These All-Stars Can't Be Eclipsed

Donovan and Coach Laurel after a medal
performance in the 11-12 Free.

The big astronomical event this month is the upcoming solar eclipse. The astronomers tell us that the sun will be totally blocked out by the moon for a period of time, if you are in the right place along the moon's path. Unlike the sun however, our MVP Gator Stars refused to be blocked out, and all of them shone brightly at the NVSL All-Star Meet. The brilliance of our Gator swimmers was on full display Saturday morning. All in all, Gator swimmers had some terrific swims, resulting in two overall first place finishes (i.e. NVSL overall champion) and one new MVP record. Special congrats go out to Emily Makin for winning both the Girls 13-14 Breast and IM events (NVSL Champion!) And to Tyler Swartz for improving his own record in the 9-10 IM.

Here are all of the Gator All-Star results:

Event	Name	Place	Time
11-12 Free	Donovan Kovalsky	4th	28.67
13-14 Free	Clark Bayer	3rd	25.57
13-14 Free	Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	4th	28.26
9-10 Breast	Abigail Litonjua	8th	44.82
11-12 Breast	Donovan Kovalsky	8th	38.64
13-14 Breast	Emily Makin	1st	34.19
8 & under Fly	Liam Fore	11th	20.46
9-10 Fly	Matthew Makin	10th	16.76
13-14 Fly	Gabby Greszler	5th	30.97
13-14 Fly	Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	15th	32.2
9-10 IM	Tyler Swartz	9th	1:24.71
9-10 IM	Matthew Makin	11th	1:26.05
13-14 IM	Emily Makin	1st	1:07.49

Medalists, Juliana and Emily. 

The full meet results are available at the NVSL website here. Great work Gators! 

Coach Paul and Abbie after a great swim
in the 9-10 Breaststroke.

The All-Star meet is a bit of a bittersweet moment for us all, though.... Yes, it's true... this marks the end of the summer swim season. It's been a whirlwind 10 weeks of fun, games, hard work, sweat, rain, lots of splashing. There have been personal bests, meet victories, meet defeats, new pool records, and new All-Stars.  It's been real. It's been fun. It's been real fun. But like it does every summer, it has come to an end. So, like the sun up high in the sky, the moon has come across to block out the joy of summer swim for the time being. So enjoy your winter swim season. Or enjoy your time off in other sports. If you want to keep swimming, make sure to check out the Gator Winter Program as a terrific option.  

Next up on the Gator blogger calendar will be the results of the seeding meeting in February. Check back then to find out if we're staying in Division 3, or moving up to 2. Seven months of anticipation... I'm not sure I can wait. See you in May 2018! 

Individual Divisional Championships

It was a dark and stormy morning. The forecast had called for nothing but constant rain on the penultimate event of the 2017 NVSL season. Not allowing the weather forecast to bring them down, spririts were high at the Vienna Aquatic Club pool where Division 3's best swimmers gathered to contest the annual championship races. The top two swimmers in every event enter the pool and swim for all the marbles... to determine the year's Divisional Champion swimmers. And Champions we have.... MVP Gators won 10 events and had nine runner-up finishes.

A Championship level start. 

As is often the case, the weather forecast turned out to be more bark than bite, as the rain missed Vienna for the most part, with the skies only opening up for a short sprinkle or two. The swimmers capitalized with some terrific performances. Gators finishing first and designated as Division 3 champions were: Tyler Swartz (Free & IM), Donovan Kovalsky (Free), Clark Bayer (Free), Liam Fore (Fly), Matthew Makin (Fly) Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (Free), Abigail Litonjua (Breast), and Cassidy Bayer (Fly & IM).

Posing for GQ or getting psyched up to swim? You decide.

Finishing second were: Alex North (Back), Andrew Baker (Fly), Matthew Makin (IM), TJ Heck (IM), Helen Milito (Free), Sheridan Phalen (Free), Emily Makin (Breast & IM), and Gabby Greszler (Fly). And third place finishers were: Clark Bayer (Back), Alex North (Breast), Donovan Kovalsky (Breast), Charlie Ruppe (Fly), parker Fulghum (Free), and Taylor Makin (Breast).


Thirty-three more Gators finished in the top 6, earning a divisionals plaque. Full results of the meet are available on the NVSL website here.

One Heck of an IM swim. 

Divisional Championships serve a dual purpose, in addition to crowning a champion in every event, the meet also serves as the qualifier for the All-Star meet held this coming Saturday. The top 18 swimmers from all 102 teams in the NVSL qualify for the individual All-Star meet. Based on their great swims, 11 Gators qualified in 15 events for the upcoming All-Star meet! (Update: following a few scratches from around the county, one swimmer moved up above the cut in an event, bringing our total to 11 swimmers in 16 events. And one more swimmer has been designated as an alternate for two events.) 

