Fast Gator Swims in the Hollin Hills Heat

by Special Correspondent David Ruppe

Deep in the Hills of Hollin last Monday, Gators and Bluefish met once again to chase each other quickly back and forth across a shaded blue cement pond.

And there were many exciting Gator swims -- 10-year old William Mochel's 1st place heat win stood out, as did Joe Humphrey's and James Piland's mad IM dashes. In the intense 11-12 boys 50 Free, Gators Andrei Zaitsev, Parker Blondin, and TJ Heck finished 1,2,3 and within a second of each other.

The swim of the night for this reporter, though, had to be by 10-year old Isabella Van Damme, who lost her goggles early in her 100 IM race but refused to give ground (water, rather) and posted a strong 2nd place finish.

Significant time drops were witnessed for:
Free
Jude Klopson, Jackson Foerster, Shaan Nagda, Nora Hixon, Lauren Angle, Madeline Culo, Keelin O'Connell, William Mochel, Dylan Moore, Isabella Van Damme, Delaney Adrian, Zoe North, Saira Nagda, Olivia Blondin, Anne Grace Dickerson, and Emily Atkinson.

Back
Shaan Nagda, Cassidy Crowther, Jill Humphreys, Samantha Cowen, Lauren Angle, Grace Foutch, Donovan Kovalsky, Abby Tynan, little Cameron Morey, and Liam Orr.

Breast
Gavin Fore, Joe Humphreys, Lily Palmerino, Andrew Baker, and MacKenzie Dickerson.
Fly
Parker Blondin!

The biggest Gator time drop of the night in a non-IM event was registered for Shaan Nagda (7) -- 7.62 in the 25 free! He also posted a large time drop in the 25 back and his sister Saira (10) did in the 50 free.

For the older swimmers, where cutting time can be more challenging, Andrew Baker chopped 2.89 seconds off his 50 breast time in his race to victory.

The heat winners - well, all the winners were heat winners despite the setting sun -- still, the race winners were:

Freestyle
George Schulte, William Milito, Jude Klopson, Cassidy Crowther, James Piland, William Mochel, Isabella Van Damme, Delaney Adrian, Saira Nagda, Andrei Zeitsev, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Paige Humphreys, Cole Miller, Zoe Greszler, Parker Fulghum, and Maura Finn.

Back

Mathew Makin, Alexander North, Jack Alzona, William Milito, Ginny Grubbs, Samantha Cowen, Joseph Humphreys, Lucas Garvey, Zoe North, Andrew Baker, Emily Makin, Paige Humphreys, Cole Miller, Taylor Makin, and Torie Bolger.

Breast
Tyler Swartz, Donovan Kovalsky, Lily Palmerino, Lillian Babin, Andrew Baker, Will Friedman, Emily Makin, Abigail Dittman, Ellie Cullo, Brian McNamara, Zoe Greszler, and Jayne Orleans.

Fly
Matthew Makin, James Piland, Parker Blondin, Abigail Dittman, Emma Jones, and Liam Orr.

IM James Piland, Joseph Humphreys, Parker Blondin, Emily Makin, Abigail Dittman, Brian McNamara, Taylor Makin, and Parker Fulghum!

(Any typos in the names, or mistakes in the captions are solely the fault of this reporter.  Nonetheless, just email the them to the blog editor! -- glen@pos.org and he will fix my mistakes.)