ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               07-26-10

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

13 & OVERS PUSH TEAM TO NEW HEIGHTS:

TEAM HITS 52 JO QUALIFIERS, 262 EVENTS-BOTH AN ALL-TIME LCM HIGH!!

M. LI WINS 200 BACK, C. WATT WINS 400 FREE;

DONG, J. FELSEN (3), J. GORHAM (2), M. LI (2) A. MORREALE, A. SHEPARD, WATT (4) ADD 14 JO CUTS!!

 

            Workers win. And Elite is a team of workers.

 

            Hard, concentrated work this spring & summer by Elite swimmers have accomplished the following: for the 12th training season in a row (for six years, two training seasons a year), the Elite Swim Club has compiled a larger Junior Olympic squad than the previous season (comparing SCY to SCY and LCM to LCM)!! The new team all time high LCM totals are 52 swimmers qualified in 262 events (last year’s numbers were 50 & 235) !!! And these numbers don’t address the huge development by those swimmers at the Silver and Bronze level.

 

            14 year old Caroline Watt, a previously perennial Silver level swimmer but the epitome of hard work, broke out this weekend and won the 400 free in a 4.55.70 time (an 11 second drop!). Caroline’s next closest competitor was 9 seconds behind her!! Caroline 400 free swim was her 4th JO cut of the weekend; previously, she scored gold with her 2nd place 1500 meter swim of 19:30.89 and her two 5th place finishes in the 200 free (2.22.17) and the 400 IM (5.42.35).

 

            16 year old Michael Li added backstroke to his JO repertoire in winning the 200 backstroke (2.24.82) and placing 2nd in the 100 back (1.07.15). Michael also dropped 5 seconds in the 400 IM but his 3rd place finish was just shy of the JO qualifying time.

 

            14 year old Juliet Felsen collected JO qualifying times #8, #9 & #10 as she continued her fabulous swimming this summer. Juliet placed 3rd in both the 50 free (30.46) and the 200 breast (3.06.22). She also placed 8th in the 100 free (1.05.66). All three were JO cuts.

 

            14 year old Jessica Gorham ratcheted her JO count to 9, adding two more this weekend with a pair of 4th place finishes. Jess dropped 10 seconds in the 800 free (10.24.88) and dropped 8 seconds in the 200 IM (2.40.49). Jess also placed 7th in the 100 breast (1.128.31).

 

            16 year old Ali Morreale will venture into unknown JO territory; she qualified for her first non-breaststroke event in several years with her 4th place, 29.11 time in the 50 free (only .1 off a Sectional bonus qualifying time!).

 

            14 year old Andrea Shepard, hovering around the JO qualifying times in a number events and just .26 over in the 800 free, put her parents, friends and coaches thru the mill during her race as she clocked 100 after 100 just under her previous best. At the finish, Andrea pushed thru the JO barrier to drop 2 full seconds under the cut time in 10.30.71, good enough for 7th place. Andrea also placed 6th in the 200 back (2.46.57).

 

            14 year old Jeffrey Dong added his 4th JO cut by placing 6th in the 100 free (1.02.22).

 

            15 year old Lindsey Giostra’s 1.24.90 time in the 100 breast was a 3rd place finish.

 

            18 year old Chelsea Allocco finished her Elite career with a pair of 4th place finishes. Chelsea dropped 8 seconds in the 400 free (4.53.30) and 2.4 seconds in her 200 breast (3.00.04).

 

            13 year old Gabrielle Pick dropped 10 seconds in the 200 fly, for a 2.50.69 time and a 5th place finish. Gabrielle placed 8th with a 6.35 second drop in the 100 breast (1.28.63).

 

            17 year old Anthony Don’s 1.7 second drop in the 200 back placed him 5th. 18 year old Venka Duvvuri, also finishing up his Elite career, placed 6th in the 100 breast with his 1.18.13 performance.

 

            14 year old Clark LaRaia lopped off 4.6 seconds off his 100 fly time (1.13.03) to place 6th and followed up with a pair of 7th place finishes in the 200 free (2.18.24) and the 100 free (1.02.85).

 

            16 year old Ryan Wyer placed 6th in the 200 butterfly with his 2.31.52 swim.

 

            19 year old Cassandra Farnow, training again with Elite after her freshman year at Amherst, scored a pair of 7th place finishes (100 back: 1.14.27 & 200 back (2.37.94).