Below are our All-Star qualifiers and their seeds:

Name	Event	Seed
Cassidy Bayer	15-18 Fly	1
Cassidy Bayer	15-18 IM	1
Emily Makin	13-14 Breast	2
Emily Makin	13-14 IM	2
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	13-14 Free	4
Donovan Kovalsky	11-12 Free	7
Tyler Swartz	10U IM	7
Abigail Litonjua	9-10 Breast	7
Clark Bayer	13-14 Free	8
Liam Fore	8u Fly	9
Matthew Makin	10u IM	10
Gabrielle Greszler	13-14 Fly	11
Donovan Kovalsky	11-12 Breast	11
Matthew Makin	9-10 Fly	12
Sheridan Phalen	15-18 Free	17

Update... as mentioned above, we've had three additions since the meet: Juliana Skopp-Cardillo is now above the cut for 13-14 Fly and will swim in that event, and Alex North has moved up to be the Alternate for both 9-10 Back and Breast. 

As far as Swims and Swimmmers of the Week goes, this is usually a pretty tough call. But Juliana Skopp-Cardillo made it easy for me this week as she clearly ate her Wheaties before the meet and put together two remarkable swims. She pulled an upset in the 13-14 Free, demonstrating what "outside smoke" is all about as she came from Lane 1 to finish 1st in a time of 28.40. And she also demonstrated the rare "1st heat smoke" as she outswam several higher seeds to pull into the top-6, finishing 5th in the Fly with a time of 32.35.. which we now know puts her into All-Stars for both events. Cutting 1.11 and 2.15 seconds respectively off her times... that's 3.36 seconds dropped at divisionals... against all the other top swimmers. That's about as clutch of a set of performances as I've ever seen. Smoking. 

7 year old Championship Fly photos REALLY
make the best photos. 

For the boys, we had two swimmers win Divisionals from the lower half of the age group. Donovan Kovalsky (11) won the 11-12 Free in a blistering quick time of 29.34 and Liam Fore (7) won the 7-8 Fly in 20.11. In case you don't quite grasp what that means... these two Divisional Champs get to come back and compete again in the same age group next year. Somebody better be ready to do some work on that record board at the pool... the present is awesome and the future looks bright.

As always, lots more great photos are available on the Gator website here. Check them out.

Great job to all the Gator swimmers! That was an outstanding performance at Divisionals. And good luck to those heading to All-Stars! Show them that Gator speed on Saturday!  Be sure to check back next week to read about how our congregation of Gators fare at All Stars.

Go Gators!

Seeding Prediction: Good News and Bad News

The dual meets for the 2017 summer season have come to an end. Our Mount Vernon Park Gators finished with a 3-2 record in Division 3, which means that we're going to be in Division 3 again next year. Or does it?

The conventional wisdom is that teams with 3-2 or 2-3 records stay in the same division the next year. And that's solid wisdom, based on good averages. NVSL seeding is not actually based on record alone, there is a more in depth analysis that takes place, but record is a good estimator. The average 5-0 team moves up two divisions (i.e. a 5-0 team in Division 8 will likely be in Division 6 the next year.) The average 4-1 team moves up one. At the other end, an 0-5 team goes down two, and a 1-4 team will normally go down one. The conventional wisdom, based on these averages, is absolutely correct. However, the thing about averages is there is always variance built into those numbers.

While most teams with a 5-0 record move up two divisions, some only move up one while a couple jump up three. And while almost every 4-1 team moves up one division, there are a small number who move up two. And to the relevant part for us.... while most 3-2 or 2-3 teams stay put, about 5 (out of 102) such teams move up or down every year. Last year, two 3-2's moved up while three 2-3's moved down. Even MVP moved from Division 7 in 2006 up to Division 6 in 2007 after finishing with a 3-2 record.

So, what does this all mean for MVP in 2018? It depends. One of the interesting factors that adds complexity is that three teams in Division 2 all finished 1-4 this year. Almost all 1-4 teams move down. Whether they moved down to Division 3 or 4 doesn't make any difference for our discussion, the important thing is that three teams are moving down, as opposed to the "normal" two teams which move down from most divisions. That extra vacancy needs to be filled.... and MVP will be a leading contender.

