Gator Nation

Gator Nation

Monday, June 22, 2015

Gators Chow Down On Tuna-Safe Dolphin

The MVP Gators opened the 2015 A Meet schedule with a 232-187 win over the Dunn Loring Dolphins.  MVP never trailed in the meet, which was close after backstroke, but the Gators steadily pulled away in breaststroke, fly, and the relays.

Gators warming up, psyching up.

The Gators were off to a strong start, leading 22-5 after the first three events, and 49-41 after freestyle.  The Dolphins fought back by doing well in back, winning the stroke by five points and cutting the MVP lead to 91-88.  However, the Gators opened it up to a 23 point lead by winning breaststroke 55-35.  The fly races went back and forth, but the Gators won it 46-44 to have a commanding 192-167 lead going into the relays.
Her hat's got more teeth than she does!

Winning eight of the twelve relays was impressive, and added twenty points to the final margin of victory.
The coaches are getting the swimmers psyched up.
Well, Torie is.  Tristan, Kevin, and Cameron
look either bemused or confused.

The Gators had four sweeps, while the Dolphins could not get any.  The boys started out freestyle on fire, as both the 8 & under boys and the 9-10 boys swept.  The 8 & under boys who went 1-2-3 were Tyler Swartz, Matthew Makin, and George Schulte.  Not to be outdone, the 9-10 boys with the brooms were Joseph Humphreys, Donovan Kovalsky, and Jack Klopson.
Not every Dolphin has his day.

The 8 & under boys had another sweep in breaststroke, led by Matthew Makin, and followed by Alexander North and Gavin Fore.  The 11-12 girls got into the sweep business in the fly, when Emily Makin, Gabrielle Greszler, and Olivia Blondin finished first, second, and third respectively.
It's the first week of the season.  Not all the coaches
are pointing in the same direction yet.

The girls race of the week was swum by Gabrielle Greszler, who beat her Dunn Loring opponent by just 0.11 seconds in the 11-12 free.  None of the first place Gator boys won over a second place Dolphin by 0.50 seconds or less, so there was no boys race of the week.
Every single Gator pictured here scored a point, thanks
to back-to-back boys freestyle sweeps!

There were three Gator double winners: Tyler Swartz (free and fly), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and breaststroke), and Cassidy Bayer (breaststroke and fly).
The great Al Hirt showed to play the National Anthem!  
(Well, Kurt sounded like him!)

Individual event winners were Joseph Humphreys (free), Gabrielle Greszler (free), Sheridan Phalen (free), George Schulte (back), Michael Ienzi (back), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Matthew Makin (breaststroke), Jack Klopson (breaststroke), Parker Blondin (breaststroke), Taylor Makin (breaststroke), Donovan Kovalsky (fly), and Emily Makin (fly).  The Gators won only 18 out of the 40 individual races.  In fact, the Gator girls only won six of the 20 even-numbered races -- which means the depth of the team is what resulted in the victory.
With Jill Humphreys as his canvas, photographer
David Anderson does his best impression of
a French impressionist.

Second place points were earned by Matthew Makin (free), Donovan Kovalsky (free), Andrew Baker (free and fly), Nick Dupuis (free and breaststroke), Jill Humphreys (free), Collin Sundsted (back), Gus Leyden (back), Nora Hixson (back), Lily Palmerino (back), Abby Dittman (back), Lily Penn (back and breaststroke), Parker Fulghum (back), Alexander North (breaststroke), Jack Dupuis (breaststroke), TJ Heck (breaststroke), Samantha Cowen (breaststroke), Isabella Van Damme (breaststroke and fly), Cole Miller (fly), Cameron Morey (fly), Gabrielle Greszler (fly), and Sheridan Phalen (fly).  Thus, 25 Gator second place finishes outweighed the 22 Dolphin wins.
Sheridan starts towards a win.  That
makes her our Phalen leader.

Key third place points were earned by George Schulte (free), Jack Klopson (free), Andrei Zaitsev (free), Cole Miller (free), Samantha Cowen (free), Lily Palmerino (free), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (free and breaststroke), Emma Jones (free), Parker Fulghum (free), Jack Alzona (back), Joseph Ienzi (back), Ginny Grubbs (back), Elizabeth Moorman (back), Juliette Fore (back), Anna Fracasso (back and fly), Gavin Fore (breaststroke and fly), Brian McNamara (breaststroke), Miriam Keller (breaststroke), Jill Humphreys (fly), Colin Baxter (fly), Parker Blondin (fly), Collin Sundsted (fly), Olivia Blondin (fly), and Emma Jones (fly).  The 27-13 win in third place points also helped the win.
Hixson's the One!

The Fairfax Frogs come to MVP on Saturday, June 27th.  Fairfax is 0-1, having lost a close meet to Little Rocky Run by a 216-204 score.  Should be a very competitive meet.

While his name is French (literally), and it looks like
he's surrendering, John is actually swimming backstroke.
(The Dolphin in the lane next to him
doesn't realize the race has started!)

So, how did Cassidy get injured.  Well, they were doing
the bump before backstroke, and. . .oh well, there's
always 2020 in Tokyo!

Of course, Gator observers have never figured out
where Cassidy gets her free-spiritedness from.

A Little Gator gets a hug from an aspiring Little Gator.

Unless your name is Cassidy, it's going to be
awfully difficult to get your name up there!

Gator alum return to cheer the team on to victory!

Cameron takes shaking hands very seriously!

AFrac and the Gators flew Saturday.


More great Gator photos on the link on the post a couple above this one!

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