The MVP Gators finished ninth out of 102 teams Wednesday night in the All-Star Relays. Seeded 20th going into the season by the NVSL, Gator relays rocked again by scoring 230 points. In the last five years, MVP has finished 9th, 14th, 11th, 16th, and 14th at All-Star Relays. This represents the first time MVP has broken into the top 10 in the modern era.
(Note to NVSL seeding poo-bahs: no need to move MVP up a division next season, Four is where we belong. The Gators just happen to be really, really good at relays.)
Not that we pay attention to these things, but I always check to see how the 18th place, 28th, and 29th place teams did. Wow -- what a coincidence -- it turns out those are Mansion House (178 points), Waynewood (98 points), and Riverside Gardens (96)! Who knew? (For those of you not good at math, combined, Waynewood and Riverside Gardens scored fewer points than MVP.
The meet went off without a hitch, despite the threat of thunderstorms. At one point the team started to run for safety like Occupiers before a National Park Service Bulldozer, but they were rallied by Coach Paul and Team Rep Glen, who stood there like a stonewall to stop the retreating parents!
The Gators set four team records (see related post), including snapping a 1990 mark and lowering their own NVSL record. The 11-12 fearsome foursome missed out on another NVSL record by just 0.07. (While 007 reminds one of James Bond, in this case it reminds us of that other great spy -- Maxwell Smart.)
As the smart money in Vegas expected, the 11-12 girls took first place in both the medley relay and the freestyle relay. The same four swam both events -- in the medley Cassidy Bayer swam back, Holly Jansen swam breaststroke, Emma Jones did fly, and Elaina Phalen swam free. (Editor's Note: In the freestyle relays, all four swimmers do, uh, freestyle.)
Coach Paul Makin switched things up in the free -- typically your second-fastest swimmer goes first, and your fastest swimmer goes last (anchor leg). To get clean water and mess the heads of the other relay teams, he had Cassidy lead off. She took a huge lead, and the Gators led from start to finish.
The medley broke their own NVSL record, and the free relay just missed an NVSL record by that much. (Readers: try it. Try doing something in 0.07 seconds. Not much time, huh? That's how close they came.)
The next highest finishing Gator relay were the 13-14 free relay of Mollie Passacantando, Torie Bolger, Anna Fracasso, and Jessie Bricker, who grabbed an eighth place. Three of the four, plus Sarah Jones, finished ninth in the medley relay, taking 0.27 seconds off their seed time. Torie swam back, Sarah did breaststroke, Anna swam fly, and Jessie did free.
Also finishing ninth were the boys 8 & under free relay of James Piland, George Pacious, Connor Dunn, and Charlie Ruppe. Seeded 16th, the boys blew away their seed time of 1:21.34 with an amazing time of 1:16.91, breaking a pool record set back in 1990 (see related post).
The girls Mixed Age 200 freestyle relay put up another ninth place, as Cassidy Bayer, Sherican Phalen, Jessie Bricker, and Sara Bertram brought home key points for the team.
The final ninth place for the Gators was earned by the 9-10 girls medley relay team of Michela "Mac" Brotherton (back), Lily Penn (breaststroke), Olivia Blondin (fly), and Sheridan Phalen (free). They improved from their 11th seed start, carving a little bit of time off (0.26) in the process.
The 9-10 girls free relay featured Mac, Taylor Makin, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, and Sheridan Phalen. They finished 15th, taking 0.05 seconds off their seed time.
The 8 & under girls medley relay finished in 11th place as Cage Theriot swam back, Juliette Fore was the breaststroker, Emily Makin swam fly, and Cecilia Morales finished it with free. It was another team record.
The 8 & under girls also swam free, albeit not in a legal fashion. Que sera. The 9-10 boys medley relay were second alternates, so congrats to Parker Blondin, Andrei Zaitsev, Brian McNamara, and Clark Bayer.
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