Epic Gator Battle

Truly a wonderful, super day. Go Gators!

The title of this post may make you think of some Youtube clip of two giant alligators battling in the Florida Everglades, but it is not (though there are a few of those out there that are pretty awesome!). Rather, this Epic Gator Battle was the result of two great swim teams meeting at the Mount Vernon Park Swamp for what has got to be one of the most exciting A meets in the entire Northern Virginia Swim League this year. How dramatic and exciting was this meet? The winning team was decided by about .07 seconds (read to the end for details).

Super spirit Gators! 

The recipe for an Epic Gator Battle starts with having two teams meet in the swamp on a beautiful Saturday morning in July- Gators versus Gators. In this case it was Mount Vernon Park Gators versus the Vienna Aquatic Club Gators. Next, add in 25 swims fast enough to make the preliminary cuts for All-Stars... yes, that's right, 25 All-Star level swims. There were so many fast swims that NVSL could probably just retroactively declare this meet the All-Star meet and save us all the time in August! On top of all that, sprinkle on eight new team records (six for MVP and two for VAC) and serve it with 38 new MVP personal best times and you have an amazing meet that is sure to be remembered for years to come... an Epic Gator Battle.

What a .03 second victory looks like.

It started off great for the Gators (MVP, that is) in the first event of the day when 8 & under swimmer Sam Bruce cut over a second off his 25m Free time to upset the VAC swimmer and steal the critical first 5 points of the meet. The rest of the Freestylers kept up the momentum staking MVP to a big early lead of 59-31 after the Freestyle events. In another critical Free race, our Race of the Week in fact, Bella VanDamme (34.40) and Katya Zaitsev (34.42) both swam personal bests to out touch their VAC opponent (who finished only .04 behind in 34.46) and take 1st and 2nd for the 11-12 Girls. That was a close one, ladies and gentlemen. Cassidy Crowther won the 9-10 Girls 50m in 38.03, only .03 seconds ahead of her competition. Even closer! And, leaving a mark of his own on the meet, Clark Bayer bested the 14 year old MVP 50m Free record for 13-14 Boys, swimming it in 26.47 seconds.

Clark (Kent) Bayer delivering some "Super" results. 

In Backstroke, VAC cut into the MVP lead winning 50.5 of the 90 points for that event, bringing the overall score to 98.5 for MVP to 81.5 for VAC. Highlighting things for MVP, Sam Bruce again had a terrific swim, cutting 2 seconds off his personal best to win for the 8 & under boys. Clark Bayer continued his record setting day by swimming the 50m Back in 31.93 to break the 5 year old record, his second of the day. Ho hum. ;-)

In the Breaststroke, VAC delivered what was their strongest "counter punch" of the day, outscoring MVP 54-36 with some amazing swims. One of the MVP bright spots was when Emily Makin put her name in the record books by swimming the Girls 13-14 50m Breaststroke in a new MVP record of 35.45, which was good for 2nd place in the event... showing just how competitive this meet really was! At the end of the event, VAC had taken over the overall lead for the meet, 135.5-134.5. So close!

Sometimes you need to bring the Mojo.

Staggered a bit by the VAC comeback, but still in the battle, the MVP Gators chomped down hard on their opponents in the Fly, winning the event 49-41 to retake the lead before the relays. Matthew Makin set the 4th MVP record of the day in the Boys 9-10 25m Fly, winning the race in 16.79 seconds. The record Matthew broke had stood since 1974! (I'm assuming he must have been extra-motivated by being selected as one of last week's Gator "Swimmers of the Week" which you can read about here ... it came out a bit late last week, so I know quite a few of you missed it.) Another huge Fly swim came in the 9-10 Girls race where Ginny Grubbs cut a half second off her personal best (19.42) to upset the VAC swimmer and take the win by only .04 seconds (which would likely have been swim of the week just about any other time... highlighting how awesome this meet was!) The Fly races also featured the ONLY clean sweep of the meet for either team as the 9-10 MVP Gator boys (Matthew Makin, Tyler Swartz, and Gavin Moore) took all three top spots to change the momentum of the meet in favor of MVP. *I'll put an asterisk here and note that there was a "dirty sweep" by the 9-10 Boys, as Alex North, George Schulte, and Gavin Fore went 1-2-3 in the Back, but a VAC swimmer was able earn half a point for a 3rd place tie, giving MVP "only" 8.5 points in the event- still awesome and worth a mention, but not officially a "clean sweep."

Heading into the relays, MVP held a narrow 7-point lead. The team needed to win 6 out of 12 relays to hold on and win... but was only favored to win in four, which made victory seem unlikely. But... in case you weren't paying attention, this Saturday was a record setting Saturday, and the relay teams wanted a piece, too. BOTH the Boys and Girls 13-14 Medley Relays set new record marks for MVP, pulling off upset wins to turn the tide and earn those 5th and 6th relay victories necessary to win the meet.

