B Meets - Dropping Time

Gator Invasion... If you look hard enough,
you can find a Bluefish in there somewhere. 

Summer swim team always seems to be filled with lots of amazing accomplishments by the kids. New friends are made, new strokes are acquired, and some huge time drops are recorded. One of the places we often see those big time drops are at the B Meets. B Meets, for those who are unaware, are normally held on Monday nights and match us up with the other local Fort Hunt area teams for some camaraderie, a little rivalry, and some fun races. They are also known as "Developmental Meets" since they are focused on the individual swimmers and provide an opportunity for every swimmer to work on improving their times in a couple of strokes.

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures. 

This past Monday the MVP Gators travelled up Fort Hunt Road all the way to Hollin Hills Swim Club, where we were hosted by the Bluefish for our second B Meet of the year. And a fun B Meet it was! Great weather, great sportsmanship, and lots of great time cuts by Gator swimmers. You can view the complete results for this meet (and all the others, too) on the MVP Gator website here, just click on the "Meet Results" for the Hollin Hills B Meet to see the individual results.

A few of those time drops were so big, I think they deserve some extra recognition here. A blog version of the Triple Gator Grunt goes out to these swimmers dropping more than 2 seconds from their previous best times:

• Van Musgrave (8&under) cut 10.92 seconds in the 25 Free AND 9.92 seconds in the 25 Back
• Sean Kovalsky (9-10) cut 4.82 seconds in the 50 Breast
• Hadley Apostol (8&under) cut 4.31 seconds in the 25 Back
• Abigail Leach (9-10) cut 2.87 seconds in the 50 Breast
• Jack Beardsley (8&under) cut 2.71 seconds in the 25 Breast
• Kip Bryant (8&under) cut 2.67 seconds in the 25 Back
• Helen Milito (8&under) cut 2.21 in the 25 Fly

Pre-Swim feelings: 90% excited, 10% nervous

In addition, some special sequencing in the events for this meet  helped quite a few people improve on the Individual Medley (IM) times. Normally IM is the last event of a meet, which means sometimes we run out of time (or daylight) before the event can be held, or swimmers are tired after swimming their other strokes earlier in the meet, or swimmers are just plain tired since its past their bedtimes and they go home before the event is held at all. Whatever the reason, quite a few swimmers posted some excellent times, and excellent improvements, in the 100 IM:

• Brielle Keyes (11-12) cut 6.62 seconds 
• Katya Zaitsev (11-12) cut 5.82 seconds 
• Samantha Cowen (9-10) cut 4.64 seconds
• Matthew Makin (9-10) cut 4.25 seconds 
• Cecilia Morales (13-14) cut 3.81 seconds 
• Gavin Fore (9.10) cut 2.91 seconds 
• Mikayla Gordon (11-12) cut 2.41 seconds 

Nice swimming everyone! (And nice volunteering by all of the parents at the meet, too!)

Full results for the B Meet at Hollin Hills are available here.

All photos from the Hollin Hills B Meet are available here.

Go Gators!

Team Repping is harder than it looks. Honestly. 

Little Hands, Little Feet...Your Gator Swimmers of the Meet!

You've probably heard the cheer as it builds up and repeats from under the MVP Gator tents, "Little hands, little feet; our 8 and unders can't be beat!" It's got all the qualities of a good cheer: catchy rhythm, easy to shout and repeat, and a great positive message. Definitely one of my faves.

If you read the previous blog entry covering the meet against Dunn Loring, you know we had LOTS of fast swims, so there were many great candidates for the coveted title of "Gator Swimmers of the Week." But ultimately, this week two of our youngest Gators had those little hands and little feet flying around at ridiculously fast speeds to win lots of races and deservedly earned the titles: Liam Fore (7) and Helen Milito (8).  Both Liam and Helen won every race they entered and brought home 15 points each for the team.

