These All-Stars Can't Be Eclipsed

Donovan and Coach Laurel after a medal
performance in the 11-12 Free.

The big astronomical event this month is the upcoming solar eclipse. The astronomers tell us that the sun will be totally blocked out by the moon for a period of time, if you are in the right place along the moon's path. Unlike the sun however, our MVP Gator Stars refused to be blocked out, and all of them shone brightly at the NVSL All-Star Meet. The brilliance of our Gator swimmers was on full display Saturday morning. All in all, Gator swimmers had some terrific swims, resulting in two overall first place finishes (i.e. NVSL overall champion) and one new MVP record. Special congrats go out to Emily Makin for winning both the Girls 13-14 Breast and IM events (NVSL Champion!) And to Tyler Swartz for improving his own record in the 9-10 IM.

Here are all of the Gator All-Star results:

Event	Name	Place	Time
11-12 Free	Donovan Kovalsky	4th	28.67
13-14 Free	Clark Bayer	3rd	25.57
13-14 Free	Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	4th	28.26
9-10 Breast	Abigail Litonjua	8th	44.82
11-12 Breast	Donovan Kovalsky	8th	38.64
13-14 Breast	Emily Makin	1st	34.19
8 & under Fly	Liam Fore	11th	20.46
9-10 Fly	Matthew Makin	10th	16.76
13-14 Fly	Gabby Greszler	5th	30.97
13-14 Fly	Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	15th	32.2
9-10 IM	Tyler Swartz	9th	1:24.71
9-10 IM	Matthew Makin	11th	1:26.05
13-14 IM	Emily Makin	1st	1:07.49

Medalists, Juliana and Emily. 

The full meet results are available at the NVSL website here. Great work Gators! 

Coach Paul and Abbie after a great swim
in the 9-10 Breaststroke.

The All-Star meet is a bit of a bittersweet moment for us all, though.... Yes, it's true... this marks the end of the summer swim season. It's been a whirlwind 10 weeks of fun, games, hard work, sweat, rain, lots of splashing. There have been personal bests, meet victories, meet defeats, new pool records, and new All-Stars.  It's been real. It's been fun. It's been real fun. But like it does every summer, it has come to an end. So, like the sun up high in the sky, the moon has come across to block out the joy of summer swim for the time being. So enjoy your winter swim season. Or enjoy your time off in other sports. If you want to keep swimming, make sure to check out the Gator Winter Program as a terrific option.  

Next up on the Gator blogger calendar will be the results of the seeding meeting in February. Check back then to find out if we're staying in Division 3, or moving up to 2. Seven months of anticipation... I'm not sure I can wait. See you in May 2018!