Revolutionary War General Defeats Civil War Colonel

The Mount Vernon Park Gators got the A Meet season off to a great start on Saturday by defeating the Mosby Woods Raiders 244-176.  The meet was tight through freestyle and backstroke, but the waves of Gator breaststrokers and butterfliers was too much for the home team Raiders, blowing the battle open.

Whoops.  Stuff happens.

(For those who are not history buffs, "Mosby Woods" is named after famed Confederate Colonel John Mosby, who led his Rangers on daring raids through North Central Virginia, including Fairfax and Annandale.  If you are really weak on American history, "Mount Vernon Park" is named after nearby Mount Vernon, which was owned by George Washington, a Revolutionary War general and early American politician of some renown.  If history is your thing, I apologize for the cheap literary device used in the headline, but I take my cheesy headlines whenever I can.)

I love the smell of Gators in the morning.

It smells like. . .victory!

The meet was highlighted by the breaking of two NVSL records by Cassidy Bayer, and two team relay records by the 11-12 boys and the 11-12 girls (back to back races!).  Scroll down the blog to see the articles on the record breakers.

And they are off!

The meet started in exciting fashion, as seven year old James Piland came from behind to just edge out the Mosby Woods star swimmer by 0.07 seconds in the 8 & under 25 free.  James' clutch swim turned out to be the closest Gator victory of the morning -- pretty amazing for his first A meet race.

I can't tell from the photo who this is,

but the water droplets are pretty cool.

The Gators trailed 44-46 after freestyle, but a 49-41 victory in backstroke put the team ahead by a 93-87 margin.  On the breaststroke, the Gators went through Mosby Woods like Sherman through Georgia (another historical reference!), winning 55-35, extending the lead to 148-122.  Butterfly fell to the Gators like surrounded British troops at Yorktown (with two wars to rely on for metaphors, this could go on all day, but I'll stop now.  Probably.) by a 56-34 score, providing a 204-156 lead.

Joe Taylor: looking intense.

The Gators won eight of the twelve relays, including the boys mixed age 200 freestyle relay.  In my 13 years of having kids swim MVP A meets, this is the first time I can remember our mixed age boys winning a race, so congratulations are in order to Cameron Morey, Nick Dupuis, Kevin Adams-Mardi, and Cyrus Adams-Mardi for the victory over a team featuring the best boy swimmer in the NVSL, Philip Hu.

Good luck at Gov School, Maddy!

The other relay highlight was back-to-back breaking of team records by the 11-12 boys and girls (as noted  above, separate article below).

The Gators took the lead

during the backstroke events.

Gator sweeps came in four events -- including three butterfly events.  The sweeps started with the boys 9-10 breaststroke, as Brian McNamara took first, Parker Blondin earned second, and Joseph Ienzi garnered third.  The girls 8 & under butterfly team of Emily Makin, Layne O'Connell, and Grace McGee earned the next sweep.  The boys 11-12 sweep consisted of Cameron Morey, Cole Miller, and Liam Orr.  Finally the sweeps were rounded out by 13-14 girls of Mollie/Jessie Passacantando/Bricker and Emily Walzl.  Mollie and Jessie tied for first with a time of 34.42.

The lead widened during breaststroke

(Sitting poolside in the Team Rep chairs, I turned to Carol immediately after the race and noted that they had tied -- Mollie with outside smoke from lane 6, and Jessie in lane 4.  Sure enough, the timers in both lanes nailed it with the same time.)

Layne's smiling because she knows we're winning!

Gators won 22 of the 40 individual events.  Double Gator winners were Cassidy Bayer (free and fly), Sara Bertram (back and fly), Holly Jansen (back and breaststroke), Emily Makin (back and fly).

Juliette's eyeing first place.

Individual Gator winners were James Piland (free), Nick Dupuis (free), Maddy Bolger (free), Mac Brotherton (back), Collin Sundsted (back), Torie Bolger (back), Juliette Fore (breaststroke), Brian McNamara (breaststroke), Sean Jansen (breaststroke), Sarah Jones (breaststroke), Jayne Orleans (breaststroke), Olivia Blondin (fly), Cameron Morey (fly), Mollie Passacantando (fly), and Jessie Bricker (fly).

McBroom goes McZoom!

MVP swimmers finished second in 22 out of the 40 races.  Second place points were earned by Juliette Fore (free), Sheridan Phalen (free and breaststroke), Sean Jansen (free), Tom Dupuis (free), Mollie Passacantando (free), Sophia Passacantando (free), Ken Krogh (back), Joseph Ienzi (back), Kevin Adams-Mardi (back and breaststroke), Maddy Bolger (back),Will Friedman (breaststroke), Parker Blondin (breaststroke), Sam McBroom (breaststroke), Elaina Phalen (breaststroke), Kaila Stein (breaststroke), Connor Dunn (fly), Layne O'Connell (fly), Nick Dupuis (fly), Cole Miller (fly), and Emma Jones (fly).

Sean goes really, relay fast!

Gator swimmers took 25 third places.  Garnering a Gator point were: George Pacious (free and fly), Cecilia Morales (free), Mac Brotherton (free), Emma Jones (free), Tristan Colaizzi (free and fly), Jessie Bricker (free), James Piland (back), Ellie Cullo (back), Nicky McBroom (back), Taylor Makin (back), Gus Leyden (back), Molly Cabral (back), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (back and fly), Layne O'Connell (breaststroke), Joseph Ienzi (breaststroke), Lily Penn (breaststroke), Austin Neal (breaststroke), Grace McGee (fly), Parker Blondin (fly), Liam Orr (fly), Emily Walzl (fly), and Jessica Metter (fly).

Austin Walzl warms up for his first A meet.

Special thanks to our Gator Heroes of the Week -- Cole Miller, for swimming with the 13-14 freestylers despite being 11 years old, Jack Brunton, an 11 year old swimming up in 13-14 backstroke, Tyler Dunn, who swam with the 15-18 year old backstrokers AND flyers as an 11 year old, Kaila Stein, age 13, who swam with the 15-18 backstrokers, and Carl Questad, a 12 year old doing breaststroke as an 13-14 year old. 

Next week, the Gators travel to their last away A meet of the season at Fox Mill Woods.  It should be a fantastic meet against the Fintastics, who are 0-1 after a close loss to Dunn Loring in week one.