Langley finished 5-0 in our Division 3. There is a very good chance they will be moving all the way up to Division 1 next year. Or they may just move up to Division 2 if Wakefield Chapel is selected to remain in Div 1, despite their 0-5 record (that's what happened last year). Little Rocky Run (4-0-1 in Div 2) or Fairfax (3-0-2) could also move up, but I think Langley is the leading contender. Whichever team goes to Div 1 doesn't matter to us. The bottom line is that three of those four teams will be in Division 2. Hamlet will also remain in Div 2 with their 3-1-1 record. That leaves two openings in Division 2 with five contenders to fill the slot:

1. Mount Vernon Park, Div 3 Record of 3-2, 237 All Star Relay points
2. Dowden Terrace, Div 3 Record of 3-2, 198 All Star Relay points
3. Vienna Aquatic Club, Div 3 Record of 3-2, 186 All Star Relay points
4. Donaldson Run, Div 4 Record of 5-0, 241 All Star Relay points
5. High Point Pool, Div 5 Record of 5-0, 182 All Star Relay points

Any of those teams could reasonably expect to move up. As I said earlier, there is a formula that takes more into account than just records (but those are a big part).  Donaldson Run is probably a 90% lock to take one of the spots. A record of 5-0 in Div 4 normally warrants a jump to Div 2. Their solid performance at All Star Relays supports that move. So, that leaves four more teams, including MVP, to fill that last spot. One question the seeding committee will be looking at is whether High Point, with its 5-0 record, should move up three Divisions. That's a big jump, especially with the destination being all the way up at Div 2. I don't think the committee will move them that far, so High Point will probably end up in Division 3.

That would leave MVP, DT, and VAC as the final three remaining contenders for that final spot in Div 2. We all finished 3-2 this season. We all lost to Langley (MVP did have the closest score) and we all beat Dunn Loring and Lakevale Estates by similar margins. We split our "round robin" with each other as each of the three teams won one and lost one against the other two- so there is no clear leader emerging. No clear leader, until you look at MVP's superior performance at Divisional and All Star Relays. We were a strong second behind Langley at Divisional Relays and finished 11th overall at the NVSL All-Star Relays, while Dowden Terrace was a distant 12th and Vienna Aquatic was 16th.

This isn't the full analysis that NVSL uses, but it's a big part of it. It's probably too close to call at this point, but I think the odds are at least 50/50 that MVP moves up. Actually, the odds are probably even a little higher than that. I'd say 55% MVP, 20% Dowden Terrace, 15% High Point, and 5% Vienna Aquatic. The other 5% is that one of the three teams with 1-4 records in Div 2 stays put- unlikely, but there's a chance. If I was a betting man, my money would be on MVP.

So, take the news as you will. Some will call it "bad" news that the Gators may end up in a higher division next year. But, if it happens, its because the team swam so well this season that it belongs there. And that's good news. I remember back in 2012 after we had just finished 4-1 in Division 4. The consensus was that we were moving up and there was a lot of trepidation about going to Division 3, fed by lots of memories of an 0-5 season back in 2011. I heard quite a few people lamenting the move and hoping to remain in Division 4. We did move up, and since then we've been exclusively in Division 2 or 3 and have had a combined record of 14-11. These Gators belong at the Division 2/3 level. Time to get used to it. For what it's worth, based on a time comparison, we'd most likely have been 3-2 in Div 2 this year also.

So, on the record, I'm going with Wakefield Chapel, Little Rocky Run, Fairfax, Hamlet, Donaldson Run, and MVP as next year's Division 2. To be honest, I'm more confident about MVP moving up than I am about Wakefield Chapel moving down to make way for Langley in Div 1. Those two could flip at the top, but I'm sticking with my prediction. I think the seeding committee will give Wakefield Chapel a break since they've been the 0-5 punching bag in Div 1 for the last two years now. We'll see. Check back in late February 2018 after the seeding meeting to get the actual results.

Go Gators!

Rising Stars - Gator Romp in the Swamp

Running a tight meet, just like Mom and Dad.

The NBA has its Rising Stars game. MLB has the All-Star Futures game. Mount Vernon Park has the Romp in the Swamp. All of these are opportunities for rising performers to strut their stuff on the big stage. And this year's Romp did not disappoint! (And neither did the Rising Stars game nor the All-Star Futures game, for that matter.)

The Romp in the Swamp is the final B meet of the year. It is unique in that it is only for 12 and under swimmers, while the older swimmers and other Divisional Championship qualifiers serve as the officials for the meet. The result is a great win-win meet... lots of opportunity for rising Gator stars to show their progress. And for the older Gators, as they say, if you really want to learn a subject, then teach it. Having the opportunity to serve in official roles helps them all learn more about their sport and the challenges of putting on a meet.

Developing form. 

