Gators Post Team's Best Showing Of Modern Era At All-Star Relays

Seeded 18th going into the season by the NVSL, Gator relays rocked again by scoring 268 points, good for 8th place.  In the last six years, MVP has finished 8th, 9th, 14th, 11th, 16th, and 14th at All-Star Relays.  This represents two straight top ten finishes for the Gators, which is very impressive for a league with 103 teams.

(McLean won first place, which means it was not won by one of the tiresome trio of Chesterbrook, Overlee, and Tuckahoe.  A small victory in life!  I don't know if McLean recruits like those three do, but it's still nice to see an actual change in Washington for a change.  But I digress.).

Not that we pay attention to these things, but I always check to see how the 18th place, 41st, and 56th place teams did.  Wow -- what a coincidence -- it turns out those are Mansion House (154 points), Waynewood (62 points), and Riverside Gardens (16)!  Who knew? 

(For those of you not good at math, combined, Mansion House, Waynewood and Riverside Gardens scored fewer points than MVP.)

Of the other Division 3 teams, Wakefield Chapel scored 316 points, good for 6th place.  Fairfax scored 184, finishing 15th.  Vienna Woods was 17th with 162 points, while Donaldson Run scored 143 points for 22nd place.  Lee-Graham scored 140 points in 24th place.

Four new team records were set -- see related article. 

Several swims jump out:

• Nick Dupuis swimming breaststroke because of a missing swimmer -- and Nick made up huge chunks of ground.
• Sara Bertram's fly in the 15-18 medley relay jump starting the Gator time improvements for the rest of the meet.
• Kaila Stein and Elaina Phalen holding their place in the free relay, giving Cassidy Bayer ample opportunity to pull away for the decisive heat win.

The highest Gator finish was posted by the 9-10 Boys free relay team of Andrei Zaitsev, Parker Blondin, Andrew Baker, and Clark Bayer, as they eviscerated their seed time of 1:04.06 to finish second with a Gator record time of 1:04.05 (Editor's Note: You keep using that word, "eviscerated."  I do not think it means what you think it means.)

The 9-10 Girls free relay team of Emily Makin, Olivia Blondin, Abigail Dittman, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo was not to be outdone by a lot, as they finished third overall, finishing with a time of 1:04.08, down 0.79 from their seed time of 1:04.87.  This was also a new Gator record.

The 9-10 Boys medley team of Andrei Zaitsev, Parker Blondin, Charlie Ruppe, and Clark Bayer earned a third place finish, swimming a 1:12.56.

The 13-14 Girls free relay moved from seventh seed to fifth place by knocking 0.62 off their seed time for a 2:00.60.

The Mixed Age Girls free team of Emma Jones, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Cassidy Bayer, and Sara Bertram sliced 0.05 seconds off their seed time to get 5th place with a time of 2:01.36.

The 15-18 girls medley had the biggest move of the day -- they were seeded 13th and finished 8th, dropping 1.89 seconds and setting a new team record.  The swimmers were Torie Bolger, Jayne Orleans, Sara Bertram, and Maddy Bolger.

Seeded 11th, the 15-18 girls free relay set a new team record and earned a tenth place finish.  Maddy Bolger, Anna Fracasso, Torie Bolger, and Sara Bertram knocked 0.66 off their seed time with a 1:57.61.

The 11-12 Boys Free Relay earned an impressive 12th place with a time of 58.92, as Cole Miller, Collin Sundsted, Jack Brunton, and Nick Dupuis battled hard.

The 9-10 girls medley earned a 13th place finish with a time of 1:15.25.  It was the same four swimmers who got third in the free -- Emily, Olivia, Abigail, and Juliana.

The 11-12 boys medley also got 13th, as Collin, Jack, Cole, and Nick swam a time of 1:07.48.

The 13-14 girls medley finished 14th with a time of 2:17.67.  The team consisted of Jessie, Kaila, Cassidy, and Elaina.