History is littered with many tales epic showdowns between friends, countrymen, or even siblings. Early on in human history, as told in the Book of Genesis, there was Cain vs Abel. Fast forward a few thousand years, to the American Civil War, and it was the North vs the South, often referred to as a battle of "brother vs brother" because of the very real instances of brothers fighting for different sides. More recently, we had the "Harbowl" in Superbowl XLVII, a matchup of the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, two teams coached by brothers Jim and John Harbaugh. Blood may be thicker than water, but when battle lines are drawn, it's time to get it on. And so it is with the annual MVP Gator Green and White meet. Teammate vs Teammate, Friend vs Friend, Sibling vs Sibling.... No matter. It this one, there is no mercy offered, no quarter given. BATTLE!
Perhaps its not quite that intense, but it is a fun internal battle between two somewhat random halves of the team. We score this one a little different than the normal meet on the street. Instead of points based on the placement of finishes, swimmers earn points for setting a personal best time. No matter where any of the Gators times fall on the ladder, if they make an improvement at the Green and White meet, they earn a point for their team.
And earn points they did! We had quite a few swimmers rip off three swims with improvements on all of them (swimmers could swim three strokes if the third one was IM). These Gators all accomplished that feat:
| Swimmer | Age | Group | Team |
| Jetton, Lincoln | 8&U | Boys | Green |
| Beardsley, Jack | 9-10 | Boys | White |
| Prible, Evan | 9-10 | Boys | Green |
| Apostol, Hadley | 9-10 | Girls | White |
| Myers, Alexandra | 9-10 | Girls | Green |
| Crowther, Cassidy | 11-12 | Girls | Green |
| Litonjua, Abigail | 11-12 | Girls | Green |
| Piland, James | 13-14 | Boys | Green |
| French, John | 15-18 | Boys | Green |
| Krogh, Kenneth | 15-18 | Boys | Green |
| Adams, Abby | 15-18 | Girls | White |
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One interesting observation from the G&W meet: the flair
on the self-styled swim caps is great. However, the volume of
flair noticably drops with each age group. The 8U's have
amazingly styled caps... while the 15-18's pretty
much wore plain green and plain white caps. Flair on, 8u's! |
We also award points for "first swim" if one of the swimmers swims a new stroke for the first time this season. Those points are included in the rest of these, so from here down, points came from both "first swim" and "best times." And here's the two point earners:
| Green | | | White | | |
| Boyd, Stefen | 8&U | Boys | Bohaty, Rowen | 8&U | Boys |
| Jennings, Collin | 8&U | Boys | Higgins, Finn | 8&U | Boys |
| Mills, Connor | 8&U | Boys | Keene, Spencer | 8&U | Boys |
| Stephens, Neville | 8&U | Boys | Barber, Kate | 8&U | Girls |
| Bucca, Emma | 8&U | Girls | Cummins, Paige | 8&U | Girls |
| McCall, Tess | 8&U | Girls | Henderson, Bianca | 8&U | Girls |
| Miller, Elizabeth | 8&U | Girls | Kellogg, Alex | 8&U | Girls |
| Moore, Emily | 8&U | Girls | Lafley, Caitlin | 8&U | Girls |
| Simone, Ruth | 8&U | Girls | Ward, Hayden | 8&U | Girls |
| Hixson, Ian | 9-10 | Boys | Kurth, Christian | 9-10 | Boys |
| Kurth, Canon | 9-10 | Boys | Litonjua, Noah | 9-10 | Boys |
| Sarro, Anthony | 9-10 | Boys | Miller, Fionn | 9-10 | Boys |
