The Lakeside SeaHawks Swim Team is committed to continuing its tradition of competitive swimming excellence. Through dedication and hard work, each team member is afforded the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential as an individual and athlete. By providing a professional coaching staff and parental commitment, we seek to provide a healthy and motivating environment of enhanced self-esteem and pride in accomplishment. We expect swimming to be rewarding and fun for all swimmers.
The Lakeside Swim Team is incorporated as Louisville SeaHawks, Inc., a non-profit corporation which was set up to be responsible for providing coaches, equipment and facilities to train a national and international team. Louisville SeaHawks, Inc., is run by an elected Board of Directors. The BOD receives financial support from training fees, hosting swim meets and fund raising by Lakeside families.
From its beginning in 1928, at the quarry on Trevillian Way, the Lakeside SeaHawks Swim Team has been an important part of the Louisville community and a source of community pride. Over the years, the SeaHawks have produced 10 US Olympians. Beyond the 11 Olympians listed above, the team has also produced hundreds of swimmers that have gone on to compete collegiately and internationally. In the 1980’s it was Mary T. Meagher, Tori Trees, Dorsey Tierney, Leigh Ann Fetter, Bruce Dorman, and Lisa Buese, just to name a few. Under current Head Coach, Mike DeBoor, the team has produced four US Olympians; Rachel Komisarz, Caroline Burckle, Clark Burckle, and Brooke Forde.
Lakeside Swim Team has been recognized as a Gold Medal Club 16 times by USA Swimming and has been twice named to their Podium Club. The team has been ranked among the top 20 teams in the country every year since 2002. It has also produced multiple US National and Jr National Team members over the years. Two Lakeside swimmers, Brooke Forde and Asia Seidt, are currently on the US National Team roster, while Annabel Crush is currently on the US National Junior Team roster.
The SeaHawks host the oldest continuous open swim meet in the country; the Ohio Valley Championships. This meet began as the Lakeside Open in 1928 and has been held at the Lakeside quarry every year since. In 2016, Lakeside Swim Club was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, joining iconic entities Churchill Downs, Valhalla Golf Club, Keeneland Race Course, and Hillerich & Bradsby.
In 2000, the Lakeside Men captured the team’s first short course Junior National Championship Title, and then won the Long Course Junior National Championships again in 2005. The team also has numerous top 3 finishes at the NCSA and USA Swimming Jr National Championships, and has won multiple Sectional Championship Titles. In 2018, the SeaHawks won their 48th consecutive indoor State Championship and their 44th consecutive outdoor State Championship. The Lakeside SeaHawks Swim Team is proud to continue its tradition of developing good swimmers and positive contributors to our community.
March 1, 1924: Lakeside is “born” in a certificate holder’s meeting that draws up bylaws for the neighborhood and lake.
Sept. 8, 1928: First major swim meet held at Lakeside. According to the Courier-Journal story on the meet, more than 1,500 fans attend the “swimming carnival.” The meet featured 50, 150, and 300 yard swimming events for men and women in three different age groups, plus a “fancy diving” competition. Event winners are awarded watches and silver cups.
1938: AAU Men’s National Championships held at Lakeside. Under Coach Bud Swain, Lakeside lays claim to the national championship in Senior Women’s swimming, based on results at the National/Olympic Trials meet in Portland, Ore., and another national meet the following week in New Jersey. Lakeside swimmers Mary Moorman and Ann Hardin make the U.S. Olympic team but those Helsinki Games are canceled due to World War II. (Lakeside’s male swimmers are powerful as well, but most were paid lifeguards at the same time and thus ineligible for AAU competition.)
1940s: Lakeside helps pioneer synchronized swimming, then known as “water ballet.”
1954: Reflecting its broadening regional appeal, the annual Lakeside Open meet is renamed the Ohio Valley Championships, the moniker under which the meet continues today. It is the oldest annual meet in the country.
1963: Lakeside swimmer Alice Driscoll wins gold at the Pan American Games in Brazil in the 200 breastroke.
1972: Jack Tingley wins gold medals at the World University Games in Moscow in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle.
1975: Camille Wright wins three Pan Am gold medals, in the 100 & 200 butter y and as a member of the U.S. 400 medley relay.
1976: Wright wins a silver medal as a member of the U.S. 400 medley relay at the Olympics in Montreal. Wright also competes in the 100 and 200 butterfly at the Games.
July 7, 1979: At age 14, Lakeside’s Mary T. Meagher – who would come to be known as “Madame Butterfly” – sets the world record in the 200-meter butterfly at the Pan Am Games.
April 11, 1980: Meagher sets the world record in the 100-meter butterfly as well. After moving to the Cincinnati Marlins with Lakeside teammate Lisa Buese and Coach Dennis Pursely, Meagher was a heavy favorite to win multiple gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow before the United States boycotted the Games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Buese also made the ill-fated ’80 Olympic team.
August 13, 1981: In Brown Deer, Wis., Meagher swims her fifth world-record time in the 200 butterfly, establishing a mark (2:05.96) that will stand for the next 19 years and is considered one of the greatest records in sports history.
August 16, 1981: Meagher breaks her 1980 world record in the 100 butterfly, establishing a new mark (:57.93) that will stand for the next 18 years.