 

            15 year old Matthew Ahlmeyer knocked 1.25 off his 200 fly time (2.33.58) to place 8th.   

 

            Full results are posted on the team website.

 

            Swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is number of best Elite LCM times):  Matt Ahlmeyer (3), Michael Alelov (1), Chelsea Allocco (4), Jenni Allocco, Mark Berns, Caitlin Brown, John Chiang, Jessica Chu, Elizabeth D’Altrui (1), Drew D’Andrea (4), Anthony Don (3), Jeffrey Dong (3), Avinash Duvvuri (2), Krishna Duvvuri (4), Venkatesh Duvvuri (4), Cassandra Farnow (1), Juliet Felsen (3), Lindsey Giostra, Jess Gorham (3), Brent Jones (2), Emmie Lai, Patrick Lai (2), Clark LaRaia (3), Isabel LaRaia (3), Michael Li (6), Cody Matheson (4), Karl Melchior (2), Ryan Miller (4), Ali Morreale (2), Isabella Morreale, Eugene Ng (4), Michael Nitting (3), Darragh O’Gorman, Gabrielle Pick (6), Andrea Shepard (3), Jonas Singer (3), Caroline Watt (6), Ryan Wyer (1) & Richard Yu (2).

             

MORE TALENT ON THE WAY; TRYOUTS YIELD 16 NEW SWIMMERS:

 

            From perhaps the most competitive tryouts in the history of Elite, 16 new swimmers have committed to training with Elite during the Winter 2009-10 Season.  Most of the swimmers accepted have previous year round swimming experience.

 

Joining Elite will be:

 

Wave Golds: Cullen Walsh

 

Wave Blacks: Jason Steinberg, Alexis Tabisz

 

Wave Teals: Sara Bellog, Gauri Deorkar, Jasmine Gulati

 

Marlin Blacks: Benjamin Campbell, Benjamin Litrin, Chloe Lawrence, Samantha Siracusa

 

Marlin Teals: Tara Balan, Milind Bangalore, Sheetal Bangalore, Jessica Carchia, Nikhil Deorkar, Katharina Dowlin, Jeffrey Ho, Jonathan Kao

Ryan Lam, Sophie Lawrence, Joseph Siracusa & Katharine Slover

 

HE BEAT ALCALTRAZ AND HIS DAD!!!

DARRAGH O’GORMAN SWIMS SAN FRANCISCO BAY:

 

      Inspired by his Dad’s performance last summer, 14 year old Darragh O’Gorman competed last weekend in a 1.5 mile Alcaltraz to San Francisco swim as part of a swim-run relay. Darragh and his partner Zoe Taitel (a neighbor from Short Hills) won the 17 & Under group relay with Darragh doing the swimming and Zoe doing the running.

 

            Darragh placed 3rd in the 19 & Under swim only competition, finishing in 47 minutes in frigid temperatures and out maneuvering a treacherous current that sent many swimmers astray.

              

            Most importantly, Darragh beat his Dad’s swim time!

 

            Earlier this season, Darragh competed in a New Jersey Ocean open water swim in preparation for his Alcaltraz race!

COMING THIS FALL: PARENT WORKSHOPS: 1st DATE IS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22ND

            In an effort to educate parents about swimming and Elite’s philosophy, Head Coach Bill will conduct a Parent Workshop once a month during the Winter 2010-11 Training Season at Newark Academy. The initial workshop will be Wednesday, September 22.

            The workshops are meant to educate the Age Group Parents as to the sport of swimming. Each workshop will consist of a lecture regarding a specific topic (like nutrition) and will have time set aside for general questions. On the first date, there will also be a 2nd workshop specifically for Marlin parents in introduce them to the sport of swimming.

RISING SENIORS (IN HIGH SCHOOL), JULY AND AUGUST ARE THE “OFFICIAL COLLEGE ESSAY MONTHS!!!:

            All rising Seniors in high school should take advantage of some down-time and prepare your college essay this summer. July and August are “Official College Essay Months!!!

            1st semester Seniors have a tremendous workload in addition to being under a tremendous amount of stress. 1st semester Seniors have: 1) college visits (swimmers may have college recruiting visits that last Friday thru Sunday) 2) SAT preparation 3) preparing college applications 4) keeping up their grades (colleges will want to see the 1st semester grades) and 4) swimming workload (college coaches expect swimmers to be training at their usual full schedule).

            Thus, organizing and writing one’s college essay during the “down” months of July and August is extremely productive and wise.

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!!!