ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               1-17-11

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

WILD WEEKEND OF SWIMMING:

 

AT CERAVE: BIG POOL, BIG RESULTS:

SLEPIAN EARNS 1ST “ELITE” SECTIONAL CUT;

SEBASTIAN (4), S. SLEPIAN (3), K. STEARNS & L. STEARNS (2) WIN 10 EVENTS!!

 

AT PRINCETON: PARENTS LITERALLY PROVIDE THOUSANDS OF SPLASH OPPPORTUNITIES:

A.DUVVURI, M. IIZUKA & MALINOWSKI SCORE JO CUTS

 

 

What a difference a week makes!! After a lackluster team performance at Winterfest last weekend, the Elite Swimmers snapped back into “attack dog” mode this weekend at two very distinctive meets: CeraVe Invitational 2011 and Princeton Invitational 2011. Between these two meets, every Elite swimmer was provided an opportunity to compete (and some even swam at both meets!!!).

 

CeraVe:

 

At one of the most prestigious (and certainly the most challenging) meets of the Winter 2010-11 season, Elite swimmers mixed it up with some of the best competition in the region. Teams from Maine, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts joined some of NJ Swimming’s best to race in a long course venue (50 meters verses the normal Winter 25 yards). Long Course (or LCM-short for Long Course Meters) is always challenging (most meets held during the summer months are long course); having the swimmers compete LCM while training in a short course (Elite and most teams train short course in the winter and long course during the summer months) venue really mixes it up; swimmers who are in the best condition thrive in LCM. Which is what Elite did: thrive.

 

4 Elite swimmers: Ryan Sebastian, Sarah Slepian, Kaitlin Stearns and Lindsay Stearns won 10 events against their stiff competition.

 

The 13 year old Slepian arrived at Elite in November, 2010 with 3 Sectionals (200 IM, 200 breast & 200 back) qualifying times that she performed as a 12 year old. At CeraVe, Sarah earned her 1st “Elite” Sectional qualifying time with her 2nd place finish in the 400 IM (5.18.76)!!!  

 

As a team, Elite now has 7 individual qualifiers for Sectionals (Priya Duvvuri-1, Jess Gorham-2, Alex Mango-7, Ali Morreale-2, Slepian-4, Lindsay Stearns-2 & Michael Strand-12) for a total of 30 individual swims. Last year, 8 Elite swimmers earned 31 individual swims (15 of those swims which were accomplished at the March Junior Olympics). Obviously, Elite is looking very good with respect to those year on year comparisons.

 

Slepian was plenty busy in her other events, as she won 3: the 100 back (1.10.29), the 200 IM (2:30.41) and the 200 back (2.28.56-also under the Sectional qualifying time). Sarah was also 3rd in both the 100 breast (1.20.06) and the 200 breast (2.50.60).

 

The 14 year old Sebastian was stupendous as he won both the 200 (2.19.33) and the 400 IM (4.53.95-15 second drop year on year), the 400 free (4.26.71) and the 200 fly (2.19.91). Ryan also touched 3rd in 4 additional events: 200 free (2.07.43), 100 back (1.06.43), the 100 fly (1.04.38) and the 200 back (2.22.96).

 

14 year old Lindsay Stearns came from behind in both of her first place butterfly finishes (Lindsay has sectional cuts in both these events). Lindsay’s time in the 100 fly was 1.07.05 (just off her best) while her 200 fly time of 2.26.93 was a personal best. Lindsay backed these swims up with two 4th place finishes (200 IM-2.34.20 & 400 IM-5.20.50).

 

12 year Kaitlin Stearns, known more for her distance prowess, walked away with a first place finish in the 50 free (29.03). Kaitlin was also superb in placing 2nd in the three other free events offered her: 400 free (4.48.66), 200 free (2.17.94) and 100 free (1..03.11). Showing off her backstroke dexterity, Kaitlin finished 3rd in the 50 back (35.03) and 4th in the 100 back (1.14.91).  

 

 Despite fighting off a cold, 18 year old Michael Strand hovered about the winners circle, placing 3rd in both the 100 fly (58.15) and the 100 back (59.01).

 

14 year old Jess Gorham rocked her last swim, the 200 back, with her 8 second drop, 3rd place finish of 2.31.63. Jess was 4th in the 50 free (28.97), 6th in the 100 free (1.02.87) and 7th in the 200 IM (2.35.77). A Canadian citizen, Jess was just short of qualifying for Canadian (February) Nationals in the 50 free (missing by.4), the 100 free (.4) and the 200 back (2 sec).

 

 10 year old Claire Xu earned a 3rd place medal in the 50 back with her 39.06 time. Claire also placed 5th twice with a 35.08 time in the 50 free and a 1.27.31 time in the 100 back.

 

10 year old Grace Xu also was 3rd, nailing the 100 free in a 1.12.96 time. Grace nabbed 5th in the 50 breast (44.91), 6th in the 200 free (2.46.68), 7th in the 100 breast (1.38.75) and 8th in the 200 IM (3.06.30).

 

10 year old Katy Shepard placed 4th in the 50 free (34.38), 5th in the 100 free (1.15.02) and 7th in the 200 free (2.48.43).

 

Alicia Iizuka dropped almost 4 seconds off her personal best to place 4th in the 100 breast (1.22.90) after placing 5th in the 50 breast (37.76).

 

16 year old Alex Mango was terrific in finals. In the 100 free, he dropped .8 from his am swim to place 5th in a personal best time of 55.11. Alex also 10th in the 200 free in breaking thru the 2 minute barrier (1.59.98).   

 

10 year old Brittany Sun, in her first 50 fly long course swim, placed 6th. Brittany followed up with a 4 second drop, 7th place finish in the 100 fly (1.32.00).

 

12 year old Matthew Critchley, swimming in the 1st heat, grabbed 6th place in the 50 fly (33.04). 12 year old Chris Balbo dropped 2.4 seconds to place 7th in the 400 free (4.49.11). 10 year old Emily Fu clipped nearly 3 seconds off her 50 breast time to place 7th in the 50 breast.  

 

Full results are posted on the team website.

 

Swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is number of best Elite LCM best times): Chris Balbo (4), Morgan Conley (2), Jimmy Coyne (2), Matt Critchley (3), Priya Duvvuri, Juliet Felsen (2), Emily Fu (2), Lindsey Giostra (1), Emily Gorham (2), Jess Gorham (5), Alicia Iizuka (2), Erica Iizuka (4), Karen Iizuka (2), Isabel LaRaia (1), Michael Li (1), Alex Mango (4), Katie McGrath (3), Ali Morreale, Isabella Morreale, Caroline Nash, Christina Pick (3), Gabrielle Pick (1), Camille Relota, Ryan Sebastian (6), Andrea Shepard (2), Katy Shepard (3), Sarah Slepian (9), Sydney Slepian (6), Kaitlin Stearns (8), Lindsay Stearns (3), Michael Strand, Brittany Sun (3), Caroline Watt (2), Ryan Wyer (1), Claire Xu (5), Grace Xu (3) & Remena Xu.

 

            Princeton:

 

            Thru Elite’s parents help, 128 Elite swimmers were provided with splash opportunities at the Princeton Invitational 2011 Meet. As a co-host, Elite provided the Meet Referee (Moya Chew-Lai) and approximately 50% of the timing assignments. Without Elite’s help, the 4000 splashes that were provided to NJ Swimmers would not have happened this weekend at Princeton University.

 

            The meet was a huge learning event for Elite’s younger swimmers, many of them competing in a 2 pool, multi-day meet for the very first time.

 

            Three Elite swimmers took advantage and were 1st time Junior Olympic qualifiers this year: Avinash Duvvuri, Monica Iizuka and Isabelle Malinowski.

 

            12 year old Isabelle Malinowski, who is new to Elite this year, earned her first Elite JO cut by dropping 3 seconds in the grueling 400 IM (5.36.52). Isabelle’s swim earned her 11th place.

