Reflections of a Gator - by Maddie Finn

Most of my memories of summer are revolved around Mt. Vernon Park. I remember running up and down the hill, pasta dinners, staying up all night at camp outs, and cheering as loud as I could during meets. Probably the least significant thing, at least to me, was the swimming itself. Sure, I loved winning. And when we won I was the happiest girl there. One year we were undefeated, and that was the most triumphant summer of my life. But for summer swim team, there was always much more to it than winning or simply dropping time. Our team has some of the best swimmers out there, but most of us aren’t going to make the olympics (although some might! *ahem-Cassidy*). Summer swim team was about the fun. 

And fun it was. Getting up early in the summer, especially when I did 5 am practices for NCAP, was never easy. But amazing coaches and hilarious teammates made sure that I rarely regretted it. Participating in team traditions like diving for pennies when I was young or nearly drowning during water polo kept me coming back for more. In fact, my family centered summer vacations around swimming, including one time I was driven back home from the Outer Banks to swim in the All-Star Relay meet at age 8. Swimming takes a village, but it is worth it, I promise.

The only ever time I raced in All-Star Relays was when I was 8. The 100m freestyle relay consisted of myself, Grace Sylvester (currently living in California), Cassidy Bayer, and Parker Fulghum (if memory serves me well). I think we got third, but I don’t remember. The most memorable thing from that day was at the dinner afterwards, when Glen Bolger, then team rep, stood behind us and said “This is the future of the gators.” Little did he know that my freestyle time would in fact get slower as I aged, but the sentiment was still true. My speed had nothing to do with it. I loved the team and all the people on it, and win or lose, I was a gator, through and through.

Reflections of a Gator - by Cameron Morey

Throughout the multiple years on the Gator team, I have many fond memories. One of the earliest I can think of was a pep rally, where Josh Stein and I had to push a watermelon across the pool together, it was actually just Josh because my 8 year old self was just about as big as the watermelon (hard to believe isn’t it). Then there was the time when I DQd in backstroke, and by ‘the time,’ I mean every single swim for about 2 years when I was 9 and 10 years old. I’m surprised I still got to swim the event in A meets, but eventually I quit DQing.  My favorite swim ever was during all-star relays when Nick Dupuis’ swim suit ripped right down the back right before he dove in and our entire relay team was in tears watching as the timers and referees tried to avert their eyes.  The first time I made the mixed age relay at about 11, Kevin Mardi gave me my first fast skin, that had to be like 20 sizes too small or at least it felt that way. How do we get those on anyway??  I loved being part of the 15-18 Medley Relay that broke a 40 year-old pool record and also a part of the Mixed Age Relay that broke a 27 year-old pool record.  I enjoyed the endless water polo games with the older swimmers, which many times were just the boys and Tori Bolger.

However, my most memorable moments on the Gator team are the ones coaching.  Thank you Kelli and Paul Makin for giving me the opportunity to see how rewarding it is.   Every time I get in the water to help out the young gators and all the times I was splashed really resonated with me, and have taught me a lot about what I plan to do in the future, as well as just general life skills. I also want to thank all the coaches for dealing with me. Kelli Makin for being there to shut me up when I would not stop talking at practice and finding me for the 8 and under relay that I would’ve missed due to my obsession with fishing in the pond. Laurel for being an amazing mother of the team and being one of my best friends, both on MVP and NCAP. Paul for being so hard on me and helping me realize my potential and always being there to give me a laugh.  And Kellee Brotherton, for being an amazing coach to me and my teammates, as well as a good friend.

As I move on to the next phase of my life, I will always look back fondly on these memories that helped form the person I’ve been and I will always be a gator.  Eyeballs.  GATORS.

Healthy Competition: Mansion House Comes to Our House for a B Meet

This is why we swim. Go Gators! 

Healthy competition is good. It's one of the benefits of youth sports. Competition drives athletes to improve and reinforces that giving their best effort has rewards (even if that reward is not always victory). Swimming has lots of competition, especially on a high performing team like MVP. Yet, while there are lots of great swimmers at MVP and therefore lots of great competition, one really great thing about this particular sport is that since the primary outcome of every race is a "time," it is easy to measure progress against yourself, no matter where any individual swimmer falls on the ladder. A positive response to the simple question of, "Did you drop your time?" always shows progress no matter how much better or worse anyone else performed. Like Dory said in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming" and good things will happen.

As I discussed last week after the Green and White meet, one of the big objectives of B Meets is for swimmers to improve times,  or for newer swimmers, trying to successfully complete a different stroke in a competitive environment without a DQ. In short, B meets are about improvement.

Ready to race.

But, sometimes, there is a little more competition between the swimmers themselves, even at B meets. Swimmers vie to make the cut for the A Meets, or get that last spot on a relay, or even just to win their heat for bragging rights. This B meet was one of those times where their was a little extra competition BETWEEN swimmers. This was the final meet before the fabled Divisional Relays, one of the most exciting meets of the year.  At the Divisional Relays each pool in the division sends two teams per age group to swim the Free and Medley Relays. It is always a very exciting and spirited meet.

So, because of the looming Relays, the air around the Gator swamp seemed a little heavier. It wasn't humidity. It was tension. Nervousness. Excitement. Triumph. Satisfaction. Lots of feelings and emotions could be felt in the air Monday night. The drive to improve and make one of those teams was palpable.

Nice swim. 

As I said at the beginning, healthy competition is good. It pushes young athletes to work harder and swim faster. And it certainly worked this time. The pressure and speed from fellow Gator teammates and the visiting Mansion House swimmers pushed many swimmers to personal bests- 112 in fact. That's a lot of time getting cut. How much? 210 seconds. Yes, that's right. Combined together, Gators cut 3 minutes and 30 seconds off of their collective best times.  Some are going to make new A meets. Some have new bragging rights. And some made the Divisional Relays. Congrats to everyone for some great mid-summer swimming! (And 26 people swam a new stroke for the first time in competition- also awesome!)

As always, the complete results for all of the Gators at this, and every, meet is available on the MVP website here. To highlight some of Monday's biggest cuts, here's a list of those who dropped more than 2 full seconds!

Name	Age	Stroke	Time	Cut
Kip Bryant	7	Free	32.56S	-2.63
Sabine O'Shea	8	Free	24.23S	-2.16
Hunter Edwards	10	Free	47.75S	-2.06
Evan Prible	8	Back	29.19S	-2.28
Lucy Waid	8	Back	31.54S	-2.39
Hayden Ward	6	Back	33.37S	-2.09
Evelyn Milito	6	Back	34.56S	-2.45
Jude Klopson	9	Back	57.53S	-2.90
Ginny Grubbs	9	Back	48.21S	-2.63
Samantha Cowen	10	Breast	59.28S	-2.78
Natalie Ruppe	11	Breast	1:01.03S	-2.32
Nicole Zajac	11	Breast	1:05.93S	-2.94
Jack Klopson	12	Fly	39.37S	-2.01

Not too shabby. But, if you thought that was impressive, how about this list of people who cut more than 3 seconds: 

Name	Age	Stroke	Time	Cut
Alexandra Holden	7	Free	29.85S	-4.11
Delilah Fischer	6	Free	42.16S	-3.71
Joseph Bucca	10	Free	43.16S	-3.43
Edward Stone	9	Free	57.28S	-3.42
Catie Hicks	10	Free	45.40S	-3.22
Alexandra Holden	7	Back	32.19S	-3.3
Kate Barber	6	Back	35.75S	-3.13
Sofia Bryant	10	Back	1:10.78S	-3.74
Edward Stone	9	Breast	1:08.11S	-4.86
Charlie Bruce	10	Breast	1:10.72S	-4.28
Ginny Grubbs	9	Breast	58.19S	-3.52
Emma Bruhl	11	Breast	57.47S	-3.86
Josephine Cowen	8	Fly	27.12S	-3.67

And yes, it's a little bit hard to fathom, but we've also got a list of people who cut more than 5 seconds off their personal bests... led by Jacob Milito who shaved off over 14 seconds from his 25m Free!

Name	Age	Stroke	Time	Cut
Adam Stanger	8	Free	32.17S	-10.17
Jacob Milito	6	Free	39.47S	-14.35
Kate Barber	6	Free	30.89S	-8.79
Elizabeth Delaune	9	Free	53.43S	-5.23
Kip Bryant	7	Back	35.65S	-5.05
Lincoln Jetton	6	Back	42.60S	-10.65
Dakota Todd	12	Back	1:16.06S	-10.38
Joseph Bucca	10	Breast	1:05.85S	-6.66

Once again, congrats to those who made improvements and made the cut for relays, A meets, or other goals. Be sure to check the blog on Friday to hear more about how well the Gator teams do at Divisional Relays.

Go Gators!

First timer photos could be even better than Butterfly photos. 

Super Performances and Hard Decisions - Gator Swimmers of the Week

When you have an Epic Gator Battle of a swim meet, like we did this past weekend, it becomes a huge challenge to identify any standouts from such a great team performance. There were so many great swims by so many great swimmers! If you missed the meet summary blog, read it here to find out about all the clutch performances from Saturday.

I'll start with the somewhat simpler choice and tell you our boy Gator Swimmer of the Week was Clark Bayer. He set three pool records. It's pretty hard to argue with that. But, trust me, there were other good options such as Sam Bruce with two upset victories in the 8 & under Free and Back, cutting over 1 and 2 seconds off his best times, respectively, in the process... AND leading the 8 & under Free Relay to victory, also. But ultimately, Clark Kent, I mean Clark Bayer's "super" performance and three new Gator records won him the title for this week.

Clark racing to a record finish in the Medley Relay.

In the Free, he cut 0.56 seconds off his best time, beating the previous Gator record of 26.54 (set back in 2003) in his new time of 26.47. Then, just a few minutes later, he unleashed an equally impressive Backstroke performance dropping a full second off his previous best and swimming the 50m in 31.93, beating Kevin Adams-Marti's previous record from 2012 by 0.03 seconds. Most people would be pretty satisfied, and tired, after setting two records in one day, but Clark had one more in him. Teaming up with John French, TJ Heck, and Andrew Baker, he helped crush the 100m Medley Relay record from last year. The new time of 58.28 is almost a full second below the previous mark. With that third record, the hat trick was complete. But, there was still one race to go for Clark... could it be? Almost. His final race of the day was the Boys Mixed Age Free Relay. The team came up a little short of a 4th record for Clark on the day, but did swim their race in an All-Star level time, which bodes well for this week's Relay Carnival. There's a pretty good chance another record may fall Wednesday.

Bella resting up for the next swim. 

In my past life as an officer in the military, making hard decisions was one of the things I was paid to do. All that judgment and decision making practice was really put to the test this week in trying to narrow down so many great performances to just one swimmer. I've been agonizing over this since the meet ended. But, one of the other things I learned about in the military was trained initiative- which is learning to take action when in uncharted territory based upon knowledge, wisdom and the situation at hand. So, using that trained initiative, my solution to the hard decision of picking a girl swimmer of the week is to not make a decision and instead name three co-swimmers of the week! Rules are meant to be broken. So, congratulations to Cassidy Crowther, Elizabeth Moorman, and Bella VanDamme for being named the first (I think) Co-Swimmers of the Week!

Elizabeth cutting LOTS of time. 

Elizabeth rocked her way to a 1st and 2nd place finish. Cutting 2.84 seconds (yes, you read that right) off her Breaststroke, she swam to an upset victory in 46.80s pulling in 5 huge points for the team. She then put together another great swim in the Fly, grabbing second place with a time of 39.90.

Bella did her best to keep pace with her fellow 11-12 year old, Elizabeth, both literally and figuratively. Showing her own speed improvements, Bella cut 2.00 seconds off her Breaststroke time and another 0.63 seconds off her Free to earn a 2nd and 1st place finish respectively.

Cassidy en route to a .03 second victory.

Last, but certainly not least, Cassidy Crowther swam to a crucial victory in the 9-10 Girls Free in 38.03 seconds, finishing ahead of her opponent from VAC by only 0.03 seconds! She then grabbed a 2nd place finish in Back and led the 9-10 Girls Medley Relay team to victory.

Great swimming and congratulations to our Swimmers of the Week!

Go Gators!

Epic Gator Battle

Truly a wonderful, super day. Go Gators!

The title of this post may make you think of some Youtube clip of two giant alligators battling in the Florida Everglades, but it is not (though there are a few of those out there that are pretty awesome!). Rather, this Epic Gator Battle was the result of two great swim teams meeting at the Mount Vernon Park Swamp for what has got to be one of the most exciting A meets in the entire Northern Virginia Swim League this year. How dramatic and exciting was this meet? The winning team was decided by about .07 seconds (read to the end for details).

Super spirit Gators! 

The recipe for an Epic Gator Battle starts with having two teams meet in the swamp on a beautiful Saturday morning in July- Gators versus Gators. In this case it was Mount Vernon Park Gators versus the Vienna Aquatic Club Gators. Next, add in 25 swims fast enough to make the preliminary cuts for All-Stars... yes, that's right, 25 All-Star level swims. There were so many fast swims that NVSL could probably just retroactively declare this meet the All-Star meet and save us all the time in August! On top of all that, sprinkle on eight new team records (six for MVP and two for VAC) and serve it with 38 new MVP personal best times and you have an amazing meet that is sure to be remembered for years to come... an Epic Gator Battle.

What a .03 second victory looks like.

It started off great for the Gators (MVP, that is) in the first event of the day when 8 & under swimmer Sam Bruce cut over a second off his 25m Free time to upset the VAC swimmer and steal the critical first 5 points of the meet. The rest of the Freestylers kept up the momentum staking MVP to a big early lead of 59-31 after the Freestyle events. In another critical Free race, our Race of the Week in fact, Bella VanDamme (34.40) and Katya Zaitsev (34.42) both swam personal bests to out touch their VAC opponent (who finished only .04 behind in 34.46) and take 1st and 2nd for the 11-12 Girls. That was a close one, ladies and gentlemen. Cassidy Crowther won the 9-10 Girls 50m in 38.03, only .03 seconds ahead of her competition. Even closer! And, leaving a mark of his own on the meet, Clark Bayer bested the 14 year old MVP 50m Free record for 13-14 Boys, swimming it in 26.47 seconds.

Clark (Kent) Bayer delivering some "Super" results. 

In Backstroke, VAC cut into the MVP lead winning 50.5 of the 90 points for that event, bringing the overall score to 98.5 for MVP to 81.5 for VAC. Highlighting things for MVP, Sam Bruce again had a terrific swim, cutting 2 seconds off his personal best to win for the 8 & under boys. Clark Bayer continued his record setting day by swimming the 50m Back in 31.93 to break the 5 year old record, his second of the day. Ho hum. ;-)

In the Breaststroke, VAC delivered what was their strongest "counter punch" of the day, outscoring MVP 54-36 with some amazing swims. One of the MVP bright spots was when Emily Makin put her name in the record books by swimming the Girls 13-14 50m Breaststroke in a new MVP record of 35.45, which was good for 2nd place in the event... showing just how competitive this meet really was! At the end of the event, VAC had taken over the overall lead for the meet, 135.5-134.5. So close!

Sometimes you need to bring the Mojo.

Staggered a bit by the VAC comeback, but still in the battle, the MVP Gators chomped down hard on their opponents in the Fly, winning the event 49-41 to retake the lead before the relays. Matthew Makin set the 4th MVP record of the day in the Boys 9-10 25m Fly, winning the race in 16.79 seconds. The record Matthew broke had stood since 1974! (I'm assuming he must have been extra-motivated by being selected as one of last week's Gator "Swimmers of the Week" which you can read about here ... it came out a bit late last week, so I know quite a few of you missed it.) Another huge Fly swim came in the 9-10 Girls race where Ginny Grubbs cut a half second off her personal best (19.42) to upset the VAC swimmer and take the win by only .04 seconds (which would likely have been swim of the week just about any other time... highlighting how awesome this meet was!) The Fly races also featured the ONLY clean sweep of the meet for either team as the 9-10 MVP Gator boys (Matthew Makin, Tyler Swartz, and Gavin Moore) took all three top spots to change the momentum of the meet in favor of MVP. *I'll put an asterisk here and note that there was a "dirty sweep" by the 9-10 Boys, as Alex North, George Schulte, and Gavin Fore went 1-2-3 in the Back, but a VAC swimmer was able earn half a point for a 3rd place tie, giving MVP "only" 8.5 points in the event- still awesome and worth a mention, but not officially a "clean sweep."

Heading into the relays, MVP held a narrow 7-point lead. The team needed to win 6 out of 12 relays to hold on and win... but was only favored to win in four, which made victory seem unlikely. But... in case you weren't paying attention, this Saturday was a record setting Saturday, and the relay teams wanted a piece, too. BOTH the Boys and Girls 13-14 Medley Relays set new record marks for MVP, pulling off upset wins to turn the tide and earn those 5th and 6th relay victories necessary to win the meet.

One new record, coming up!

Your new MVP record holders in the 13-14 100m Medley Relay for the boys are: John French, TJ Heck, Andrew Baker, and Clark Bayer in a new record time of 58.28 seconds. (And yes, that's the third team record of the day for Clark, completing his "hat trick." Not sure if that was Clark Kent or Clark Bayer in the pool today, but the super hero theme must have worked!) The girls relay team consisted of Olivia Blondin, Emily Makin, Gabrielle Greszler, and Juliana Skopp-Cardillo in a new record time of 59.16 seconds.

Anchored by those clutch relay victories, the Gators split the relay points 30-30 and MVP prevailed 213.5-206.5 in this All-Star* meet (*unofficially, I guess, until the NVSL agrees with me about how worthy this Epic Gator Battle was of that "All-Star" title). What a victory! What a meet! Epic Gator Battle!

Part of the Age Group of the Week, doing their thing.

After a meet like this, picking Age Group of the Week is sort of like picking your favorite child, it's not a decision anybody ever wants to make. But, I'm going to go with the ones that set the most records (for the age group, not my children). So, this week's Age Group of the Week is the 13-14's, who collectively set FIVE new MVP records, won five races, and earned 51 out of 82 possible team points. Pretty impressive ladies and gentlemen.

So, how close was this meet? Well, MVP won by 7 points, which is very close. But looking closely, those 7 points could easily have been flipped turning the outcome of the meet. Do you remember those close races I mentioned earlier? (Bella and Katya going 1-2 in Free only .04 seconds ahead of VAC's 3rd place finisher, Cassidy Crowther winning Free by .03, and Ginny Grubbs winning Fly by .04)  If any two of those results had flipped in the other direction, VAC would have won the meet. So, the final score of this one tilted to MVP's favor by only .07 or .08 seconds. That's close. Try to start and stop a stopwatch that quickly- I bet you can't do it.

All the great pictures from the meet are available here.

And now for a summary of individual results. Note, the complete meet results are available on the NVSL website here or the MVP website here.

Blue ribbon Gators (MVP version):

Happiness is cutting 2.84 seconds off your Breaststroke.

Alexander North	Back
Cassidy Bayer	Free, Fly
Cassidy Crowther	Free
Clark Bayer	Free, Back
Elizabeth Moorman	Breast
Gabrielle Greszler	Free
Ginny Grubbs	Fly
Isabella VanDamme	Free
Juliana Skopp-Cardillo	Free
Liam Fore	Fly
Matthew Makin	Fly
Samuel Bruce	Free, Back
Tyler Swartz	Free

Red ribbon winners:

Details matter. Nice form. 

Abigail Litonjua	Breast
Alexander North	Breast
Andrew Baker	Free, Fly
Andrew Baker	Fly
Brian McNamara	Breast
Cameron Morey	Back, Fly
Cassidy Crowther	Back
Cole Miller	Free
Donovan Kovalsky	Free, Breast
Elizabeth Moorman	Fly
Emily Makin	Breast, Fly
George Schulte	Back
Helen Milito	Back, Breast
Isabella VanDamme	Breast
James Piland	Back, Fly
Josephine Cowen	Free
Katya Zaitsev	Free
Natalie Crowther	Fly
Olivia Blondin	Back
Sheridan Phalen	Free
Taylor Makin	Breast
Tj Heck	Breast
Tyler Swartz	Fly

Attentively listening and getting wisdom from their leader. 

And White ribbon recipients:

Abigail Litonjua	Fly
Alexandra Myers	Free
Andrei Zaitsev	Back
Anthony Sarro	Free, Breast
Bianca Murphy	Back
Brian McNamara	Back
Caroline Miller	Fly
Charlie Ruppe	Breast, Fly
Cole Miller	Fly
Cooper Swartz	Fly
Gabrielle Greszler	Fly
Gavin Fore	Back
Gavin Moore	Fly
Jill Humphreys	Free
Liam Fore	Back
Lily Palmerino	Back
Olivia Heck	Breast
Sheridan Phalen	Back
Taylor Makin	Fly
Tres Greszler	Breast

What a meet. 25 All-Star level swims. Eight new team records. I'm exhausted. I'm going to need a week to rest up before we do it all again next Saturday. I can't imagine how all the swimmers do it.

Note, I reported a couple weeks ago that Vegas had set the over/under on new Gator records at 5 for the year. Well, so much for that prediction as the team hit the over today alone. The best thing about breaking goals is that its time to make new ones! Can they break 15 records? 20? Of note, the 13-14 Girls have broken the Medley Relay record every week so far this season, with the Relay Carnival coming up this Wednesday! Can the streak continue? I'm excited to watch and see. 

Go Gators!

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures. 

The Challenge of High Expectations - Swimmers of the Week

One of the most challenging pressures on many young athletes these days is the high expectations placed upon those who have demonstrated talent early. Maybe the expectations originated because of a talented parent, or perhaps it was a series of high achievements and success at a young age. Whatever the trigger, once the expectations are set, the kids feel some pressure to live up to them. Sure, its natural for us to look at David Beckham's son or Peyton Manning's brother and expect them to achieve athletic success. We've all known a tall kid in high school who is expected to score 20 points and get 10 rebounds every week. We watch and expect Steph Curry to make every free throw... and are disappointed when he misses. Perhaps we even feel let down when the all-star baseball player strikes out, or when soccer stars like Ronaldo miss a penalty kick. I suppose its natural for us to have high expectations of these talented athletes, but its also very important for us to remember that they are still human. They still need to aim and shoot, stride and swing, or swim and turn with skill every time. Everyone has bad days and misses shots, or runs a little slow, or drops a fly ball... even the greatest all-stars or world champions.

Hard work paying off.

Those high expectations may well be warranted, but each independent event requires preparation and skill in execution. Hours and hours of hard work and practice go into each performance. Mental strength and concentration are important to stay focused and execute with precision. They don't succeed just because they are naturally inclined. They succeed through hard work and deliberate practice. No one is great every day. But the great ones keep working every day and keep getting better.

Three cheers for the
Red, White, and Blue.

It just so happens that this week's "Swimmers of the Week" are a couple of those athletes for who we have all come to have high expectations. (We're lucky to have quite a few of them here at MVP.) It may seem like these two always win, so it is easy for us to get used to it and think it must just be easy for them. But they succeed because they work hard. Every day. Again and again. Sure, we set a high bar for a USA National Team member who has had those high expectations placed on her since she first jumped in the Gator pool and started winning at an early age. And, it makes sense that people would expect a coach's kid to do well, since they get to be with those great teachers and mentors all the time (since birth as a matter of fact!). It's natural for us to feel that way. But, bottom line, the success of these swimmers comes from their hard work. And lots of it. Every day. Every swim requires great focus. Every training session requires great effort. Tom Hanks' character Jimmy Dugan said it well in the movie A League of Their Own--- "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great." I think that line describes many of our MVP swimmers very well, and it captures our two swimmers of the week perfectly. Congratulations to this week's Gator SOTW: Cassidy Bayer and Matthew Makin!

Coaching 'em up. 

Cassidy had lots of other things going on heading into the A meet, since she spent the last week swimming at the USA Nationals in Indianapolis. Kind of a big deal. So, you would understand if she didn't swim this week. But, showing her deep Gator roots, she traveled half way across the country just to make sure she made it back in time for the Saturday morning meet! Talk about team dedication. Then to top it off, she found time to find a great "Red, White, and Blue" outfit to lead the spirit march into the pool, and was one of the loudest cheerleaders on deck rooting for all her teammates and encouraging her little Gators to swim fast.  And she found enough gas left in the tank to win both of her races (Back and Fly), anchor a medley relay victory, and set a new MVP record in the 50m Backstroke (29.84s). That's what I call meeting those high expectations.

Flying fast. 

Matthew was a rock for the 9-10 Gator boys. And by rock, I don't mean a sinking to the bottom of the pool kind of rock... rather a rock that can be depended on by everyone (you know, like a Chevy truck in those commercials with the Bob Seger song). And being a rock for the 9-10 boys means something around these parts, because if you read the previous blog entry, you know that the 9-10's were the Age Group of the Week with a terrific performance from the whole group. For Matthew's part, he swam to two victories in the individual events winning the Breast in 48.11 and the Fly in 17.04. And he kicked in for a relay victory in the 9-10 Medley, too. A pretty solid day's work. Rock solid.

High expectations create some pressure. Hard work creates results. It's the hard that makes it great. Great work and congratulations again to Cassidy and Matthew.

Go Gators.

Butterfly pictures are the best pictures.