Trails Swim Team Ends Season of Record-Breaking

The Trails Swim Team ended a successful season with an overall 5th place finish at the North Central Illinois Swim Conference A Championship on Saturday July 15, 2017. The event also featured teams from Cary, DeKalb, Geneva, Oswego and Rock River Valley and was held at Kishwaukee Family YMCA in Sycamore, IL. Having just moved up to the more competitive NCISC A conference this year, head coach John Jost was pleased with the Algonquin-based team's performance. In addition to four individual champions and two relay first place finishes, Trails had 196 personal best swims (64%). “That's incredible to me,” said Jost. “We knew every point would count and our swimmers came out and did their very best. It was a great finish to the season.”

The Trails Swim Team placed first in the 6&Under Boys age group while the 6&Under Girls and 8&Under Girls both placed second. Individual conference champions included David Gatto in the 6&Under 25 Yard Backstroke, where he broke a Trails and NCISC conference record with a 21.86 swim, and the Boys 6&Under 25 Yard Freestyle while breaking another team record; Joshua Lack, Boys 8&Under 25 Yard Breastroke; and Alec Orndahl, Boys 15 & Over 100 Yard Backstroke, with a Trails record-breaking swim of 56.57. Both the boys and girls 8&Under teams also were first in the 100 Yard Freestyle Relays. The 8&Under girls broke the team record, which had last been set in 1979.

The championship was a culmination of a summer-long season that saw 14 long-standing records fall by the 126-swimmer roster. In addition to David Gatto's four new records in the 6&Under age group for free and back in both meters and yard pools, Anastasia Komarova set records for 6&Under backstroke in both yards and meters; and Alec Orndahl broke the 15&Up 100 yard butterfly record as well as 100 backstroke in both yards and meters. The five new relay records include the 8&Under Girls' free and medley relays for both yards and meters, featuring Sarah Hillyer, Rachel Johnson, Riley Machesky, Ava Nisi, Selene Quimby, Eva Wetzel and Natalie Zimmerman, and the 9-10 boys 200 meter medley relay, featuring Antonio Aguirre, Mason Gaylord, Joe Hillyer and Charlie Mason.

Led by head coach John Jost, the coaching staff of Kayleigh Kozlowski, Faith Terlecki, Marissa Gerritsen and Francis Ogaban, were key to the team's success this season.

The Trails Swim Team is an Algonquin-based not-for-profit community swim team that provides a fun, social atmosphere within a competitive swim program for swimmers of all abilities aged 5 to 18.

NCISC A Individual Champions
David Gatto, Boys 6 & Under 25 Yard Backstroke, 21.86* NCISC Conference Record
David Gatto, Boys 6 & Under 25 Yard Freestyle 19.39
Alec Orndahl, Boys 15 & Over 100 Yard Backstroke, 56.57
Joshua Lack, Boys 8 & Under 25 Yard Breaststroke, 22.64

NCISC A Relay Champions
Boys 8 & Under 100 Yard Freestyle Relay (David Gatto, Logan Kranig, Max Gaylord, Joshua Lack) 1:22.05
Girls 8 & Under 100 Yard Freestyle Relay (Ava Nisi, Eva Wetzel, Sarah Hillyer, Natalie Zimmerman) 1:11.43