Liam won the Free by more than a body length, laying down a sub-20 25m Free in 19.87 seconds- nearly 3 seconds ahead of the field- quite an impressive time for a 7 year old, to be sure. Then, Liam "flew" through his second race, the 25m Fly, in 22.34, besting the second place finisher by 0.79 seconds. Finally, Liam was one of four teammates in the 8 & under Free relay which won their race by nearly 20 seconds.

Helen was equally impressive on Saturday, winning the Back and Breast. Dropping a full second off her previous best Backstroke time, Helen pulled out an upset victory beating the top DL swimmer by 0.23 seconds. And in another tight race, she led a trio of Gator girls to a clean sweep of the 8 & under Breast in a time of 28.66. And then later teaming up with those other Gator girls in the 8 & under Free relay to win a tight race 1:35.25 to 1:35.38.

So, this week, there was no question about it "Little hands and little feet... our 8 & unders can't be beat!" Congratulations Helen and Liam!

Go Gators!

Adaptation and Dolphin Hunting

Dolphins are pretty amazing hunters, using highly coordinated corralling techniques to force fish into a tight "bait ball" and then shooting through the mass of fish gulping as many as they can on each pass. It is a very effective system, made possible by their highly coordinated teamwork and speedy swimming through the ball of fish.

Launching into a new A meet season.

One of the most powerful tools in nature is the ability for a species to adapt. Adapting to predators and prey, and learning new skills to rise up the food chain. At the first A meet of the season, the MVP Gators clearly adapted to those Dolphin techniques and turned them against the visiting Dunn Loring Dolphins- lots of teamwork and lots of fast swimming to achieve a victory, with a final score of MVP Gators 260 to 159 for the Dunn Loring Dolphins.

Green & White, Fight! Fight!

All decked out in their Green & White spirit wear, the Gator swimmers led this one from wire to wire, winning the match-ups in every stroke and nearly every age group. Leading the way were the 13-14 year olds, who combined to win 69 out of 82 points (84%!!) available to them in their events. Apparently, once everyone else got those fish balled up, the 13-14's really fed well.

Speaking of those 13-14's.... three of the four Gator sweeps on the day came from that group. FYI, a "clean sweep" is when one team gets 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in one event and earns all 9 points possible for the event. The girls 13-14 Back (Olivia Blondin, Abby Dittman, and Juliette Fore), the boys 13-14 Fly (Andrew Baker, Charlie Ruppe, and Kenny Krogh), and the girls 13-14 Fly (Emily Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Olivia Blondin) all swept their competition. The fourth group producing a sweep was the 8 & under girls Breast stroke (Helen Milito, Josie Cowen, and Natalie Crowther).

Makin way towards a new girls 13-14 Medley Relay record. 

And this week's "Swim of the Week" came from those 13-14's, too. Not that the swimmers are trying to set a high bar or anything, but they broke the first Gator record of the year in the first meet. The 13-14 Girls Medley Relay of Olivia Blondin, Emily Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo swam in 1:01.79, breaking the old mark by 0.02 seconds (set last summer by Olivia Blondin, Taylor Makin, Gabby Greszler, and Sheridan Phalen). The gauntlet has been thown down I hear Vegas has the over/under set at 5 new records being set this year for the team.

In the teamwork category, the Gator relays won an impressive 9 out of 12 relay events (with one of those three losses coming by only .01 seconds!).

Individual event Gator winners were:
Liam Fore (Free, Fly)
Tyler Swartz (Free)
Donovan Kovalsky (Free, Fly)

Ready to launch towards 1 of  22 first place finishes. 

Clark Bayer (Free)
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo (Free)
Sam Bruce (Back)
Helen Milito (Back, Breast)
George Schulte (Back)
James Piland (Back, Breast)
Olivia Blondin (Back)
Anthony Sarro (Breast)
Alexander North (Breast)
T.J. Heck (Breast)
Emily Makin (Breast)
Natalie Crowther (Fly)
Matthew Makin (Fly)
Elizabeth Moorman (Fly)
Andrew Baker (Fly)

2nd place finishers were:
Anthony Sarro (Free)
Alexander North (Free)
Cassidy Crowther (Free, Back)
Jack Dupuis (Free)
Katya Zaitsev (Free)

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures. 

