ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               07-13-09

 

SWIMMERS BATTLE ELEMENTS, PUSH ON;

GIOSTRA SCORES A ZONE CUT;

J. FELSEN, GALEA, GIOSTRA, M. HONG, KATZ (3) & NASH ADD 8 JO SWIMS:

 

            Competing outdoors and in the evening, Elite swimmers successfully battled the elements on Friday night, racing in the beautiful Bayonne Municipal Long Course Pool at the Friday Night Lights Meet. One Elite swimmer posted her first Zone time and 6 swimmers added 8 Junior Olympic qualifying times to their resumes.

 

            Racing in an outdoor venue poses several interesting challenges to swimmers (who normally compete outdoors for their summer league, but not long course). Backstrokers tend to have trouble swimming straight (there is no ceiling to hold your bearings), the water tends to be colder and at this meet, darkness posed a problem late in the meet.

 

            Despite these issues, 14 year old Lindsey Giostra, new to Elite this spring, sprinted to her 1st Elite Eastern Zone qualifying time, in placing 5th in the 100 breast (1.24.08). Giostra’s swim was also her 2nd Junior Olympic time this summer (not surprising, in the 200 breast!).

 

            12 year old Zach Katz added to his JO collection (he now has 14 cuts) in each of his 3 performances: 100 back (1.21.72), 200 back (2.57.92) and the 100 free (1.07.27).

 

            12 year old Matt Hong pushed his JO total to 11 with his 200 free performance (2.32.07).

 

            12 year old Juliet Felsen, fresh from a 6 JO performance at Summer Sizzle, added her 8th JO swim by dropping almost a second in her 100 free (1.10.92).

 

            11 year old Andrea Galea, who aged up just two weeks ago, added her 7th JO qualifying time in her new age group, this time in the grueling 200 butterfly (3.04.08).

 

            11 year old Caroline Nash, slipped under the JO qualifying time in the 100 butterfly (1.21.96).

 

            With these performances, Elite’s Zone totals are: 18 swimmers have qualified in 69 events and the team JO totals are: 44 swimmers have qualified in 181 events.

 

            Full results are now posted on the team website.

 

Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite LCM best times): Jenni Allocco, Arlynn Baer (1), Chris Balbo (1), Lindsay Behar (3), Mark Berns (3), Nicole Blum (1), Katie Brosnan (3), Caitlin Brown (3), Emily Buckman (2), John Burns (1), Meggie Butler (3), Stephanie Chen, Morgan Conley (2), Elizabeth D’Altrui (3), Kelly Delaney (2), DeYoung Don (3), Avi Duvvuri (3), Lindsay Ellerthorpe (3), Madeleine Faust (2), Katie Fell (2), Juliet Felsen (2), Andrea Ferrell (3), Andrea Galea (3), Ariel Gelman (1), Lindsey Giostra (3), Jess Gorham (2), Emma Harris (2), Scott Harris (2), Alyssa Hartigan (2), Matthew Hong (2), Patrick Hong (1), Zach Katz (3), Jared Kovacs (3), Patrick Lai (2), Clark LaRaia (3), Isabel LaRaia (2), Jessie Lowe (2), Katie McGrath (3), Karl Melchior (2), Matt Migliozzi (3), Caroline Nash (1), Alex N’Diaye (2), Eugene Ng (2), Michael Nitting (3), Mikala Quinn (1), Carmille Relota (3), Abigail Shvorin (2), Jonas Singer (2), Kaitlin Stearns, Abir Thakur (2), Rachael Tortorella (1), Caroline Watt (1), Sarah Weinbrom (2) & Richard Yu (1).

 

10 & UNDERS COMPETE AT JULY JUBILEE; SEVERAL EXPERIENCE LCM FOR THE 1ST TIME;

HUANG ADD 1ST LCM JO SWIM:

 

            A change in the meet structure of Friday Night Lights from last year (entries were limited to 11 & Olders) altered Elite’s competition plans and sent the 10 & Unders to July Jubilee this past weekend. For 6 swimmers, it was their first taste of competition in the “big” pool!!

 

            9 year old Andrew Huang (who became a big brother earlier in the week!!) took advantage of this opportunity to qualify for his 1st LCM Junior Olympic qualifying time when he powered his way to an 8th place finish in the 100 back (1.33.63).

 

            8 year old Samy Zhong had 3 Silver qualifying times, dropping  7 seconds in her 50 fly time (47.81) and adding both the 100 back (1.38.28) and the 200 IM (3.41.98) events.

 

            10 year old twins Alicia and Karen Iizuka collected two Silver times apiece; Alicia in both the 50 fly (44.35) and the 200 IM (3.29.02) and Karen silvered in 100 back (1.41.10)  and the 200 IM (3.35.47).

 

            10 year old Abbie Bigham also placed 8th in the 100 back with a Silver time of 1.34.98. Sarah Lowe placed 9th in the 200 IM with her 3.36.27 time.

 

            9 year old Jennifer Huo ducked under the Silver qualifying time in the 100 free with a 1.32.91 time.

 

            9 year old Evan Ng went Silver in the 100 back with a 1.47.22 swim.   

 

            Megan Balbo, Erika Fresen, Clio Galea, Tabatha Georget, Jessica Kraus and Katy Shepard, all recently promoted into the Wavebuster Teals, competed for the 1st time in long course. Galea posted to Silver cut times will Shepard earned a single Silver time!

           

            Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite LCM best times): Megan Balbo (2), Abbie Bigham, Jimmy Coyne (1), Amy Duren (1), Erika Fresen (2), Clio Galea (2), Tabatha Georget (2), Emily Gorham (3), Andrew Huang (2), Jennifer Huo (3), Alicia Iizuka (2), Karen Iizuka (2), Rachel Keselman (3), Jessica Kraus (2), Brandon Li (3), Sarah Lowe (2), Evan Ng (3), Katy Shepard (2), Michael Tortorella (1) & Samy Zhong (3).

 

PRELIMINARY ELITE ROSTER HAS 169 SWIMMERS RETURNING NEXT YEAR; LIST ON WEBSITE UNDER TRYOUTS:

 

            Last Saturday, July 11 was the deadline for swimmers to send in their $300 deposit to secure a roster spot for Elite’s Winter 2009-10 team. 169 swimmers (out of 184) have chosen to return to Elite. Even without tryouts, this will be an extremely strong team, as almost 92% of the very strong Spring/Summer 2009 team is returning!!

 

             A list of the returning 169 swimmers who committed to Elite for next winter is posted on the team website under Tryouts link: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Tryouts 2/Registered Swimmers 2009-10.htm.

 

Those swimmers who failed to get their deposit in by July 11 but are still interested in training with Elite will need to tryout for Elite at one of the two tryouts (Tuesday, July 21 at MBS or

Tuesday, September 8 at NA). Depending on the numbers within each training group, there is no guarantee that roster spaces will be available for returning swimmers at those dates.

 

EASTERN ZONE INFORMATION NOW POSTED ON NJ SWIMMING WEBSITE:

 

New Jersey Swimming has now posted the athlete application for those swimmers who have qualified and plan to attend the Eastern Zone LCM Age Group All-Star Meet to be held at Penn State University from August 12 thru August 15, 2009. Currently, Elite has 18 swimmers who have qualified for 69 events (last summer we qualified 19 swimmers in 67 events).

 

Swimmers who are interested in competing at Zones and who have already qualified are requested to complete the application and mail it in as soon as possible. NJ Swimming will allow for amendments if swimmers qualify for additional events during Junior Olympics. The link is: http://www.njswim.org/njswimmingzones.html. Stephanie Crofton noted last week that uniform items may not be ready by Zones if a swimmer turns in their form at JO’s. Please strongly consider sending your information in early!!!

 

Gail Kology has already made arrangements at the Residence Inn at Marriott for zones and has locked in a great rate for Elite families.  Per her email to Bill this week: “They seem to be the hotel of choice because they have the refrigerator/cook top and with the early rise for the older kids, well, we all remember the issue last summer with finding breakfast.  None of the hotels offered by NJ Swimming offers any kind of kitchenette.  Anyway, I found the rate on orbitz.com cheaper than what the hotel was offering.  However, the hotel and I worked out $129 which was the average of the two prices that I found on orbitz (one price for weekday and then it was cheaper for weekend stay so the hotel averaged the two prices and took off another 5 dollars a day).  If you would like to stay at the Marriott, my contact there is Shawn and he can be reached at 814-235-6960.  Please remind him that he spoke with Gail Kology on Tuesday, June 30 and again, $129 was our final price and he is willing to give that to any of our swimmers for zones. You may be able to get a cheaper price at one of the other hotels (again, no kitchenette, though). I am not obligated to a minimum number of rooms or nights as this rate is good no matter. The address for the Marriott is 1555 University Drive, State College, Pa and they are located about a mile from the University.” 

 
NEW SUIT POLICY IN EFFECT: 1) CHAMPIONSHIP SUITS FOR CHAMPIONSHIP STYLE MEETS  2) ELITE WILL ONLY USE WINTER 2010 APPROVED SUITS:

 

            During the last 8 years and particularly in the last year, the sport of swimming has seen a tremendous amount of focus and money spent on “highly technological” suits. World Class Swimmers have broken a record number of world records since the introduction of such suits as the Speedo LZR and the Blue Seventy suits in the spring of 2008.

 

            The entire world swimming community is grappling with this unprecedented situation (do the suits give an unfair advantage to the best athletes, the lesser athletes, to the rich?) and in the last two weeks alone, FINA (the world swimming federation) has made two rulings: 1) approving a list of approximately 210 suits indefinitely and 2) approving an additional list of approximately 190 suits until December 2009.  USA Swimming has followed the FINA rulings, although reluctantly on the 2nd list.

 

            Given the current circumstances, Elite will, from this moment forward, adopt the following two rules regarding technologically advanced suits:

 

1)      Elite swimmers can race in a technologically advanced suit (or simply: a championship style suit) at any championship style meet Elite attends. This means the meet must be structured as a prelims/finals format for at least the 13 & Olders. All swimmers, no matter what age, will be able to wear a technologically advanced suit at the championship style meet.

 

The list of meets is as follows:  Winter Season/ short course season:  NYC Open, Holiday Classic, CeraVe, Jr. States, Sr. States, Silver/Bronze and JO competitions

                                              Summer Season/ long course season: Memorial Day, Summer Sizzle, Silver/Bronze and JO competitions

                             

Obviously, Eastern Zones, Sectionals, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, Grand Prix and International competition meets will also apply.

 

2)      Elite swimmers will only compete in suits that USA Swimming has approved as of January 1, 2010. This means the suits on the amended FINA list are NOT Elite approved suits.

 

It is likely FINA approved the “amended list” suits to help the manufacturers reduce their inventory to an unsuspecting audience and these suits are likely not to be approved post 2009.

 

            Elite will revisit its policy as facts and circumstances change.

 

WINTER PRACTICE SCHEDULE SAME NEXT YEAR AS LAST YEAR:

The Winter 2009-10 practice schedule will be identical as last year’s schedule. Elite will continue to extend the Wavebuster Black Friday night practice to 7:30 pm. In addition, the Wavebuster Golds will utilize Newark Academy on Saturday mornings early in the season prior to joining the Seniors & Senior Preps at MBS later in the season to race.

TRYOUTS TUESDAY, JULY 21; VOLUNTEER TIMERS WELCOME:

 

            Tryouts for Elite’s Winter 2009-10 Season will be held Tuesday, July 21at Morristown-Beard from 4 pm to 6 pm. There will be no pm practices held that day.

 

            Make-up Tryouts will be held Tuesday, September 8 at Newark Academy from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

 

            Elite swimmers and/or Parents are welcome to volunteer their time to help the coaches out at both tryouts!

 

“SOFT SELLING” ELITE IS LIFEBLOOD OF CLUB;

 

            Summer Swim Teams are the lifeblood of year round swim clubs like Elite. Swimmers who enjoy the training and competition of their summer clubs form the vast majority of new swimmers into “winter” or “club” swimming.

 

            The terrific swimming performed by Elite swimmers this summer in their dual meet and championship competition will be the main selling point of the club. Elite swimmers will be among the best (if not the best) swimmers in the their races. They should be, they have worked hard and have earned that right!!

 

            Parents of Elite swimmers are requested to “soft-sell” Elite; meaning they should await an approach by an interested swimmers/parents, but then earnestly provide information to such people upon their approach. Elite parents and swimmers are highly encouraged to point perspective swimmers to the team website and to instruct interested parties to email Bill regarding questions about the club.

 

            Tapping this pipeline will help keep the Elite Swim Club vibrant. In addition, a swim club at capacity (Elite is about 90% of capacity) will help keep the cost down to each Elite family/member. Lastly, each new season sees some existing swimmers leaving the sport or moving out of the area. These roster spots provide openings for new swimmers.

 

            Tryouts for Elite will be held Tuesday, July 21st at 4:00 pm at Morristown-Beard School.

 

            Any questions regarding how one should act during a specific inquiry should be directed to Bill. Thanks in advance for your salesmanship!!!       

 

NOMINATIONS WANTED FOR ESCPO:

 

            Nominations for positions are wanted and needed for the Elite Swim Club Parents Organization. Parents who are interested or who have nominees should email Sandi Niccolai at sandnic@aol.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!!!