The Kehoe-France Northshore BLAST, highlighted by 37 individual and relay state championship swims, earned a third place finish in the 2008 Louisiana Long Course State Championships held at the Sulphur Park and Recreation Aquatic Center July 17-20.

Paced by an inspiring performance by their 12 & under swimmers, the BLAST ran up 2981.50 points to finish behind Crawfish Aquatics of Baton Rouge (3756.50) and Metairie’s Crescent City Swim Club (3616.50). Following the Blast in fourth place was the City of Shreveport Swim Team (2460.50), the Hurricane Swim Club of Slidell trailed in sixth (2233.50). Other local teams participating included the Franco’s Fins finishing 8th (1185.50) and Pelican Athletic Club coming in 13th (458) in the 30 team field.

The BLAST 11-12 year-old girls led by twelve year-olds Kara Kopcso, Alex Cloutet, Kristen Jennings and Brooke Vinturella broke eight state records in the age group. Kopcso, swimming up in the 19 & under age group had a superb meet. Kara won six of her seven events, setting five Louisiana state records and swam seven National Top 10 times. The 400 free record that Kara broke dates back to 1976, and was the oldest long course record on the books until she shattered it by nearly three seconds. “My coaches let me swim up competing in 19 and under. Going against older swimmers helped make me go faster. I was able to post some very fast times that are ranked in the country. I just felt really good in the water. Having my teammates and friends support me helped me go faster to achieve some really good times,” said the 12-year-old Kopcso.

“I really like the 400 Individual Medley doing all four strokes, but I have to swim up to take part in that. I also like swimming the 400 Freestyle,” Kopcso added.

Cloutet won the 11-12 girls 50 and 100 breast and broke the state record in the 11-12 girls’ 200 breast (2:54.40), while swimming in the 19 & under event.

Kristen Jennings won the 11-12 girls’ individual high point award, just edging out fellow teammate Brooke Vinturella, 126 to 123.5 points. Jennings won the 50 and 100 back, the 50 fly and the 200 IM. Vinturella won the 200 and 400 frees and the 100 fly.

The four combined to break the state records in the 11-12 girls’ 400 free relay (4:24.53), and the 400 medley relay (4:46.66). The four girls also won the 11-12 girls 200 medley relay in a national top 10 time of 2:14.18. In the 200 free relay, Claire Rasmus raced with Kopcso, Cloutet and Vinturella to win in 2:01.18.

In addition to the 11-12 girls, five other BLAST swimmers won a total of sixteen individual championships. Sixteen year-old Jessica Kopcso proved to be the dominant female breaststroker of the meet. Jessica won the 15-16 girls 100 and 200 breast and the 19 & under 100 and 200 breast. She also captured the 15-16 girls 100 Fly. Jessica also garnered two third place finishes in the 200 Fly and 200 IM.

“It was a challenge. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be just having only about six minutes between events. My performance shows that all of my hard work is starting to pay off. I’m really proud of my performance. It makes all of those 5 a.m. practices worthwhile,” 16-year-old Kopcso said.

Griffin Guzan and Harrison Prieto mastered the 10 & under boys age group, winning eight of the 10 possible individual races in the age group. Guzan won the 100 free, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 fly and 200 IM. He also achieved two national top 16 times in the 50 fly (33.97), and 100 fly (1:15.73). Prieto won the 50 free, 50 back and 100 back.

The dynamic duo teamed up with Trey James and Grant Gallaspy to become the fantastic four and won both the 200 free and 200 medley relays.

In the 11-12 boys, Andrew Knudsen, 12, won state gold in the 400 free and 100 fly. He was the boys 11-12 age group high-point runner up. He joined with teammates Mason Drouant, Gianni Scramuzza and Will Warwick to also win the 200 free and medley relays in come-from-behind heart-pounding fashion.

Knudsen was excited about his effort.

“Winning two first place medals was really great. I worked really hard. I think my coaches did a good job training me. The 100 fly was a really close race with my friend Brady Grenfel,” Knudsen said.

Colin Babcock scored an upset win in the 15–16 boys 400 IM and finished second in the 800 and1500 Freestyle.

In addition to these 15 state champions, the team had five other swimmers make the all-state team including Callie Tucker, Grace Tucker, Madeleine Rawls, Emily Prieto and Allison Jones.

Other BLAST top 16 finishers were Hope Winkler, Sydney Dupont, Catherine Walker, Anna Rawls, Katie Fearn, Rachel Strain, Catherine Clade, Amanda Gilbert, Beth Winkler, Allison Warwick, Emily Songer, Alissa Winkler, Zack Knudsen, Alex Knudsen, Matthew Stegen, Zachary Charles, Zachary Cloutet, Alex Rawls, Brennan Dorsey, Robert Klazynski, Sam Jones, Walter Miltenberger, James Miltenberger, Rhett Guinot, Tommy Barnett, Mark Reuther, Ronnie Drez, Gavin Breaux, Kevin Forschler, and Addison Druant.

Six BLAST swimmers were selected to the Southern Zone Championships being held in Atlanta this week through Aug 3, including Andrew Knudsen, Kristen Jennings, Alex Cloutet, Brooke Vinturella, Kara Kopcso and Jessica Kopcso.