One of the great things about this meet is all of the Little Gators who participate and show off how much they've improved over the course of the summer... some improve by posting faster times, some by swimming new events, and some by making it across the pool successfully! We had 9 swimmers put up their first time of the year in Freestyle, 6 in Backstroke, 9 Breaststrokers, and 4 new Flys. Congrats to Paige Santore, Amy Andreas, Paige McCloskey, Lacey Murphy, Spencer Keene, Jack Critchley, Leon Cherqaoui, Connor Mills, BellaVictoria Porter, Oliver Anderson, Graeme Warburton, Boyd Banach, Bianca Murphy, Alexandra Holden, Andrea Morales, Kate Barber, Lincoln Jetton, Maxwell Kelch, and Lizzie Grubbs for testing the waters and successfully completing a new stroke.

Little hands, little feet... 

Some of the time cuts were remarkable! Daniel Williams III (8) won the (virtual) trophy for most time dropped by cutting 20.01 seconds off his Backstroke, Madelyn Black (7) was the runner-up cutting 16.59 seconds off her Free, and Daniel also took third, cutting 15.72 seconds off his Freestyle. Eight other Gators cut five seconds or more from their times:

Charlotte Robinson (5) -12.02     Freestyle
Abigail Kangas (5)       -11.17     Freestyle
David Black (10)           -8.30      Freestyle
Rachel Keenan (6)         -8.09      Freestyle
Monica Morales (9)       -6.87      Breaststroke
Jason Saloom (5)           -6.70      Backstroke
Finn Higgins (6)            -6.62      Freestyle
Oliver Anderson (5)       -6.51     Freestyle

Summer swim works! What terrific improvements!

Timers trying to earn those coveted doubles and triples. 

Six year old Andrea showing off her Breaststroke skills.

And in the "Rookie Game" mode of this meet, there were 39 swims by our 6 and under Gators in this meet, led by 25 Freestylers, 11 Backstrokers, and 3 talented young swimmers (Andrea Morales, Kate Barber, and Lincoln Jetton) who posted a time in Breaststroke. It's great to see so many Little Gators in the water!

All of the individual results from the RITS are posted on the Gator website here.

Tons of great photos are also available from this and every meet here.

Lots of great pictures are online.....
and this one. ;-)

Good luck to all of the Gator swimmers headed to Divisional Championships on Saturday!

Go Gators!

And of course, butterfly pictures make the best pictures. 

IM Invitational Results: Deja vu vu vu vu vu vu vu vu

No, that's not an echo you are hearing... that's just the MVP Gators winning the IM Invitational for the 8th straight year (and 9th out of the last 10). Some things never get old.

What is the IM Invitational? Well, its a meet made up almost entirely of Individual Medley races. I said "almost" because the 8 & unders all swim the Fly instead of IM, since most of them are still a little too young to have developed the endurance to finish a 100m IM. The meet is contested every year between 12-14 local pools (this year there were 12). The top three IM swimmers in each age group are invited to swim (hence the "Invitational" part). More than three swimmers can participate as alternates (and MVP got quite a few in). The teams are broken down into three divisions based on pool size/division level (Colonial, Minuteman, and Patriot) and then scored to determine a winner and trophy for each one. The winner gets a trophy. Earning hardware is always fun.

The scoring is similar to other multi-team meets, with a graduated point structure depending on placement in the races: 10 points for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, and on down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. No points are earned below 8th place. There is also a rule that only 3 swimmers per event can earn points... which means that if a team has a fourth swimmer who places in the top 8, they get the bragging rights that is entailed by such a good finish, but don't earn any points toward the team trophy. (We had one of these this year...keep reading.)

Needless to say, the Gators put together some great swims on this particular evening. Times were falling all over the place. Starting with the 8 and under Fly, Sam Bruce (our swimmer of the week from two weeks ago) kept his groove going on and dropped 3.58 seconds off his time to finish in 3rd place with a 19.55. Liam Fore (our week 1 swimmer of the week) swam his race in 20.25, cutting a half second off his best time to finish 5th. And for the girls, Josie Cowen dropped 0.75 seconds off her time, finishing in 23.61, which was good enough for 4th place. Noah Litonjua (-2.76) and Anthony Sarro (-0.24) also had great time improvements in their races and moved up the ladder.

For the 9-10 Boys, all four of the Gator competitors finished in the top 8: Tyler Swartz (1), Matthew Makin (2), Alex North (4), and Gavin Fore (7). This was one of those "slaughter rule" incidents that I alluded to earlier, where Gavin's swim didn't earn any points for the team because we're only allowed scores from three swimmers per event. (But Gavin still gets the bragging rights!) And of particular significance, Tyler's swim wasn't just first place in this event... it was first place ALL-TIME for a Gator swimmer in the IM, otherwise known as a new record! Tyler's time of 1:25.80 was nearly TWO FULL SECONDS below the previous Gator record set by Sean Jansen in 2011. That's some powerful swimming Tyler!

