Your Gator Nation Blog: Pool and a Pond

Continuing our theme from the last blog, let's start with a little more from Caddyshack.

"We have a pool and a pond. Pond would be good for you..."

If you haven't used that line 100 times at MVP, I just don't know what to say. Not only do we have an actual pool and a pond, but we have TWO pools and a pond. I mention this, because the meet on Saturday was another reminder of how lucky we are to be members at Mount Vernon Park. The trees, the picnic areas, the playground, the tennis courts, the gazebo, the pools, the pond... we have it all and it really is beautiful. Like most things in life, when you are close to them, it is easy to take things from granted. I find that the MVP grounds are one of those things I sometimes take for granted.

I showed up earlier than usual to the meet on Saturday because of some transportation management issues (i.e. I didn't want to walk...). And getting there early had me walking in as the Langley Wildthings were showing up and assembling in the inner parking lot. In the process of saying a few "hellos" and "welcomes" I ended up getting a half dozen compliments on the park and then overhead another half dozen as I walked in toward the pool. I'm sure the beautiful weather Saturday morning made it that much more impressive as the Wildthing families drove up and took their first looks at the sprawling acreage, the pond, the trees, the majesty... The amazement of first-time visitors when they come to the park is really something to behold and definitely makes me appreciate what we have even more.

I love that we have an old steel slide and big giant swings in the playground... without 157 inches of padding below to cushion the kids when they fall.

I love the string lights in the picnic area.

I love the new Weber grills and the new fridge in the pavilion.

I love the newly resurfaced tennis courts.

I love the "Founding Gator" mural in the bath house (you are missing something, ladies, if you haven't peeked in to see it).

I love the hill in back where the kids can roll down during swim breaks.

I love the bat house, even if the bat is never home.

I love that the bike parking lot is sometimes more full than the car parking lots.

And yes, I love that we have a pool and a pond. The pond really does anchor the park as a defining feature, in my opinion, more than the pools. Yes, the pools are the primary recreation draw to the park. But the pond defines the park: the fountain, the fishing pier and constant sight of members with lines in the water, the watchful gator stalking us from Blondin Island, the consistent presence of Dave Blondin and his remote controlled sailing yacht tacking around Blondin Island... I am fond of the pond. And so were our visitors on Saturday as they took in the beauty of the park.

To be honest, like Ty told Carl in the opening Caddyshack clip, maybe the pond would have been better for those visitors? Perhaps it would have slowed them down a bit and given us the chance to earn a few more points in this particular "A" Meet. (Kidding, of course.)

Sportsmanship and Spirit Tchotchkes

Anyway, since Langley came to town, there would be a swim meet (in the pool, not the pond). Langley is the presumptive D2 champion this year. It won't be official until next week, but its pretty much a done deal. And seeing how we have fared in our first three meets of the season, you can guess how this one was going to turn out in the end (Langley won by quite a bit). But as always, there are still a few good stories to tell within that meet.

College Day Cheers - Fight On!

There was a high volume of Gator Excellence going on down in the 9-10 age groups this week. First on the list was Lincoln Jetton. Blog followers know that Lincoln is having a great season, and it only seems to continue getting better. Last week I mentioned that Lincoln was undefeated so far this season in all of his individual events. I will admit, I feared that I was going to get some backlash about that with cries of "You jinxed him!" if and when he lost this week... and he was supposed to lose, on paper. You see, I knew that Langley was bringing one of the three D2 swimmers with faster times than our stalwart Lincoln. He was supposed to lose. But he didn't. In what I hereby dub this week's Race of the Week, Lincoln not only cut time to overtake his opponent from Langley, but dropped the hammer so hard he beat him by over TWO seconds. Let that sink in. He had never swam as fast as his opponent before, but the will to win/refuse to lose mentality earned Lincoln another victory in a race that wasn't close. If you watched it in the meet, you didn't even know there was supposed to be drama. Amazing. Not only did he beat a previously faster swimmer, but he continued a three-week trend of getting faster every week: 37.37 in week 2, 36.76 in week 3, and 35.88 in week 4. Now that is putting in work!

Lincoln is auditioning for MVP of MVP this year.

And the excitement is not over. You'll note that I said there were three swimmers ahead of Lincoln on the D2 ladder. With his victory, there are now only two, and both of them swim for Crosspointe, our opponents next week. As it should be. Can he do it again? I'm excited to watch. Make sure you do, too. It'll be Event 3, the Boys 9-10 Freestyle next week. I am definitely not betting against Lincoln. "Be the ball, Lincoln."

I did say there was a high volume of excellence in the 9-10 group this week, and Lincoln was just the beginning. Margaret Driscoll put in her own outstanding day at the office, coming home with two individual victories in the Free and Back, BOTH of which were time cuts to beat higher seeded opponents. She shaved about 3/4 of a second off her Free time to earn that victory, and then chopped the heck out of her backstroke time by over THREE seconds to earn the victory over her opponent by a slim 0.3 seconds. Not satisfied with those individual wins, Margaret also swam the anchor leg in the Medley Relay pulling out another photo finish victory over the Langley team 1:21.70 to 1:21.81. Quite a day for young Ms. Driscoll. And yes, as you have probably assumed... with that day, she earned herself the title of Swimmer of the Week.

I love when Dave Anderson gets the "photo finish"
on a race that needs a "photo finish." He's a Pro.

I need to add one side note on Margaret. When I called her the "young Ms. Driscoll" I wasn't kidding. She's 9. I can tell you, as Blogger/Stat Guy, the Stat Guy side of my brain is very excited when I see swimmers in the bottom half of the age group doing such great stuff and then think about the things she's going to do next year when she's 10 and still swimming in this age group again. Not that there won't still be more exciting stuff this year, but next year... Oh, boy. Look out NVSL.

Okay, but I'm still not done with coverage of the 9-10's. I told you, they really got it done this week.

Keeping up with the pace of excellence, Kate Barber took first place in the Fly and third in the Free. And Evelyn Milito took second in the Breast. And then Elizabeth Kellogg, Evelyn, Kate, and Margaret teamed up for that aforementioned Medley Relay victory to earn the 9-10 girls the honor of Age Group of the Week. Outstanding week girls!

That's a high quality Fly photo as a victory memento.

Yes, there was more swim meet outside of the 9-10 events. George Schulte continued his outstanding year taking the victory in Backstroke and Matthew Makin took the Breast for the 13-14 boys. And Emily Makin made it another double on the day winning both the Breast and Fly for the 15-18 girls.

It's all about those starts and finishes.

And while relay victories proved tough to come by on this day, the girls were able to pull out three. In addition to the 9-10's discussed above, the 11-12 (Karly Whitehead, Reese Myers, Alexandra Myers, and Helen Milito) and 15-18 girls (Lily Palmerino, Olivia Heck, Emily Makin, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo) also both won their Medley Relays.

Beautiful park. Check.

Great swimming. Check.

More Caddyshack references. Check.

...starts and finishes.

Hmmm. I feel like I am forgetting something... Ah! Graduating seniors! Can't forget them. This was senior day at MVP complete with tears, joy, and lots of "fin whacks" in the gauntlet. We bid farewell and congratulations to eight departing senior Gators:

Andre Zeitsev

Andrew Baker

Cecy Morales

Clarke Bayer

Juliana Skopp-Cardillo

Leigh Kovalsky

Olivia Heck

TJ Heck

#GatorsForLife

You can go to the Gator Senior page to read some information on each senior and be sure to check out their traditional "Reflections of a Gator" blog posts which are always wonderful to read. (We'll continue to post more as the others complete their write-ups... these are seniors, you know... deadlines are only suggestions.)

The full meet results are available here.

And all the pictures are here.

Go Gators!