Time Trials Kick Off The Season - I See You

Gators agree... we love summer swim. 

Splash! Splash! Splash! With the familiar sound of the referee's whistle and the starter's horn the 2019 Summer Swim Season has begun! Welcome back Gators. I love the smell of chlorine in the morning. I hope everyone is as excited as I am to be back for another amazing summer of swimming and camaraderie. This is sure to be a fun one.

As I said in the title, Time Trials are in the books. Time Trials an interesting time in the swim season.  Time trials isn't the most exciting meet for most of us, because its mostly just a scrimmage to establish a new season's baseline of times. However, I like what the results show us about our swimmers. There was a line in the movie Avatar that I liked and applies here... the Navi people from the movie had a saying, "I see you."  The context of the line was key. It is not a literal statement, but rather a deeper insight into the character, heart, and values of the person. Seeing their spirit. If we look at the results of time trials critically, we can see some deeper things about our swimmers. We can see who put in the winter work and is ready to rise this summer.

Breathe it in. Summer swim is upon us.

Take for example those Gators who decided to emulate Mark Spitz by simply winning everything and posted the top times in every event they entered on Saturday. In case you have forgotten over the winter, the Gators are a pretty strong swim team with speed and depth all around, so topping this group in every stroke is no small feat... yet a number of Gators pulled it off. Lincoln Jetton topped them all for the 8 & under boys, shaving 2.96 seconds off his Free, 7.76 off his Back, 5.25 off his Breast, and 2.14 off his Fly. Nice. Somebody has been putting in the yardage work this winter. I see you, Lincoln. Also standing up in the 8 & unders was young Jackson Saloom who finished closely behind Lincoln in every event with similar cuts. I see you, too, Jackson.

Natalie Crowther pulled off a similar feat over in the 8 and under Girls group, winning each event with impressive time cuts... and cutting 8.56 seconds off her IM (as an 8 year old!). I see you, Natalie.

In the 9-10 Girls group, Helen Milito was the age-group sweeper, topping them all and cutting 12.8 seconds combined off of her strokes. I see you, Helen.

For the 9-10 Boys, Sam Bruce displayed the results of some off-season sweat, too. He didn't finish at the top of Breaststroke, which was won by Anthony Sarro (I told you the Gators were strong and deep...), but he did top the other three strokes and IM. Sam's performance in the Free and Fly would be All-Star worthy already based on last year's cuts, even at this early point of the season (with many weeks to improve further!). I see you, Sam.

What a great start to the season! 

In the 11-12 Boys group, a two-headed monster emerged as Alex North and Matthew Makin finished 1st and 2nd in each event with Alex winning two events and Matthew taking three. Similar to Sam in the 9-10 boys, most of the times from Alex and Matthew were already at All-Star levels. These boys have been putting in work. I see you, Alex and Matthew.

Lastly, 13 year old Lily Palmerino swept each event for the 13-14 girls cutting about 5.5 seconds off her combined times in the five events. I see you, Lily.

Lots of great swims demonstrating lots of hard work in the off season. Love to see it. These are just a small sample of the great times being posted by our Gator swimmers on Saturday, there were many other terrific swims at all ages. I'm really looking forward to this season in the NVSL. With results like these, I really like our chances. Check back to the blog tomorrow to read an overview of what our season is going to look like in Division 3 this year.

To see the complete results from Saturday, you can click here.

To see all the great photos from Dave Anderson, click here.

In case you forgot, Butterfly pictures make the best swim pictures.