Your Gator Nation Blog: 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.