Green Mountain Swim Team

Welcome back to the gator blog, and now for your much-promised look-back at League…

To start, the meet was incredible and a real testament to how hard the team has worked this year. Every time a Gator swimmer jumped in the pool, you knew something crazy was about to go down. We moved up to a 5th place finish OVERALL, including a 2nd place finish in our trophy. We beat one D1 team (Mt. Vernon) and were a mere 20 points from Columbine Knolls…a finish that would have moved our team up to D1 for the 2010 season. This was truly a break-out meet for the team and something everyone should be incredibly proud of! The coaches couldn’t be feeling more confident going into state!

That said, time for some individual shout-outs, because we had some TRULY incredible performances. Overall, we had 9 individual champions (Dylan Jacob (3), Tristan Gess, Elise Chevalier (2), Emily Cotten, Josh Duffy, Kenzie Oreskovich, Anna Granquist, Kelsey Bollig, Cody Spencer) that earned 12 first place finishes.

This is obviously an abbreviated list (I could write something about everyone…) but these were simply the most incredible performances of the meet. So a big, fat “well-done” and a gold sticker to…

…Elise Chevalier for no-freaking-way moment of the year. I’m still not sure there weren’t illegal propulsive devices in use during the 4th 25 of her breaststroke race.

…Josh Duffy for being a silent assassin. He recorded 1 win and 2 top three finishes in only his second year of swimming and without so much as a peep about his accomplishments. Who does he think he is??

…Daria Romero for her coming out party. In her first ever league performance, she recorded 1 top 10 and 1 top 5 finish and cut loads of time in the process! Did I mention she didn’t lose to any other 13 year olds? 2010, look out!

…Ianna Debrunner for being Ms. Big Shot. After an incredible finish to her season last year (state champion!) she once again stepped up at the big meet in one of the hardest years of swimming, moving up from 25s to 50s! She placed top 3 in ALL of her events and continued to shine when it counts!

…Inez Moore for her go-go gadget arms. Outtouching a 6’2″ opponent by 9/100ths of a second in a 3 minute race is the definition of clutch.

…Kenzie Oreskovich and Anna Granquist for nearly causing the first simultaneous quadruple heart attacks in history. They swam in two of the most exciting heats of the entire meet (200 and 100 free) and threw thier coaches and teammates into wild frenzies. Both girls swam WELL above and beyond expectations and both took home a blue ribbon to show for it!

…Dylan Jacob, Tristan Gess and Ethan Schick for putting thier names amongst the Gator all-time greats. They set a combined FOUR team records at the meet!

As I said, I could go on and on, but please congratulate these swimmers when you see them next!

And check out the banquet information in the right sidebar. Don’t forget to bring your side dish! We’ll see you at practice…tomorrow is my last day!

Coach Luke

Hello all –

First off, for those of you too tired or summer-ized to read much, please remember that Monday practice is CANCELLED! Then, from Tuesday-Friday practice times for state qualifiers will change to the following…

6:30-7:30 — SLEEP!
7:30-8:30 — Upper Division/11-12s
8:30-9:30 — 9-10s/8-unders

So as you see, your coaches can no longer sustain predawn alarm buzzing and are therefore moving practice back an hour to fully rest our rapidly aging bodies. That, and practice numbers will be down a bit. What’s mentioned above is strongly suggested…however if any of our 9-10s feel that they would prefer to drag their parents out of bed an hour earlier, well, I guess things could be worse.

Banquet information will be available MONDAY so please check the blog!

Second, a HEARTY congratulations to all of our swimmers who performed wildly above and beyond expectations today. Following day 1, the team is sitting in 5th place OVERALL and 2nd in our division. We had (I think) 6 individual event winners, 2 (maybe 3) new team records, and TON of top 5s. This has been a special meet so far with, I’m quite sure, a lot more special moments to come. I’d tell you more but…I foolishly started reading Harry Potter #7 an ok book yesterday and I don’t really anticipate having a lot more free time tonight…

We’ll see you all at the pool tomorrow morning at 7!

Coach Luke

First, I wanted to say congrats to our newest LEAGUE QUALIFIERS—Sidney Tonkin, Michael Tsareveski, Luke Guisto and Daniel Vlosich. This brings the team’s total up to 56–an incredible 27 percent increase from last year’s 44 qualifiers. Perhaps even more impressive is that more than 1 out of every 3 qualifiers in 2009 is a new qualifier (didn’t qualify in 2008). What an accomplishment for those new swimmers!

I also wanted to take a second to recognize Dylan Jacob for setting a new team record in the 9-10 boys 100 Freestyle, breaking an old record that had stood for nearly 20 years!

Even though I’m quite busy soaking up the big city (we went to a pizza place yesterday…with a bouncer! That’s how bad people wanted in!) I did find some time to post up the league psych sheet, that is the sheet that ranks all of the swimmers. Now, this is not an officially official sheet (minor changes are possible), but this is about it. There are some REALLY exciting races shaping up, so please, check it out!

Have an excellent week in the pool, and remember…you practice how you compete! That means no missing practice and no shenanigans! Hit every wall like it’s a race, make every stroke perfect, pee 5 times a day (from all of the water you drink, silly) and get your 8 hours of beauty rest. Because then you’ll be fast and beautiful. Most of all, have fun and get pumped up…this might just be the best meet of the year!

Good luck y’all, and I’ll see you Saturday!

Coach Luke

So as many of you already know, I’m heading off New York City with my wonderful mother (she reads this) to see my treasured sister (and she tells my sister what I write) for the whole week! A terrible time to leave, I know, but I will be back for league. In the mean time, your coaches will get you more than prepared for our biggest meets of the year.

Remember, this week we have 2 meets (complete info to the right!) First, our dual on Saturday with 2008 State Champions Applewood Athletic Club for all swimmers at our home pool, the swamp. Then, for anyone who is even REMOTELY close to making a qual time (league OR state!) we have the Last Chance Meet on Sunday at Green Mountain Rec Center. This is a VERY fast pool and there’s a lot of hunger and electricity in the air. I’ve seen countless “hopeless” cases crush times at this awesome meet. Please do your best to make it if you think there’s a shot!

Good luck to EVERYONE tomorrow, but a special good luck to my “middlers” trying for thier FIRST league times of the year — Sarah Daley, Mikela Dobbin, Luke Guisto, Brett Wilsey, Sarah Wheatley, Michael Tsarevski, Kevin Mercy, Sam Meiser, Tim Lucero and Hannah Long. These guys and gals are right on the brink in one event or more and have worked EXTREMELY hard over the last few weeks to get where they are, so don’t waste your time sitting under the tent…CHEER THEM ON!! There are lots of 8-unders and upper division swimmers looking for times as well, so put your screamer mouth on in the morning (as if most of you don’t already…)

Your coaches didn’t know 50 league qualifers were possible this year…could we get 60?? League won’t know what hit it!

A last request–if you’re one of our close kids, or if you have a great meet, or you just feel like saying “HI!,” please leave a note in the comment section of the blog or send me an e-mail at lukemorin@gmail.com to let me know how you did! I’ll be dying for news on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, so tell me about how you’re going to league or state!

Again, GOOD LUCK! I’d better hear the “AMEN!”‘s rolling over the bouroughs of New York City bright and early tomorrow morning!

I just know they’ll be goin’ down.

Coach Luke