In the 9-10 Girls heats, three Gator swimmers dropped time: Cassidy Crowther (6th place, -2.50), Abbie Litonjua (7th place, -0.73), and Miriam Keller (-0.08).

The pattern continued for the evening, as Gators consistently placed multiple swimmers in the top 8 spots, and brought home the most points of all the teams, finishing comfortably ahead with 98 points to win the Colonial Division and bring home the trophy.


Here's how the rest of the Gator point-earners finished on the evening were:


1st place (10 points): Emily Makin, Cassidy Bayer
3rd place (6 points): Gabby Greszler, James Piland

4th (5 points): Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Donovan Kovalsky

5th (4 points): Clark Bayer
6th (3 points): TJ Heck
7th (2 points): Jack Klopson, Sheridan Phalen
8th (1 point): Bella VanDamme, Brian McNamara

A great evening and some great Gator swimming. Nice work everyone! The complete meet results are available on the Gator website here. And lots of great pictures are available here.

And while we all know that Butterfly pictures make the best pictures.... look at this winner, with four 11-12 Flyers racing through their first leg of the IM. That was pretty impressive for them all to coordinate their strokes to be at the same phase at the time of the photo!

Butterfly pictures make the best pictures. (x4)

Matchups Matter: Swimmers of the Week

Matchups matter. One of my favorite shows is "NFL Matchup" on ESPN. It is a very interesting preview show that breaks down the upcoming games every week looking at specific matchups at various positions and shows how those will likely influence the outcome of the game. In this case, matchups refers to a Wide Receiver versus a Cornerback, or an Offensive Tackle versus a Linebacker or Defensive End, and so on. I really enjoy the analysis and deep focus on how each individual performance matters. Most people watch a football game and see the totality of the game, and primarily watch only the players with or around the football. In the NFL Matchup show, they look at all of those places people don't normally focus. The analysis shows how a few key players in key matchups can change the outcome of the game.

That happens in swim meets, too! We have a tremendously talented and fast swim team. Sometimes we win the battle of matchups, sometimes we come out on the wrong end. Each individual event is its own battle, but the overall result of a meet comes down to winning individual races  and team relays at different age levels. Sometimes you might beat one team (we beat Vienna Aquatic) and lose to another (we lost to Dowden Terrace) even though the one you beat defeated the one you lost to (VAC beat DT)... it seems crazy, but it all come down to the matchups.

This week, we won some matchups and lost some matchups. We had lots of swimmers win their matchups this week, led by our Swimmers of the Week.

Gabby Greszler had the Race of the Week with her 29.20 second time in the 13-14 Girls 50m Freestyle. She upset the top swimmer from Langley to the win that event from Lane 2, putting up her personal best time in the process. Not finished, Gabby also won the 50m Fly by 0.39 seconds and swam the Fly leg of the 13-14 Medley relay helping push them to a victory in 1:01.43, holding off a Langley team that set a team record in the event!

Andrew Baker had a banner day in the pool as well. Andrew was part of our only clean sweep of the day, finishing a close second in the 13-14 Boys Freestyle and pulled away from the field in the 50m Fly, stretching out to nearly a full second victory over Langley's two top swimmers with his time of 31.58 seconds. Andrew also chipped in with the Fly leg of the Medley Relay, helping win the closest relay race of the day as the Gator boys came from behind to finish in 59.19 seconds, a mere half second ahead of the Wildthings.

Great swimming Gabby and Andrew! Way to win those matchups! Congratulations to our Gator Swimmers of the Week!

Moral Victories: A Meet vs Langley Wildthings

We knew this was going to be a tough one coming in to it. Langley has run through the Division 3 teams this season like a hot knife through butter. The scorelines for their victories in the first four meets were: 285-134, 292-128, 253-167, and 262-158... quite large margins of victory in all of them. They also won the Divisional Relay Carnival (we were 2nd) and put up some impressive numbers at the All-Star Relays. Needless to say, Langley is swimming fast this season.

Such consistently lopsided victories are not the norm in the NVSL. Generally, the seeding process puts teams in a division with similar teams which keeps most meets pretty close. But something about Langley this year put them above the others in our division- perhaps it was an exceptional crop of 8 and unders, or maybe a few new swimmers moved into their neighborhood. Whatever the reason, those scorelines demonstrate that they clearly belonged in Division 2. They did so well, in fact, that there is a very strong chance that they promote all the way to Division 1 next year (Check back later in the week for a more in-depth blog post about the overall division summary and a "look-ahead" to next year).

