By Candida G. Brush and David M. Scott<\/p>\n
WALTHAM, Mass., July 10. ONCE again, teamwork and depth were the deciding factors for the top team in a big meet.<\/p>\n
This April, the women of Bernal\u2019s Gator Swim Club finished first in the points heap for the short course 2003 NCSA Junior Nationals held in Orlando, Florida. The Gator Women proved for the second year that all-around strength\u2014rather than the reliance on a lone superstar\u2014wins meets. The Gator women\u2019s victory in the long-course 2002 NCSA Junior National Championship held in Boca Raton, FL in August of 2002 began the team\u2019s winning streak.<\/p>\n
Swimming against 600 athletes representing 60 top teams from 20 states, the nine senior women from the Bernal Gator\u2019s Swim Club of Waltham, Mass., took first with 406.5 points to bring home their second Junior National Championship Banner in a year. The Gators outscored Curl-Burke Swim Club (Maryland, with 389 points) and Arizona Desert Fox (Arizona, 364 points).<\/p>\n
The deciding factor in the victory was the club\u2019s fine relay teams: the Gator women won three of the five events. <\/p>\n
"This is a reflection of a team commitment to achieve a specific goal," Coach Joe Bernal explains. "It was a challenge to the character of the team to win two consecutive championships."<\/p>\n
In the 200-yard medley relay, Katie Fritsch teamed with Caroline Dowd, Annie Kelley and Karen Gately to shatter the existing meet record by 2 seconds with a 1:45.12. The team also took first in the 400 medley with a senior national time of 3:50.26. <\/p>\n
Gately, Kelly, Chase Butler and Jessica Aiello also raced a senior national time to take first in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:28.20. "I\u2019m really happy to be part of another championship accomplishment,\u201d says Karen Gately. "All the hard work was worth it."<\/p>\n
The Gator "B" relay placed 6th out of 23 teams in the 200 yard medley relay, which beat the "A" teams of nearly all other clubs. A Gator team also took sixth in the 200 freestyle relay. The points earned in the relays certainly propelled the Gators to victory in the meet. <\/p>\n
Individual Gator swimmers posted 14 top-12 finishes, including a first for Fritsch in the 50 butterfly with a time of 25.08. The sophomore also took sixth in the 200 backstroke and seventh in the 100 backstroke. <\/p>\n
Fritsch was named an "All Star" for the meet. "I\u2019m so thrilled to win Juniors and break the 400 relay record," Fritsch said after her win. "It\u2019s a great meet and I am looking forward to Nationals."<\/p>\n
The Gator women, who also won the women\u2019s division of the Northeast Speedo Sectional Championships, will have a chance to go for a third title this summer at NCSA Long Course Championships before their four seniors leave for college. Brush will join the Brown University Bears; Butler will attend Yale University; Aiello is off to The University of Pennsylvania and Kelly to Villanova. <\/p>\n
The Bernal Gator\u2019s swim team has coached several Olympic, senior national, junior national and NCAA college swimmers over the past 20 years. Swimmers train under the direction of Coach Joe Bernal at Bentley College, in Waltham, MA and at with Jay Craft, at Percy Walker Pool in Duxbury, MA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Candida G. Brush and David M. Scott WALTHAM, Mass., July 10. ONCE again, teamwork and depth were the deciding factors for the top team in a big meet. This<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n