Orientation and an A Meet vs Lakevale Estates

Gator seniors. And a duck. 

Orientation is the determination of relative positioning and gaining an understanding of the environment. Getting properly oriented to a situation helps you to perform well and be successful in that environment. Understanding where things are, how others will behave, and how you should behave yourself are all important parts of a good orientation.

Transitions can be challenging and stressful. Leaving home and going off to college is the biggest life event for most people that age. The first thing a new student does at college is attend an orientation to learn about the campus and get comfortable in the processes. Another key part of the transition process is closure. In this, our final A meet of the season, we recognize our outgoing seniors for their accomplishments. It's important to celebrate the successes of the past as we transition to the future. Senior Day is the team's chance to honor and thank the outgoing seniors for their dedication, commitment, and performance.  The seniors all walk through the tunnel of fins and are recognized by their teammates in a very fun tradition while we all get to hear about their past successes, future goals, and dreams. Tears were shed, hugs were plentiful, and in true Gator spirit our seniors received a fitting farewell.

Fins to the left, fins to the right...

Good luck, Seniors! Coaches... you're staying.

The theme for the day was College Day. All the swimmers were decked out in the colors of their new schools. It was great to see the terrific colleges our seniors are all heading off to this year: Old Dominion University (Cameron Morey), Ohio State University (Tres Greszler), Dickinson College (Ian Baker), and Georgetown University (Maddie Finn). You can read more about our Gators seniors on their page on the Gator Website here. There's a common theme I've noticed after six years of Senior Days.... Gator swimmers go to great schools. So, here's a little orientation tip for new parents of little Gators- keep swimming! There's something special about the team, the work ethic, and the habits formed from swim team that truly produces great leaders, great students, and great people.

Now, this is a swimming blog, so, about that swimming... This A meet between the MVP Gators and the Lakevale Estates Dolphins was our third, and final, dual meet against our many "Dolphin" opponents this season. The Gators welcomed their guests to the swamp by giving every member of the visiting team a handmade keychain as a token of sportsmanship. It's pretty common knowledge that Dolphins use echolocation, their internal sonar system, to help with orientation to their environment. But gators, especially our Gators, have learned to use vocalizations to disrupt and confuse those dolphins and keep them disoriented. And so, once in the water, the more primal side of the gators emerged and the pre-meet cheers and frequent triple gator grunts, in response to the season-high SIX clean sweeps, clearly kept the dolphins disoriented during the course of the meet.

The Gators put on a dominant swim display, opening up with a 58-32 lead in Freestyle, and adding to that lead in every stroke: 54-36 in Back, 61-29 in Breast, 52-38 in Fly, and 40-20 in the Relays. The outcome of the meet was decided relatively early and the Gators prevailed in this one 265-155.

Of course, there were quite a few group and individual performances worthy of recognition in this one. As I mentioned above, there were six clean sweeps for the Gators (as a reminder, a sweep is when one team wins all nine points in a race by finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd):

Girls 15-18 Free: Cassidy Bayer, Sheridan Phalen, and Parker Fulghum
Girls 8 & under Back: Helen Milito, Ella Prible, and Bianca Murphy
Boys 9-10 Back: Matthew Makin, George Schulte, and Gavin Fore
Girls 8 & under Breast: Helen Milito, Josie Cowen, and Natalie Crowther
Girls 13-14 Breast: Emily Makin, Olivia Heck, and Olivia Blondin
Boys 9-10 Fly: Matthew Makin, Gavin Moore, and George Schulte

Additionally, there were seven other races where Gators earned 8 points by finishing first and second. That's some serious team depth!

On the group level, the 9-10 boys only dropped two points on the day, earning 39 out of a possible 41 points for their age group. Talk about impressive.

Individually, there were a few remarkable finishes. In our "Race of the Week," Gavin Moore finished 3rd in the Boys 11-12 Backstroke (that's 9 year old Gavin Moore, by the way) and earned a point swimming up an age group. Swimming up is often considered "taking one for the team" and merely an opportunity for more live racing, but Gavin wouldn't be denied points in his race. Great race, Gavin! In golf, there is a thing called "shooting your age" which demonstrates the skill of an older golfer. It's hard to shoot 75 or 80 in that challenging sport, and to do it when you are 75 or 80 years old is pretty remarkable. We need a similar measure for swimming, perhaps call it "swimming your age," because that's what six year old Natalie Crowther did on Saturday by earning 6 points with a win in the 8 & under Fly and a third place finish in 8 & under Breast. And while we're talking about Natalie, can someone please explain to her that Fly is a hard, physically demanding stroke that you aren't supposed to be excelling at when you are only six! Out of four A meets so far, Natalie has finished 1st or 2nd in Fly EVERY time. As a 6 year old. The future is so bright, we ALL need to wear shades.