Gabby Greszler (Free, Fly)
Cole Miller (Free)
Sheridan Phalen (Free, Back)
Gavin Moore (Back)
Lily Palmerino (Back)
Clark Bayer (Back)
Abby Dittman (Back)
Josie Cowen (Breast)

Matthew Makin (Breast)

Abigail Litonjua (Breast)

Jack Klopson (Breast, Fly) 

Charlie Ruppe (Breast, Fly) 

Taylor Makin (Breast)

Sam Bruce (Fly)

Tyler Swartz (Fly)

Elaina Phalen (Fly)

And 3rd place Gators were:
Josie Cowen (Free)
Lily Palmerino (Free)
Andrew Baker (Free)

Parker Fulghum (Free, Back)

You get 3 guesses what song is on....  the first two don't count. 

Noah Litonjua (Back)

Miriam Keller (Back)

Colin Baxter (Back)

Elizabeth Moorman (Back)

Andrei Zaitsev (Back)

Juliette Fore (Back)

Natalie Crowther (Breast)

Caroline Baker (Breast)

Olivia Heck (Breast)

Elaina Phalen (Breast)
Abigail Litonjua (Fly)
Kenny Krogh (Fly)
Olivia Blondin (Fly)
Cole Miller (Fly)

The full results for the meet are available on the NVSL site here.

All of Dave Anderson's meet photos are available at the link here.

Next week's A meet will be away at Dowden Terrace against.... the Dolphins. The nice thing about
adaptation is that once adapted, the skills persist. So, I'm thinking a repeat of the teamwork and fast swimming may be just what the Gators ordered again next week.

Yes, the Gators earned an "A" for today. 

Gators Dance and Swim to Start the Season at Time Trials

Having fueled their bodies with some delicious carbs the evening before at the annual MVP pasta dinner, our Gators were ready to post some great swims at time trials on Saturday morning.  Gator nation awoke early on this warm and humid morning and headed to the park for music, amazing dance moves, laughs, high-fives, Gator café treats, and to show off their excellent form in four strokes and the Individual Medley in front of a crowd of proud and loud cheering family members and friends. 

Time trials feels like a dress rehearsal for the A and B meet performances that are only days away.  It’s an internal opportunity for the many volunteers to get back in action as MVP announcers, timers, judges, referees, starters, marshals, table workers, and many other roles.  For Gator swimmers, time trials is their first chance of the season to record swim times and get a feel for where they stand in the MVP swim ladder (and possible A meet invitations).  And for coaches, this first swim event of the season provides the invaluable opportunity of helping swimmers improve their techniques and skills.

A sea of Gators young and old(er) took part in time trials and, for 3 ½ hours, treated us to some great swims and races.  There were a whopping 484 splashes on Saturday! (for anyone new to this, that means that 484 individual Gator swims were counted, with many Gators swimming multiple races)  Head coach Paul Makin, Assistant Coach Laurel Greszler, and new Supplemental Practice coach Tim Boyd were on deck actively encouraging, instructing, and congratulating all the hard-working Gator swimmers that participated on Saturday.   

Coach Tim helping the Gators swim their best

Coach Paul is all ears when Gators have questions

I caught up with Team Reps Jamey Piland and Rose Pascarell and they were thrilled with the first meet under their leadership.  “First meet went great, largely as a result of all the new and experienced volunteers who stepped up and worked from start to finish.  Plus we have a great vantage point -- we get to see close ups of Gator swimmers doing their best and high fiving each other all the way back to the team area.  And by the way, Lauren Cardillo and Laurel Greszler's excellent dance moves made the break between heats all the more interesting.”

Cassidy Bayer is always entertaining - in and out of the pool!

And with that, on to the results:

Age group freestyle winners were Samuel Bruce, Helen Milito, Alexander North, Cassidy Crowther, Donovan Kovalsky, Katya Zaitsev, Clark Bayer, Juliana Skopp-Cardillo, Cole Miller, and Cassidy Bayer.

