Adaptation and Dolphin Hunting

Dolphins are pretty amazing hunters, using highly coordinated corralling techniques to force fish into a tight "bait ball" and then shooting through the mass of fish gulping as many as they can on each pass. It is a very effective system, made possible by their highly coordinated teamwork and speedy swimming through the ball of fish.

Launching into a new A meet season.

One of the most powerful tools in nature is the ability for a species to adapt. Adapting to predators and prey, and learning new skills to rise up the food chain. At the first A meet of the season, the MVP Gators clearly adapted to those Dolphin techniques and turned them against the visiting Dunn Loring Dolphins- lots of teamwork and lots of fast swimming to achieve a victory, with a final score of MVP Gators 260 to 159 for the Dunn Loring Dolphins.

Green & White, Fight! Fight!

All decked out in their Green & White spirit wear, the Gator swimmers led this one from wire to wire, winning the match-ups in every stroke and nearly every age group. Leading the way were the 13-14 year olds, who combined to win 69 out of 82 points (84%!!) available to them in their events. Apparently, once everyone else got those fish balled up, the 13-14's really fed well.

Speaking of those 13-14's.... three of the four Gator sweeps on the day came from that group. FYI, a "clean sweep" is when one team gets 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in one event and earns all 9 points possible for the event. The girls 13-14 Back (Olivia Blondin, Abby Dittman, and Juliette Fore), the boys 13-14 Fly (Andrew Baker, Charlie Ruppe, and Kenny Krogh), and the girls 13-14 Fly (Emily Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Olivia Blondin) all swept their competition. The fourth group producing a sweep was the 8 & under girls Breast stroke (Helen Milito, Josie Cowen, and Natalie Crowther).

Makin way towards a new girls 13-14 Medley Relay record. 

And this week's "Swim of the Week" came from those 13-14's, too. Not that the swimmers are trying to set a high bar or anything, but they broke the first Gator record of the year in the first meet. The 13-14 Girls Medley Relay of Olivia Blondin, Emily Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo swam in 1:01.79, breaking the old mark by 0.02 seconds (set last summer by Olivia Blondin, Taylor Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Sheridan Phalen). The gauntlet has been thown down I hear Vegas has the over/under set at 5 new records being set this year for the team.

In the teamwork category, the Gator relays won an impressive 9 out of 12 relay events (with one of those three losses coming by only .01 seconds!).

Individual event Gator winners were:
Liam Fore (Free, Fly)
Tyler Swartz (Free)
Donovan Kovalsky (Free, Fly)

Ready to launch towards 1 of  22 first place finishes. 

Clark Bayer (Free)
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (Free)
Sam Bruce (Back)
Helen Milito (Back, Breast)
George Schulte (Back)
James Piland (Back, Breast)
Olivia Blondin (Back)
Anthony Sarro (Breast)
Alexander North (Breast)
T.J. Heck (Breast)
Emily Makin (Breast)
Natalie Crowther (Fly)
Matthew Makin (Fly)
Elizabeth Moorman (Fly)
Andrew Baker (Fly)

2nd place finishers were:
Anthony Sarro (Free)
Alexander North (Free)
Cassidy Crowther (Free, Back)
Jack Dupuis (Free)
Katya Zaitsev (Free)

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures. 

Gabby Greszler (Free, Fly)
Cole Miller (Free)
Sheridan Phalen (Free, Back)
Gavin Moore (Back)
Lily Palmerino (Back)
Clark Bayer (Back)
Abby Dittman (Back)
Josie Cowen (Breast)

Matthew Makin (Breast)

Abigail Litonjua (Breast)

Jack Klopson (Breast, Fly) 

Charlie Ruppe (Breast, Fly) 

Taylor Makin (Breast)

Sam Bruce (Fly)

Tyler Swartz (Fly)

Elaina Phalen (Fly)

And 3rd place Gators were:
Josie Cowen (Free)
Lily Palmerino (Free)
Andrew Baker (Free)

Parker Fulghum (Free, Back)

You get 3 guesses what song is on....  the first two don't count. 

Noah Litonjua (Back)

Miriam Keller (Back)

Colin Baxter (Back)

Elizabeth Moorman (Back)

Andrei Zaitsev (Back)

Juliette Fore (Back)

Natalie Crowther (Breast)

Caroline Baker (Breast)

Olivia Heck (Breast)

Elaina Phalen (Breast)
Abigail Litonjua (Fly)
Kenny Krogh (Fly)
Olivia Blondin (Fly)
Cole Miller (Fly)

The full results for the meet are available on the NVSL site here.

All of Dave Anderson's meet photos are available at the link here.

Next week's A meet will be away at Dowden Terrace against.... the Dolphins. The nice thing about
adaptation is that once adapted, the skills persist. So, I'm thinking a repeat of the teamwork and fast swimming may be just what the Gators ordered again next week.

Yes, the Gators earned an "A" for today.