Wonder Twin powers.... Activate!

But enough about how dominant Langley was. How did MVP do at this meet? The Gators swam great, as always. But, like the rest of Division 3, we came up on the short end of the final score.... BUT, we scored the MOST points of any team against Langley this year (171), and held them to only 249, firmly establishing our claim to second place in the division and basking in the glow of that moral victory. AND, despite the fact that Langley had outscored us at both the Divisional Relays and All Star Relays, the Gator relay teams brought it on this particular Saturday to win the relay portion of the meet, taking seven out of 12 relays. That was the first time all season that Langley didn't win any portion of a meet.

Relay Power

So, the Gators took the relays, but Langley was able to outscore MVP in every individual stroke on the day. All the Gators still had some great swims, and pulled one clean sweep on the day, as the 13-14 boys (Clark Bayer, Andrew Baker, and TJ Heck) took all the points in the 50m Free.

Other individual Gators with great swims were these event winners:

Tyler Swartz, Boys 9-10 Free
Donovan Kovalsky, Boys 11-12 Free and 11-12 Breast
Clark Bayer, Boys 13-14 Free and 13-14 Back
Gabby Greszler, Girls 13-14 Free and 13-14 Fly
Sheridan Phalen, Girls 15-18 Free
Jame Piland, Boys 11-12 Back
Emily Makin, Girls 13-14 Back and 13-14 Breast
Cassidy Bayer, Girls 15-18 Back and 15-18 Fly
Abigail Litonjua, Girls 9-10 Breast
Matthew Makin, Boys 9-10 Fly
Andrew Baker, Boys 13-14 Fly

Relay Power

And these 2nd place finishers:
Andrew Baker, Boys 13-14 Free
Helen Milito, Girls 8 & Under Free
Matthew Makin, Boys 9-10 Back
Cassidy Crowther, Girls 9-10 Back
Lily Palmerino, Girls 11-12 Back
Anthony Sarro, Boys 8 & under Breast
Alex North, Boys 9-10 Breast
TJ Heck, Boys 13-14 Breast
Elaina Phalen, Girls 15-18 Breast
James Piland, Boys 11-12 Fly
Caroline Miller, Girls 11-12 Fly
Sheridan Phalen, Girls 15-18 Fly

Relay Power

And the white ribbon winners:
Sam Bruce, 8 & under Free
Cassidy Crowther, 9-10 Free
TJ Heck, Boys 13-14 Free
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Girls 13-14 Free and 13-14 Fly
Parker Fulghum, Girls 15-18 Free and 15-18 Back
Alexander North, Boys 9-10 Back
Andrei Zaitsev, Boys 13-14 Back
Abby Dittman, Girls 13-14 Back
Cameron Morey, Boys 15-18 Back
Jack Klopson, Boys 11-12 Breast
Charlie Ruppe, Boys 13-14 Breast
Olivia Heck, Girls 13-14 Breast
Taylor Makin, Girls 15-18 Breast
Noah Litonjua, Boys 8 & under Fly
Natalie Crowther, Girls 8 & under Fly
Tyler Swartz, Boys 9-10 Fly
Abigail Litonjua, Girls 9-10 Fly
Elizabeth Moorman, Girls 11-12 Fly

Clark overcoming a one second deficit to win the 13-14
Medley Relay on the anchor leg... awesome race! 

Our Age Group of the Week goes to the 13-14's, who were the only age group to come out ahead versus Langley, taking 58 out of 82 possible points.

The Race of the Week goes to Gabby Greszler who swam her best time of the season (29.20) in the 50 Free to upset Langley's top swimmer by .09 seconds and take first. What a race!

As always, the full meet results are available here and all the great Dave Anderson photos are here.

Check back tomorrow to find out about our Gator Swimmers of the Week! And this weeks is going to be a busy one: IM Invitational on Monday, Romp in the Swamp on Wed, and Divisionals/Awards Banquet/Campout on Saturday. Most of the season is in the rear view mirror, but there is still so much excitement left!

Go Gators.

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures. 

All-Stars: Relay Teams Living Up To The Title

Fast swimming. Lots of it. That's what the All-Star Relay Carnival is all about. The fastest 18 relay teams from all across Northern Virginia compete in Medley and Free Relays in every age group. Some swim clubs send teams to nearly every event (i.e. Division 1 teams). About 60-70% of the 102 NVSL teams send a team for at least one event, and the rest don't send any at all. So, with 10 teams qualifying for the All-Star relays, MVP was standing pretty tall among our peers. And with their performance, they stood even a little taller.

