Unable to Rein in their Poor Sportsmanship, Wakefield Chapel Nonetheless Reigns As Division Champs. But No Rain Fell.*

The Wakefield Chapel Wahoos clinched the Division 3 title by beating the MVP Gators 229-191 in Saturday.  The Gators dropped to 2-2 on the season, while the Wahoos go to 4-0.  The Gators put up quite a battle -- the Wahoos have crushed their other dual meet opponents this year; this was the closest win they've had.

The meet was marred by the poor sportsmanship of the visiting Wahoos.  See related article on the blog for editorial comment on sportsmanship.

*Mr. Language Person notes that the headline properly shows the different uses of rein, reign, and rain.  Pulling in the "reins" is what you do to a horse, for instance, while a King/Queen "reigns" over a country.  Meanwhile, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" is meteorologically inaccurate -- the plains of Andalucía, for instance, are quite dry.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The Gators led 48-42 after freestyle, but a 14 point Wahoo win in backstroke put them up by a 94-86 margin.  Wakefield Chapel picked up another six points in breaststroke to lead 142-128, and widened it in fly to 28 points -- a 194-166 score.  With both teams DQing in two relays each, Wahoos won seven of the twelve relays to set the final margin.

One of the highlights of the meet was watching Wakefield's 8 year old Kathleen Modder set a new NVSL age group record in the fly, swimming the 25 meters in 16.54, breaking Janet Hu's mark of 16.81 set in 2004.  MVP's own Cassidy Bayer holds three fly age group records, while Modder has the youngest record and Hu has the 15-18 mark.

Underscoring the Wahoo depth advantage, the Gators did not have a single sweep for the first time all season.

Mac Brotherton swam the race of the week -- beating her Wahoo opponent in 11-12 backstroke by just 0.02 seconds.  Other noteworthy swims were:

• Cassidy Bayer, selflessly swimming breaststroke for the first time in an A meet, setting a new team record (see related story) and defeating WC's best 13-14 swimmer in the Wahoo's best event;
• Ian "Greg LeMond" Baker swam the day after a bad accident on his bicycle (no more Bakers on bikes till after the season!).  All kidding aside, Ian was clearly in pain, but took a second place in breaststroke; and,
• Ceci Theriot became the first six year old Gator to swim in an A meet in this ink-stained wretch's memory.

Gator heroes of the week were 12 year old Anna Capper, swimming 13-14 back (Anna also swam up last week but I missed it in the data), 10 year old TJ Heck swimming 11-12 breaststroke, and 11 year old Lily Penn swimming 13-14 fly -- doing fly for the first time!

MVP swimmers set personal bests in 32 events.  Drops of more than a half a second were recorded by Joseph Humphries, Caroline Baker, Lily Palmerino (in both of her events, including an out of nowhere second place finish in back), Leigh Kovalsky (a drop of nearly four seconds to get third in back), Cassidy Bayer, Jack Klopson (to get 2nd place in breaststroke), Sheridan Phalen (to take second from the Wahoos), Ceci Theriot, Annie Terwilliger, Anna Capper, and Ian Neal.

Double Gator winners include Sean Jansen (free and breaststroke), Cameron Morey (free and fly), Jessie Bricker (free and fly), Sara Bertram (free and fly), and Cassidy Bayer (back and breaststroke).

Single Gator winners were Julianna Skopp-Cardillo (free), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Mac Brotherton (back), Maddy Bolger (back), Parker Blondin (breaststroke), Olivia Blondin (breaststroke), and Cyrus Adams-Mardi (breaststroke).  Overall, the Gators won 17 of the 40 individual events.

Second place Gators include James Piland (free), Cage Theriot (free and fly), Clark Bayer (free and fly), Nick Dupuis (free and fly), Emma Jones (free), Maddy Bolger (free), Lily Palmerino (back), Emily Makin (back), Gus Leyden (back), Torie Bolger (back and breaststroke), Jack Klopson (breaststroke), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (breaststroke), Sheridan Phalen (breaststroke), Ian Baker (breaststroke), Olivia Blondin (fly), Elaina Phalen (fly), and Anna Fracasso (fly).   MVP swimmers took 21 second places in the 40 individual events.

Earning third place points for the team were Andrei Zaitsev (free), Annie Terwilliger (free), Sheridan Phalen (free), Elaina Phalen (free), Cyrus Adams-Mardi (free), Joseph Humphreys (back), Leigh Kovalsky (back), Collin Sundsted (back), Taylor Makin (back), Parker Fulghum (back), Kevin Adams-Mardi (back), Jack Benson (breaststroke), Jayne Orleans (breaststroke), James Piland (fly), Parker Blondin (fly), Emily Makin (fly), Cole Miller (fly), and Emma Jones (fly).  That's 18 third place points.

Next week the Gators host the Donaldson Run Thunderbolts.  Two years ago, DR pounded the drums to beat the Gators by a 209-193 score.  Both teams are 2-2 and the meet is shaping up to be a close one -- we need ALL Gators on deck.

Mr. Language Person will also explain the difference in use between "there," "their," and "they're."