 

            9 year old Monica Iizuka became the 4th swimmer with the Iizuka last name to earn a spot on the Elite Junior Olympic squad. Monica nailed the 100 butterfly qualifying time (1.26.18) in her first attempt at the event. Monica placed 5th (as she did in the 200 IM-3.03.45).

 

            13 year old Avinash Duvvuri sliced off 4 full seconds from his 100 back time (1.02.42) to earn his first JO cut this season. Avi’s effort placed him 2nd overall.  

           

            12 year old Morgan Conley stroked to a 3rd place finish in the 500 free with her first sub 6 minute time (5.57.16-almost a 13 second drop). Morgan placed 7th in the 200 IM, lopping off almost 8 seconds in that event.

 

            14 year old Juliet Felsen, shuttling between the two meets, placed 3rd in the 200 butterfly with her 2.29.41 effort. 16 year old Ryan Wyer knocked nearly a second off his 100 fly time to place 3rd in the 100 fly (56.76).

 

            13 year old Charlotte Morrissey, who had 6 personal best times (including a 28 second drop in the 500 free-6.07.36) placed 5th in the 400 IM (5.18.40-12 second drop) and 7th in the 200 fly-26 second drop).

 

            Elite went 4-5-6 in the boys 13-14 200 fly: 14 year old Darragh O’Gorman placed 4th (2.31.54) followed by 13 year old Karl Melchior (5th place finish, 2 second drop-2.39.31 & 14 year old Ryan Miller (2.43.61), who placed 6th.

 

            10 year old Emily Fu, also swimming in both meets, placed 5th in the 50 back (38.09) and 6th in the 100 IM (1.20.98). 11 year old Brandon Rossi motored to a 5th place finish in the 200 IM (2:45.43-5 second drop). 17 year old Sam Duren, when he wasn’t at CeraVe taking photographs of that meet for Swimming World Magazine, placed 5th in the 200 fly (2.15.21).

 

             15 year old Krishna Duvvuri placed 6th in each of the 200 fly (2.16.59-7 second drop) and the 400 IM (4.40.65-3 second drop) along with earning a 7th place finishe in the 200 free (1.55.17).

 

            13 year old Isabella LaRaia, who competed in both meets (one day-both meets), earned a 7th place finish in the 200 breast (2.47.56) and an 8th place finish in the 200 fly (2.39.81).

 

            11 year old Even Ng also placed 7th and 8th; 7th in the 400 IM (5.43.49) and 8th in the 100 back (1.15.32).  

 

            Full results are posted on the team website.

 

Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite SCY best times): Matthew Ahlmeyer (4), Jenni Allocco (4), Megan Balbo, Milind Bangalore (3), Sheetal Bangalore (2), Brielle Barba (2), Lindsay Behar (2), Abbie Bigham (6), Caitlin Brown, Emily Buckman (6), Cordelia Burn (3), Eloise Burn (6), Sarah Burn (6), Meggie Butler (5), Ben Campbell (5), Jessica Carchia (2), Peter Carchia (3), Richie Carchia (4), John Chiang (4), Claire Chiperfield (2), Koby Cohen (3), Morgan Conley (3), Jimmy Coyne (1), Elizabeth D’Altrui (5), Aaron Damesek (4), Drew D’Andrea (1), Nathan Davidovich, Gauri Deorkar (3), Anthony Don, Amy Duren (5), Corey Duren (5), Sam Duren (3), Avinash Duvvuri (4), Krishna Duvvuri (5), Lindsay Ellerthorpe (1), Rachel Emodi (1), Madeleine Faust (3), Juliet Felsen, Summer Felsen (3), Andrea Ferrell (5), Katherine Friday (4), Emily Fu, Ariel Gelman (2), Patrick Gilfillan (5), Lindsay Giostra (1), Jasmine Gulati (5), Claire Hagerstrom (5), Scott Harris (2), Abigail Hartwig (4), Gab Hayek (4), Andrew Huang (3), Alicia Iizuka (3), Karen Iizuka (2), Monica Iizuka (4), Katie Iovel, Alex Jacobs (3), Brent Jones (3), Jonathan Kao (3), Rachel Keselman (4), Audrey Kim (2), Jared Kovacs (3), Jessica Kraus (1), Sophia Kushen (3), Emmie Lai (1), Patrick Lai (2), Clark LaRaia (4), Isabel LaRaia (2), Chloe Lawrence (1), Sophie Lawrence (2), Grace Levey (2), Alyssa Levy (2), Brandon Li (5), Ben Litvin (2), Sarah Lowe (3), Greg Macchia (2), Michael Macchia (4), Livia Maguire (4), Teddy Maguire (5), Isabelle Malinowski (3), Cody Matheson (4), Angelina Mayers (4), Leighton Mayers (3), Paige McBoyle (4), Reid McBoyle (6), Karl Melchior (5), Matthew Migliozzi (1), Ryan Miller (5), Charlotte Morrissey (6), Sandeepan Mukherjee (3), Shonchori Mukherjee (3), Dan Muro (4), Fred Nagle (5), Caroline Nash (1), Will Nash (2), Alex N’Diaye, Eugene Ng (5), Evan Ng (4), Michael Nitting (4), Darragh O’Gorman (3), Nicholas Pachiolo (4), Betsy Peinado (2), Danielle Peterson (1), Gabrielle Pick (2), Joseph Pick (2), Natalie Pruitt (4), Joseph Romano (2), Brandon Rossi (6), Jason Rossi (4), Abigail Shvorin (5), Jonas Singer (2), Joseph Siracusa (2), Samantha Siracusa (4), Kat Slover (3), Delaney Smith (4), Dante Soriano (4), Gian Soriano (1), Will Stearns (4), Jason Steinberg (3), Sachi Tanwar (1), Abir Thakur (6), Katie Tselepis (3), Zowie Vukasinovic (3), Cullen Walsh (6), Ryan Wyer (2) & Grace Zinn.

 

ELITE TO ADD 2 NEW TRAINING GROUPS THIS SPRING:

A SMALL TRAINING GROUP BETWEEN SENIOR PREPS & WAVE GOLDS &

A PRE-COMPETITION TRAINING GROUP;   

 

            Elite will expand during the Spring 2011 Session by adding two training groups to the club. Each group are created to enhance the overall performance of the club. The creation of these groups will have no affect on the training schedule of the existing 7 training groups. The Spring 2011 Session training schedule will be identical to the Winter 2010-11 training schedule.

 

            Starting with the Spring 2011 Session, Elite will promote a very select group of older swimmers (mainly if not totally Seniors-to-be in High School) into a new training group called the Senior Preps-2. This training group will train from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Morristown-Beard School along with the Seniors and Senior Preps. This group will consist of 3-10 swimmers and will train in one lane at a MBS from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

 

          Also starting in the Spring 2011 Session, Elite will create a Pre-Elite Program. This Pre-Elite program will actually be two programs in one:

 

1)      Program #1: For swimmers at the Wavebuster Teal, Marlin Black or Marlin Teal level whom would be turned away at tryouts due to lack of space within these Elite training groups. By offering these swimmers training in the Spring 2011 (and in the Fall 2011 from Sept thru Nov 15), Elite will be developing swimmers to enter Elite when room becomes available. Each year, Elite experiences attrition during the season; this training group would “feed” the Wavebuster Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teal levels during the season when space becomes available. Swimmers in this group will also be given priority entrance into Elite at the next tryout if space does not become available during the season.

 

2)      Program #2: For swimmers who are not yet at the Marlin Teal level. This program will give these swimmers “water time” to develop their swimming within the structure of Elite’s training system. These swimmers will also have priority entrance into Elite upon achieving the Marlin Teal level (when space opens up or at the next tryout).

 

            At the moment, the plan is for the Pre-Elite program will train 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 1 hour (4:00 pm to 5:00 pm).

 

SMALL GROUP TO TRAVEL TO WASH, DC TO COMPETE IN FEB AT IMX GAMES: 

 

            7 Elite Seniors and Senior Preps will travel to Washington, DC in early February to compete in a meet against top regional competition (Maine thru West Virginia). These swimmers will compete in what is billed as USA Swimming’s Eastern Zone IM Xtreme Challenge Games 2010-11. The swimmers who will be participating are either Elite Seniors or Senior Preps and are 14 years or younger; they are: Juliet Felsen, Jess Gorham, Ryan Sebastian, Andrea Shepard, Sarah Slepian, Lindsay Stearns & Caroline Watt.

 

            USA Swimming is gently prodding clubs to develop swimmers that are versatile and well conditioned. Several years ago, USA Swimming created IMX scores (one can go onto USA Swimming website and find their IMX score) to encourage stroke and distance development. Last year, USA Swimming financially backed regional IMX structured meets for swimmers who are 14 & Under and have IMX scores higher than 1800. This year, USA is again backing a regional IM Xtreme Meet. 13 LCS in the Eastern Zone have been invited to participate.

 

            For three reasons, Elite is taking a small contingent this year (Elite has approximately 25 swimmers who have an IMX score higher than 1800). Reason #1 is that this is the first time Elite is participating in this meet (it is the 2nd year of the meet) and Head Coach Bill wants to understand the meet, the competition level and the complexity of traveling with swimmers 14 years and younger before taking a large group. Reason #2 is that the meet information was just provided in late December; attempting to coordinate a large scale travel trip with virtually no lead time and without prior experience suggests Elite will not be able to coordinate this trip for a large group in its accustomed well run style and Reason #3 is that USA Swimming has just released (again, in late December) its Model Travel Policy (related to Athlete Protection). This policy needs to be either adhered to OR a USA Swimming Club needs to have in place a comparable Club Travel Policy starting January 1, 2011. Elite will establish its own Club Travel Policy (Elite already adheres to many USA Swimming’s Travel Policies) but may not be able to establish this formal Club Travel Policy prior to the team traveling to Wash, DC.   

 

….JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE NOT TO LOOK AT OUR PRACTICE SCHEDULE: HIGH SCHOOL MEETS TO DISRUPT PRACTICES:

 

            In December, January and thru the middle of February, high school & middle school swim teams conduct practice and meets at the two pools Elite uses. Incredibly, a total of 7 high school and middle school teams use either Newark Academy or Morristown-Beard School during this time in addition to Elite. What these means to us is that Elite’s practices will be disrupted as meets will encroach upon Elite’s practice times.

 

            On days when there are no meets, Elite’s practices will be held at the usual time. However, on those days when a high school or middle school is using one of our pools for a meet, our practices might be shortened at the front end or on the back end. And meets get canceled and rescheduled. So, please continue to check the practice schedule for practice time changes on a daily basis!!

 

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.

 

            Elite is prompt about ending practice on time. Please help out the coaches by being prompt to pick up your child.

 

TIMING COORDINATORS ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN RESPONDING TO EMAILS:

 

            Parents of Elite swimmers are asked to add the following four email addresses to your e-mail address book to ensure you receive important information regarding Elite Hosted Meets, Timing Information for all other meets and Parent Association Information.  Adding the e-mail addresses will insure that these important e-mails do not go to your junk/spam folder. 

 

Carolyn Balbo -                     cbalbo@comcast.net

Sanjeeta Mukherjee -        sanjumukhe@gmail.com         

Sue Duren -                            sueduren@aol.com

Antone Balbo -                      abalbo@comcast.net

 

NEXT UP: AGE GROUP CHAMPS (& TWST DUAL CANCELLED); GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be Age Group Championships (14 & U qualifiers only) on January 28, 29 & 30. Information regarding this meet is posted on the team website at: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Meet%20Schedule/homepage.htm. Please have your swimmer get in the habit of checking this page on a regular basis (and report back to you about details such as warm-up times, entries, meet locations!).

 

            The Tidal Wave (TWST) dual meet originally scheduled for Sunday, Jan 30 has been cancelled. Elite will hold its normal practice schedule that day.

 

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!!!