The Marlins and Other Mascots of D1 Lite

I probably should have put an asterisk in the title of this blog, but asterisks behave strangely in the URL since its a reserved character, and the title goes in the URL. So, I left it out. But I'll put it here: ... Mascots of D1 Lite*.  And apparently we're starting out the blog with a technical discussion this week. You are welcome. ;-) 

Aloha. Everybody loves Hawaiian day.

But anyway, about that asterisk *... My reason for bringing it into the discussion is the characterization of our division this year (D2) as "D1 Lite." In case you haven't noticed through the first two weeks, we are stacked up against some pretty stiff competition. As a matter of fact, nearly every team (other than MVP and Crosspointe) has spent significant time in D1 lately. This is a normal part of the promotion and relegation system of the NVSL. It just so happens that this season, MVP, who is normally strongly anchored in D3 is "meeting in the middle" versus a number of teams that are normally anchored in D1. And so goes D2 (D1 Lite*) this year. And with that as the background, it sets up for a few long shot challenges in our dual meets this year. That doesn't mean we can't or won't win. It just means we are coming into each of these meets as the underdogs. 

Our opponent this week, McLean, is very much one of those "usually D1" teams. As a matter of fact, this is the first time McLean has not been in D1 since 2010. 

So, that's the background on the "D1 Lite*" thing. But we do have more important things to talk about here. Namely, (1) the AWESOME group of mascots in D2 this year (Unlike 2017, when we battled against three different versions of Dolphins, this year we see a very eclectic mix of mascots... try saying that three times fast), and (2) the results of that swim meet in McLean on Saturday. 

First up, the mascots. McLean is the Marlins. Admittedly, it is not the most unique of names, but it is a very appropriate one. Marlins are considered to be one of the fastest fish in the sea (if not the fastest of all...). And based on the meet results, these Marlins are pretty fast. But more on that later. 

We already discussed the mascot of last week's opponent briefly in that blog. The "Green Feet" of Hamlet is definitely one of my favorite names in all of the NVSL. It makes for a fun logo and lots of interesting stories and lore surround the name. 

Our opponent next weekend is the Wakefield Chapel Wahoos. Another fun name. Yes, it is the unofficial mascot of UVA, and at one point in time the unofficial name of the Cleveland Indians mascot, but nonetheless it is relatively unique and a fun one to use in cheers and such. 

While the Green Feet are one of my favs in NVSL, the Langley Wild Things have the best mascot of the lot in my very unofficial opinion. The mascot is derived from the classic Maurice Sendak children's book and gets points for both cool appearance AND literary reference. And in an amazing alignment of anecdotes in the blog, Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn was the lead character in the old movie Major League, which was based on the Cleveland Indians, whose mascot used to be Chief Wahoo (as described above). Spooky how these things are connected. 

Our final opponent of the season will be the Crosspointe Cruisers. I'll be honest, it doesn't carry the promise of speed like the Marlins, nor playfulness of the Wahoos, Green Feet, or Wild Things... but it is definitely a unique name and bonus points for the alliteration. And don't be fooled by the laid back connotation of the "Cruisers" name... we're sure to see plenty of speed from this team when we travel to their pool in a few weeks. 

I would be remiss if I didn't give the old shout out to our own MVP Gators. A pretty cool mascot in its own right, and on top of that the whole package works together very nicely: we have a pond, we swim in the swamp, and using the MVP initials of Mount Vernon Park is cool on so many levels... cheers, logos, casual reference. And the alliteration of "Go Gators" just adds to the fun.  

Go Gators!

And that's all the teams and mascots of D1 Lite. Definitely a fun assortment of characters. 

On to this week's meet itself! 

Six years old. Legal Breaststroke in the "A" meet.
That's a blog-worthy accomplishment.

As previously mentioned, this is McLean's first time NOT being in D1 in over 10 years. Those Marlins are pretty fast. But notably, if you weren't paying attention last week, MVP likes to "announce our presence with authority!" And once again we took the early lead in the meet as Owen Prible earned the victory in the 8 & under Free. 

While the early lead was short-lived, and McLean ultimately was able to win every stroke and the meet, we definitely had some great performances in there. Two of our age groups were locked-on and had stellar weeks. 

Rally time. 

