ELITE NEWS BULLETIN 2-04-08

ATTENDANCE STATS ARE STILL AMAZING; ALL TRAINING GROUPS AVERAGING OVER 73%, WAVE TEALS LEAD WAY WITH 91.4%!!! ATHLETES RECOGNIZED:

Practice attendance is a foundation of improvement (as has been proven over and over this season). Good attendance (and thus, great work habits and a great aerobic base) is the way to faster swimming. As we head into the Championship season, Elite Swimmers have showed their diligent work ethic the ENTIRE SEASON by attending practice at an astonishing rate of over 80% as team!!! The Wavebuster Teal training group leads the outstanding Elite attendance race by averaging, as a training group, 91.4% attendance (an increase over last month!)!! The Wave Teals are followed by the Wave Blacks (85.4%), the Seniors (81.1%), the Wave Golds (81.1%), the Marlin Teals (77.5%), the Marlin Blacks (74.3%) and the Senior Preps (73.7%).

At the End of the Season Awards Dinner, Elite swimmers with 85% attendance (or greater) will be presented with the Attendance Award. This award, plus attendance requirements for swimmers who want to be promoted, have positively motivated Elite Swimmers to come to practice. Please note there are several swimmers who are also very close to the 85% attendance level and those swimmers need to be reminded that there will be no rounding up for the award-attendance must be at 85% or greater to win the award!!

Thru Sunday, February 4 (not including Saturday’s meet, which we do not have results from yet), swimmers currently on track to win the award (who have an 85% or higher attendance record) are (* designates perfect attendance!):

Marlin Teals: Meggie Butler, Andy Fresen, Katherine Friday, Jessica Kraus, Brandon Li, Colin Miller-Radest & Michael Tortorella

Marlin Blacks: Megan Balbo, Brielle Barba, Abbie Bigham, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Rachel Keselman & Sarah Lowe

Wavebuster Teals: Chris Balbo*, Lindsay Behar, Nicole Blum, Drew D’Andrea, Avinash Duvvuri, Andrea Ferrell*, Emily Goad, Andre Guacelli, Alyssa Hartigan*, Patrick Hong*, Sarah Kleppe, Clark LaRaia, Isabel LaRaia, Katie McGrath, Caroline Nash, Mikala Quinn & Jessica Solodkin

Wavebuster Blacks: Ryan Buckham, Krishna Duvvuri, Matt Hong*, Aaron Levin, Jessie Lowe, Marisa Manzi, Kara Miller-Radest*, Nick Pachiolo, Christina Pick, Gabrielle Pick, Michelle Pick, Kaitlin Stearns*, Rachel Tortorella & Richard Yu

Wavebuster Golds: Matt Ahlmeyer, Taylor Campolattaro, Alli Dorneo, Spencer Fisch, Katie Gorman, Regan Kology, Brendan Miller-Radest, Andrea Shepard, Lindsay Stearns*, Erica Takahashi, Sarah Weinbrom, Ryan Wyer

Senior Preps: Lindsay Anderson, Michael Li, Ali Morreale

Seniors: Victoria D’Altrui, Chris Dart, Tad Deatly, Amanda Grywalski, Dani Martinez, Alex Morrison, Michael Strand

LIGHTS, CAMERA, SWIMMING:

CHRIS TO BE ON TV? STAY TUNED;

As if qualifying for the Olympic Trials was not enough; as if local notoriety thru the local daily and weekly newspapers for his fast swimming was not enough; as if breaking high school conference and county records (and possibly a state record or two) is not enough, it is now probable that Elite’s Chris Dart will be a feature on television next!!!!

Elite has been contacted and a date has been set in the near future at Morristown-Beard School for Channel 9 Fox Television to interview and film Chris Dart at practice. Due to his recent OT accomplishment, this interview is expected to result in Chris being featured in an upcoming Student/Athlete segment.

Stay tuned for details!!!

CLIFTON RESULTS NOT YET RECEIVED:

Results from last Saturday’s dual meet at Clifton Boys and Girls Club have not yet been received. They are expected to be received on Tuesday. The results will be posted and a email blast depicting the standouts will be sent out upon receive.

2^ND ANNUAL FLOAT NIGHT

ESCPO News:

Despite the torrential rain last Friday night, cars jammed with floats arrived at MoBeard - nothing could spoil our annual pool party - nearly 60 swimmers enjoyed pizza and lounging on alligators, life boats, noodles, tubes and a killer shark named Bruce. A fun time was had by all.

Thanks to all the parents who stayed and helped!!  Things wouldn't have gone so smoothly without your efforts.

UNIQUE FORMAT TO HELP EASE 13 & OLDER SILVER/BRONZE MEET:

ODD HEAT POOL/EVEN HEAT POOL:

As the new meet hosts of the 13 & Older Silver/Bronze Championships, Elite needed to take a hard and fresh look at the previous year’s meet format. As one of the most crowded meets of the season, this meet has produced some of the most stifling meet sessions in NJ Swimming history. If possible, Elite would like to avoid that situation.

The happy problem is that there are a significant number of competitors in New Jersey that are 13 & Older. In the traditional way of running these meets (one age group-one pool) at Rutgers, sessions timed out to an excess of 5 hours, without including the distance events.

With a suggestion from Henry Frycynski of Scarlet Aquatic Club, Elite has explored and will go with a meet format that has a single age group utilizing both pools simultaneously. Thus, the 13 & 14 Girls will swim in Session number 1 using both pools. The Scoreboard Pool will be designated as the Odd Heat Pool while the Dive Pool will be designated as the Event Heat Pool. Heat 1 and Heat 2 will be run virtually simultaneously. Heat 3 and Heat 4 will be run virtually simultaneously and so forth. The next event will not be started until such time as the previous event is concluded in both pools.

This format will also be used for the 15 & Older Girls (mid day session) and the 13-14 & 15-19 Boys (pm session).

When this meet format was created in the computer and last year’s entries were dropped into this format, as expected the sessions dropped to very manageable 3 hour (including distance events) sessions. Obviously, Elite is hoping that the reality is identical to the model!!

SWIM MEET “LOST & FOUND” BROUGHT BACK TO NA; PLEASE CHECK YOUR ITEMS AT HOME:

As anyone at Princeton this weekend knows, the crowded situation at meets creates a ripe situation where items are going to be left, lost or accidentally picked up by other swimmers. Swimmers and parents should know the following:

1) Items easily identified as Elite’s that are left at the meet are brought back to Newark Academy and placed in the lost & found.

2) Items with names on them are much more easily identifiable. If not already done so, write your name on all swim gear and team uniform items so they can get back to you.

3) As a courtesy to your fellow swimmers, please check the items you bring home to confirm they are actually yours. You may have accidentally picked up someone else’s uniform, suit or goggles.

WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK THE WEBSITE:

If you have questions about Elite, your first source of information is Elite’s website located at eliteswimclub.org. When in doubt, first check the website!!! If you do not see what you need, email Bill at eliteswimclubnj@comcast.net