Nine out of those 10 Gator teams dropped time at the relays, with four of those times setting new Gator team records. (How is it that records keep getting broken? What are you people feeding your children? Whatever it is, keep doing it!!)

The All-Star Relays are a scored event. The point system is similar to the Divisional Relay Carnival scoring which I explained here. In short, the first place team gets 44 points, and then all other teams get a decreasing point amount all the way down to 18th place, who get 2 points. The Division 1 teams pretty much always win and get most of the top five. The division seeding is usually pretty accurate for NVSL, so the highest divisions tend to have the fastest and deepest teams, which are pretty critical elements for relays. Every now and then a Division 2 team has enough power to crack the top five, but that is probably a team that will be promoted to Division 1 the next year anyway.

So, how did MVP do as a group? We finished in 11th place with 237 total points, only 4 points out of the top 10. An awesome performance and our third highest total ever, behind only our 254 points in 2010 and 268 in 2013.  And based on the size of the divisions, seeding, and math, you can see that finishing in 11th place is "supposed" to be a Division 2 team. But those great Gator swims put us ahead of every Division 3 team, except Langley, and even had us jump over 4 out of 6 of the Division 2 teams! We were also the top performing pool of our local "B Meet" neighbors, finishing ahead of Mansion House (72 points), Hollin Meadows (64), Waynewood (40), and Riverside Gardens (28). The Relays are STRONG for these Gators.

So, how did each individual relay team do? Great! I already told you 9 out of 10 dropped time, and FOUR set new MVP records. Here's the results (*asterisks indicate new MVP records):

Top Six places earn medals:
*4th, Girls 13-14 Free: Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Gabby Greszler, Olivia Blondin, Emily Makin (1:57.05)
*4th, Girls 13-14 Medley: Olivia, Emily, Gabby, and Juliana (2:07.92)
*5th, Boys 13-14 Free: Andrew Baker, TJ Heck, Andrei Zaitsev, and Clark Bayer (1:50.92)

Top 12 earn enhanced ribbons: 

7th, Boys 9-10 Medley: George Schulte, Alex North, Matthew Makin, and Tyler Swartz (1:13.78)
8th, Boys 9-10 Free: Alex, Matthew, Gavin Fore, and Tyler (1:05.43)
9th, Boys 11-12 Medley: James Piland, Jack Klopson, Donovan Kovalsky, and Jack Dupuis (1:05.75)
9th, Boys 11-12 Free: James, Jack D., Jack K., and Donovan (58.05) 9th

*10th, Girls 15-18 Medley: Parker Fulghum, Taylor Makin, Cassidy Bayer, and Zoe Greszler (2:08.07)

Top 18 earn ribbons: 

14th, Girls 15-18 Free: Cassidy Bayer, Taylor Makin, Parker Fulghum, and Zoe Greszler (1:56.76)
15th, Girls 9-10 Medley: Cassidy Crowther, Abigail Litonjua, Ginny Grubbs, Jill Humphreys (1:17.73)

After the meet, all the Gator All Stars gathered for a group dinner to socialize together and present the awards. (And have cake!)  And obviously, lots of good awards and recognition were had at the dinner! (And cake!)

The complete results are available on the NVSL site here. And all the pictures from the event are available here.

Go Gators!

All the Stars.

Cake!

Breaching the Space-Time Continuum - B Meet vs RSG

Action photo.

The Simpsons. The English Patient. Monopoly. The Hobbit Trilogy. Any given baseball game. The list goes on. There are quite a few things we enjoy... they are things we may even love... but maybe, just maybe, they seem to go on a little bit long. Let's add the Riverside Gardens B Meet to that list. We love competing against our neighbors and schoolmates. It's one of the funnest meets of the year with lots of good, healthy competition between friends. And because of that, just about EVERY swimmer on the ample rosters of MVP and RSG shows up for this one. We splashed a LOT of swimmers. We splashed over 300 Gators into the water for swims. When combined with the Tsunami swimmers, that resulted in nearly 600 total swims in over 100 heats pushing the meet duration to nearly four hours. For a reference, an A meet normal has 42 heats.

Action photo #2. 

Einstein's theory of relativity says that as you go faster, time slows down for others outside of your speed event, which explains things. Apparently our swimmers were going REALLY fast. The Gator swimmers collectively cut 209.65 seconds off their best times! I'm sure that type of speed definitely has an effect on the space/time continuum.

One of the key events in this meet is the Individual Medley. Swimmers from both teams are trying to set or improve their IM times in preparation for the upcoming IM Invitational. (The IM Invitational is a regional event between all the local swim clubs to be held next Monday at Little Hunting Park.) IM is such a focus at this time of year, in fact, that IM was moved to the head of the line and was the first event of the meet. Quite a few Gators made some terrific improvements in their IM times, which certainly bodes well for the Gator Nation next week at the IMI. Here's the list of Gators who cut their IM times.

