Gators Give Wahoos All They Can Handle

The MVP Gators gave their all Saturday in the first home meet of the season, coming up short against the Wakefield Chapel Wahoos.  The final score was 185-217, dropping the Gators to 0-2 on the season.

All hands on deck.  (Get it?  Sometimes I can't help it)

Last season, Wakefield Chapel went 3-1-1 in Division 3, so they are a strong team.  The Gators drew the short straw on seeding, moving from the friendly confines of Division 5 to the rough and tumble Division 3 (for perspective for new parents, when Julia started swimming A meets eleven years ago, the Gators were Division 13, so we've jumped over sixty teams in eleven years).

All blinged up, Natalie, Bea, Sarah,

and Sarah get the team rev'd up.

(Unlike River Plate, the Argentinian soccer team whose fans rioted when they were relegated to a lower division, Gator fans will only riot if we are KEPT in Division 3 after this season instead of being moved down.)

Zoe looking pensively blingy.

Or is it blingively pensive?

The meet started with a strong Wakefield Chapel showing in freestyle, with the Gators trailing 37-53.  MVP came back to win backstroke 46-44, lowering the overall deficit much more easily than Misters Obama, Reid, and Boehner.  Unfortunately, things changed for the worse in breaststroke, which MVP lost 33-57.  Fly was close, but still a 34-38 loss.  The Gators won seven of the 12 relays, including the most exciting relay of the season -- the 8 & under boys race that MVP won by 0.04 seconds.

Parker points the way.

The Gators posted their first sweeps of the season -- the 15-18 girls free squad of Sara Bertram, Maddy Bolger, and Sophia Passacantando and the 13-14 backstroke team of Torie Bolger, Anna Fracasso, and Molly Cabral each finished first, second, and third respectively. 

Anna looks surprised by the Gator girls

13-14 backstroke sweep.  I wasn't.

Other noteworthy swims include three straight first places by the boys in backstroke -- 8 & under Andrei Zaitsev, 9-10 Collin Sundsted, and 11-12 Cameron Morey all took firsts in a row.  The Gator girls ran off a string of victories of their own.  A four-peat from Jessie Bricker, Torie Bolger, and Sara Bertram (freestyle) and Emily Makin (backstroke), was later followed by two three-peats: Cassidy Bayer, Torie Bolger, and Julia Bolger in backstroke, and then Cassidy Bayer, Anna Fracasso, and Sara Bertram in fly.

Collin Cruises to the Win

The Gator girls won five out of six relays.  All of the wins were by more than one second, so I suppose you could say they were never relay really challenged.  Besides the 8 & under boys, the 9-10 boys won their relay as well.

Sara Bertram takes off on Torie's Mixed Age finish

Double Gator winners include Cassidy Bayer (back and fly), Sara Bertram (back and fly), Torie Bolger (free and back).  Other first places were earned by Jessie Bricker (free), Emily Makin (back), Julia Bolger (back), Jayne Orleans (breaststroke), Sophia Passacantando (breaststroke), Anna Fracasso (fly), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Collin Sundsted (back), Cameron Morey (back), Parker Blondin (breaststroke), Glenn Campagna (breaststroke), and Cole Miller (fly).  All in all, Gators won 18 out of 38 individual first places.

Maddy tries to psyche up Julia and Julia. 

They'll think about it.

Second place points were garnered by Julianna Skopp-Cardillo (free and breaststroke), Claudia Theriot (free and back), Maddy Bolger (free), Anna Fracasso (back), Sheridan Phalen (breaststroke), Kaila Stein (breaststroke), Natalie Terwilliger (fly), Jessie Bricker (fly), Julia Bolger (fly), Parker Blondin (free), Nicholas Dupuis (free), and Tristan Colaizzi (fly).

Colaizzi Intensity.

Third place points were earned by Emily Makin (free), Sheridan Phalen (free), Elaina Phalen (free), Mollie Passacantando (free), Sophia Passacantando (free), Olivia Blondin (back), Molly Cabral (back), Maddy Bolger (back), Gabrielle Greszler (breaststroke), Julia Hunger (breaststroke), Bea Heratsch (fly), Andrei Zaitsev  (free), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and fly), Gus Leyden (back), Joe Taylor (back), Drew Bowers (breaststroke), and Tristan Colaizzi (breaststroke).

Next week, 0-1-1 Donaldson Run comes to MVP for the third meet of the season.  (Yes, that's not a typo -- Donaldson Run actually tied Crosspointe 201-201 in the first meet of the season.  They then all had to kiss their sisters.)  It's also team photo day.

Every Gator went all out.
Brian McNamara workin' hard.