Your Gator Nation Blog: Rollercoasters - "A" Meet vs Wakefield Chapel

I am a pretty big fan of rollercoasters. One of my favorites is Apollo's Chariot down at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. It's powerful and fast, with exciting drops, but it does so in a very classy way. There are no unnecessary flips and turns. No loops or corkscrews to make your head hurt. Just lots of great speed and that sense of floating and falling as you coast through the steel hills. Contrast that with a similar roller coaster at Kings Dominion- the Intimidator 305. The Intimidator also has the huge drops and exhilarating speed, and also avoids the unnecessary fluff of loops and flips. And looking at the numbers, it even falls a little farther and goes a little faster than its counterpart, Apollo's Chariot. But it is not as enjoyable. The Intimidator is just too aggressive. In trying to be better than Apollo's Chariot, the Intimidator goes too far... it goes beyond the limits of what makes a roller coaster fun. The drop is actually so high and the first curve so tight, that the G-Force has a history of causing people to black out. Even more, the turns are so abrupt and sharp that riders have their heads uncomfortably slammed back and forth against the restraints while hammering through the high speed curves. Contrast that with Apollo's Chariot which doesn't even have any restraints on the shoulders or near your head... the ride is so smooth and enjoyable that riders only need a lap restraint to hold them in the open-style coaster. The first time you ride it, it almost makes you wonder if the restraint is going to be enough, but it is. The classic style of Apollo's Chariot makes that simplicity work. The over-the-top, in-your-face assault of the Intimidator requires a lot more restraint to keep riders safe. I'm sure there are some out there who prefer the Intimidator and other similar coasters. But for me it's the Chariot. Smooth speed and exhilaration all the way.

Why the coaster discussion? Well, I do think they provide a good metaphor (or two) for swim meets. And I do like coasters. And its the Fourth of July, so amusement park stuff seems like a good topic for the day/season. I think the primary hallmark of roller coasters is that there are lots of ups and downs. Sure, there are lots of other variables that can be introduced, but the up and down is the main thing. Summer swim seasons, and meets, definitely have lots of ups and downs, too. Sometimes you start fast, sometimes slow. Through the highs and lows, you have fun and generally want to do it again. Your experience on that coaster (or swim season) may determine which one you go on next, perhaps take a ride on the same one again, or perhaps try a harder or easier one.

The other team's theme was "Wild Animal Safari"... these guys were just wild.

This week's meet at Wakefield Chapel definitely had a roller coaster feel to it. I heard from quite a few people that rumor had it that this was our best chance for a team win this season, so there were high expectations as we waited nervously in line to start the ride. We've grown accustomed to a fast start this season as we've rocketed out of the start in each of our meets thus far, however this one was a little bumpy. We didn't get that initial lead in the beginning and the riders grew nervous as we began rolling DOWN the track instead of up. But midway through Freestyle things started to pick up as the wobbling coaster found its track. Lincoln Jetton won his event for the 9-10 boys and then Sam Bruce and Helen Milito both earned the blue ribbons in the 11-12 races. As the 13-14 boys stood on deck, it felt like the coaster was tipping over the edge and ready to fly... and Alex North, Gavin Fore, and Jack Alzona claimed their first "clean sweep" of the day AND put the Gators ahead 34-29 in the meet. Ahhh... there is that exhilaration.

Checking out that winning time.

The Gators kept pace as the coaster made its way through some small features. In the Backstroke, Alex Kellogg won the 8&under race, Jackson Saloom took the win for the 9-10 boys, and Karly Whitehead won for the 11-12 girls. Next up were the 13-14 boys, who put in "clean sweep" #2 with George Schulte, Joe Mills, and Gavin Fore taking all the ribbons. Up, down, up... this roller coaster was proving to be an exciting one.

Things did start to get a little bumpy. And there was definitely some of that in-your-face roller coaster aggression that made our heads bang around a bit too much. But, after losing a few in a row in those dreaded corkscrew loops, Lincoln Jetton was able to get the coaster back on track with another win in the 9-10 Breast (That's 6 for 6 on the season for Lincoln, in case you weren't keeping track.)

Head down... time going down... Victory.

And that lead up to one of the best Gator wins of the day in the 13-14 Girls Breaststroke. Abigail Litonjua put in her best race of the season and dropped a quarter second to upset two of the Wahoos by 0.02 seconds and earn the 5-point victory. What a close race. Interestingly, even at a 0.02 margin, it was still NOT the closest race of the day... more on that later. With such a great time drop to leapfrog over her competition in such a key race, Abigail earned the coveted title of Swimmer of the Week for this one. And she gets to sit in the front row on the next ride.

Emily Makin finished off the Breaststroke events with a win for the 15-18 girls. After three events, the roller coaster ride was fun and exciting... but it was feeling a little more like the Intimidator than Apollo's Chariot. Wakefield Chapel had steadily outpaced MVP to about a 40 point lead.

We were able to earn three move victories in the Butterfly races. Kate Barber won the 9-10 Fly in a personal best time of 18.77 breaking the 19 second threshold for the first time... that's the kind of drop we really like to see- in the pool and on roller coasters. Sam Bruce won for the 11-12 boys, and Emily Makin for the 15-18 girls.

Awesome Fly photo, AND a new PR!

At the end of the individual events, the Gators were down a little over 50 points. And with 60 points remaining in the relay events, there was still a chance.... if we won all 12 relays. That didn't happen.

But we were still on this roller coaster, and let me tell you, there were still some interesting twists and turns ahead!

The 8&under girls (Emily Moore, Lauren Rudy, Alex Kellogg, and Elizabeth Miller) took the win in their Freestyle relay. And then the 9-10 boys lost their Medley in a nail-biter as both teams cut time from their previous bests in a close, fast race... which set the stage for the 9-10 girls Medley Relay. Oh, what a race. This one had the smooth, classy excitement of Apollo's Chariot, alright...

The swimmers were very close through each leg of the relay (Back, Breast, Fly...), but the Wahoo's had progressively opened up about a body-length lead heading in to the final Freestyle leg. And that is where this ride gets interesting. In fact, as I watched the final leg of the race I couldn't help but be reminded of "The Swim" as we now call it. That fabled final leg from back in 2018. In case you are new around here or haven't thought about it in a while, now is a great time to watch it again, before we continue. (I will pause to let you watch this short video as you prepare for the final excitement of this particular ride... and if you want to read about "The Swim," its in the archives here.):

Okay, that was awesome. But so was Andrea Morales' final leg in the 9-10 Medley Relay on this day. Apparently Andrea decided to channel her inner Donovan Kovalsky and dropped the hammer to overtake her Wahoo opponent and come from behind to win the race by 0.01 seconds! Race of the Week- no question. Possibly Race of the Season! It was awesome. I don't have the same video of the girls race, but it definitely had the same feel. So, you can just watch "The Swim" video again and imagine Margaret Driscoll, Evelyn Milito, Kate Barber, and Andrea Morales in the roles of the boys from "The Swim." Great race. Great finish.

Head down. No breaths. Come from behind victory.

The 11-12 boys and girls both won their Medley Relays, too, though without quite the same drama.

The 13-14 boys won their relay in a landslide capping off a terrific day for our Age Group of the Week. If you weren't tracking the updates above, the 13-14 boys had two clean sweeps (in Free and Back) and also took 2nd/3rd in both the Breast (Matthew Makin and Shaan Nagda) and Fly (Alex North and Matthew Makin), and then the team (George Schulte, Matthew Makin, Alex North, and Gavin Fore) won the Relay by a wide margin. All tallied up, they took 31 out of a possible 41 points on the day to lead the Gators. As runners up in last week's AGOTW competition, it looks like these boys decided to leave no doubt this time.

Did you see this week's blog? We won AGOTW. I love reading the blog.

It was a fun ride. That said, I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that maybe, just maybe, this amusement park we are at this summer, and these big, bad roller coasters, are just a bit out of our range. But while we're here let's have fun and enjoy it. And if the roller coasters are too scary, we can always try some other rides. Another favorite ride of mine is the "Drop Tower" style ride. It is different from the roller coaster in that there isn't as much up and down drama. It's pretty much just free-fall. Yeah. See you next week. Not that there's a metaphor here.

Go Gators.

All Results.

All Pictures.