ELITE NEWS BULLETIN 2-11-08
UP & COMING SENIORS SHINE AT SENIOR STATES B:
BURNS, D’ALTRUI-2, KING, NELSON-2, RAGAN, TAKAHASHI WIN EVENTS:
Provided a chance to shine at the Senior States B competition, 6 Elite swimmers grabbed the spotlight and basked in the glory of winning events at a NJ Swimming sponsored championship meet this past weekend. Hosted by the Bayonne Starfish/Mermaids, the Senior States B Championship meet had “top cuts” (swimmers who had performed faster than a certain time where excluded from competing in this competition).
Leading the way for Elite was Victoria D’Altrui and Maggie Nelson, who each won two events. Victoria dominated the 400 yard IM (5.12.02), winning by several body lengths and then touched out her competition in the 100 yard breast (1.17.95). “V” also placed 2nd in the demanding 200 yard fly event (2.34.84) and 3rd twice: 200 yard IM (2.29.00) and the 200 yard breast (2.47.28).
Nelson pulled away from the field on lap 4 in both the 100 yard free (58.08) and the 100 back (1.08.06). Maggie was also in the hunt in the 50 yard Free (27.10) and the 200 free (2.10.57), placing 2nd in both.
Brandon King churned to a 1st place finish in the 100 yard butterfly (1.04.50) while Katie Ragan dropped 10 seconds to place 1st in the 500 free (5.42.84).
Although under the weather, John Burns won the 500 yard free (5.49.84), dropping 18 seconds. Burns also placed 3rd in the 100 free (56.34).
Erika Takahashi saved her best performance for last, winning the 1650 free in a 19.55.46 time (dropping a whopping 71 seconds)! Demonstrating how tough she is, Erika raced this event only 15 minutes after competing in the 200 butterfly.
Takahashi was closely followed in the 1650 by Lindsay Anderson-2nd place (20.03.16-a 44 second drop) and Katie Ragan-3rd place (20.11.65-a 52 second drop). Anderson also placed 2nd in the 500 free (5.45.61).
Robert Maloney added two 2nd place finishes: 1) 500 free (5.55.68) and the 100 breast (1.14.26).
Swimmers who participated in the Senior States B meet were (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite SCY best times): Lindsay Anderson (4), John Burns (2), Victoria D’Altrui (2), Victoria Keiser (4), Kirsten Kellstrom (3), Brandon King (5), Robert Maloney (2), Kendall Murray, Maggie Nelson (3), Katie Ragan (3), Katie Salsano (1), Amanda Scherb, Jonathan Scott (3), Erica Takahashi (3), Lexi Tedesco (4).
AGE GROUPERS CONTINUE JO ONSLAUGHT; 11 NEW TIMES ADDED BY 9
SWIMMERS:
A. DUREN, FERRELL, R. TORTORELLA NAB 1ST CAREER CUTS:
C. BALBO, M. HONG, K. MILLER-RADEST, I. MORREALE, NASH, A. SHEPARD ALSO
POST TIMES;”
Taking full advantage of their “last chance,” 9 Elite Age Groupers qualified 11 Junior Olympic qualifying times this past weekend at Elite’ annual “Last Chance” meet, held just before championship meets begin. The meet is somewhat inappropriately named, as swimmers will have an opportunity at their Silver/Bronze Championships to qualify for Junior Olympics.
3 Swimmers: Amy Duren, Andrea Ferell and Rachel Tortorella posted their 1st career Junior Olympic times at the meet. Duren, became the fifth 9 year old to qualify for the prestigious meet, by slicing the water in a 36.84 time for the 50 yard butterfly. Ferrell, a 10 year old, showed off her conditioning by qualifying in the tough 200 IM event with a 3.02.47 time. As to the team’s extremely bright future, Elite now has 10 Ten and Unders qualified for individual events!!!
12 year old Tortorella burst thru the 29 second barrier in the 50 yard free, in sprinting to a 28.68 time. Kara Miller-Radest, an 11 year old who qualified last year, posted her 1st JO qualifying time this year in 50 fly (31.98).
9 year old Chris Balbo added 3 JO events to his ever expanding event schedule (now at 8) by dropping time in the 100 IM (1.22.53), 100 yard breast (1.35.01) and the 500 free (6.49.66).
10 year old Caroline Nash went gold twice: 1) 100 yard fly (1.25.27) and 2) in the 500 yard free (6.59.21). 12 year old Isabella Morreale finished her breaststroke trifecta by adding the 100 yard breaststroke (1.21.16) to her other two breast qualifying times.
11 year old Matthew Hong demonstrated his versatility by qualifying in the 200 back (2.41.33). His other event is the 50 fly. 11 year old Andrea Shepard continued her strong swimming by qualifying for her 6th event: the 100 yard back (1.11.95).
Elite now has a history making JO squad: 39 swimmers in a total of 211 events. Last year Elite’s JO squad consisted of 32 swimmers and 178 swims. In addition to the JO swims, many Eite swimmers took advantage this weekend to post best times that will put them in a position to qualify for JO’s at championships. In reviewing the times, there are still a lot of swimmers who could go gold before the season is out. Go Elite!!!
Swimmers who participated in the
Last Chance meet were (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite SCY best
times): Matt Ahlmeyer (2), Michael Alelov (1), Arlynn Baer, Chris Balbo (3),
Brielle Barba (1), Lindsay Behar (2), Abbie Bigham, Ethan Blum, Nicole Blum
(2), Katie Brosnan, Thomas Burke (2),
Meggie Butler (3), Taylor Campolattaro, Mac Charvala (2), Brannon Cho,
Elizabeth D’Altrui (3), Drew D’Andrea (1), Jeffrey Dong (3), Alli Dorneo (2),
Amy Duren (2), Sam Duren (1), Avinash Duvvuri (2), Maya Epelbaum, Juliet Felson
(1), Emilie Ferguson (1), Andrea Ferrell (1), Spencer Fisch (2), Andrea Galea (2), Hannah Gleason (3), Joe
Gleason (2), Alexandra Gordon (2), Katie Gorman, Andre Guacelli (2), Julia
Guacelli (2), Emma Harris (3), Alyssa
Hartigan (3), Matt Hong (3), Patrick Hong (3), Elana Horowitz (2),Brent Jones
(2), Zachie Katz (2), Eamonn Keenan (1), Sarah Kleppe (3), Regan Kology (3),
Jared Kovacs (1), Clark LaRaia (3), Isabel LaRaia (2), Aaron Levin (1), Jessie
Lowe (1), Sarah Lowe (1), Daniela Manzi (3), Katie McGrath (1), Matt Migliozzi
(2), Brendan Miller-Radest (2), Kara Miller-Radest (1), Isabella Morreale (1), Cesar
Munoz, Madison Munoz (1), Dan Muro (2), Julia Muro (2), Caroline Nash (3),
Silas Newcomb, Dara O’Gorman (3), Nick Pachiolo (1), Spencer Pearce (1),
Christina Pick (1), Michelle Pick (1), Mikala Quinn, Collin Reilly (2), Taylor
Savarese (2), Andrea Shepard (3), Kaitlin Stearns (2), Lindsay Stearns (1),
Alex Sudyn (1), Rachel Tortorella (2), Katie Tselepis (3), Spence Turkington,
Carolyn Watt, Sarah Weinbrom (3), Maggie Woodruff, Ryan Wyer (2), James Yoon
(2) & Richard Yu (2).
REMINDER:
SCHOLAR/ATHLETE AWARDS WILL BE HIGHLIGHT OF AWARDS BANQUET:
With the conclusion of the 2nd marking periods, swimmers are reminded that the ultimate award an Elite swimmer can earn at the season ending Awards Banquet (Sunday, April 6, 2008) will once again be the Elite Scholar-Athlete Awards. Great grades, in addition to great swim times, are required for a swimmer to earn one of these awards.
These awards will be broken down into three levels:
1) All-American
Scholar Athlete Award: Swimmer must have a 3.5 grade average and at least 1
Sectional Qualifying time. This award is actually a USA Swimming Award and will
be presented by New Jersey Swimming. Elite will also provide a certificate to
those swimmers who have qualified for this award.
2) The Elite
Scholar-Athlete Gold Award: A swimmer must have all A’s and no more than 1 B
(or the equivalent of all A’s and 1 B) plus at least 1 individual Junior
Olympic Qualify Time
3) The Elite
Scholar-Athlete Teal Award: Swimmer must have all A’s and B’s (of the
equivalent) plus at least 1 individual Silver Qualifying Time
In addition to each swimmer receiving an impressive certificate from Elite acknowledging this achievement, from this season forward Elite will post the names of its scholar athletes on its website-forever acknowledging its most special scholar-athletes.
Parents
of grammar school students should remember that Bill will review the grading
legend (assuming A’s and B’s are not given) to ascertain if the swimmer has
fulfilled the academic requirements to receive the award.
Bill is now accepting the scholastic information. If your swimmer made a JO or Silver qualifying time last summer or this winter and then aged up, an applicant must fill out the application form on the team website that will point Bill to the swim in question. All scholastic information needs to be to Bill by Tuesday, March 18.
Preparations are underway for the biggest party of the season: Elite’s 13th annual Winter Swim Team Banquet!!! This year’s party will be held Sunday, April 6, 2008 from 12:00 am to 4:00 pm.
This year, Elite will again be at the Hanover Marriott, located at 1401 Route 10 East, Whippany, New Jersey. This facility can accommodate up to 700 people!!! The last 6 Elite banquets have had an excess of 350 people each!!!
To reserve your dinner reservations, please print out an reservation form from the website, fill it in and mail the form with the appropriate check amount to Bill Deatly, 32 Prospect Street, Summit, New Jersey 07901.
Parents, Bill will do his best to honor your seating arrangement requests. Swimmers will be seated by Bill!!
Reservation forms must be in by Saturday, March 8, 2008.
At Championship meets, Elite allows its swimmers to wear technology advanced suits (championship meet is defined as the end of the year championships). All Elite swimmers are welcome to purchase and wear fastskins, aquablades or the equivalent.
Elite’s rules regarding these suits are as follows: a best effort attempt must be made to purchase a suit in the Elite team colors (black is our main team color). If the suit has trim, it should be in green or yellow (again, Elite colors). Pink, red, blue and orange are NOT Elite colors so suits of these colors should not be purchased.
In order to facilitate the purchase of these suits AND IN THE CORRECT COLORS, Elite has arranged for Metro Swim Shop to attend two practices this week (Tuesday, February 12 and Wednesday, February 13) from 5 pm to 7 pm for swimmers and parents to purchase these types of suits, Metro will also be available to order other items (such as fins, etc).
ELITE GEARING FOR 9-10 SILVER/BRONZE CHAMPIONSHIPS (IN 2 WEEKS!!!);
ALL 9-10 AND 8 & U PARENTS EXPECTED TO HELP; SWIMMERS ARE
INVITED TO HELP!!!
Elite
will be hosting (at Newark Academy) the South 9-10 Silver/Bronze Championships
this season on Saturday, February 23 & Sunday, February 24. Allison Nash
and Sue Duren have been contacting parents of swimmers 10 & U this past week
to request help in coordinating the Parental work efforts.
All
Elite parents of 10 & Under swimmers will be asked to work this meet (8
& Under Parents are being requested to help to train them for next year’s
meet). Coordinating and running the 1st class meets that Elite is
known for takes planning and everyone’s efforts. Please be responsive to Allison
& Sue when you are contacted. Among the jobs needed filled will be: timing,
admission, marshalling, spectator concessions, coaches concession, parking,
awards and hallway monitoring. Parents who are away will be requested to
provide a financial donation (but we don’t want money, we want your help!!!).
If you want to be proactive (which would be extremely
helpful), Sue’s email address is sduren@neca.org & Allison’s email is allisonrnash@msn.com.
Elite
swimmers (when not at an Elite practice) may also volunteer their time in
fulfilling jobs. Last year’s Elite swimmers had a blast helping marshalling the
10 & unders!!! This volunteer work can be used for community service hours
as Bill will complete all paperwork necessary to document your help.
HOW THE END OF THE SEASON “WORKS” AT ELITE:
With the Winter 2007-08 Session rapidly approaching its conclusion, the following is an explanation of how the “End of the Season” concludes at Elite.
Each Elite swimmer will be entered into at least one “End of the Season Championship Meet.” A swimmer will be entered into ALL championship meets they qualify for. If a swimmer qualifies for 2 different levels of championship meets based upon their times, they will be entered in each meet. These meets, as described below, are:
1) 8 & Under Mini-Championships
2) 9-10 Silver/Bronze Championships
3) 11-12 Silver/Bronze Championship
4) 13 & Older Silver/Bronze Championships &
5) the Junior Olympics.
For all swimmers ages 8 & under, the final meet of the season is the Mini-Championships held Saturday, March 1, to be held at Seton Hall University. At the conclusion of this meet, all swimmers ages 8 & Under are finished (including practice) for the season (with the exception of an 8 & Under who makes a Junior Olympic Qualifying Time).
For all swimmers ages 9 & 10, the final meet of the season is the South 9-10 Silver/Bronze Championships, held Saturday, February 23 & Sunday, February 24 to hosted by Elite and held at Newark Academy. At the conclusion of this meet, all swimmers ages 9 & 10 are finished (including practice) for the season. The only exceptions are those swimmers who have qualified for Junior Olympics held Friday, March 14 thru Sunday, March 16.
All swimmers 11 & older will participate in one or more of the following meets: the 11-12 Silver/Bronze Chamionships Saturday, March 8 & Saturday, March 9 (to be held at Bergen County College Pool), the 13 & Older Silver/Bronze Championships Saturday, March 1 & Sunday, March 2 (to be held at Rutgers University & hosted by Elite) and/or the Junior Olympics, held March 14 thru March 16.
Swimmers
who qualify for the Junior Olympics via their performances at the Silver/Bronze
Meets will be entered by Elite into JO’s and all swimmers will keep training
and performing until they have concluded their championship performances. Once
a swimmer has concluded their championship performances, their practice season
has concluded. Only swimmers who still have championship swims are invited to
practice.
THINKING SUMMER? THINK SUMMER SWIM CAMPS!:
Although the hot sun and humid weather seems millions of years away, summer is only 6 months away and top-notch swim camps are already taking registrations for the summer of 2007. When planning the upcoming summer, please consider sending your Elite swimmer to one of the numerous swim camps.
Each summer, numerous Elite swimmers spend a rewarding week (or two) at a summer swim camp. The benefits of such a camp are: 1) individual attention by reknown swim coaches 2) an increased knowledge of the sport of swimming and 3) personal growth that occurs as a result of “being on one’s own.” The formula that seems to work best is finding an Elite friend to spend the week with at the swim camp.
If you are considering sending your
swimmer to a swim camp, now is the time to do the research and make decisions
(many of these camps are sold out by mid-Spring). On
the website, under Swim Camps, there is a list of swim camps. Many of these
swim camps close out in late February and early March!!!
Thinking about summer? Think Swim Camps!!
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
GET YOUR PICTURES OF ELITE SWIMMERS TO BILL:
As the season heads to it’s conclusion, all amateur photographers who have been busy taking candid shots of our Elite stars need to get your pictures to Bill on a compact disk so that Elite can coordinate two major photography projects: 1) the memory book and 2) the slide show at the Elite Awards Dinner.
Courtesy of the Elite Swim Club’s Parents Organization, at the end of this season each swimmer will receive a memory book with dozens of pictures of Elite swimmers. Last year’s (1st year) book was an instant hit and this year’s is expected to be treasured by swimmers for years to come.
In addition, there is a slide show presentation at each year’s Awards Banquet. This year is no different as hundreds of slides will be reviewed for a place in the show.
Please place your pictures on a CD and place them in Bill’s mailbox at Newark Academy!!!
LESS IS MORE: IF YOU ARE
SICK: BE SMART.
PLEASE DO NOT COME TO
PRACTICE OR MEETS:
Reports are coming into coaches that swimmers who are sick are still coming to practice and meets, presumably to keep up their attendance records. These efforts are actually extremely counter productive for the sick swimmer and for their teammates.
If a swimmer is sick, their 1st and ONLY priority is to get better. Energy expended at practice depletes the energy sources of the body to fight off sickness (thus, the swimmer is likely to become sicker and remain sicker longer). This is not what coaches want: we can only effectively train healthy swimmers.
In addition, a sick swimmer at practice or a meet will likely get OTHER SWIMMERS SICK. This is extremely counter productive.
Missing a practice is the right thing to do if a swimmer is sick. Please think twice before sending a lethargic, coughing swimmer to practice.
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!!!
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