| McCloskey, Josephine | 9-10 | Girls | Cowen, Josephine | 9-10 | Girls |
| Foerster, Jackson | 11-12 | Boys | Myers, Reese | 9-10 | Girls |
| Moore, Gavin | 11-12 | Boys | Paget, Cameron | 9-10 | Girls |
| Leach, Abigail | 11-12 | Girls | Mills, Joe | 11-12 | Boys |
| Simone, Margaret | 11-12 | Girls | North, Alexander | 11-12 | Boys |
| Moorman, Elizabeth | 13-14 | Girls | Adams, Amelia | 11-12 | Girls |
| Zaitsev, Katya | 13-14 | Girls | Colunga, Lila | 11-12 | Girls |
| Zaitsev, Andrei | 15-18 | Boys | Cowen, Samantha | 11-12 | Girls |
| Blondin, Olivia | 15-18 | Girls | Hixson, Nora | 11-12 | Girls |
| Greszler, Gabrielle | 15-18 | Girls | Humphreys, Jill | 11-12 | Girls |
| | | Klopson, Jack | 13-14 | Boys |
| | | Baker, Caroline | 13-14 | Girls |
| | | Palmerino, Lily | 13-14 | Girls |
| | | Zajac, Nicole | 13-14 | Girls |
| | | Blondin, Parker | 15-18 | Boys |
| | | Heck, TJ | 15-18 | Boys |
| | | Greszler, Zoe | 15-18 | Girls |
| | | Heck, Olivia | 15-18 | Girls |
| | | Morales, Cecy | 15-18 | Girls |
| | | Snodgrass, Cole | 15-18 | Girls |
And of course, there were single point earners, too:
| Green | | | White | | |
| Harding, Joseph | 8&U | Boys | Banach, Boyd | 8&U | Boys |
| Henderson, Desmond | 8&U | Boys | Chapman, Eli | 8&U | Boys |
| Shea, Peter | 8&U | Boys | Eustis, Owen | 8&U | Boys |
| Whitehead, Taft | 8&U | Boys | Jennings, Cayden | 8&U | Boys |
| Wiggers, Andrew | 8&U | Boys | Nasir, William | 8&U | Boys |
| Chapman, Addie | 8&U | Girls | Prible, Owen | 8&U | Boys |
| Crowther, Natalie | 8&U | Girls | Sturchio, Mikey | 8&U | Boys |
| Kellogg, Elizabeth | 8&U | Girls | Suthar, Luca | 8&U | Boys |
| Kreinar, Camille | 8&U | Girls | Torgerson, Rhett | 8&U | Boys |
| McCloskey, Paige | 8&U | Girls | Driscoll, Margaret | 8&U | Girls |
| Myers, Emma | 8&U | Girls | McCloskey, Lila | 8&U | Girls |
| Petz, Kate | 8&U | Girls | Rudy, Lauren | 8&U | Girls |
| Shea, Teddy | 9-10 | Boys | Craig, Evie | 9-10 | Girls |
| Gordon, Kiersten | 9-10 | Girls | Hildebrandt, Julia | 9-10 | Girls |
| Keyes, Alexi | 9-10 | Girls | Prible, Ella | 9-10 | Girls |
| Weyrauch, Hartley | 9-10 | Girls | Schulte, Heidi | 9-10 | Girls |
| Keller, Miriam | 11-12 | Girls | Starr, Anna | 9-10 | Girls |
| Morales, Monica | 11-12 | Girls | Baker, Andrew | 15-18 | Boys |
| Whitson, Liz | 11-12 | Girls | Dittman, Abby | 15-18 | Girls |
| Gordon, Mikayla | 13-14 | Girls | | | |
| Phalen, Sheridan | 15-18 | Girls | | | |
| Skopp-Cardillo, Juliana | 15-18 | Girls | |
Whew. That's a lot of personal best times and getting out of comfort zones by trying new strokes. So, you may be wondering how it all adds up? One of the tightest meets of the year!
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| White team... Represent! |
In fact, factoring only the "best time" calculations it was a dead tie. BOTH teams ended up with 79 points. I would expect nothing less from our Gators than for them to keep the competition at such a high level. But, I'm pretty sure the Harbaugh brothers would not have settled for a tie, so neither could the Gators. Rolling in those "first swim" points, the White team pulled out a narrow victory with a 13-11 advantage in that category, making the final result White 92 - Green 90. Great swimming to both teams!
Lots more pictures on the
website here.
Go Gators!
 |
| Fly pics are the best swim pics. |
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