There were quite a few Gators in the point placing positions this week and all are listed below:

First place finishers:  

Samuel Bruce	8 & under Free	20.00S
Josephine Cowen	8 & under Free	21.15S
Tyler Swartz	9-10 Free	34.81S
Cassidy Crowther	9-10 Free	39.74S
Donovan Kovalsky	11-12 Free	30.18S
Clark Bayer	13-14 Free	26.93S
Cassidy Bayer	15-18 Free	27.22S
Samuel Bruce	8 & under Back	26.49S
Helen Milito	8 & under Back	25.02S
Matthew Makin	9-10 Back	42.58S
James Piland	11-12 Back	37.15S
Lily Palmerino	11-12 Back	40.68S
Anthony Sarro	8u Breast	28.44S
Helen Milito	8u Breast	28.81S
Alexander North	9-10 Breast	46.65S
Abigail Litonjua	9-10 Breast	46.40S
Donovan Kovalsky	11-12 Breast	40.10S
Tj Heck	13-14 Breast	37.02S
Emily Makin	13-14 Breast	37.81S
Liam Fore	8 & under Fly	22.22S
Natalie Crowther	8 & under Fly	29.97S
Matthew Makin	9-10 Fly	17.31S
James Piland	11-12 Fly	34.94S
Cassidy Bayer	15-18 Fly	28.94S

Second place: 

Alexander North	9-10 Free	36.18S
Jill Humphreys	9-10 Free	39.84S
Isabella VanDamme	11-12 Free	34.24S
Katya Zaitsev	11-12 Free	34.24S
Gabrielle Greszler	13-14 Free	29.53S
Sheridan Phalen	15-18 Free	29.72S
Evan Prible	8 & under Back	28.74S
Ella Prible	8 & under Back	26.95S
George Schulte	9-10 Back	43.65S
Cassidy Crowther	9-10 Back	45.40S
Clark Bayer	13-14 Back	32.14S
Olivia Blondin	13-14 Back	34.56S
Parker Fulghum	15-18 Back	34.72S
Josephine Cowen	8u Breast	29.45S
Tyler Swartz	9-10 Breast	47.19S
Lily Palmerino	11-12 Breast	47.46S
Charlie Ruppe	13-14 Breast	38.22S
Olivia Heck	13-14 Breast	39.81S
Taylor Makin	15-18 Breast	39.78S
Noah Litonjua	8 & under Fly	32.74S
Gavin Moore	9-10 Fly	19.78S
Abigail Litonjua	9-10 Fly	20.34S
Jack Klopson	11-12 Fly	39.88S
Caroline Miller	11-12 Fly	39.40S
Andrew Baker	13-14 Fly	31.78S
Gabrielle Greszler	13-14 Fly	31.73S

Third place Gators: 

Anthony Sarro	8 & under Free	23.27S
Alexandra Myers	8 & under Free	24.03S
Jack Dupuis	11-12 Free	35.09S
Andrew Baker	13-14 Free	28.40S
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	13-14 Free	29.58S
Cole Miller	15-18 Free	26.96S
Parker Fulghum	15-18 Free	30.14S
Bianca Murphy	8 & under Back	29.22S
Gavin Fore	9-10 Back	44.87S
Miriam Keller	9-10 Back	49.90S
Gavin Moore	11-12 Back	47.37S
Elizabeth Moorman	11-12 Back	44.18S
Abby Dittman	13-14 Back	35.81S
Cole Miller	15-18 Back	32.52S
Sheridan Phalen	15-18 Back	35.22S
Cooper Swartz	8U Breast	32.93S
Natalie Crowther	8U Breast	34.10S
Nora Hixson	9-10 Breast	51.31S
Jack Klopson	11-12 Breast	43.68S
Isabella VanDamme	11-12 Breast	47.81S
Olivia Blondin	13-14 Breast	42.46S
Brian McNamara	15-18 Breast	37.53S
Lily Penn	15-18 Breast	40.51S
George Schulte	9-10 Fly	21.21S
Ginny Grubbs	9-10 Fly	20.46S
Charlie Ruppe	13-14 Fly	34.24S
Emily Makin	13-14 Fly	32.44S
Cameron Morey	15-18 Fly	30.56S
Taylor Makin	15-18 Fly	34.31S

The competition for Age Group of the Week was understandably heated with so many great Gator performances, but ultimately it was the 8 & unders who prevailed this week, earning 67 out of 82 points on the day.

You can see the complete results for the meet here and as always the pictures are linked on the Gator website here.  Be sure to check back tomorrow to find out who will win the coveted title of Gator Swimmers of the Week!

Go Gators!

Senior Day Butterfly pictures make the best pictures.