The Back Nine - Mansion House "B" Meet

Too cute not to post. 

The strange thing about summer swim season is how fast it always seems to go. We start off with after-school practices in ice cold water, quickly start gearing up for Time Trials and the first "B" Meet. Then we shift to morning practices and begin the steady charge of "A" Meets every Saturday. On top of that, like whipped cream on a sundae, we mix in Divisional Relays, Championship events, and a few other local competitions. Two months of constant swim action. Whew. The steady beat of practices, pep rallies, dinners, and competitions all seems to come so fast that it is over before we know it.

Which brings us up to where we are today. It seems like we're just getting started with the season, but we've already "hit the back nine" and are heading towards the clubhouse, to use a golf analogy.

We've completed three "A" Meets, and sit with a 1-2 record- only two more to go! (You can catch up on the "A" meet action, if you like, by clicking these links and reading about each one: High Point, Lee-Graham, Hunt Valley.)

This week we had our 4th (out of 5) "B" Meet against our distant southern neighbors, the Mansion House Piranhas. Next Monday (July 16th) will be our final "B" Meet of the season... how did we get here so fast? It's all a blur.

Season...so fast,... food... so good,...getting sleepy... must rest...

And speaking of getting there fast, we continue to have terrific improvements in swims from the team and the meet at Mansion House was no exception. The full results for all the Gators at Mansion House are available here. Below are some of the highlights.

The following swimmers dropped 3 or more seconds in their events Monday:
8&under Free: Finn Torgerson (I swear he was on this list at the last one, too... that's over 6 seconds in two meets!), Emily Braithwaite
11-12 Free: Joseph Bucca, Liliana Fore
8&under Back: Ella McMorrow

8&under Breast: Fionn Miller

Who's swimming? We're here for a good,
old-fashioned Dance-Off!

9-10 Breast: Bianca Murphy
11-12 Breast: Jackson Foerster, Liliana Fore
15-18 IM: Gabrielle Greszler

The following swimmers dropped between 1 and 3 seconds: 
8&under Free: Oliver Anderson, Rhett Torgerson, Margaret Driscoll, Allie Holden, Ella McMorrow
9-10 Free: Jack Beardsley, Josephine Cowen, Anna Starr, Sabine O'Shea
11-12 Free: Brielle Keyes
13-14 Free: Joseph Humphreys
8&under Back: Finn Torgerson (Again, Finn? Somebody's having a good swim season. Keep it up!), Andrea Morales
9-10 Breast: Edward Stone, Gavin Moore, Jack Beardsley, Alexi Keyes, Josephine Cowen, Lila Colunga
11-12 Breast: Elizabeth Whitson, Nora Hixson, Nicole Zajac, Catie Hicks

Yes, we love our coaches.

13-14 Breast: Colin Baxter
9-10 Fly: Edward Stone
13-14 Fly: Abby Adams
15-18 IM: Sydney Himes

These lists always become a little bit shorter later in the season as lots of the big moves generally happen early in the year as kids post new times after the off season or make stroke improvements during their winter swim programs. Keeping up with the steady pace of dropping time gets more and more challenging later in the season, and most big drops at this point are from "figuring it out" with one of the technical aspects of a stroke. Seeing these big time cuts at this point of the season is really a great testament to both the diligence of the swimmers and the abilities of our coaches. Speaking of coaches... if you want to get a little extra practice, you can set up private lessons with most of our assistant coaches. Check it out here.

And finally, the "Big Mover of the Week" award for this meet goes to 9-year old Bianca Murphy who cut 8.42 seconds off of her Breaststroke time! Great work, Bianca.

The God of Thunder's lessor known weapon, like Mjolnir,
 Thor's iPhone is just as impossible for mortals to lift. 

Whew. Fast season with fast swims. And it doesn't slow down. Next up is Divisional Relays on Wednesday followed by Senior Day at our "A" Meet Saturday against Hunter Mill. As I mentioned above, we only have one more "B" Meet on the schedule... at our neighbors to the south, Riverside Gardens. Then it's the All-Star Relays, our final "A" Meet at Donaldson Run, the IM Invitational, the Romp in the Swamp, Divisional Championships, the Awards Banquet and Campout, and finally Individual All-Stars. I'll say it again, "Whew." It makes me tired just writing about it. And that's all going to go down in the next 3 weeks. Enjoy it while it lasts.... swim season, like our swimmers, is a lot faster than you might think.

Butterfly pictures make the best swim pictures.

You can see all of Dave Anderson's great Mansion House pictures here. Do you see any cool pictures of your kids that you'd like to memorialize? Did you know he's selling specialized prints in various formats? Be sure to check out his display in the pavilion at the next meet. 

Go Gators!