Divisional Championship and Those Squad Goals

MVP wins the Sportsmanship Award... two years in a row! 

With the conclusion of the final "A" meet of the season last week, I mentioned that the "team" aspect of the season had ended. And it ended famously with an amazing win capped by several come-from-behind victories in the relays which gave the Gators a winning record on the season and moved us into 2nd place in the division (read about it here). Now we move on from the regular season into the "post-season" meets. The Individual Divisional Championship and the Individual All-Stars are both (as the name implies) focused on the individual. There is no team score. The outcomes are individual times. The Divisional Championships pit the top two swimmers in each stroke against each other for Divisional glory (and as we've covered here quite a few times, Division 3 is absolutely stacked). The top performing swimmers at Divisional then have the chance to advance on to All-Stars if their times fall within the top-18 in all of the NVSL (which quite a few Gators did... more on that later).

New MVP Record. Awesome Fly Photo. 2 for 1. 

As a team, we don't really have any explicit goals for Divisionals or All-Stars. We just want all of our swimmers to do the very best they can. Of course, we like it when our team earns those coveted 1st place medals at Divisionals or berths into the All-Star meet. We keep track of that stuff (and, of course, I'm going to talk about it in this blog), but as a team, we don't set specific goals for team performance. That said, lots of people hope that we'll have more champions than in previous years and get more swimmers into All-Stars than before. Similarly, we don't have explicit team goals for the regular season, but everybody prefers winning more than losing (and finishing 3-2 is pretty nice in that regard). I'm sure some folks want to see a 5-0, but I also know others who think 3-2 is the sweet spot, since it normally keeps us put in D3, with a lesser chance of moving up next season (but, not a zero chance).

Pardon me sir, is that a 1st Place Jetton?

So, while the team goals are limited and generally not a driving force during the season, the individual goals of the swimmers are another thing altogether. Success doesn't just happen. Success is something that comes from hard work, focused in the right areas. There is a lot of research on goal-setting and it all tends to point at the same thing: setting very specific and challenging goals has a greater effect on performance improvement than easy or vague goals.  That's right. If you set specific goals, you will improve more than if you set general goals.

There is a good acronym for goal-setting know as "SMART" goals. The mnemonic helps guide goal-setters in how to craft a goal so that it will be valuable in making those performance improvements. SMART stands for:
Specific: A general thought of "I want to do better" is not a goal. Specific targets that are actionable are what we need to improve performance.
Measureable: Finding a measure to track progress helps evaluate progress.
Achievable: It's got to be something realistic. That doesn't mean you can't have a goal of going to the Olympics from a young age... but there need to be intermediate goals that help get you there for the short and mid-term.
Relevant: This is where the "why" part comes in. The goal must be something you buy into. It must means something to you.
Time-Bound: Goals have dates on them.  Weekly? Seasonal? Annual? Olympic cycle? Set a date.

Pearls published a comic about goals on the day I blogged about goals...
the universe is connected. And, mmmm.... donuts. 

Many of our swimmers dream of success. Setting SMART goals and developing an action-plan for achieving them is the recipe for fulfilling those dreams. Here's the confusing part... saying "just go do your best" is a common refrain around the swim pool, and it is a wonderful concept but that is most-definitely NOT a good goal-setting strategy. That "just do your best" is good advice on game day. But when we are trying to get better, we need those specific goals and targets to work towards. Once we have those goals, then we set up action plans to get us there. When swimmers are waking up before 4am all winter long, "just do your best" isn't going to keep getting them out of bed (or get them to go to sleep early the night before). But having that goal to cut 4 seconds off their time in Fly by next summer in order to make All-Stars will help. (Can you identify all the components of a SMART goal in there?) Once that goal is set, then the action plan helps define the steps necessary to get there: (1) Enroll in winter swim, (2) establish a set bedtime routine, (3) get up early and get to swim practice consistently, (4) do your best every day at those practices (see, that's where the "do your best" part comes in... in the action, not the goal), (5) measure progress, and (6) reflect.

That reflection part is an important and often overlooked piece of goal-setting. Did we achieve the goal? If so, awesome! If not, did we come close? One of the great benefits of setting high, challenging goals is that even if we miss them, we generally move pretty far along the continuum towards greater performance. Maybe that swimmer who wanted to cut four seconds to make All-Stars only cut three. That three-second cut is still pretty good... it probably moved the swimmer up the ladder both at MVP and got them a higher place at Divisionals. The reflective part of goal setting lets us evaluate if the goal is still valid and if the action-plan did the things needed to get there. Do we need to make modifications or changes?

In the "identifying the swimmer" category... Breast
photos definitely win the contest, even above Fly. 

One thing for sure, is that many of our Gator swimmers had goals involving Divisionals and All-Stars. Many of those goals were probably achieved, and they should be celebrated. But some may not have been. Now is the time to reflect on those goals and start setting new goals for next year (and then putting in place the action plans to achieve them).

One of my goals is to be able to blog about all the awesome stuff the Gators do all summer long, and these swimmers make that easy. It's ten weeks from Memorial Day when practices begin until All-Stars and the conclusion of the summer season... and what an enjoyable ride it has been this year! That aforementioned 3-2 record with some super exciting meets was a big part, especially that final Hollywood Ending last week. The Relay Carnival and All-Star Relays were both amazing. And now that we find our Gators competing in the Divisional Championships, the performances did not disappoint.

