Josh Barthlow is quite familiar with breaking swimming records.

The 2004 Butler graduate can break them himself. He also can teach others how to break them.

Barthlow took the reins of the Butler Country Club youth swimming team this summer and coached the squad's girls 12-and-under relay teams to record-breaking performances.

"I've had so much fun doing this," Barthlow said. "I've been a lifeguard out here for a few years and helped out with the team for the past three years.

"The head coaching position came open and they asked me to do it. The kids have been attentive all year and really improved."

The same four girls - Morgan Morrison, Anne Marie Bilott, Hillary Cummings and Brianna Keelan - swim the girls 12-and-under 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay. They set records in both events.

Both relays finished first at the Western Pennsylvania Country Club Swimming Association Championship Meet recently at Hill Crest Country Club. The quartet swam the medley relay in 2 minutes, 21.29 seconds during preliminaries to break the league's record.

During the freestyle relay preliminaries, the foursome swam a time of 2:07.57, again breaking the league mark.

"Those four girls have been phenomenal all year," Barthlow said. "They've been breaking records in every meet they swim in,

"It's a pleasure to coach them because they pick up on things so fast," he added.

Three former Barthlow teammates at Butler, Andrew Hootman, Matt Galante and Evan Pollock, helped him coach the country club team this year.

"That's a very talented group of girls," Galante said. "They put in so much time in the pool and they're always together."

Butler Country Club's swim team had about 50 swimmers ranging in age from 5 to 17. It qualified 18 swimmers for the league championships and finished fifth overall.

Other club swimmers to compete at the league championships were Taylor Dimmick, Alyssa Pullekines, Courtney Shields, Alyssa Smaldino, Eric Seifert, Dante Cicco, Hunter Dimmick, Matt Pribis, Nathan Walls, Torrey Shields, Chad Cummings, Meghan Dillon, Megan Gottschalk and Erica Hunter.

Barthlow put together a record-breaking year of his own last season as a freshman at East Carolina University, setting school marks in the 100 backstroke (49.71), 200 backstroke (1:48.44) and swimming a leg of the 200 medley relay (1:30.86).

"Coaching this team worked perfectly with my workout schedule," Barthlow said. "I go to the YMCA and lift and swim in the morning.

"I'm able to get all my stuff done before I even go to the country club."

Hootman, Galante and Pollock all have worked as lifeguards at the country club before.

"We've all been helping the swim team here for a couple of years, so nothing much changed this year," Barthlow said. "We worked together and helped each other as well as the swimmers."

"It's a good time," Galante said. "They're well-behaved kids and good athletes. Things went really smooth this year."

Soon the coaches will go their separate ways. While Galante enters his senior year at Butler and Barthlow heads back to East Carolina, Pollock will return to Virginia Tech and Hootman to Ohio State.

Neither Pollock nor Hootman swim at their respective schools.

"If everyone can work it out so we can coach this team again next year, I'm all for it," Galante said.