Rain Fails To Dampen Meet at Mansion House

By A.A. Milne
B Meet Correspondent

Oh the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down in rushing raging riv'lets.  However, Piglet was still able to swim in his events instead of having to bail from atop his chair.  But, not until the butterfly events, so the Monday night meet against Mansion House was able to be completed, minus, of course, the Individual Medley events.

A Gaggle of Gators?  Nope.  A pod.

1. From the Google machine: A group of adult alligators is called a congregation. If they're hatchlings or juveniles, then the group is called a pod.

Like Eeyore, the regular reporter for this blog had predicted rain Monday night, and like wise old Owl, he was not wrong. Although predicting rain for a Mansion House meet  is as risky as predicting rancor between Republicans and Democrats.  Or predicting that the Redskins will overpay for some free agent who stops trying.  Or predicting that someone in the Middle East will be insulted by the actions of someone else in the Middle East. Not exactly earth-shattering predictions.

When you grow up on the mean streets of the Alexandria

section of Fairfax County, aka Mount Vernon, aka

Ft. Hunt, you get tats at a young age. 

No, the surprise is that the meet was not delayed by a thunderstorm or deluge or rain.  Sort of like Bryce Harper showing maturity in his comments to the press, Winnie the Pooh passing up honey, or dogs and cats getting along -- it can happen, but it's very unlikely.

Natalie thinks through her race strategy.  Gator parents

should realize that name swim caps increase the odds

of your swimmer's pic being on the blog because

clever captions are hard to write without knowing

who the swimmer is.  Brevity is the soul of wit.

A Mansion House Monday night meet without thunder and lightning is a wonderful thing, like a Tigger, and about as rare.  The folks running the meet hopped to it like Kanga and Roo, and they were faster -- and less cranky -- then Rabbit.

No wonder they look confused.  They can't figure out why a 

conference named "The Big Ten" now has 14 teams in it.

Although no Gators appeared in the Winnie the Pooh classics, they swam in the meet as fast as if they were being chased by Heffalumps and Woozles.

Amelia looks so cute, we can understand why parents

have children even though they grow up to be teenagers.

Big time time drops in freestyle were registered by Gavin Moore, Jack Garuccio, William Milito, Hunter Edwards, Jack Alzona, Noah Webber, Luke Adrian, Caroline Baker, Jill Humphreys, Cassidy Crowther, Addison Dickerson, Natalie Santangelo, Gabby Cullo, Ginny Grubbs, Madeline Cullo, Monica Morales, Simone Burdick, Amelia Adams, Catherine Delaune, Heidi Schulte, Colin Miller, Zoe North, Saira Nagda, Lily Penn, Olivia Blondin, Bea Heratsch, Charlotte Krell, Cole Snodgrass, Olivia Johansson, and Nick Ducceschi.

The Little Gators are off to a great start.

Significant backstroke time cuts were logged by Matt Makin, Tyler Swartz, William Milito, Gavin Moore, Lily Palmerino, Elizabeth Whitson, Caroline Myers, Liliana Fore, Simone Burdick, Madeline Cullo, Josie Cowen, Lucy Waid, Fiona French, Brian McNamara, Joseph Ienzi, Juliana Skipp-Cardillo, and Charlotte Krell.

The dad is explaining that math is hard for Big Ten schools,

so it is easier to keep the original name.  The daughter

vogues for the camera.

Breaststroke time cuts of unusually good size were swum by: Tyler Swartz, Elizabeth Moorman, Grace McGee, Cecilia Morales, Olivia Heck, Rose Doerner, Noah Hannam, and Nick Ducceschi.

Gator talent scouts are not just thinking about

next year, but seven years down the line.

Looks like a backstroke dryland workout.

In the fly, big time cuts were earned by Lily Palmerino, Isabella Van Damme, Parker Blondin, Olivia Blondin (might they be related?), and Ian Baker.

Andrei's tinted goggles are illegal in cars.

Heat winners were:

Freestyle
Donovan Kovalsky, Noah Webber, Caroline Baker, Caorline Miller, Jill Humphreys, Addison Dickerson, Natalie Santangelo, Nora Hixson, Helen Milito, James Piland, Kenny Krogh, Colby Webber, Aidan Fischer, Keano Swalm, Emily Makin, Isabella Van Damme, Saira Nagda, Nick Dupuis, Brian McNamara, Parker Blondin, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Lily Penn, Paige Humphreys, Parker Fulghum, Cole Snodgrass, Olivia Johansson, Jessica Metter, and Anna Fracasso.

Backstroke
Matthew Makin, Tyler Swartz, Lily Palmerino, Elizabeth Whitson, Simone Burdick, Ginny Grubbs, Juliette Fore, Brian McNamara, TJ Heck, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Charlotte Krell, and Molly Cabral.

Breaststroke
Donovan Kovalsky, Tyler Swartz, Will Friedman, Juliette Fore, Nick Dupuis, TJ Heck, Lily Penn, Nicole Booth, Carl Questad, Elaina Phalen, and Sarah Jones.

Butterfly
Donovan Kovalsky, Lily Palmerino, Charlie Ruppe, Joseph Humphreys, Isabella Van Damme, Parker Blondin, Olivia Blondin, Ian Baker, Jessica Metter, and Anna Fracasso.

(Any typos in the names, or mistakes in the captions, just email the blog editor -- glen@pos.org and he will fix my mistakes.)