One new record, coming up!

Your new MVP record holders in the 13-14 100m Medley Relay for the boys are: John French, TJ Heck, Andrew Baker, and Clark Bayer in a new record time of 58.28 seconds. (And yes, that's the third team record of the day for Clark, completing his "hat trick." Not sure if that was Clark Kent or Clark Bayer in the pool today, but the super hero theme must have worked!) The girls relay team consisted of Olivia Blondin, Emily Makin, Gabrielle Greszler, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo in a new record time of 59.16 seconds.

Anchored by those clutch relay victories, the Gators split the relay points 30-30 and MVP prevailed 213.5-206.5 in this All-Star* meet (*unofficially, I guess, until the NVSL agrees with me about how worthy this Epic Gator Battle was of that "All-Star" title). What a victory! What a meet! Epic Gator Battle!

Part of the Age Group of the Week, doing their thing.

After a meet like this, picking Age Group of the Week is sort of like picking your favorite child, it's not a decision anybody ever wants to make. But, I'm going to go with the ones that set the most records (for the age group, not my children). So, this week's Age Group of the Week is the 13-14's, who collectively set FIVE new MVP records, won five races, and earned 51 out of 82 possible team points. Pretty impressive ladies and gentlemen.

So, how close was this meet? Well, MVP won by 7 points, which is very close. But looking closely, those 7 points could easily have been flipped turning the outcome of the meet. Do you remember those close races I mentioned earlier? (Bella and Katya going 1-2 in Free only .04 seconds ahead of VAC's 3rd place finisher, Cassidy Crowther winning Free by .03, and Ginny Grubbs winning Fly by .04)  If any two of those results had flipped in the other direction, VAC would have won the meet. So, the final score of this one tilted to MVP's favor by only .07 or .08 seconds. That's close. Try to start and stop a stopwatch that quickly- I bet you can't do it.

All the great pictures from the meet are available here.

And now for a summary of individual results. Note, the complete meet results are available on the NVSL website here or the MVP website here.

Blue ribbon Gators (MVP version):

Happiness is cutting 2.84 seconds off your Breaststroke.

Alexander North	Back
Cassidy Bayer	Free, Fly
Cassidy Crowther	Free
Clark Bayer	Free, Back
Elizabeth Moorman	Breast
Gabrielle Greszler	Free
Ginny Grubbs	Fly
Isabella VanDamme	Free
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	Free
Liam Fore	Fly
Matthew Makin	Fly
Samuel Bruce	Free, Back
Tyler Swartz	Free

Red ribbon winners:

Details matter. Nice form. 

Abigail Litonjua	Breast
Alexander North	Breast
Andrew Baker	Free, Fly
Andrew Baker	Fly
Brian McNamara	Breast
Cameron Morey	Back, Fly
Cassidy Crowther	Back
Cole Miller	Free
Donovan Kovalsky	Free, Breast
Elizabeth Moorman	Fly
Emily Makin	Breast, Fly
George Schulte	Back
Helen Milito	Back, Breast
Isabella VanDamme	Breast
James Piland	Back, Fly
Josephine Cowen	Free
Katya Zaitsev	Free
Natalie Crowther	Fly
Olivia Blondin	Back
Sheridan Phalen	Free
Taylor Makin	Breast
Tj Heck	Breast
Tyler Swartz	Fly

Attentively listening and getting wisdom from their leader. 

And White ribbon recipients:

Abigail Litonjua	Fly
Alexandra Myers	Free
Andrei Zaitsev	Back
Anthony Sarro	Free, Breast
Bianca Murphy	Back
Brian McNamara	Back
Caroline Miller	Fly
Charlie Ruppe	Breast, Fly
Cole Miller	Fly
Cooper Swartz	Fly
Gabrielle Greszler	Fly
Gavin Fore	Back
Gavin Moore	Fly
Jill Humphreys	Free
Liam Fore	Back
Lily Palmerino	Back
Olivia Heck	Breast
Sheridan Phalen	Back
Taylor Makin	Fly
Tres Greszler	Breast

What a meet. 25 All-Star level swims. Eight new team records. I'm exhausted. I'm going to need a week to rest up before we do it all again next Saturday. I can't imagine how all the swimmers do it.

Note, I reported a couple weeks ago that Vegas had set the over/under on new Gator records at 5 for the year. Well, so much for that prediction as the team hit the over today alone. The best thing about breaking goals is that its time to make new ones! Can they break 15 records? 20? Of note, the 13-14 Girls have broken the Medley Relay record every week so far this season, with the Relay Carnival coming up this Wednesday! Can the streak continue? I'm excited to watch and see. 

Go Gators!

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures.