Hollywood Endings - A Meet vs High Point Pool

Hollywood has perfected its formula. Most stories are told in three acts: (1) Start with some set-up of the characters and situation, (2) Make some progress towards an objective, then have some complications arise, and then (3) Following a major set-back, make a heroic push and get to the climax, with our heroes normally emerging victorious. That's pretty much the whole enchilada. For all the stories out there. We become emotionally connected to the characters in Act 1, we follow their trials through Act 2, and then we celebrate their victory in Act 3.

Gator Relays Rule! (Foreshadowing...)

Take the classic movie "Rocky" for example. We learn about this hard luck boxer from Philly who works for the mob to get by, then he gets an opportunity! An injury to Apollo Creed's opponent creates the chance for Rocky to fight for the heavyweight title. In Act 2, he trains, has a few minor setbacks, and then the major set-back when he has a crisis of confidence. Then, in Act 3, he is rejuvenated in his training and ultimately goes the distance with Apollo, something no one had ever done before.

It is a proven successful formula for storytelling. Now, I'm going to tell you about the final "A" Meet of the season: matching the MVP Gators versus the High Point Pool Hippos. You're going to think someone wrote this story following the standard Hollywood 3-act script. But, not true! Everything you read here is part of an actual true story, but I submit no writer in Hollywood could have done any better to create such a terrific tale.

Where do we begin? Well, Act 1, I suppose. Our heroes are the Gators of MVP. We find them having a strong swim season, coming off a stellar performance at the All-Star relays and sitting upon a win-loss record of 2-2 in the NVSL's 3rd Division. With a win, MVP would finish above .500 and in second place, but a loss would drop down to fourth place in the standings and give them a losing record. The antagonists of this story are the High Point Pool Hippos. They sit above the Gators in the standings at 3-1, and come to the MVP pool for the second year in a row, having stunned the Gators last year in the opening meet of the season, 235-185. (You can read about that here.) Last year, we learned the hard way about the deadly nature of Hippos... the most lethal animal in Africa, in fact.

So, with last year's 50-point whooping in the back of everyone's mind... and the knowledge of the threat of those Hippos, the stage was set for this year's meet- the final one of the 2019 season. The Gators had a battle on their hands seeking both redemption from last year, and a higher level of success for this year. To add to the tension, it was Senior Day to boot. And of course everyone wants to send the Seniors off with a final victory. However, the simulations and forecast showed that the Gators were likely to come up short again this year... in an extremely tight battle.... but short, nonetheless. Act 1 has begun.

The first Clean Sweep of the day begins...

As the meet begins, our heroes seize on the some early opportunities in the Freestyle heats. First, Margaret Driscoll puts up a personal best in the 8 & under event to win the race and get two unexpected points in the second event of the day. Then, Gavin Fore outraced his opponent in the 11-12 race, coming away with an unexpected third place.  Cassidy Crowther also found a personal best to earn another upset win for the 11-12 Girls. And then Jack Klopson hit a personal best in the 13-14 race to steal third place and give the Gators a clean-sweep in that event.

As Act 1 draws to a close, we have new opportunity. After Freestyle, the score was expected to be even, but thanks to those clutch performances, the Gators led 50-40. Momentum had shifted strongly towards the Gators side... victory seemed achievable.

The Gators initially kept pace through the Backstroke events, but then an unexpected DQ robbed the Gators of critical points- taking away a second place finish. But while that DQ gave the Hippos 2nd place, interestingly, it created a tie for third place. When there is a tie, the swimmers split the points. Ella Pribble moved up into 3rd place in the event and earned a half point, along with her Hippo counterpart. Remember this half point for later in the story (that's called foreshadowing in movie lingo).

Following that DQ, more trouble arose for our heroes as the complications mounted. The Gators were upset by the Hippos in a couple of Back and Breast events. Then in the 9-10 Fly, Sam Bruce and Liam Fore each swam great races only to be edged out by 0.03 and 0.02 for 1st and 3rd respectively. I mention those results because races that are that close fall within the margin of error for manually timed events... so, in reality, it was just unlucky for the Gators to come up short in both of those finishes which were basically statistical ties. (i.e. manual timers aren't good enough to clearly determine the result within 0.02 or 0.03)

"And you, young ones. We will watch your careers with
great interest." -Senator Palpatine

The Hippos fully stole the momentum through both the Back (38-52) and Breast (41-49), to not only even things up, but take over a commanding lead. Finally, the Gators were able to stop the bleeding by winning Fly 46-44, led by a clean sweep in the 8 & under Girls event. Thanks and congrats to Natalie Crowther, Tess McCall and Evelyn Milito for that accomplishment.

That said, the damage was done. The strong Hippo Back and Breast performances had wounded the Gators chances. Like Rocky Balboa, the team was staggered and bruised... trailing 175.5 to 184.5 heading into the Relays. The major set-back had happened.  The teams were very evenly matched in Relays, and seeing any upsets at this point seemed unlikely. Act 2 drew to a close with the foreboding of a probable losing season, despite such valiant efforts by the team.

Look closely at those fingers... Evan is 0.05 seconds ahead. 

