Season Finale: Individual All-Stars

For summer swimming, the All-Star meet in August is officially the end of the season. Queue the tears. Another fun, exciting, Gatorific summer of swimming has come to a close. Sad to see it go, but so happy that it happened.

Is it just me, or doesn't this photo make you think of all
those Olympian swimmers after winning their races? Poised.

Believe it or not, I wasn't a competitive swimmer growing up (or even a recreational one, for that matter). So, I don't really have a good eye for what to watch on any individual in a race. The technique and skill of excellent swimming escapes me.... Good turn? Okay, sure. If you say so. (Sorta looked like all the others...) A hitch in the stroke? Exactly. Ummm, maybe? Illegal scissor kick? Obviously (to you maybe). Great start... All right, that one I can usually identify.  So, I've never been drawn toward the "official" and "judge" positions as a volunteer, and I've settled in as a timer (and blogger) instead. (But we always need more officials, so if you have any interest whatsoever, then you should become one!)  Even though the technical aspect of swimming tends to go over my head, I still get totally engrossed in the drama of the competition itself. Great races are amazing to watch. And those great races are even more amazing to watch when there is a lot on the line. And there is a lot on the line at All-Stars. This is where the best-of-the-best throughout the entire NVSL come together for the final races of the year.


And guess what? They broadcast the meet on the internet! (Which, of course, you know since you've been reading the blog.) The joy of this whole internet broadcast thing meant we got to watch the races from the comfort of our own living room without having to worry about parking. We didn't watch the whole meet from start to finish, but we did see all the Gator races... which was a lot of the meet since we had swimmers in every stroke. It was pretty exciting. My kids enjoyed the opportunity to watch their friends swim and I got to feel the drama. We even watched some friends from Waynewood and Riverside Gardens... and rooted FOR them (I know, I know, don't hold it against me...). If you had a crazy, busy schedule on Saturday and missed any of the races, you can catch up on them all here, where the meet has been posted in its entirety.

And here is your surprise #1 All-Star Champion in
15-18 Freestyle!  Nice sneak-attack job Sheridan!

And we were treated to some terrific performances by our All-Stars. The most exciting one of the day turned out to be a bit unexpected! We knew there would be a good race by our Gator swimmer... but didn't quite understand just how great. Sheridan Phalen was seeded in the second heat of the 15-18 Freestyle. For a little background, there are three heats of each event, with the slower seed times going first. That allows the races to progressively build to a crescendo with the fastest times and top finishers normally going last. Sheridan was seeded 8th and therefore in the second heat. The top six seed times would be in the third and final heat. But, Sheridan had other ideas in mind. She jumped out to an early lead in her race and just kept going strong, finishing well ahead of the competitors in her heat with a zippy time of 27.57 seconds. Then like a pro golfer who finishes her final round early on Sunday, Sheridan went into the "clubhouse" to see how her time would stand up against the competitors in the final heat. The final race was tight, with all four of the top seeds hitting the wall within 0.1 seconds of each other. In fact, the top two seeds actually finished in a dead heat - a tie.... which would have necessitated crowning co-champions had their times not been 0.16 seconds SLOWER than Sheridan's. Boom. Sheridan Phalen, All-Star Champion. Bringing the speed from the second heat. Pretty cool. I actually heard a rumor that her dad gave her some pre-race advice to "go faster" ... sage advice from our past team rep! I'm going to try that one with my kids in the future!

The Ruppe. The Ruppe. The Ruppe is on fire.

There were lots of other great swims by the Gator All-Stars. Charlie Ruppe had another career best race cutting more time off of his Gator team record in the 50 Breaststroke-- lowering it to the new mark of 34.73. John French jumped up one position from his 17th seed and finished 16th in the 13-14 Backstroke. And similarly, Donovan Kovalsky jumped up a spot from 4th to 3rd in the 11-12 Fly. Taylor Makin was seeded 9th in the 13-14 Breast and finished 7th.  Parker Fulghum finished 15th in the 15-18 Free, improving from here 17th seed. And Liam Fore finished 18th in the 8 and under Fly.

And there was one other Gator race. It has been an awesome year observing Donovan Kovalsky's great season of swimming where he has crushed the record books at MVP and in the NVSL. But as they say, records are made to be broken. The NVSL website summarized this one well with their update, so I'm just going to quote it verbatim, "In the 11-12 Freestyle, Michael Mullen of Old Keene Mill stunned the crowd in an upset over the current record-holder, Donovan Kovalsky, finishing with a blazing kick and touching in 26.18. Donovan had just lowered the mark to 26.20 the week before." Crazy how these things happen... a record that had stood for 11 years gets broken twice by two different superstar swimmers in a week. Crazy.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   Well, I, for one, am already looking forward to seeing the next onslaught on the record books in 2019.

Speed vs Speed. Two of the fastest 12 year old swimmers ever.
And a cool shot of the race start.

Great work and great races to all of our Gator All-Stars. They were all amazing to watch.

What a season.

Which brings us to the conclusion. I do have one last story to share. One of the other Gator parents told me a story about a conversation she had with her young swimmer recently. He was excited about all of the records getting broken this year by many of the older Gators and was checking out the board to see what times he needed to achieve in his favorite events to get his name up there. The times were outside of his reach... for now. And that Gator parent told her son, if you want to get your name up there on that record board, you can do it, but its going to take a lot of hard work... and probably more commitment than just swimming during the summer. Most swimmers with their names on that record board and most swimmers who represent MVP at All-Stars are year-round swimmers.

I think that was some pretty good advice. If your swimmer is starting to catch the swim bug, and is excited about being a part of this great team and wants to achieve higher levels of success, then getting involved in one of the winter programs is one very important step. The Gator 10 and under winter swim program at GW Rec is one option for the youngest Gators, and so are the NCAP and Fort Belvoir Swim Team (both US Swim Club programs in the local area) for older Gators or some of the younger crowd who are up for the bigger challenges. If you're not sure which program or what frequency of training is right for you, talk to the coaches, team reps, or any of the many Gator family who are participating in these programs.

Enjoy the rest of your summer. We'll be back with the Gator blog in the spring. And just keep swimming.

Go Gators!

Fly pictures make the best swim pictures. Even in the
last blog of the year.