2017 New Trails Records
6&Under 25 Meter Backstroke Girls:
    Old Record: 28.44 Grace Kozlowski 07-13-2010
    New Record: 28.20 Anastasia Komarova 06-24-2017
6&Under 25 Yard Backstroke, Girls:
    Old Record: 25.47 Autumn Ledgin 07-25-2003
    New Record 24.57 Anastasia Komarova 07-15-2017
6&Under 25 Yard Freestyle, Boys:
    Old Record: 20.36 Connor Castro 07-21-07
    New Record: 19.39 David Gatto 07-15-17
6&Under 25 Yard Backstroke, Boys:
    Old Record: 24.97 Jim Spurny 07-19-08
    New Record: 21.86 David Gatto 07-15-17
6&Under 25 Meter Freestyle, Boys:
    Old Record: 24.92 Conner Castro 07-12-2007
    New Record: 22.63 David Gatto 07-06-2017
6&Under 25 Meter Backstroke, Boys:
    Old Record: 30.50 Gage Efken 06-28-2005
    New Record: 26.22 David Gatto 07-06-2017
15&Up 100 Meter Backstroke
    Old Record: 1:07.18 Bryan Artel 06-01-1997
    New Record: 1:06.60 Alec Orndahl 07-06-2017
15&Up 100 Yard Backstroke Boys:
    Old Record: 57.44 Nick Floyd 07-24-2004
    New Record: 56.57 Alec Orndahl 07-15-2017
15&Up 100 Yard Butterfly, Boys:
    Old Record: 55.53 Bryan Artel 07-01-1995
    New Record 55.18 Alec Orndahl 07-15-2017
8&Under 100 Meter Free Relay, Girls
    Old Record 1:28.21 D. Norton, D. Gypalo, L. Christiansen, M. Carlson 07-01-1994
    New Record: 1:25.95 Natalie Zimmerman, Riley Machesky, Eva Wetzel, Sarah Hillyer 07-06-2017
8&Under 100 Yard Free Relay, Girls
    Old Record 1:12.23 M. Devine, K. Hickson, J. Marcus,  S. Wildey 07-01-1979
    New Record 1:11.43 Ava Nisi, Eva Wetzel, Sarah Hillyer, Natalie Zimmerman 07-15-2017
8&Under 100 Meter Medley Relay, Girls:
    Old Record: 1:35.82 H. Pankau, K. Quinlan L. Walker, H. Weber 07-13-2004
    New Record: 1:35.67 Natalie Zimmerman, Sarah Hillyer, Eva Wetzel, Selene Quimby 07-11-2017
8&Under 100 Yard Medley Relay, Girls:
    Old Record: 1:23.08 G. Krug, E. Messner, N. Sanchez, C. Anderson 07-23-2005
    New Record: 1:21.71 Rachel Johnson, Sarah Hillyer, Eva Wetzel, Natalie Zimmerman 07-15-2017
9-10 200 Meter Medley Relay, Boys:
    Old Record: 2:52.13 E. Demrow, C. Taglia, C. Strange, M. Basten 07-01-1993
    New Record: 2:51.23 Antonio Aguirre, Mason Gaylord, Joe Hillyer, Charlie Mason 07-11-2017

Team Awards

6&Under
Most improved girl: Ruthie Johnson
Most improved boy: Ben Niemi
Best effort: Max Gaylord

7-8
Most improved girl: Ava Nisi
Most improved boy: Jack Droste
Best effort: Rachel Johnson
Swimmer's choice: Sarah Hillyer
Spirit: Sebastian Los

9-10
Most improved girl: Emma Nisi
Most improved boy: Gabe Niemi
Best Effort: Audrey Zimmerman
Swimmers choice: Antonio Aguirre and Cameron Larsen
Spirit: Luke Johnson

11-12
Most improved girl: Maggie Zimmerman
Most improved boy: Connor Schlueter
Best effort: Avery Mason
Swimmers choice: Faith Mudra
Spirit: Olivia Allendorf

13-14
Most improved girl: Marie Adkins
Most improved guy: Christian Azar
Swimmers choice: Lizzy McAuliffe
Best effort: Lizzy McAuliffe
Spirit: Murphy O'Hara

15&Up
Most improved girl: Natalya Damato
Most improved guy: Wiktor Sereda
Swimmers choice: Alec Orndahl and Ty Kalscheur
Best effort: Ty Kalscheur
Spirit: Grace Gatto
Graduate address: Natalya Damato

Pic Above: Trails 2017 record breaking swimmers

Pics Below: The Trails coaching team Faith Terlecki, Kayleigh Kozlowski, John Jost, Marissa Gerritsen and Francis Ogaban (#1); the Trails 2017 team (#2); 8&under 100 free relay team of Sarah Hillyer, Eva Wetzel, Natalie Zimmerman and Ava Nisi (#3); and Alec Orndahl (#4).