We had 232 swimmers get "splashes" this season out of 273 on the roster. There were 16 meets total, including eleven that are counted on High-Tek (Relay All-Stars and Ft. Hunt Sportsmen’s Relays, for instance, are not counted. These are A and B meets.
We had a total – in those 11 meets – of 2,853 "splashes" – that’s 17,118 total stops and starts by timers! And again, that doesn’t even include some meets.
The five second club – swimmers who improved their times by 5 seconds or more from the early season to the Riverside Gardens OR Romp in the Swamp: Matthew Barrett (back), Ian Neal (free), Lily Palmerino (free), Ellery Reinholtz (free), Samuel Starr (free), Ethan Brunton (free), Mia Colaizzi (breaststroke), Cole Dillaplain (free), Ella Fischer (free and back), Jeb Nutt (free), and Bella van Damme (back).
And now – the 10 second club – swimmers who improved their times by 10 seconds or more from the early season to the Riverside Gardens OR Romp in the Swamp: Ethan Brunton (backstroke), Cassandra Burdick (freestyle), Joaquin Cruz (fly), Gabby Cullo (free), Donovan Kovalsky (back), Jeb Nutt (breaststroke), Cole Dillaplain (breaststroke), Tyler Dunn (IM), Caroline Richard (free), and Seth Thomson (free).
In the A and B meets, the 12 swimmers with 30 or more splashes were Torie Bolger (37), Claudia Theriot (36), Cassidy Bayer (35), Sara Bertram (34), Sheridan Phalen (34), Nick Dupuis (33), Jessie Bricker (32), Tristan Colaizzi (32), Emily Makin (32), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (31), Sam McBroom (30), and Eliana Phalen (30). Another 17 attended 10 of those 11 meets.
We had 19 swimmers swim at all eleven of those meets. Those 19 swimmers are: Emily Atkinson, Torie Bolger, Sarah Busch, Parker Fulghum, Gabby Greszler, Tres Greszler, Zoe Greszler, Emma Jones, Sarah Jones, Emily Makin, Brian McNamara, Mollie Passacantando, Elaina Phalen, Sheridan Phalen, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Josh Stein, Kaila Stein, Claudia Theriot, , and Emily Walzl.
Swimming can be a family affair – we had points from multiple kids from the Adams-Mardis, the Bayers, the Blondins, the Bolgers, the Dupuis, the Greszlers, the Heratschs, the Jansens, the Orleans, the Passacantandos, the Phalens, the Steins, the Terwilligers, the Theriots.
We had an impressive 92 swimmers participate in at least one A meet. The team had better balance than in recent seasons – 27 boys and 33 girls scored points in A meets. Of those 60 point scorers, more than half (32) are at the bottom of their age group – so they’ll only get even better next year.
We were also voted the Sportsmanship Award for D 3 this season – a number of parents from other teams mentioned how amazing it was to see our team high fiving all the swimmers – even when they beat us (and they did beat us!). They had never seen that level of sportsmanship before.
While we did finish 0-5, MVP scored the most points out of any team to go winless in the NVSL. We also celebrate winning the IM Invitational for the fourth time in six years and our first back-to-back IM Invitational win ever! Let’s go for a threepeat next year!
Btw, the NVSL is the largest summer swim league in the country – 102 teams totaling approximately 16,000 swimmers. Turning to the competition part of the season, MVP was in Division 3 for the season out of 17 divisions. The Gators haven’t been in a division that high since the early 1970s. For perspective, when graduating senior Julia Bolger started swimming A meets when she was seven, the Gators were in Division 13 – so we’ve jumped over 60 teams in twelve seasons.
