Your Gator Nation Blog: Oh My! Gators Outstanding In Ousting Oakton Otters

In a meet rife with alliterative opportunities, the Gators won their second straight A meet of the season by obfuscating the Oakton Otters at the oasis that is the Mount Vernon Park oblong pool by a 227-193 score. The score does not qualify as an obliteration, but is a more comfortable win than last week's victory. The win was not quite an objet trouve, but was also not a sure thing.

Early morning in Gator Nation

To this long-time observer of Gator swim, MVP did not need any special obeah to win the meet. They were obedient to Coach Paul's wishes to meet the team's objective. "I am not Oberon! I am coach of the Gators," Coach Paul said objectively. He was worried the team was oblivious to his obtuse comments, but the swimmers obliged because they were obligated to swim fast. No obstacle was too much.

I can't blame Paul for walking away. His Twistin' skills are pretty rusty.
Emily, on the other hand, is bringing that dance back all on her own.

The Gators were particularly obdurate in the backstroke and butterfly. MVP won freestyle 46-44 and lost breaststroke 40-50, but rang up impressive 53-37 and 58-32 wins in backstroke and butterfly respectively. The Gators and Otters split the relays six each. (This preoccupation with the letter "o" means this whole blog post needs an obelus in the ancient manuscript meaning.)

Gator coaches show the proper method for cheering.

First, lean back, and then shout as loud as possible.

The only Gator hero of the week (swimming above your age group) was Cassidy Bayer, who swam two races as a 15-18, despite being just 14. She seemed to handle the pressure of swimming up in an NVSL A Meet fairly well, as she won both races.

This dance is all the rage in Hawaii.

The closest races of the week were won by Elaina Phalen and Gus Leyden. Elaina won the 13-14 free race over her Oakton opponent by 0.05 seconds, which was the exact margin of victory for Gus in his 15-18 backstroke victory over an Otter.

Not only was Kurt amazing for the National Anthem,

I will bet he was wearing shoes for safety.

The obbligato performance of the week (I will wait patiently while you look up the meaning of "obbligato". . .yes I spelled it right! Okay, now I will continue) came from Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, who came from behind to pass her freestyle opponent in the 11-12 girls 100 meter medley relay to secure the meet for the Gators.

Caroline helped the 8 & under girls with

their best showing of the season so far.

There were three Gator sweeps. The first was earned by the 9-10 boys backstrokers of Kenny Krogh, Joseph Humphreys, and Will Friedman. The 9-10 boys butterfliers of Charlie Ruppe, Kenny Krogh, and James Piland went 1-2-3. The final sweep came in the final individual event -- 15-18 girls butterfly where Cassidy Bayer led her teammates Sara Bertram and Jessica Metter to all nine points.

In five years, will that be a Mai Tai?

Double Gator winners were Elaina Phalen (free and fly), Cassidy Bayer (free and fly), Juliette Fore (free and breaststroke), and Emily Makin (back and fly).

Lily thanks her dad for his advice during her backstroke win:

"Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, Kick, etc."

Single Gator winners were Katya Zaitsev (free), Lily Palmerino (back), Kenny Krogh (back), Taylor Makin (back), Parker Fulghum (back), Gus Leyden (back), Jack Dupuis (breaststroke), Brian McNamara (breaststroke), Charlie Ruppe (fly), and Sheridan Phalen (fly). The Gators won just 18 out of 40 individual events, which means they've won two meets in a row on second/third places. It's a hard way to make an easy living.

Isabella with an enthusiastic start.

Key second place points came from Donovan Kovalsky (free and fly), Caroline Baker (free and breaststroke), Colby Webber (free and breaststroke), Andrew Baker (free), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (free), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and breaststroke), Sara Bertram (free and fly), Matthew Makin (back), Katya Zaitsev (back), Joseph Humphreys (back), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Olivia Blondin (back and fly), Cameron Morey (back and fly), Torie Bolger (back and breaststroke), Lily Penn (breaststroke), Sean Jansen (breaststroke), Lily Palmerino (fly), Kenny Krogh (fly), Grace McGee (fly), Brian McNamara (fly), and Emma Jones (fly). Gators took second place in 29 out of 40 individual events, netting a margin of +54 points by doing that.

Emily needs to show some intensity

during these meets. She's far too laid back.

Third place points were garnered by Jack Dupuis (free), James Piland (free), Clark Bayer (free), Sheridan Phalen (free), Sean Jansen (free), Will Friedman (back and breaststroke), Joseph Ienzi (back), Tyler Swartz (breaststroke), Parker Blondin (breaststroke and fly), Taylor Makin (breaststroke), Carl Questad (breaststroke), Parker Fulghum (breaststroke), Jessie Bricker (breaststroke), Matthew Makin (fly), Caroline Miller (fly), James Piland (fly), Liam Orr (fly), and Jessica Metter (fly).

Lily on the move.

I don't believe in obscurantism, so I have to point this out: just like last week, the Gators took 20 of the 40 third place points, meaning that the 1st and 3rd place distribution was the exact same last week as this week. The difference? More second place finishes. Somewhere Stat Boy's head is exploding at these somewhat oblique occurences. I would think the odds would be octillion to one.

Cameron causes a disturbance in the Force.

Next week, the Gators host Lee-Graham in a battle for second, third, fourth, or fifth place (seriously -- the like a pasta bowl at Olive Garden, the permutations are endless.) It's also senior day, ~~so come celebrate the lives of our seniors.~~ (Editor: That's kind of morbid). It's also senior day, ~~so all senior citizens get in free!~~ (Editor: Sigh. Try again!) It's also senior day, so come celebrate with our Gator graduates! (Editor: Much better!).

I can't believe Marty billed Kenny for this work.

So, you were wondering about those permutations. (Editor: No, actually we weren't.) Vienna Woods is 3-1 and swims at 4-0 Donaldson Run. Little Rocky Run is 2-2 and swims at Oakton. If the Gators, VW and LRR all win, the three teams finish tied for second with 3-2 records. If the Gators lose to 1-3 Lee-Graham, we finish 2-3 with LG, and possibly LRR (if they lose), which, means we only finish ahead of Oakton. There are two more meets at which we can score points -- All-Star Relays and the Saturday A meet. The possibilities mean we are perched on the edge of Occam's razor as we head into the odyssey of the final weeks of Gator swim for 2014.