As Act 3 begins, the tension was high, but no one had surrendered the day. There was still fight left in our heroes. In the first two relays, the results were split as expected. Then a new hope emerged as the 9-10 Boys dug down deep and pulled off an amazing upset victory, anchored by a HUGE final come-from-behind leg by Evan Pribble. They cut over THREE seconds off their time from only 10 days prior at the Divisional Relays, and leapt over the High Point team who themselves went nearly two seconds faster than their own winning time from Divisionals. The final result- 1:15.15 to 1:15.20. That's right, they beat the Division Champion relay team by 0.05 to steal a crucial 5-points. A final Gator victory was still distant, but this was the upset we needed to get moving in that direction.

Then, another twist of the plot came as High Point responded in the next race to upset MVP in similar fashion and take back those five points, winning by only 0.2 seconds in the 9-10 Girls relay. Could there be any more drama? Yes. Yes, there could.

Flying high.

The next four relays continued to alternate between Gator wins and Hippo wins. The deadlock in the relays continued, and it didn't look like the Gators were going to be able to find another needed victory to put them over the top. Despite the strong final push, it seemed as if they would fall just a bit short.

But this is where the climax of our story begins. With four events remaining, the Gators trailed 195.5-204.5. Two of the remaining Gator relay teams were amongst the very best in all of the NVSL: the Girls 15-18 Medley and Boys Mixed-Age Freestyle teams were virtually unbeatable. But those two races would not be enough... the Gators had to find one more win and were running out of opportunities. In fact, the Hippos were strong favorites in the final heat, which was basically out of reach.

That's one heck of an anchor leg in those frothy bubbles. 

So, it all came down to the Boys 15-18 Medley as the decisive event. The team that won this one was likely going to win the meet. Back at those Divisional Relays on July 10th, the HPP team finished ahead of the Gators even though the Gators had set a team record in that race! You read that right. Despite the Gators giving the all-time best 15-18 Gator Medley Relay performance, their best just wasn't good enough to beat the Hippos. Could they flip the story in this final dramatic meet of the year? The Gator Boys jumped out to an early lead, but the top High Point swimmers charged back in the middle legs and pulled ahead prior to the final Freestyle leg. The Gator anchor, Clark Bayer, was about a full body length behind when he left the wall. He then showed us some Gator magic for the ages and gave his best 50 yards of the season... coming all the way back to win the race in a new MVP record time of 1:55.34. This time the team's best got even better, and earned the victory... for their relay and the entire Gator Nation.

What a climax! The Gator cheering section erupted with the amazing victory. High fives were abundant. There may have even been some hugging amongst the celebrating Gator dads up top. Following the upset victory and record-breaking performance by the Boys, the 15-18 Girls and Mixed-Age Boys "held serve" as expected and cruised to victory in their respective events.

The final score? Gators 210.5, Hippos 209.5.
Closest meet of the year.
Closest meet in forever.
Victory achieved. 3-2 in the standings, tied for 2nd place in D3.
The third winning season in a row for the Gators, and seventh out of the past eight years.
(Note: remember that 0.5 points earned for the 3rd place tie I mentioned in the foreshadowing earlier? That sure mattered. As did every single point by every single swimmer in every single race.)

Seniors leading their final Gator cheers... to victory! 

And remember when I mentioned a couple weeks ago that it would feel much better going 3-2 by rattling off three straight wins at the end as compared to losing a few down the stretch... how do you like me now? The Gators were able to get those three wins, and I know I'm pretty pumped after this one. What a finish to the meet. What a finish to the season. What a great movie. I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

And how about those weekly honors? This week's Race of the Week has got to be a tie. The 9-10 Boys (Sam Bruce, Anthony Sarro, Liam Fore, and Evan Pribble) and 15-18 Boys (John French, TJ Heck, Cole Miller, and Clark Bayer) Medley relay upsets earned us the key 10 points we needed to snatch this victory from the jaws of the Hippos. Those races were awesome.

I'm just going to say it... some of these NVSL Officials
are real nit-pickers. 

Age Group of the Week? Well, that's a tough one, as usual. The 13-14 Boys once again put on a clinic and earned the most points (33) with one clean sweep and a victory in every race. The 8 & under Girls were right on their heels. The 11-12 Boys also won each of their races. One of the things about this blog is I tend to focus on the close races, upsets and interesting matchups. Doing that often results in glazing over some of the "Rock of Gibraltar" performances by some of our swimmers and age-groups who just keep winning all the time: the 8 & under Girls, 9-10 Boys, 11-12 Boys, 13-14 Boys, and 15-18 Girls have been consistently excellent all season. Any of those groups really could have been the AGOTW just about any week. But this week... I'm giving the title to the 15-18 Boys. The order of events put them in that crucial spot at the end, and I just can't unsee that awesome relay victory and amazing final leg by Clark.

And for Swimmers of the Week? I'm going off script for this one. Normally I pick an individual, but this meet was ultimately decided by the relays... and so it is with the relays we will stay for this honor. I know I already gave the ROTW to the relays, but they deserve even more this time around. Instead of an individual, I'm giving Swimmer of the Week to the Boys Relay teams en masse. They earned 25 out of a possible 30 relay points...including those two crucial upsets. That's some relay power and rightfully earned this week's SOTW.

Hold on a second.... I almost forgot something.  The main attraction (the "A" meet season) may be over, but there is another critical element that has become a staple for movies these days: the mid-credits scene and the after-credits scene. Coming up next week is the Individual Divisional Championships (mid-credits) and then the Individual All-Stars follows that on August 3rd. Don't get out of your seats. Be sure to keep watching and see what happens in these awesome additions to our movie (or rather... season).

Go Gators!

Awesome Senior banners are equal to the best Fly pics!
Congrats Seniors!