By PAULA SCHUMANN, Contributor

The River Place Rapids swim team completed its 2018 season at the All Star Invitational Meet at Westwood Country Club on June 25. Forty-one swimmers participated in the event, in either an individual event or as part of a relay.

The Rapids team — with 109 swimmers ages 4 to 13 — had its overall highest finish since at least 2014, and multiple records were broken during the season and at the All Star meet.

“The River Place Rapids had an excellent season this year. We challenged the kids with many new drills and skills. They worked really hard and it paid off,” said Andrew McGalliard, head coach.

Assistant coaches, who were all Vandergrift swimmers, Savannah Broughton, Hannah Palacios, Izzy Petersen and Brett Falgout (who also was a former Rapids swimmer).  

The team trained hard and enjoyed fun drills five days a week for nine weeks from late April to late June. They also conducted numerous stroke clinics.

The Rapids, sponsored by River Place Country Club, swim in the Austin Hills Swim League. The team competed in eight meets plus the Invitational meet.

The Rapids won a large number of medals this year in the meet versus the Lakeway Lakers.

The parent-coach relays at meets were one of the season highlights.

To cap off the season, the swimmers had a Medal Meet where the kids won medals instead of ribbons followed by a fiesta dance party and awards ceremony.

For information about the 2019 season, go to www.riverplace.swimtopia.com.

2018 River Place Rapids

*Annabelle Adams, 10

‡Parker Alfano, 13

Charlotte Allen, 6

*Massimo Altamirano, 11

‡*Audrey Boyle, 11

*Maddie Broxterman, 8

Cinnamon Brunner, 10

Sage Brunner, 8

Amelia Callas, 5

‡*Cade Cassens, 13

‡*Lainey Cassens, 9

Faith Chon, 9

*Rachel Chon,10

Andres Conterno, 8

Rafael Conterno, 6

Cate Conway, 5

Blake Countway, 7

Morgan Czepiel, 7

Foster Dale, 5

Joshua Day, 7

Katelyn Dietrich, 7

Izzy Drury, 9

Maddie Drury, 11

‡Erin Evans, 12

Landry Fannin, 7

*Aubrie Foertsch, 6

*Julia Foertsch, 8

Makenna Fojtik, 7

Corinne Gaertner, 8

*Genevieve Gaertner, 6

‡*Beckom Garvey, 10

*Amber Gemperle, 8

‡Avery Gemperle, 11

John Geraci, 6

‡Joseph Geraci, 12

*Cannan Ginsburg, 9

‡*Savannah Ginsburg, 12

*Aiden Giroux, 9

Alexandria Giroux, 8

Zachary Giroux, 5

*Bradan Gorman, 5

Eala Gorman, 8

Lainey Griego, 7

*Lucy Griego, 5

Gentry Haddock, 7

Hudson Hamilton, 5

Olivia Hamilton, 8

Dylan Hays, 8

Emily Hays, 7

*Hudson Hoffman, 6

*Landon Huber, 10

‡Holden Hudson, 13

Ryan Jeffries, 13

*Spencer Jordan, 13

Finley Koester, 5

*Kayla Kovar, 11

Tesana Lux, 9

‡Cate McCann, 11

Caoimhe Mcdaid, 10

*Gavin McLellan, 7

Sophia Mercurio, 5

Dolton Murray, 6

‡*Abigail Naden, 12

‡*Nicholas Naden, 10

‡Lily Orth, 11

Susan Orth, 7

‡*William Orth, 10

Jacqueline O’Shaughnessy, 8

*John O’Shaughness, 6

Jacob Owens, 12

Kaelyn Owens, 8

*Alexander Paulson, 8

*Wyatt Paulson, 10

Ava Pickerrell, 8

Collin Pierce, 10

Haylee Pottichen, 9

Ty Pottichen, 6

Emily Pyrcz 11

Elisabeth “Ellie” Rackl, 5

Jenna Romney, 9

*Sarah Romney, 6

Jack Ruschitzko, 6

‡Emma Schumann, 12

‡*Lilah Schumann, 9

*Maxwell Schumann, 7

Baran Shafaei, 7

*Gwynna Simmons, 7

‡*Grayson Smith, 8

Luke Standlee, 6

Piper Standlee, 7

Alexandra Steber, 6

*Gretchen Steber, 8

Aubery Steen, 7

Quinton Steen, 10

Mimi Stojanik, 11

Vishnu Valluru, 10

Ava Weaver, 7

*Justin Weaver, 8

*Levi Werbeck, 6

Jack Widing, 9

Alex Widing, 7

Abigail Williams, 7

Emma Williams, 4

‡*Christian Wilson, 11

Samantha Yeager, 11

*Charlotte Zimmerman, 6

‡*Evan Zimmerman, 11

*Kathleen Zimmerman, 6

*Nicholas Zimmerman, 9

* All-Star Invitational Swimmer

‡ 5 year plus Rapids swimmer