ELITE NEWS BULLETIN 03-22-10
STUPENDOUS!!!
TEAM PLACES
11TH WITH 827 POINTS AT JO’S!!
P. DUVVURI, V. DUVVURI (2), J. GORHAM (2), MANGO
(4), A. MORREALE (2), L.STEARNS (2), A. WEINBROM (2) ADD 15 NEW SECTIONAL SWIMS;
GALEA WINS
50 11-12 BACK, PLACES 2ND & 3RD (TWICE)!!
K. STEARNS PLACES
2ND , P. DUVVURI 3RD;
GALEA (4), K. STEARNS EARN AUTOMATIC ZONE ROSTER
SPOTS;
The largest Elite JO contingent in
terms of both swimmers (63 individual qualifiers) and events (351 events)
delivered a fantastic team wide performance at the very competitive 2010 SCY
Junior Olympics this past weekend at Rutgers University, scoring 827 points to
place 11th overall.
Though being more than 700 points
less than last year’s 4th place total of 1532, this year’s team
performance was more of a team-wide performance. Last year, five 12 & Under
Elite swimmers vied for high point honors within their age group scoring races (each
scoring over 100 points apiece) with Chris Balbo actually winning the 10 &
Boys title. This year, only 1 Elite swimmer, Andrea Galea,
finished within the top 10 of their age group scoring (Galea
placed 5th with 107, and she is only 11!). This year, 20 different
Elite swimmers scored individual points- the scoring was much more widespread
among team individuals than past Elite teams.
Along the way, 7 different Elite
swimmers posted 15 new Sectionals times to push the team’s Sectional totals to
an impressive 31 individual events by 8 separate swimmers. Coupled with Elite’s
10 qualifying relays, Elite’s 2010 SCY Sectional Team that will travel to
Maryland later this week will be the largest in team history!!
11 year old Andrea Galea, competing at the bottom of her age group, was simply
superb. Andrea nailed her 50 back with a 28.31 time, winning the sprint event
decisively. Galea lopped 2.47 seconds off her 100
back time (1.01.41) to place 2nd. Andrea
finished her backstroke tri-fecta by placing 3rd
in the 200 back (2.12.95). Her 100 back swim was just .32 off a Sectional
qualifying time and her 200 back time was just 1.06 short
of Sectionals (from an 11 year old!!!)! Proving she knows how to compete in
other events, Andrea also finished 3rd in the 200 IM (2.17.98), 5th
in the 100 IM (1.03.57), 7th in the 50 free (26.40), 10th
in the 100 free (57.49), 14th in the 50 breast (34.37) and 15th
in the 200 free (2.07.79). By reason of her finishes in the top 3, Andrea automatically
earned a Zone roster spot in 4 events!
15 year old Alex Mango, who joined
Elite last spring, celebrated the completion of his first year with 4 separate
Sectional swims!! Alex, who previously qualified in the 200 free at the high
school state championship meet, added 1) 100 back (54.87)-8th place
finish 2) the 100 fly (53.50)-13th place finish 3) 100 free (48.70)-14th place
finish and 4) 200 fly (2.01.00)-14th place finish. Alex also missed
a 5th Sectional cut by the smallest of margins: .1 in the 50 free
(22.50) in placing 9th (to win the consolation finals).
Continuing her magical season was 13
year old Jess Gorham. At last year’s championship meets, Jess swam a 27.93 for
the 50 free and 1.01.73 in the 100 free. This weekend, Jess rocketed to a 5th
place finish of 25.07 (almost 3 second drop!) time in the 50 free and an 8th
place finish of 54.30 (a 7 second drop!) time in the 100 freestyle. Both were Sectionals
qualifying times for the effervescent 8th grader from Chatham. Jess
dropped below the 2 minute mark in the 200 free (1.58.27-a 12 second drop from
last year!) in placing 7th. Proof that Jess is well conditioned, she
placed 7th in the 1650 free with her 18.41.07
effort (a 19 second
improvement from just 2 weeks ago!!!). Jess also placed 11th in the
500 free (5.20.10), 12th in the 400 IM (4.51.68), 14th
in the 200 IM (2.17.17) and 15th in the 100 back (1.02.79).
(Just) 14 year old year Lindsay
Stearns snatched her first two Sectional qualifying times this weekend. Wasting
no time in achieving her weekend goal, Lindsay snared the 100 butterfly cut in
her first event of the meet, the 100 fly in a 59.58 time to place 5th.
Lindsay followed with a 5th place, Sectional cut in her 200 fly the
following day, with her 2.11.87 swim. Lindsay also placed 9th
(winning the consolation finals) in the 400 IM in an Elite best ever, all age
group swim of 4.46.86. Lindsay picked up a pair of 12th place finishes
with her 1000 free (11.12.33) and 55.91 effort in the 100
free and a 13th place finish in the 200 IM (2.17.04).
Two Elite lilfers,
Venka Duvvuri and Ali Morreale, grabbed glory with their double Sectional
qualifying performances. 16 year old Ali Morreale, fresh
off her amazing performances at Senior States in February, actually blew those
performances away with these eye-popping swims: a 4th place, 1.06.65
time in the 100 breast-a full 4 seconds faster than her previous best of last
year and her 6th place, 2.27.74 time in the 200 breast-a full 8
seconds faster than last year. 17 year old Venka, an Elite lifer, beelined
to Sectional qualifying times with his 15th place, 200 butterfly
swim of 2.01.35 and his 16th place, 100 butterfly swim of 53.66.
17 year old Adam Weinbrom,
continuing his magical mystery tour, earned his 4th and 5th
Sectional level qualifying times with a pair of 7th place finishes:
48.40 in the 100 free and 1.57.75 in the 200 back.
16 year old Priya
Duvvuri added her 3rd Sectional qualifying
time to her resume with her 200 butterfly swim of 2.12.69. Priya also placed 3rd
in the 100 back with a career best 59.63 time!
In pre-meet preparation, 11 year old Kaitlin Stearns, whom despite competing in the bottom of her age group, was determined to qualify for Eastern Zones. In her first event the 200 free, Kaitlin burst from the blocks and never looked back posting an eye-popping 2.02.20 time to finish 2nd and earning herself an antomatic spot representing NJ two weeks from now in upstate NY. Kaitlin, duplicating a feat by Maggie Nelson at 13 & Older Silver Bronze (as did Chris Balbo and Caroline Nash-more on that later), literally finished the anchor leg of the 200 medley relay, climbed out of the pool and then onto a new block to compete in the 1650 free. Kaitlin dropped 10 seconds in her amazing effort to post a 5th place, 19.35.34 effort (& 12 second drop). Stearns also placed 6th in the 100 free (57.12), 7th in the 1000 free (11.39.23-11 second drop) and 8th in the 500 free (5.36.96-14 second drop).
Also succeeding in competition against his elders was 13 year old Ryan Sebastian. Ryan chipped away at his best times 10 separate times this weekend, with his highest placing (7th) performance in the 400 IM (4.29.43). Ryan scored an 8th place finish in both the 1650 free (17.45.31) and in the 200 back (2.04.29), a 9th place finish in the 100 back (57.65) and a pair of 11th place finishes with his 2.07.57 time in the 200 IM and his 57.04 time in the 100 fly.
10 year old Michael Tortorella performed spectacularly in his signature event, the breaststroke. Michael was 4th in both the 50 breast (37.36) and the 100 breast (1.21.08). Tortorella also made off with a 15th place finish in the 50 free (29.45).
11 year old Chris Balbo scored in 6 of his events: 5th place finish in the 1650 free (19.18.63), 6th place finish in the 1000 free (11.31.43), 10th place in both the 400 IM (5.04.21) and the 500 free (5.37.70), 12th place in the 200 fly (2.27.74) and a 14th place finish in the 200 back (2.23.95). Balbo nearly duplicated the Nelson/Stearns feat, as he performed the fly leg in the 200 Medley Relay, had a whole minute to recover before racing in the 1650 free!
13 year old Kara Miller-Radest swam superbly but came up just short in her bid for a Sectional qualifying time. Kara rocked the 100 butterfly with a 7th place, 1.00.46 time-just .4 from her goal. Miller-Radest also nailed her 200 fly swim with her 2.18.90, 15th place swim.
12 year old Isabel LaRaia dropped 15 seconds to place 9th in the 1000 free (11.43.85) after placing 10th in the 50 breast (34.10). LaRaia also sliced off 8 seconds in her 500 free effort (5.46.57) and 5 seconds off her 200 IM swim (2.28.23).
Gian Soriano, competing in his 1st JO’s, scored a 10th place finish in the 50 fly (32.70) and eliminated 3.5 seconds from his best in the 100 fly (1.13.85) with his 12th place finish.
15 year old Michael Li was also in the Sectional neighborhood. In both his breastroke events, Li toed the qualifying time as he placed 12th in the 200 breast (2.18.31) and 16th in the 100 breast (1.02.98).
15 year old Brendan Miller-Radest was locked and loaded in his 1650 free effort; Brendan nearly bested his 500 time in the front end (being just 1 second slower) and then clipped off 5 seconds from his best at the 1000 free (10.15) before finishing 13th with a 17.00.37 time.
12 year old Avinash Duvvuri, following in the swimming Duvvuris footsteps, was 14th in the 50 back (30.98) and 16th in the 50 breast (35.11).
13 year old Juliet Felsen, contributing 8 best times to her personal bests, placed 14th in the 100 breast in a 1.13.29 time.
17 year old Duncan Hall, shaved .15 off his best 50 free time with a 14th place, 22.61 time (just .12 from a Sectional cut time).
Also turning in noteworthy performances were:
1) 12 year old Caroline Nash, who also finished competing in a relay and then swam her next event, the 500 free moments later. Caroline dropped 4.5 seconds with her 5.58.45 effort
2) 17 year old Maggie Nelson inched closer to a Sectional qualifying time with her 1.57.91 (fastest time in Elite history) in the 200 free
3) 12 year old Scott Harris’s 12 second drop in the 500 free (5.56.51) and his 9 second drop in the 200 back (2.28.84)
4) 11 year old Alicia Iizuka’s 2 second drop in the 50 breast (35.00)
5) 12 year old Karl Melchior’s 5 second drop in the 200 IM (2.29.77). Karl also had 7 personal bests
6) 10 year old Evan Ng’s 10 second drop in the 200 free (2.30.31)
7) 11 year old Christina Pick’s 7 second drop in the 400 IM (5.19.46).
8) 10 year old Katy Shepard’s 6 second drop in the 200 free (2.33.72)
9) 9 year old Grace Xu’s 10 second drop in the 200 IM (2.48.78) and her 7 second drop in the 200 free (2.29.37)
Full results are on the team website.
Swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is number of best Elite SCY best times): Chelsea Allocco, Chris Balbo (8), Abbie Bigham (1), Morgan Conley, Jimmy Coyne, Matt Critchley (3), Jeffrey Dong, Alli Dorneo (1), Amy Duren, Avinash Duvvuri (5), Priya Duvvuri (3), Venka Duvvuri (6), Juliet Felsen (8), Katherine Friday (2), Andrea Galea (9), Emily Gorham, Jess Gorham (14), Duncan Hall (2), Scott Harris (5), Alyssa Hartigan (1), Matthew Hong, Patrick Hong (1), Andrew Huang (1), Alicia Iizuka (3), Rachel Keselman (1), Audrey Kim (1), Jared Kovacs (3), Isabel LaRaia (7), Brandon Li, Michael Li (4), Alex Mango (9), Cody Matheson, Karl Melchior (7), Brendan Miller-Radest (1), Kara Miller-Radest (3), Ali Morreale (4), Caroline Nash (5), Maggie Nelson (1), Evan Ng (3), Danielle Peterson (3), Christina Pick (3), Gabrielle Pick, Ryan Sebastian (10), Andrea Shepard (1), Katy Shepard (1), Gian Soriano (6), Kaitlin Stearns (9), Lindsay Stearns (12), Brittany Sun, Michael Tortorella (8), Abigail Tsay (2), Caroline Watt, Adam Weinbrom (6), Ryan Wyer, Vivian Xia (4), Claire Xu (2), Grace Xu (5) & Richard Yu (2).
ELITE WILL SEND 8 INDIVIDUALS AND 10 RELAYS TO SECTIONALS;
With
the JO performances factored in, Elite will field its largest contingent ever
to the Eastern Zone Southern Region Sectional “Sectionals” Meet to be held in Boyds, Maryland March 25 thru March 28. Eight Elite
swimmers: Priya Duvvuri (3),
Venka Duvvuri (2), Jess
Gorham (2), Alex Mango (5), Ali Morreale (2), Llindsay Stearns (2), Michael Strand (6-qualified 8) and
Adam Weinbrom (5), have qualified individually and
will compete in 28 individual races. Elite has also qualified all 10 Relays
offered at the meet (5 relays for Boys, 5 Relays for Girls).
Elite
will also send Michael Li, Maggie Nelson & Ryan Wyer
as “relay only” swimmers.
COACH MICHELLE DUCHARME JOINS PATTY
MARTIN TURKOT AS ZONE COACH: BOTH WILL REPRESENT NJ SWIMMING IN WEBSTER, NY;
Elite coaches Michelle DuCharme and Patty Martin Turkot have been named to the New Jersey Swimming Eastern Zone Coaching staff!! Zones will be held April 2nd thru April 4th in Rochester, New York.
TRYOUTS TOMORROW:
Elite will hold its Spring 2010 Tryouts tomorrow (Tuesday, March 23) at 4:30 pm at Newark Academy. Swimmers who would like to participate in Elite this spring are requested to arrive at 4:15 pm.
Any existing Elite parent and Elite Swimmer who would like to help time or marshal the tryout swimmers are most welcome to come and help.
The top 10 all time times per age
group has been updated on the team website. Check it out!!
95 HAVE RSVP’ED; LIST ON WEBSITE:
Preparations are underway for the biggest party of the season: Elite’s 15th annual Winter Swim Team Banquet!!! This year’s party will be held Sunday, April 11th from 12:30 pm to 4:30 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 7 Elite banquets have had an excess of 300 people each!!! The RSVP list is on the website: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Awards%20Dinner/Awards%20Dinner%20reservation%20form%202010.htm
To reserve your dinner reservations, please print out an reservation form from the website (under Awards Dinner), fill it out and mail the form with the appropriate check amount to Bill Deatly, 32 Prospect Street, Summit, New Jersey 07901. Cost per person is $55. All 12 & Under Swimmers must have at least 1 adult accompanying them.
Parents, Bill will do his best to honor your seating arrangement requests. Swimmers will be seated by Bill by training group!!
Reservation
forms must be in by Thursday, March 30, 2010.
REMINDER:
SCHOLAR/ATHLETE AWARDS WILL BE HIGHLIGHT OF AWARDS BANQUET:
27 HAVE ALREADY
APPLIED FOR AWARD; LIST ON WEBSITE; DUE MARCH 31
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 11, 2010) 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.
11 Elite
Swimmers have already applied for the award. The list is now posted on the
website:
http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Awards%20Dinner/scholar%20athlete%20awards%202010%203-11-10.pdf
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 Wednesday,
March 31. IF A SWIMMER’S 2ND MARKING PERIOD ENDS AFTER MARCH
31, PLEASE PROVIDE BILL WITH THE MOST RECENT REPORT CARD AVAILABLE.
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 2010. When planning the upcoming summer, please consider sending your Elite swimmer (Wave Black level, Wave Teal level, Marlin Black level or Marlin Teal level) to one of the numerous swim camps. Wave Golds and Seniors should remain training with Elite thru the summer months
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 renown 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 at http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Swim Camps/index.html
is information regarding Summer Swim Camps. Many of these swim camps close out
in late February and early March!!! Also check out this month’s Swimming World
Magazine, which lists many of the swim camps.
Thinking about summer? Think Swim
Camps!!
COLLEGE BOUND AND
SWIMMING? NJ SWIMMING SCHOLARSHIP MONEY
AVAILABLE:
New Jersey Swimmers who are attending college next year and plan to swim can apply to receive a $1,250 one-time scholarship from New Jersey Swimming. Here is the link: http://www.njswim.org/NJ%20Swim%20Scholastic%20Forms/2010%20NJSIScholarshipApplicationForm.pdf
Information
regarding this scholarship opportunity is attached and the application is
posted on the NJ Swimming website under the College tab.
PARENTS: PLEASE BE PROMPT IN PICKING UP SWIMMERS:
Parents are requested to be prompt in picking up their swimmers at the end of practice. Recently, especially after the Wave Golds on weekdays and the Wave Teals on Saturday, swimmers have had to wait 30-45 minutes after practice for their ride.
Bill has asked the coaches to remain at practice until the last child has been picked up (for the obvious safety reasons). Coaches are more than willing to do so occasionally. But Elite coaches have other full time jobs and several are attending school in addition to their primary jobs and coaching. It is unfair to ask the coaches to spend an additional 30-40 minutes waiting for parents to pick up their children virtually every night.
Elite is prompt about ending practice on time. Please help out the coaches by being prompt to pick up your child.
CLOTHING ITEMS PREVIOUSLY
PURCHASED THRU ESCPO NOW IN: CONTACT ALLISON NASH:
The clothing items previously purchased thru ESCPO have arrived. Parents are encouraged to contact Allison Nash to arrange pick-up at Newark Academy. Allison’s email address is ALLISONRNASH@MSN.COM.
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!!!