X-Cel Swimmers Place First in Two Events at Eastern Sectionals

Buffalo, NY - X-Cel Swimming is proud to announce two first place finishes and several top-sixteen finishes at the 2011 USA Swimming Speedo Champions Series Eastern Zone Sectional Meet held at the Flickinger Aquatic Center in Buffalo, NY, March 24-27, 2011.

Megan Lydzinski, 17, won the 100 free with a Junior National and season best time of (50.85). Lydzinski also placed fourth in the 50 free (23.85). Anna Marshall, 17, placed sixth in the 200 breast (2:23.69) and twelfth in the 100 breast (1:07.31). Patrick Park, 15, won the 200 fly and achieved his first Junior National time cut of (1:50.59). Park placed fourth in the 100 fly with a Junior National time of (50.26), eighth in the 200 free (1:43.70), ninth in the 200IM (1:56.32) and twelfth in the 200 breast (2:12.42). In addition to achieving his first two Junior National time cuts at this meet, Patrick Park set new team records and swam personal best times in every one of the five events that he swam.

The women’s free and medley relays also broke team records. The 200 yard free relay team (Megan Lydzinski, Shawnee Gundry, Marisa Giglio and Serena Deardorff) set a new team record of (1:39.04). The 200 yard medley relay team (Shawnee Gundry, Anna Marshall, Serena Deardorff and Megan Lydzinski) also set a new team record with a time of (1:50.02).

Finally, many X-Cel Swimmers achieved best times at this meet. Serena Deardorff, 15, swam a personal best time in the 100 free (54.13). Marisa Giglio, 16, dropped 2.7 seconds to swim a personal best time of (2:00.42) in the 200 free. Shawnee Gundry, 17, swam two personal best times, leading off both the 200- and 400 medley relays with a 50 back time of (28.93) and 100 back time of (1:01.77) respectively. Addison Hebert, 17, swam four personal best times, including the 50 free (22.26), 100 free (50.30), 200 fly (2:02.39) and 200 free (1:48.45) where he dropped nearly four seconds. Colburn Yu, 15, achieved best times in both the 100 breast (1:01.95) and 200 breast (2:15.00).

X-Cel Swimming is a USA Swimming team founded in 1995.  The program is led by Head Coach Lucy (SiPei) Le, five time Chinese National Champion and former Olympic Team Member. X-Cel provides a comprehensive youth swimming program for all levels of competitive swimming, from novice to National level athlete. X-Cel's focused workouts with trained, qualified coaches give each swimmer the opportunity to achieve his or her highest potential. Each swimmer develops physically, emotionally and mentally, schooled in the values of good sportsmanship and teamwork. X-Cel’s program is based at Princeton University’s state of the art DeNunzio Pool. For more information on X-Cel, please visit our website: www.xcelswimming.org.