Name	Age	Time	Improvement
Caroline Miller	11	1:40.90S	-12.66
Abigail Leach	9	1:51.37S	-7.79
Jack Klopson	12	1:25.73S	-5.64
Samantha Cowen	10	1:50.93S	-5.27
Isabella VanDamme	12	1:30.00S	-5.19
Ginny Grubbs	9	1:48.47S	-4.46
Nora Hixson	10	1:47.37S	-4.28
Mikayla Gordon	11	1:40.17S	-3.77
Abby Adams	13	1:34.64S	-3.56
Clark Bayer	14	1:12.37S	-3.06
Lily Palmerino	11	1:31.57S	-2.93
Donovan Kovalsky	11	1:20.63S	-2.68
James Piland	12	1:19.40S	-1.83
Gavin Fore	10	1:38.09S	-1.75
Elizabeth Moorman	11	1:30.95S	-1.24
Charlie Ruppe	13	1:20.29S	-0.91
Abby Dittman	14	1:20.28S	-0.45
Saira Nagda	12	1:47.79S	-0.4
Cecilia Morales	13	1:33.55S	-0.4
Alexander North	10	1:31.15S	-0.3
Tj Heck	14	1:13.18S	-0.12
Katya Zaitsev	11	1:36.23S	-0.11
Gabrielle Greszler	14	1:18.11S	-0.01

Swimmers take your mark...

You don't get to 300 splashes by IM alone, so we obviously had lots of other swims in the other four individual strokes as well. Here's some of the biggest improvements (>2 seconds) in the other strokes on the day:

Name	Age	Stroke	Time	Improvement
Tommy Clapton	8	Free	24.44S	-5.31
Finn Higgins	6	Free	44.60S	-2.92
Boyd Banach	5	Free	1:07.30S	-2.58
Delilah Fischer	6	Free	33.92S	-8.24
Katie Joyner	8	Free	31.86S	-5.04
Alexandra Holden	7	Free	27.85S	-2
Grant Cedoz	9	Free	52.98S	-5.21
Dakota Todd	12	Free	1:09.18S	-16.53
Nicole Zajac	11	Free	48.60S	-3.02
Tommy Clapton	8	Back	35.97S	-4.55
Anthony Campbell	7	Back	39.24S	-3.23
Delilah Fischer	6	Back	41.14S	-8.2
Elena Amaya	8	Back	29.66S	-4.68
Anna Starr	8	Back	32.44S	-3.98
Ella Kreinar	7	Back	35.94S	-2.92
Sofia Bryant	10	Back	1:08.69S	-2.09
Catherine Delaune	9	Back	57.78S	-2.01
Alexandra Myers	7	Breast	35.88S	-3.28
Hunter Edwards	10	Breast	1:09.96S	-4.71
Jackson Foerster	10	Breast	1:10.50S	-2.56
Josephine Cowen	8	Fly	24.37S	-2.75
Helen Milito	8	Fly	23.62S	-2.28
Charles Bradburn	13	Fly	35.29S	-3.42

Nice swimming Gators!

Timer Doubles and Triples

The swimmers weren't the only ones putting in good work on Monday. I may be biased on this one (I'm definitely biased on this one), but in a meet with 600 splashes, there is a lot of opportunity for success of one of the busiest groups of volunteers- the timers. It may seem like a relatively low impact job, but you'd be surprised by the fatigue that sets in clicking that stopwatch 300 times each (start, stop, reset x 100 heats). Those are some hard working thumbs. Despite the arduous duty, this meet provided for lots of great timing work, with over 71 doubles being recorded. And there was one extra special timing performance from one group (Lane 5) which produced what is an unverified record of 21 doubles and 2 triples in one meet. For those who don't know, a double is when two of the three timers in a lane get the exact same time on the swim (all the way down to the 100ths). A triple is when all three are exact- a truly rare phenomenon. As a part-time timer/part-time blogger, I have never had two triples in one meet before. Well, I should say I HAD never had two triples before... can't say that anymore. ;-) (And FYI, timers have the best seat in the house, so if you are looking for a volunteer job for next season and not sure what to do, maybe you should give it try. We have records... even if they are undocumented and unofficial. Which, I suppose, makes them fictional... but records nonetheless!)

Observe the timer to swimmer ratio. We always
need LOTS of timers. 

As always the complete results of the meet are on the Gator website here and photos from the meet will be here. Go Gators!

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures.