ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               10-16-06

 

ELITE HOLDS OWN AGAINST BERKELEY;

DISPLAYS TREMENDOUS DEVELOPMENT: 

 

            In two separate swim meets against the powerful Berkeley Aquatic Club, the Elite Swim Club more than held its own this past Saturday in its first interclub competitions of the Winter 2006-07 Season. The results displayed the tremendous improvement of the Elite Swimmers during the past two years.

 

            The meets were structured for competition between each club’s Age Group Programs. To accomondate the large number of swimmers at each club, Elite and BAC split their squads into two different teams (4 teams total). The stronger squads competed at Morristown-Beard while the secondary squads competed at BAC’s facility in Berkely Heights.

 

Although neither team was focused on a total point score (the main point was to get the swimmers racing and to get times), the young Elite swimmers nearly matched the BAC swimmers in point totals: at the Morristown-Beard meet, Elite’s total point score for the combined Boys and Girls was only 90 points less than BAC’s out of over 4000 points scored!!!

 

At each meet, there was ample display of team spirit by the Elite swimmers. At the Morristown-Beard Meet, the noise during the relays was deafening!!!

 

Thus, the incredible improvement by the Elite Swimmers was fully evident. Momentum is building for an exciting and productive season for the Elite Swimmers!!!

 

            At the Morristown-Beard Meet, Elite swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is # of best times) were: Chris Balbo (3), Courtney Brosnan (2), Alexa Burkard (2), Taylor Campolattaro (2), Brannon Cho (3), Laura Culiuc (2), Tad Deatly (2), Jeffrey Dong (2), Amy Duren (1), Avinash Duvvuri (2), Helena Elston (2), Kristen Fedor (2), Andrea Ferrell (2), Spencer Fisch (3), Hannah Gleason (2), Emily Goad (2), Katie Gorman (3), Scott Harris (2), Brent Jones (2), Zackie Katz (2), Lauren Kelly (2), Morgan Kiley (1), Regan Kology (2), Jared Kovacs (2), Emmie Lai (2), David Lemons (3), Matt Lemons (2), Aaron Levin (2), Brandon Li (2), Michael Li (2), Jessie Lowe (3), Sarah McGrath (2), Matt Migliozzi (2), Brendan Miller-Radest (2), Colin Miller-Radest (2), Kara Miller-Radest (1), Isabella Morreale (2), Cesar Munoz (2), Dan Muro (2), Kendall Murray (2), Caroline Nash (1), Gregory Niccolai (2), Dara O’Gorman (3), Evan O’Hara (3), Christina Pick (2), Gabrielle Pick (2), Michelle Pick (2), Chris Plunkett (2), Katie Ragan (3), Taylor Savarese (2), Amanda Scherb (3), Andrea Shepard (3), Kaitlin Stearns (2), Lindsay Stearns (2), Lexi Tedesco (1), Emily Torre (1), Spence Turkington (2), Caroline Watt (3), Natalie Wetmore (2), Paige Willian (2) & Maggie Woodruff (2). 

 

            At the Berkeley Heights Meet, Elite swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is # of best times) were: Arlynn Baer (2), Megan Balbo (2), Brielle Barba (2), Abbie Bigham (2), Nicole Blum (1), Katie Brosnan (2), Meg Brosnan (1), Keegan Brown (2), Kayla Burchovsky (2), Monica Carty (2), Jonny Crowther (3), Elizabeth D’Altrui (2), Will DeMartin (1), Sam Duren (2), Anna Elston (2), Brandon Faris (2), Emilie Ferguson (2), Katie Golway (2), Alexandra Gordon (1), Dominique Gordon (2), Lydia Gracey (2), Rachel Greene (2), Payton Hakes (3), Alyssa Hartigan (2), Mark Kellstrom (1), Michael Kellstrom (1), Caroline Kelly (2), Sarah Kleppe (2), Patrick Lai (2), Clark LaRaia (2), Isabel LaRaia (2), Ricky LaSalvia (2), Sarah Lowe (2), Daniela Manzi (1), Marisa Manzi (2), Megan McEvoy (2), Katie McGrath (2), Madison Munoz (2), Julia Muro (2), Rebecca Niccolai (2), Nick Pachiolo (2), RJ Serruto (2), Bethany Stachenfeld (2), Spencer Todd (2), Sydney Todd (2), Jennifer Torre (1), Rachel Tortorella (1), Andrea Tyminski (1) & Michael Wang (2).

 

            Full results are posted on the website.

 

START CLINIC THIS SUNDAY IS FULL:

ALTERNATES WILL BE LISTED IN ORDER RECEIVED:

 

            Dean Hutchinson, Assistant Coach at Rider University, will conduct a 4 hour clinic on starts on Sunday, Oct 22 from 12 pm to 4 pm at Morristown-Beard School.

 

            Hutchinson, who attended Auburn University and was ranked 8th in the world in 1994 in the 50 meter freestyle, is a starts expert. Along with providing clinics nationwide, Hutchinson has worked with Pieter von den Hoogenband, an Olympian Gold Medalist from Holland.

 

The clinic is now full, with 50 Elite swimmers having signed up. Alternates will be listed on a 1st come, 1st serve basis and will be offered a spot if openings occur due to sickness, conflicts by any of the 1st 50 registered swimmers.

 

 There will be no practice that day for swimmers in the Marlin Teal, Marlin Black, Wave Teal or Wave Black training groups.

 

DISTANCE DERBY ON THE HORIZON;

HOSTING MEET TAKES FULL TEAM EFFORT:

 

            Each year, Elite runs two (Distance Derby and the 9-10 Silver/Bronze Championships) New Jersey Sanctioned Swim Meets. Elite hosts these two meets for two reasons: 1) to provide opportunities for our swimmers to compete and 2) as a team fundraiser to help keep the costs of running the team down.

 

            Distance Derby will be held on Saturday, November 18 & Sunday, November 19. Swimmers in the Wave Teals, Wave Blacks, Wave Golds, Senior Preps and Seniors will compete in this meet. Parents from these 5 training groups will be expected to help organize and run the meet (there are a myriad of jobs that are needed to be performed during each session each day). In addition, the parents from these 5 training groups will be asked for a small donation (bagels, box of power bars, napkins, etc). These donations will be requested to be delivered to Newark Academy the week prior to the meet.

 

            Parents of the Marlin Teals and Marlin Blacks will also be requested to make a small donation (a case of water per family).

 

            Sharon Brosnan, the Distance Derby Meet Cooridator and Brandy Deatly will be holding parent training group meetings next week (during training group practices) to begin the process of corridinating the parents. Additional information regarding these meetings will be forthcoming (following the ESCPO Board Meeting being held this evening).

 

Please plan to do your part!!! 

 

5 SWIMMERS CONQUER SUMMER “20” CHALLENGE; WILL RECEIVE THEIR AWARDS THIS WEEK:

 

            Five enthusiastic and energetic swimmers took on the “Summer 20” Challenge the Elite coaches issued to all Elite swimmers in the Wavebuster Teal, Marlin Black and Marlin Teal training groups last spring. These special 5 swimmers will receive their awards this week at practice.

 

            Chris Balbo, Megan Balbo, Jonny Crowther, Madeleine Faust & Sarah Lowe were the industrious 5 who meet the Summer 20 Challenge. The swimmers were challenged to practice on their own for 20 separate Elite workouts during the summer. The workouts were posted on the Elite website and the parents of these swimmers have attested to the accomplishment being completed!

 

            The Elite coaches are extremely proud of these swimmers and their hard work. Their persistance and focus are to be commended. Great Job, You Guys!!!!

 

ELITE CAN HELP SAVE RUTGERS MEN’S SWIMMING:

 

            In June 2006, Rutgers University announced that due to a loss of funds from the New Jersey State Government, it would eliminate 6 Varsity Sports. Among the unlucky sports is Men’s Varsity Swimming. Elimination of the 6 sports will save the university approximately $750,000 per year.

 

            Interestingly, 5 of the 6 sports teams Rutgers choose to cut were the top 5 Academic Teams within Rutger’s Varsity Sports (highest GPA’s among Varsity Sports Teams). Quite simply, what is the message this sends to the Student Athlete??

 

            Across the nation, Men’s Varsity Swimming has been eliminated at the college level at an alarming rate (persumably to help ease the Title IX issue but mostly to help fund revenue producing sports such as football and basketball).

 

             Chuck Warner, head coach of Rutgers Men and Women Swimming (no cost reduction in his pay to coach 1 less team), has been vigorously trying to save the Men’s Swimming Program. Chuck strongly believes that if WE show Rutgers/NJ that we care (there is an election in 6 weeks), that the program can be saved. He is working on several different levels: 1) getting influential people involved at the top University/Government level 2) raising money  3) getting the message out for mass support by the public.

 

Chuck has outlined several steps that each swimmer/NJ Club-Y team can help in “our” effort to help save Rutgers Men’s Swimming.

 

            These are the steps YOU and/or ELITE can do to help save Men’s Swimming at Rutgers University:

 

            1) go to the saverutgersswimming.org websit to get familiar with the issues

 

            2) write your congressmen. Purportedly, legislators receive very few letters regarding the issues. If we swamp them with letters in support of Rutgers Swimming, they will become familiar with the issues.

 

            3) plan to attend New Jersey Swimming Day at Rutgers University on Saturday, November 4. That is the day of the “last” Men’s home meet (if we do nothing). Warner is organizing a clinic and hoping to fly in Olympians, etc. to celebrate our successes while sending a message to legislators. Elite will be organizing our mobilization to this event.

 

            The coaches at Elite will be organizing a letter writing campaign during practice to get the message to our legislators directly from our swimmers.

 

To get started, go to the saverutgersswiming.org website. If any Elite parent has influence with Rutgers University or a state government official, please contact Bill immediately. And stay tuned!!! Lets help save our sport!

 

ESCPO NEWS...

           

            Thank you to those families that have already turned in your orders for Yankee Candles!  If anyone else has completed their selling and would like to turn in their completed orders, please put them in the Parent Organization folder in Bill's box at Newark Academy, or for Morristown Beard swimmers, forms can be given to Bill.  Reminder: all orders are due by October 22. If you have not received your Yankee Candle package, could you please let Sandi Niccolai (sandnic@aol.com) know so she can get it to you in the next few days.

 

For those who need registration information, please check under the Parent Org section of the team website for the necessary forms.  Please put completed forms in the Parent Organization folder in Bill's box at Newark Academy, or for Morristown Beard swimmers, forms can be given to Bill.  When forms are returned you will receive a team directory.

 

Forms for ESC merchandise orders, created by Jodi and Paul Shepard, are also available on the website under the Parents Org section.  This merchandise is available for a limited time.  Please complete your orders soon.

 

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!!!