Age group backstroke winners were Ty Mills, Helen Milito, Tyler Swartz, Cassidy Crowther, James Piland, Elizabeth Moorman, Clark Bayer, Emily Makin, Cole Miller, and Cassidy Bayer.

Age group breaststroke winners were Anthony Sarro, Helen Milito, Alexander North, Abigail Litonjua, James Piland, Lily Palmerino,  Charlie Ruppe, Emily Makin, Brian McNamara, and Taylor Makin.

Finally, age group butterfly winners were Liam Fore, Natalie Crowther, Matthew Makin, Ginny Grubbs, James Piland, Lily Palmerino, Andrew Baker, Emily Makin, Cole Miller, and Sheridan Phalen.

Elaina Phalen and Parker Fulghum congratulating each other for a great swim!

And Parents are always showing their Gators the love!

And let’s hear it for all the awesome time drops for our younger swimmers from last year.  Here a list of swimmers that dropped 8 more seconds from their 2016 season times in various strokes: Cooper Swartz, Henry O’Shea, Ian Hixson, Helen Milito, Hayden Ward, Caroline Watters, Sofia Bryant, Colin Baxter, Charlie Bruce, Abigail Litonjua, Samantha Cowen, Madeline Cullo, Saira Nagda, Abby Tynan, William Milito, Caroline Miller, Emma Bruhl, Kahil Mulla, and John French.  Great effort Gators!

The first B meet is on Tuesday at Waynewood (rescheduled from Monday due to the weather).  The first A meet is on Saturday against the Dunn Loring dolphins at Mount Vernon Park.  

Gators Ready to Take on Division 3!

Both of my teenagers are clearly suffering from a major case of “end-of-school-year-itis”, which is a solid indicator that we are approaching the most wonderful time of the year, the Mount Vernon Park Gator’s summer swim season!  You can feel the intensity of work and school slowly giving way to the promise of amazing summer days and nights at the greatest swim club in the entire area – Mount Vernon Park.

Welcome back Gators, Gator parents, and all of our other amazing Gator supporters!  The 2017 season is off to a great start under the new leadership of Team Reps Jamey Piland and Rose Pascarell.  We were so fortunate to have Jim and Tonda Phalen at the helm for the last few seasons, and thankfully they aren’t going anywhere, as they have two Gator daughters (who are also great Gator leaders I might add).  Jamey and Rose have been working since last summer to gear up for this season and it promises to be a great one.  Coach Paul Makin is back for his 12th season and he has great confidence in our wide range of strong swimmers in every category this year.  And we are excited that Laurel Greszler is back as the Assistant Coach this year.

Last season the Gators competed in the extremely competitive 2^nd division of NVSL, against the likes of powerhouses such as Hamlet and Hunt Valley.  While we performed well, given the strong clubs in this elite division, we ended up in 5^th place and will be competing in Division 3 this season against clubs Dunn Loring, Dowden Terrace, Vienna Aquatics, Lakevale Estates, and Langley.  One amazing accomplishment to highlight from last season -- we received the Division 2 Sportsmanship Award; an honor we at Mount Vernon Park take great pride in because at the end of the day, it isn't the wins and losses that truly matter, but how well we treat the clubs we compete against each year (and how much fun we have!).

Before I give a quick rundown on the season and our competitors, I noted an interesting fact as I reviewed the last several NVSL season standings and where we and our competition has been and here is what I learned – in the recent past (since the 2011 season) we have only competed against two of the five teams in our 2017 division, Dunn Loring (in 2015 and 2012) and Vienna Aquatics (in 2011). But during the 2010 season, we had three teams in our division – Dowden Terrace, Lakevale Estates, and Langley.  That was Division 5 and we ended up winning the division that year.  Hopeful that is a good sign for 2017!