1981: Lakeside Masters team is formed. The program has gone on to produce multiple national champions and record holders.
1984: Meagher wins three gold medals in Los Angeles at the Summer Olympics. Lakeside’s Tori Trees finishes fifth in the L.A. Games in the 200 backstroke.
1987: Lakeside’s Dorsey Tierney and Kara McGrath both win gold medals at the Pan Am Games in Indianapolis.
1988: Meagher earns a bronze medal in the 200 butterfly in the Seoul Olympics. Lakeside’s Leigh Ann Fetter, a seven-time NCAA individual champion and American record holder at Texas, finishes fifth in the 50-meter freestyle at the Seoul Games.
1991: Tierney wins three gold medals at the Pan Am games in Havana, Cuba. Earlier in the year she set an NCAA record while winning the 200 breastroke for Texas.
1992: Coach Mike DeBoor is named National Age Group Coach of the Year by the American Swim Coaches Association.
1993: Coach Mike DeBoor is named National Age Group Coach of the Year by the American Swim Coaches Association for the second consecutive year.
1995: Coach Mike DeBoor named assistant coach at US Olympic Development Camp and assistant coach at the Girls’ National Select Camp.
2000: Lakeside men win their first short course Junior National Championships.
2002: Coach Mike Deboor named Head Coach of US FINA World Cup Team.
2003: Coach Mike DeBoor named Head Coach of Boys’ National Select Camp.
2004: Rachel Komisarz earns gold and silver medals on U.S. freestyle relay teams at the Olympics in Athens. She also swims the 100 butterfly in Athens after winning the event at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Coach Mike Deboor named Head Coach of US FINA World Cup Team.
2005: Lakeside men with their first long course Junior National Championships. Coach Mike DeBoor named National Jr Team Assistant Coach.
2006: Rachel Komisarz and Elizabeth Tinnon compete for Team USA at the Short Course World Championships. Coach Mike DeBoor named head coach of the US World Championship Team and Assistant Coach for the Pan Pacifics Championship Team.
2007: Caroline Burckle wins gold in the 800 freestyle and Elizabeth Tinnon wins bronze in the 200 Breast at the Pan Am Games. Coach Mike Deboor named Head Coach of the National Jr Team.
2008: Burckle, who earlier in the year won two NCAA championships swimming for Florida, earns a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics as part of the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay.
2011: Lakeside alum Clark Burckle, brother of Caroline and an NCAA individual champion at Arizona, wins a silver medal in the Pan Am games in the 200 breastroke.
2012: Clark Burckle, makes the US Olympic Team and competes in the London Olympics with a 6th place finish in the 200 Breast. Clark becomes Lakeside’s 10th US Olympian and it’s first male Olympian. Burckle competes in the 100 and 200 Breast at the Short Course World Championships.
2015: Leah Stevens wins the 2015 Rudy J. Ellis high school athlete of the Year, awarded annually to the top Kentucky High School male and female athlete. She is the first Seahawk to be awarded this top honor. Three Seahawks are named to the U.S. Junior National Team: Leah Stevens, Kennedy Lohman and Brooke Forde. Lohman and Forde competed in the Jr. World Championships in Singapore. Lakeside finishes 3rd in the USA Swimming National Club Rankings. Coach Mike Deboor named coach for National Junior Team Camp.
2016: Lakeside Swim Club is inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, joining iconic entities Churchill Downs, Valhalla Golf Club, Keeneland Race Course and Hillerich & Bradsby. Lakeside sent five swimmers (Brooke Bauer, Brooke Forde, Clayton Forde, Kennedy Lohman, Asia Seidt) and eight college-age alums (Peyton Greenberg, Heyward Harrison, Trey Hubbuch, Kristen Keifer, Ashley Leclair, Sydney Sell, Jacob Smith, Leah Stevens) to the Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha. Brooke Forde and Kennedy Lohman qualify for Jr Pan Pacific Championships. Coach Mike DeBoor named assistant coach for Jr Pan Pacific Championships.
2017: Brooke Forde wins the 2017 Rudy J. Ellis High School Athlete of the Year, awarded annually to the top Kentucky High School male and female athlete. Forde and Asia Seidt are named to the US World University Games team and compete in Taiwan. Both Forde and Seidt are named to the US National Team Roster.
2018: Brooke Forde wins her first NCAA title as a member of Stanford’s 800 freestyle relay. Coach Mike DeBoor is named head coach of USA Swimming’s Mare Nostrum team. Brooke Forde and Asia Seidt are named to the US National Team Roster. Annabel Crush is named to the US National Junior Team Roster. Brooke Forde was later named to the 2019 US FINA World Championship Team Roster and Asia Seidt was named to the US World University Games Team Roster.
2019: Brooke Forde wins her second NCAA title as a member of Stanford’s 800 freestyle relay. She later won her first individual NCAA title in the 500 freestyle. Annabel Crush is named to US National Junior Team Roster for the the Mel Zajac Jr International Meet in Vancouver, Canada.
2021: Brooke Forde becomes an Olympic Silver Medalist as a relay swimmer in the Women’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay in Tokyo. Hunter Tapp is named to the US National Team.
2022: Charlotte Crush sets the National Age Group record in the 100 yard Backstroke for 13-14 Girls with a 51.01 at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships.