ELITE NEWS BULLETIN 08-24-09

DART PLACES 3^RD AT JR. NATIONALS; STRAND STRONG IN NATIONAL DEBUT;

KOLOGY NOTCHES 2 SECTIONAL QUALIFYING TIMES AT ZONES;

KATZ PLACES 4^TH TWICE AT ZONES;

Elite’s fabulous Summer 2009 Season culminated with Chris Dart and Michael Strand successfully performing at the national level, 9 Elite swimmers swimming at the Eastern “Super” Sectional Competition and 14 Elite swimmers competing at the Eastern Zones All-Star Age Group Championships! Thus, 22 of 146 swimmers (or 15% of the team!) who trained with Elite this summer reached competition beyond Junior Olympics!!

Competing at USA Swimming’s Junior National Championships held in Federal Way, Washington, Dart and Strand proved they could compete with the best that the country has to offer. With the only two restrictions for competing being age (swimmer must be 18 years old or younger) and time standards (only 1400 swimmers nationwide qualified for the meet), Junior Nationals is competition at the 2^nd highest level nationwide (the first being Senior Nationals or the US Open, which only restriction is time standards).

Dart, who graduated from high school last year as a 17 year old and competed this past winter for Clemson University, was allowed to compete as he does not turn 19 until December (and Chris already has Senior National qualifying times). Against a strong field, Chris touched 3^rd in the 100 backstroke in posting a blazing 56.97 time (just .07 off a NJ state record)! Dart also finaled in both the 200 back-2.06.01 in placing 21^st and the 200 IM-2.08.60-placing 24th).

Strand, undaunted in his national level debut, nearly duplicated his awesome Sectional 100 back swim of a week earlier, by splashing to a 59.57 in prelims. Using his trademark sprinting strategy of going all out and then trying to hold on, Strand splits were 28.70 and 30.87-proving he had enough in the tank to get home. Michael great swim placed him tied for 52^nd, which demonstrates how many fast swimmers there are in the country!

At “Super” Sectionals (called such since there is only one Sectional meet per Zone in the summer while there are two such meets in the spring) in Buffalo, Strand took full advantage of his 23^rd place prelim finish (and thus just sneaking into the bonus consolation round of finals) in the 100 back and completely dominated his evening race, touching in a 59.36 and in the process completely destroying his heat. This swim also beat all the times in the consolation round (9 thru 16) and even beat a swimmer who had qualified for finals (thus, Michael’s swim was the 8^th fastest swim of the meet).

Michael’s 100 back swim was even more impressive given his uneven performance the day before, when he added two seconds to his 200 IM swim and 1 second to his 100 fly swim, both personal bests performed a week earlier at Junior Olympics. Focusing on the present race, Michael turned his frustration into jubilation by accomplishing what he was capable of doing!

15 year old Priya Duvvuri competed in her first Sectional long course meet, swimming both the 100 fly and 100 back. Both of Priya’s times were off her earlier JO performances, which performances were phenomenal.

18 year old Scott Groel, who trained with Elite this summer in preparation of competing with Dart at Clemson, was off his mark at Sectionals. Lopping off gobs of time earlier in the season, Groel just could not top his previous bests in any of his 4 races (200 IM, 200 free, 100 back and 200 back).

Also competing at Sectionals in relays were: Venkatesh Duvvuri (400 Medley), Regan Kology (400 Medley), Alex Mango (400 free, 800 free & 400 Medley), Kara Miller-Radest (400 Medley), Ali Morreale (400 Medley) & Adam Weinbrom (400 free & 800 free).

Freshly back from Super Sectionals, 13 year old Regan Kology posted her 1st and 2nd Sectional qualifying times in placing 4^th in the 800 free (9.28.77) and 2^nd in the 1500 free (18.04.66) at the Eastern Zone All-Star Age Group Meet held at Penn State University. The Summer Zones meet is a time standard meet where each of the LSC’s (NJ Swimming is an LSC) in the Eastern Zone (Maine thru Virginia) field All-Star Teams to compete against each other (NJ Swimming placed 6^th out of 11 LSC’s). Regan also placed 5^th in the 400 free (4.41.47) and 8^th in both the 100 free (1.02.65) and the 200 free (2.15.48).

12 year old Zach Katz came to Zones to perform, and perform he did! Zach dropped 2.3 seconds off his JO 100 breast in placing 4^th overall, tied his best in the 50 breast while also placing 4^th, dropped nearly 7 seconds in the 200 breast, lopped off nearly half a second in his 8^th place 50 fly finish and axed away 3 seconds in his 200 IM performance!

12 year old Matthew Hong had 3 personal bests (after coming off a very successful JO performance) in 4 swims. Matt dropped .81 in his 50 fly (31.74), nicked a tenth off his 100 back (1.15.67) and tied his best in the 100 free (1.04.14). Matt was just off (.26) in his 50 free swim (29.40).

10 year old Jimmy Coyne, in his first post JO performance, was unfazed by the higher level of competition. Jimmy competed twice and dropped .8 in each swim: the 50 breast (44.32) and the 100 breast (1.34.09).

13 year old Ryan Sebastian, who just aged up in July, still was able to qualify for Zones in 4 individual events and was able to knock off .3 from his JO performance in the 100 back (1.08.52). Ryan also competed in the 200 back, 200 fly and the 400 IM.

10 year old Alicia Iizuka pared .89 off her 50 breast swim with a 42.34 performance. Alicia also participated in the 100 breast (adding .7 to her JO performance).

10 year old Amy Duren (50 & 100 fly), 11 year old Andrea Galea (50 and 100 back), 14 year old Lindsey Giostra (100 and 200 breast), 10 year old Karen Iizuka (50 and 100 breast) and 13 year old Lindsay Stearns (100 and 200 butterfly) all represented New Jersey Swimming in two events at Zones while 13 year old Alli Dorneo (100 back), 13 year old Kara Miller-Radest (100 fly) and 10 year old Michael Tortorella (50 breast) competed in a single event.