The 9-10 Boys won 3 out of 4 events, took their relay, finished 2-3 in the one event that they didn't win, and had the Gators' only "clean sweep" of the week with Jackson Saloom, Andrew Wiggers, and Jacob Milito going 1-2-3 in the Fly. While I usually wait until the end of the blog to announce the weekly group and stroke winners, I'm just going to deliver those accolades right here, right now. With that great set of races, the 9-10 boys earned the "Age Group of the Week" and Lincoln Jetton was our swimmer of the week winning both the Free and Breast. 

"Lincoln" together a couple of victories on the day. 

Having a similarly excellent week, and finishing as runners up in the "AGOTW" contest, were the 13-14 Boys. Alex North won the Free, George Schulte took the back, and Matthew Makin touched the wall first in the Breast. And then that trio, joined by Jack Alzona, won their Medley Relay, too. In most weeks, that probably would have earned them the AGOTW title, but the 9-10 Boys just barely squeezed them out this week. 

So good, he won the race swimming backwards.

Over on the girls side of the event, there were several quality victories, too. Elizabeth Miller won the 8 & under Backstroke by fingertips and Alex Kellogg earned the victory in the Fly in a great race. Emily Makin took care of business and won the 15-18 Breaststroke. 

That photo finish...

And following up on her outstanding debut performance in the 15-18 Backstroke last week, Lily Palmerino provided an encore by winning the event again this week with what ended up as the Race of the Week! In a tight battle from start to finish, Lily found the wall first and came away with the blue ribbon with a 0.05 second margin. Adding even more drama to that particular race, the difference between 1st and 3rd place (Olivia Blondin) was only 0.11 seconds! Three swimmers all finishing together in the blink of an eye. Whew. That was a close one. (If you want to appreciate how close of a three-way finish that race was, just try to start and stop a watch in that amount of time... you probably can't.) 

Today's lesson in "life isn't fair"... you win the 8u Fly but 
your sister gets the picture in the blog because it is such a great fly photo. 

McLean proved to be gracious hosts, and it was a fun meet all around, even if the Gators came up a little short when the final score was tallied. 

Good meet. Good sportsmanship. 

Next up on the "A" meet schedule is a trip to Wakefield Chapel. The last time we met head-to-head was an epic battle for the D3 title in the Swamp back in 2013. I'm looking forward to the matchup and I'm sure we'll see some similar excitement in the races on Saturday. 

Go Gators! 

Full Results. 

All the Pictures. 

Green Feet and a Return to Dominance

Okay, admittedly, this feels weird. Good, but weird. It's been so long since we had an "A" Meet that I forgot where I kept my analysis sheets and had to print some new ones off the computer.  It has been a minute as they say. But, to paraphrase the Minister of Magic in "The Order of the Phoenix"... We're Back! 

First up on the docket, the Green Feet of Hamlet, and fittingly the theme for the day was "Green." Let me begin with some respect and a show of my appreciation for cool team names. I love the name Green Feet. The story is that the grass/dirt around the pool has a unique composition that makes everyone's feet turn noticeably green after walking around barefoot. Cool name and a cool story. You will find the theme of interesting team names recurring a lot this season as we have a great combination of teams with some really cool names alongside us in Division 2 this season. I know I usually get the pre-season blog out before the first meet to cover those types of things, but I blame the pandemic... or something like that. We'll review the division competition in an upcoming post. 

On to the performances in the pool. Week One. Hamlet Green Feet visiting the Mount Vernon Park Gators in the Swamp. Our first defense of last year's undefeated championship season in Division 2*. (Yeah, that probably deserves an asterisk, but it's on the t-shirts, and technically true, so we've got that going for us.) This was our first actual swim meet in Division 2 since 2016... and we won the first stroke! That's what I call announcing your presence with authority. 

The first races, as always, were Freestyle. And in the first race of the day, the 8 & under boys finished 1st (Owen Pribble) and 2nd (Gray Bauerlein), and just like that we were leading the meet 8-1. And the good showings continued through the Freestyle events, highlighted by the "Clean Sweep" of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (and all nine points) in the 11-12 Girls race. Triple Gator Grunt to Helen Milito, Karly Whitehead, and Alexandra Myers. A few more solid Freestyle races by the older swimmers, highlighted by Juliana Skopp-Cardillo's win in the 15-18's, and boom... the Gators were leading the meet 48-42 after Free. This D2 thing doesn't seem so overwhelming after all. Go Gators! 

Are you all here for the show?

Next up was Backstroke. Another solid showing, if not quite as strong as the first. Lincoln Jetton got the blue ribbon for the 9-10 boys, Karly Whitehead did the same for the 11-12 girls, and Lily Palmerino... in her first ever event in the "bigger, faster, stronger" 15-18 age group, earned the W with a PR time of 34.29... Announcing her presence with authority (see video above). When the Backstroke events where complete, the Green Feet erased the Gator lead by taking 50 of the 90 points and bringing the overall score  to 88-92 at the halfway point through individual events. Close and competitive, that's the way we like them. 

En route to his 2nd victory of the day. 

The third stroke of the day was Breaststroke, and Arleigh McQueen touched the wall first in a time of 28.40 in the 8 & under boys race retaking the overall lead for the Gators! Hamlet used those Green Feet to leap over us in the next race, before Lincoln Jetton and Oliver Anderson went 1-2 in the 9-10 race to put the Gators back up 102-101. And history will show that to be the final Gator lead of the day. The Gators continued to swim well, but Hamlet picked up momentum. Matthew and Emily Makin each won their events in Breast, but it wasn't enough to trip up the Green Feet as they opened up a 10 point overall lead by winning Breast 42-48. 

The Gator boys were held without a win in Fly, while Kate Barber (9-10) and Emily Makin (15-18) each won their events in the girls races. There were a couple notable items in those girls races. First Kate Barber won in the Race of Week with her time of 19.01 besting her opponent by only .05 seconds... whew, that was a tight one. There is so much to say about an exciting race like that. First off, its the Fly, which is inherently cool, and a .05 margin is not even visible to the naked eye. Great race!   

Race of the Week... and token Fly photo.
Gotta have at least one.

I mentioned above that there were a couple of notable items in the girls fly races. The other thing I want to mention is Emily Makin's win in the event made it a clean sweep of the age group for the 15-18 girls (Juliana, Lily, and Emily x2). They won every event (AND earned 2nd place in three of four). In the ongoing and fun rivalry between the Gator boys and girls, the boys have been getting the edge for the past few years, which was a major shift in that the girls had been the stalwarts at MVP for the better part of the last decade. There was a time when the 15-18 girls were amongst the most dominate in all of NVSL. Does the clean sweep of the age group and 34 (of 41 possible) points portend a return to dominance for the girls and the age group? I'm not sure yet, but it definitely looks promising and earned them the title of "Age Group of the Week." Great swimming, ladies. 

It was a very Green Day. 

Tallying the points after the fly, a 59-31 total in the events put Hamlet up 199-161 heading into the Relays. 

The Gators took four out of the 12 relays with wins by the Boys 8 & under Free, 13-14 Medley, and Girls 11-12 Medley and 15-18 Medley. That put the final meet scores at 191-239 with a season opening victory for the Green Feet. 

"There is so much good info in the meet sheet...
and I can't wait to read all about it in the Blog."

All in all, it was a great, competitive meet. It is good to be back in the pool in an NVSL meet. It has definitely been a minute. You can view all of the results of every race on the Gator website here.  

We usually highlight a Swimmer of the Week for each "A" Meet, and as always, it was a tough choice this week with so many great performances. We had two swimmers win both of their individual events: Emily Makin who won both the Breast and Fly leading the dominant 15-18 girls, and also Lincoln Jetton who won the Back and Breast for the 9-10 Boys. But for the racer that really jumped out this week was Lily Palmerino, with that aforementioned introductory win in the 15-18 Girls Backstroke. Winning her first event as a 15 year old in the 15-18 age group is something special. And to throw another Harry Potter quote in here, I am reminded of Olivander talking to Harry as Coach Paul must be talking to Lily now, "I think we can expect great things from you..." Congrats to Lily, our first Swimmer of the Week for 2021. 

Your Age Group and Swimmer of the Week.

We've got four more "A" meets coming up over the next four weeks: at McLean, at Wakefield Chapel, at MVP vs Langley, and at Crosspointe. And of course we have all the "B" meets, invitationals, and other events for which you can see on the full schedule here. 

In a somewhat surreal turn of events...

...we have pictures OF our photographers?
Who took those? 

  

Want to see more pictures? Thanks to our great photographers (pictured above), we've got a lot of them, and there will be more for every meet here. 

Welcome to swim season. Just jump right in.