Your Gator Nation Blog: Gators Dispose of Flyers, Await Stingrays In Battle For First

In a meet that was essentially over after freestyle, and was statistically over after the first relay, the Mount Vernon Park Gators beat the Fairfax Station Flyers by a convincing 246-170 score to move their record to 3-0.

There's a Cat in the Hat vibe going on

for Elaina on Independence Day.

The win sets up a classic meet next Saturday (July 11th) between two undefeated teams, the Gators and the Little Rocky Run Stingrays at LRR out in Clifton. The winner of this upcoming meet is likely to win Division 3. Last season, the Gators edged out the Stingrays by a close 215-205 margin,

The theme of the day was red, white, and blue.

And green. And light blue. And orange.

So far this season, MVP has scored 698 across three A meets, while LRR is close behind at 685. Against common opponents, LRR has a net four point advantage. While MVP defeated Fairfax Frogs 220-200, LRR won that meet 216-204. Against Dunn Loring, however, LRR won 240-180, while MVP took it 232-187. Vegas oddsmakers have put it on the board as a toss-up, but Wednesday's Divisional Relay Carnival might move the line a point or two in either direction.

Or maybe the theme of the day was red, white

and blue. And sharks. And farmers. And plaid.

(Editor's Note: Vegas does NOT lay odds on NVSL meets! Reporter: I see a business opportunity! Editor: SMH, SMH.)

Most people were smart and brought raincoats

and umbrellas. Other people were Tom Bayer.

Back to Saturday's meet. Sure it rained, but compared to a week ago this was just a light downpour, instead of a heavy downpour!

The pre-meet splash (see related GIF) had Cole Snodgrass

watching water going up while rain was coming down.

In freestyle, it rained Gators. It might have been the most one-sided stroke result this grizzled blogger has ever seen. Gators won nine of the ten freestyle races, including two sweeps and two 8-1 victories. The score was a whopping 67-23 after the ten events, putting LRR into a 44 point hole from which it could not recover.

Jim sez, "The rain isn't Phalen on me!

The Stingrays did fight back in backstroke and breaststroke. The Gators lost back 44-46, so the lead was sliced to 42. (Editor's Note: "Sliced?" Forty-two points is not exactly "sliced!") MVP then lost breaststroke 41-49 as the Gator lead was a still comfortable 152-118.

Michael Ienzi, swimming frenzy

Fly wasn't kind to the, um, Flyers. MVP won it 54-32, to push the lead to 206-150. At that score, it would only take one relay win out of the twelve races to clinch the meet. Instead, MVP won eight relays, including runs of three and four straight, to push the final margin of victory to 76 points.

Saira Nagda gives it her all.

Races of the week were turned in by Sheridan Phalen and Kevin Adams-Mardi. Using a bit of the "luck of the Irish," coupled with a fast swim, Sheridan "Danny" defeated her Flyers opponent by 0.06 seconds in the 13-14 girls free. Kevin won the 15-18 boys breaststroke by 0.22 seconds. Sheridan also had the girls race of the week last week as well, so she's been clutch this season. The wins by Sheridan and Kevin are the narrowest by a Gator girl and boy so far this season.

I miss the days when Collin's cap said "Sunny."

MVP had two and a half sweeps this week, allowing just one by the Flyers. (Editor's Note: Wait, "two and a half"? That's not possible! Reporter: Well, in the 8 & under fly, Tyler Swartz won the race, and the other five swimmers DQ'd. Thus, Fairfax Station did not score any points in the event, but it's not a true 9-0 sweep -- so I'm going with half a sweep.)

Caroline Baker, points maker.

The two full sweeps came early. First, the 8 & under girls went 1-2-3 in freestyle behind Cassidy Crowther, Nora Hixson, and Hudson Ward. The 11-12 boys then followed with a freestyle sweep as well by Andrew Baker, Andrei Zaitsev, and Parker Blondin.

TJ had a heckuva meet.

Cassidy Bayer set another team record -- see related article below.

Olivia had a, yup, you guessed it!, heckuva meet.

Double Gator winners were Cassidy Bayer (back and breaststroke), Tyler Swartz (free and fly), Kevin Adams-Mardi (free and breaststroke), Matthew Makin (back and breaststroke), James Piland (free and fly), Jessie Bricker (free and fly), and Sheridan Phalen (free and fly).

Tres Greszler tried to fool me with the "Cohen" cap,

but his attempt at deception did not work.

Single winners were Andrew Baker (free), Sean Jansen (free), Cassidy Crowther (free), Isabella Van Damme (free), Donovan Kovalsky (back), Andrei Zaitsev (back), Taylor Makin (breaststroke), and Miriam Keller (fly). Thus, Gators won 22 of the 40 individual events. Of the 76 point win, 20 points of the margin came from event wins.

Future Gator already training for a no-breather 25 free.

Second place points were scored by George Schulte (free and back), Nora Hixson (free), Andrei Zaitsev (free), Gabrielle Greszler (free), Nick Dupuis (free), Ginny Grubbs (back), Lily Palmerino (back and fly), Emily Makin (back), Kenneth Krogh (back), Collin Sundsted (back), Abigail Litonjua (breaststroke and fly), Jack Klopson (breaststroke and fly), TJ Heck (breaststroke and fly), Sean Jansen (breaststroke), Isabella Van Damme (breaststroke), Emma Jones (fly), Elaina Phalen (fly) and Cole Miller (fly). Thus, 23 Gators took second place, to 16 for the Flyers. That provided another 21 points of the margin of victory.

Nora Hixson: Now More Than Ever!

Third place point scorers were Donovan Kovalsky (free), Parker Blondin (free and breaststroke), Hudson Ward (free), Caroline Baker (free and breaststroke), Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (free), Zoe Greszler (free), Elaina Phalen (free), Abigail Dittman (back), Cole Miller (back), Taylor Makin (back), Gus Leyden (back), Torie Bolger (back), William Milito (breaststroke), Cassidy Crowther (breaststroke), Lucas Garvey (breaststroke), Olivia Heck (breaststroke), Nick Dupuis (breaststroke), Andrew Baker (fly), Collin Sundsted (fly), and Gabrielle Greszler (fly). The twenty-two points from third places provided five more points of the cushion.