relay record (1:27:98).  Whitmer, Ball, Reinhardt ,and Baldwin  teamed up to best the 15-18 Girls 200 Freestyle Relay record (1:37:88) and  Baldwin, Pires, Whitmer, and Ball swam a team record 1:48:22 in the 15 -18  200 Medley Relay.

Thank you to the coaching staff and parent volunteers, especially Margie Pires.

Video streaming of events can be viewed on the USA Swimming website under the TV/webcast tab: usaswimming.org

Full results are available on the National YMCA website: ymcaswimminganddiving.org. Team results are posted to TU.

Pictured: The Westfield Area Y ‘Devilfish’ 2012 YMCA Short Course National Team: (front row l to r) Head Age-Group Coach Jackie Whitty, Coach Kat Berka, Audrey Bangs, Caroline Basil, Brooke Sweeney, Abby Pires, Erika Daniel, Carly Whitmer, Ellie Reinhardt, Loren Ball, Caroline Baldwin. Second row (l to r) Stephen Husch, Nicandro Donadio, Aidan Donadio, Aram Barmakian, Matt Daniel, Max Shin, Alex Bond, Will Beckett, Luke McGrory, Dan Jones, Head Coach Brian Guidera. Not Pictured: Brennan Haley.