16-Year-Old Cavan Gormsen Earns Finals Swim at US Olympic Trials!

13 & Over-1 athlete Cavan Gormsen earned herself a Finals swim at the United States Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska this morning!  Cavan swam a 4:10.78 in the preliminaries and will be the 8th seed in tonight’s finals heat.  She will be racing fierce competition including Olympian Katie Ledecky. 

Cavan began her swim career at Long Island Swimming in Long Island Swim School’s Beginner Stroke Clinic, moving to the Advanced Stroke Clinic, joining Long Island Aquatic Club’s Red Team, advancing to the Blue Team, Junior A Team, Elite Team and into our top training group High Performance (now known as 13&Over-1)!  A home grown athlete achieving competitive excellence at the highest level!  Cavan’s dedication, commitment to sport, and perseverance through the highs and lows of competitive swimming have led her to this moment!

You can cheer Cavan on tonight by watching the Finals on NBC starting at 8:00 pm ET! 
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Congratulations to Cavan and the Gormsen Family, everyone here on Long Island will be cheering you on from home !!

​LIAC Families-
 
All of Long Island Aquatic Club groups, High Performance all the way through to Red and Junior Team will have Thursday, 3/12 off from practice.  Having tonight off will allow our athletes and our families time to gain some perspective on the current situation. 
 
Given the rapidly evolving situation and as the news media continues to provide new updates what seems to be hourly, our staff will be discussing plans moving forward for tomorrow. 
 
We have been informed that both the Junior Nationals and Age Group NCSA meets in Orlando have been canceled. 
 
We wrote all Junior Olympic and 15-18 Team Challenge families earlier today to discuss how overcoming adversity in situations is a great life lesson for the kids.  We write to our entire team at this time to let everyone know we are all heartbroken at the lost opportunities all of our athletes face at this point in time given the amount of sacrifice coaches and parents have seen them put into their sport, their passion. 
 
That said, we believe it is in everyone’s best interest to take the evening to spend time with those most important to them and appreciate all the great things we do have in our lives, our families and our friends. 
 
Our staff will be in touch tomorrow regarding the weekend as we move forward in this evolving situation.  We appreciate your commitment to our program and most importantly your children.

3 weeks ago we set a goal to raise $3,000 for the wildlife in Australia. The last week in January LIAC swimmers swam well over 10,000 yards and challenged themselves in different ways.  Their efforts made a difference.  Today we are proud and excited to announce that we have achieved our initial goal 6 times over!   Long Island Aquatic Club and Long Island Swim School combined to raise $20,000 for WIRES Wildlife Rescue and the animals affected by the wildfires in Australia. 

While the number is exciting, we are excited that so many of the ATHLETES got behind the cause. 290 of you to be exact!   Your caps, posters, outfits, and enthusiasm brought so much more to this effort than just a dollar sign.  Your caring attitude and eagerness to get behind this cause was remarkable.  As swimmers, we team up in our lanes to train, and behind the blocks to race, but it's nice to know that we can team up to do incredible things outside the pool as well. So congrats LIAC, and thank you to the team behind the swimmers who donated.  We couldn't be prouder!

Congrats to Cavan Gormsen (14) who earned her first Olympic Trials cut over the weekend at the Jim Wood invitational at Rutgers University.  Cavan's cut came in the 400 meter freestyle with a time of 4:16.51.  Cavan is LIAC's 7th 2020 Olympic Trial Qualifier.  LIAC and Long Island Swim School are proud of Cavan for working her way through the program to Omaha!  Congrats Cavan!

Through the month of January Long Island Aquatic Club is swimming in support of Australian wildlife. Australia is suffering through unprecedented bushfires.  Ecologists at Sydney University have estimated over 800 million animals have been affected in New South Wales alone and over 1 billion animals in Australia since September. Long Island Aquatic Club wants to help.  

Australia may be 9,929 miles from New York but our swimmers are going to swim 10,000 yards to make a difference.  Each member of LIAC will have the opportunity to accept a challenge. Please support your athlete with a donation that will benefit WIRES.

WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.) has been rescuing and caring for wildlife for over 30 years and is the largest wildlife rescue organization in Australia. They are passionate about supporting smaller volunteer organization in the wildlife sector with the same mission, as well as Universities, Veterinary Associations and other leading scientific and environmental groups.
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You can use the ‘Give Now’ Button to make your donation as your athlete accepts the challenge to Swim for Australian Wildlife.  Please share this page with family and friends. Donations are due by January 31, 2020.

Thank you in advance for your generosity! We hope to make a difference for the wildlife in Australia!

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SATURDAY/SUNDAY (10/12, 10/13): WOKE UP LIKE THIS
MONDAY (10/14): ‘MeriCa MONDay
TUESDAY (10/15): Sports Jersey TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY (10/16): lookalike WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY (10/17): SUPERPOWER THURSDAY
FRIDAY (10/18): FREAKY FRIDAY

USA Swimming announced the names of 83 youth swimmers who will represent the 2019-2020 U.S. National Junior Team.  Seventy-one clubs are represented on this year’s National Junior Team, led by Sandpipers of Nevada’s five representatives. Nation’s Capital Swim Club and Long Island Aquatic Club follow with three swimmers each. 
Congratulations;
Jason Louser - 400IM,
Tess Howley- 200 fly
Sophia Karras- 1500 Free!!
To be selected to the National Junior Team, athletes must be a registered USA Swimming member at the time of the qualifying performance and must be 18 years or younger on September 1, 2019. The Team will then be selected based on the following Performance Criteria:
Priority One: The top two athletes in each individual Olympic event.
Priority Two: The third and fourth ranked swimmer in the 100 and 200 meter long course freestyle.
Priority Three: Additional FEMALE athletes who have a world ranking within, and including, the top 75 in an individual Olympic event and additional MALE athletes who have a world ranking within, and including, the top 100 in an individual Olympic event. 

USA Swimming announced the Scholastic All American Team on Monday with eleven LIAC swimmers making the roster! To be eligible for the Scholastic All American Team swimmers had to maintain a 3.5 grade point average over the 2018-2019 school year and achieve a 2018 USA Swimming Winter Junior National qualifying time. There were 1,634 successful applicants nationwide. Below are the eleven LIAC swimmers and the number of years on the Scholastic All American Team:
-Justen Lopez (1 year)
-William Swartwout (1 year)
- Sophia Karras (1 year)
-Kiani Morisi (1 year)
- Hana Shimizu-Bowers (1 year)
-Isabella Antoniuk (2 years)
- Sophia Gregorace (2 years)
-Joanie Cash (2 years)
-Chloe Stepanek (2 years) 
-Lauryn Johnson (3 years) 
-Jason Louser (3 years)

Jason and Lauryn were two of only 150 athletes to be on the team three years in a row! 

Congratulations to all the LIAC swimmers!

There is no practice for Select, Junior A, and Blue Team in the Freedom pool this evening due to the weather.  White team will have practice as scheduled inside the main pool.