Fastest in the Fort: The IM Invitational

Historical perspective is important. My kids have been swimming at MVP for seven years now. During that time, we have never lost the IM Invitational. I just assumed that was always the case. But, I was wrong. Like many things in sports, the recency bias had affected me. In fact, we had only begun the "Great Gator Winning Streak" two years prior to the time we moved here. Yes, it's true, the Gators have taken home the IMI trophy every year since 2010. We did win some before that, but not very much. In fact, for most of the preceding years all the way back into the 1980's, it was Waynewood who dominated this event, accumulating a total of 13 victories back in the day. Riverside Gardens has also won six times. As the sands of time have shifted, so have the relative levels of Fort Hunt area swim power. The last decade or so has belonged to the Gators- eight wins in a row and 10 out of the last 12.  But, all good things eventually come to an end, right? Waynewood was once in this position only to be displaced by Mount Vernon Park. Is this the year that the curtain falls on the era of Gators? Would the streak be broken and a new power rise to the top of the local swim scene?

All the most dedicated Gators stayed until the
very end so they could pose with the trophy. 

No. We won. But, just remember, it's not automatic. The kids had to train all winter and all summer and then swim really fast on Monday to do it. Staying on top is hard work.

The win this year comes as a particularly special milestone. Not only is it our ninth straight title, it is also the team's 13th overall... finally pulling even with Waynewood for the all-time lead. Next year is going to be the rubber match. It's going to be hosted at their house. Like they say, "To be the man, you've got to beat the man." I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I think you know who I'm betting on.

But enough about the past and the future, how about the present? For those new to the team, how about a refresher on what the IM Invitational is?

Here's the basics:

The Event, IM = Individual Medley, which is a race where each competitor swims all four strokes (Fly, then Back, then Breast, then Free). Note: 8 & under actually just swim Fly, not the full IM at this meet. Back in the day, 8 & under didn't swim Fly at all in regular meets because there were not enough younglings who could do it. That's changed, thanks to modern science, nutrition, and competitive parenting. But, even though they do swim Fly in regular meets now, a full IM is a bit of a stretch for most of the little ones.

The Teams: Lots of them- Riverside Gardens, Waynewood, Little Hunting Park, Hollin Hills, Hollin Meadows, Highland Park, Mansion House, Hayfield Farm, Highland Lake, and Mount Vernon Yacht Club all participated this year. We've had 13 teams in some years, and this year we had 11. Each team sends their top three swimmers in every age group, then any remaining slots are filled with alternates based on quality times. MVP tends to get a lot of alternates in because our 4th, 5th, and 6th (etc) swimmers are still very good. Our team is pretty deep in case you haven't noticed.

Gator vs Gator

The Scoring: This is very similar to the Relay scoring system that I've described before with the top eight finishers earning points. 10 points to the winner, then 8, 6, 5, 4,3 2, 1. There is one caveat, which is apparently called the "Waynewood Rule" from back in the day when they were the Kings/Queens of the IM Mountain. The caveat is that no team can earn points for more than three swimmers in any event, so if a fourth of fifth swimmer from the same pool finish in the top eight, their points slide down the ladder and go to the next swimmer on the score sheet. (We had this happen  in the 13-14 Boys this year, with four of our swimmers all finishing in the top eight.)

Breaststrokers really cater to our photographers. They keep
popping up every few yards just to have their pictures taken.

The Stakes: Mostly bragging rights. Swimmers get to be the fastest in the land, and teams get to be "Kings/Queens of the IM Mountain." (Go back and read the stuff above, if you missed it.) But there is one more key outcome for some of the swimmers as this is their last chance to improve their IM times and possibly qualify for Divisionals next weekend. Note: the IM is not an event in the normal "A" meets all season, BUT, it is one of the five events for Divisionals and Individual All-Stars. The times for swimmers to earn a spot in the IM at Divisionals come from events like this.

Also pictured, the rare "Pascarell" Rose,
which is often only photographed at victorious meets. 

The Results: As mentioned above, MVP scored the most points (79.5) and took home the trophy. Our nearest competitor was Waynewood with 53 points, followed closely by Hollin Meadows in third with 52. All tolled, we had 60 swimmers splash in this meet- 10 younglings doing the Fly and 50 doing a full 100 meter Individual Medley. Out of those 60, 38 of them posted a best time and 17 earned points for the team. We also had five DQ's. As I mentioned, the IM is pretty tough. Lots of strokes, lots of distance, lots of required technique. It's tough, especially for younger swimmers, to keep it all together for the full 100 yards.

To be honest, with so many swimmers posting best times, it would take me too long to type them all up here, so I'm just going to link you the the fancy PDF document on our website which has all of the Gator results formatted very nicely. If you want to see how everyone did, there is also a link to the results from the whole meet which includes results from all 11 teams.

So, while I'm not going to post them all (click on the link, it's super easy... I promise), I will hit a couple highlights:

• We had two event winners who are officially the "Fastest in the Fort": Donovan Kovalsky won the 11-12 Boys and Emily Makin was took the 13-14 Girls (both were very impressive victories, too, with margins of 4 and 7 seconds respectively). 
• We also had two runners-up, with Sheridan Phalen taking the figurative silver medal for the 15-18 Girls and Liam Fore finishing second in the 8 & under Fly. 
• Interestingly, we didn't have anyone finish third at any age. (I guess it's probably not that interesting, but it is true.) 
• We maxed out "pointers" by getting three swimmers in the top-eight in three of the age groups: 11-12 Boys, 11-12 Girls, and 13-14 Boys. As I mentioned before, the 13-14 Boys actually got FOUR swimmers "in the money" to earn points, but could only count three of them due to the aforementioned "Waynewood Rule." 

All in all, a pretty solid outing. I'm already getting excited about next year's rubber match. Who's going to be "First to Fourteen"... ;-)

Go Gators!

The elusive IMI Fly. Fly pics are the best swim pics.