June 24^th Dunn Loring at MVP

It all starts at Mount Vernon Park on Saturday, June 24^th.  The Dunn Loring Dolphins hit the beltway from their home in Vienna to compete against us at MVP.  The Dolphins won Division 4 last season, and since 2010 they have spent most of their seasons competing in Division 4, with the exception of 2015 when they were swimming in Division 3, a year when the Gators were also swimming in that division.  That year the Gators finished 2^nd (at 4-1) and the Dolphins 5^th (at 1-4).

July 1^st at Dowden Terrace

Our mighty Gators hit the road for our first away meet of the season against the Dowden Terrace Dolphins.  With three of our five competitors being Dolphins, we will get our fair share of these fun loving aquatic mammals this season.  The Dowden Terrace swim club is also in Alexandria, on the other side of I-395. These Dolphins won Division 6 last year and they win the honor of most improved club in our division this year, having catapulted themselves from Division 6 to 3 in one season.  Dowden Terrace spent 2013 and 2014 in Division 8, so it is clear that this club has made great strides in the last several seasons.  The last year that the Gators squared off against these Dolphins was in Division 5 in 2010.

July 8^th Vienna Aquatics at MVP

We are back home on July 8^th against the Vienna Aquatics Gators.  After the 4^th of July holiday this club from Vienna (I didn’t even need to look this one up) will be at MVP for what is sure to be a great meet.  This Gator club has an impressive NVSL history, including swimming mostly in Division 1 and 2 over the last seven seasons.  They finished in 4^th place last year in Division 3, but were in Division 2 during 2014 and 2015, and even in the top Division in 2013.  The last time our Gators took on these Gators was in Division 3 in 2011. Let’s see if the MVP Gators can own the swamp on July 8^th!

July 15^th Lakevale Estates at MVP

Our very special and emotional tribute to Gator seniors happens on Saturday, July 15^th at our home meet against the Lakevale Estates Dolphins.  Yes, our 3^rd and final Dolphin match-up of the season!  This Dolphins club also calls Vienna home and they were the winners of Division 5 last season.  They’ve spent three seasons over the last seven in Division 2, having made the rise from Division 5 in 2010 to Division 2 three years later in 2013.  The last time we competed against this club my son, Brian, was swimming in the 8 and unders age bracket.  Now he’s in the oldest category (15-18) and is a swim coach and lifeguard.  The years are flying by, but I digress into my own memories….

July 22^nd at Langley

If you ever wondered where the Wildthings are, wonder no longer; they are in McLean and swim for Langley swim club and we will be headed there for our final A meet of the season.  Let’s face it, you were getting a little bored of the Dolphin theme in Division 3 this season, so there is no doubt this meet will feature the most mysterious of all Division 3 mascots.  And like Lakevale Estates, the MVP Gators haven’t competed against Langley since the fabled 2010 season when so many of our current Division clubs were chasing the wall together.  The Wildthings have resided mostly in Division 4 over the last seven seasons, but they were in Division 3 last season and finished in third place with a record of 3-2.

B Meets

A meets are part of the story, but not the entire story when it comes to the Gator swim team experience.  B meets are a Monday night tradition that is a lot of fun, and allows Gators young and old a chance to lower personal best times, get some additional meet experience, and make it to upcoming A meets.  This year, our first B meet is on June 19^th at Waynewood (Division 8).  Next, we travel down the road to Hollin Hills (Division 15) on June 26^th.  Our first home B meet is on July 10^th against Mansion House (Division 10).  Our final B meet is also at MVP when we host Riverside Gardens (Division 8) on July 17^th. 

Other Big Meets

As far as the big annual meets for 2017 - the Divisional Meets will include the Relay Carnival at Dunn Loring on July 12^th and Divisional Championships at Vienna Aquatics on July 29^th.  The All-Star Relay Carnival will be at Greenbriar on July 19^th and Individual All-Stars will be at Sully Station on August 5^th.

So there you have it, the 2017 Gator swim season at a glance.  The next couple months will be busy for our Gators, coaches, and volunteers, but this is the time many of us look forward to all year long.  Mount Vernon Park is coming alive and we are all ready to make this a season to remember!  See you all at Time Trials on Saturday, June 17^th!