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.