The inspirational pose for the new Gator team trophies...

At Divisionals, there are five events across all of the age groups: Free, Back, Breast, Fly, and IM. (Note: there is no specific IM for 8 & unders, but they can compete as 10 & under if they qualify.) Each team sends two swimmers for each of the 48 events. MVP swimmers brought home eight of the championship medals. Event winners were:

Donovan Kovalsky (2): 13-14 Free and Breast
Elizabeth Kellogg: 8 & under Back
Alexander North: 11-12 Back
Lincoln Jetton: 8 & under Breast
Natalie Crowther: 8 & under Fly
Sam Bruce: 9-10 Fly
Matthew Makin: 11-12 Fly

Interestingly, the breakdown of champions was pretty even... as has been the case with everything else in D3. Donaldson Run, the D3 champs, also took home the most individual crowns with 11. Hunter Mill had 9, MVP and Crosspointe 8, Vienna Woods 7 and High Point 6. If you are doing the math, you'll notice that adds up to 49, not 48. There was one tie for 1st place.

MVP giving 'em the old 1-2 in Breast. 

Silver medal winners were:
Margaret Driscoll: 8 & under Free
Sam Bruce: 9-10 Free
Alex North: 11-12 Free
Clark Bayer: 15-18 Free
Abigail Litonjua: 11-12 Breast
Jack Klopson: 13-14 Breast
James Piland: 13-14 Fly

And Gators finishing third:
Kate Barber: 8 & under Free
Sheridan Phalen: 15-18 Free
Lincoln Jetton: 8 & under Back
Natalie Crowther: 8 & under Breast
Jack Alzona: 11-12 Breast
Cole Miller: 15-18 Fly
Sheridan Phalen: 15-18 Fly
Anthony Sarro: 9-10 IM
Matthew Makin: 11-12 IM
James Piland: 13-14 IM

Whew. That's a lot of Gator D3 medalists in there. The complete results for all the swimmers is online here. 

There were some other major accomplishments, too. Record breaking? Of course.

Strong finish for the record. 

Donovan Kovalsky swam in two events and broke two MVP records (what is this 2018 again?). Donovan lowered his own 13-14 Boys 50 Free mark to 25.50. He also set a new mark in the Breast with a time of 34.51, shaving about 0.2 seconds off Charlie Ruppe's record from last year.

Sheridan Phalen broke Cassidy Bayer's 2015 MVP record in the 15-18 Freestyle by swimming a blistering 26.58. Despite that record breaking time, which was faster than her first place time last year at All-Stars... she finished 3rd. Have I mentioned how strong D3 is lately?

Sam Bruce lowered his own record in the 9-10 25m Fly finishing in an amazing first place tie in a time of 16.59.

Wheaties? More like Special K.  

And while not a record, Elizabeth Kellogg's personal best in the 8 & under Back is noteworthy as she dropped 2 seconds off of her seed time for the upset win in 22.51. I would say she must have ate her Wheaties, but we all know those are from General Mills, not Kellogg's (Ba-dum-tss).

And, let's not forget about the All-Stars. As I mentioned, one of the other major functions of the Divisional Championships is to serve as the qualifying meet for All-Stars. We had 10 Gators initially make the cut for All-Stars in 16 events, and those All-Stars are:

• Alex North (Free and Back)
• Donovan Kovalsky (Free and Breast)
• Elizabeth Kellogg (Back)
• Jack Klopson (Breast)
• Lincoln Jetton (Back and Breast)
• Margaret Driscoll (Free) 
• Matt Makin (Fly and IM)
• Natalie Crowther (Breast and Fly)
• Sam Bruce (Free and Fly)
• Sheridan Phalen (Free)

Definitely didn't "Back" into that victory. 

And that's not the end of the story. Several other Gator swimmers who originally made the alternate list have been moved up to the firm swim list in the past 24 hours. Clark Bayer has been added to Freestyle and Sheridan Phalen has made the cut for second event in Fly (putting her in both Free and Fly now). That brings the MVP firm entry total up to 11 swimmers in 18 events... which (if they all actually swim Saturday, as expected) would tie the MOST EVER actual swims by MVP Gators at All-Stars. We also had swimmers in 18 events back in 2013.

But wait... there is more. Adding a final element of drama to the 2019 season, both Cole Miller and Gabby Greszler are currently first alternates for their respective 15-18 Freestyle events... check back later this week to see if any other scratches get them in. If either of them gets into the meet, it will set an MVP all-time high by having swimmers in 19 events!

Something tells me lots of these Gators are good at goal setting. I can't wait too see what goals they set for next year. But first... let's wait and see how this All-Star thing turns out. We'll keep you updated this week with any more movement on the qualifying list and then send out a meet summary over the weekend after the meet. Be sure to come back and read about how it all turns out.

Interested in attending All-Stars? The info is here. Interesting in watching from home on your couch? Well you can do that, too... you just have to cheer extra loud if you want them to hear you. The meet is scheduled to be live streamed on Swim Ninja.

Want to see more pictures? Look here.  Want to see the end of year videos from the campout? Here.

Go Gators!

That's some high quality H2O. And a high quality Fly pic.