ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               11-16-09         

 

 

YOUNGERS CONTINUE TEAM MOMENTUM AGAINST GATORS:

S. FELSEN, E. GORHAM (2), A. IIZUKA, E. IIZUKA (2), M. IIZUKA (2), NG, J. PICK, G. SORIANO (3), J. WENZEL (3) WIN EVENTS;  EVAN NG, CLAIRE XU ADD JO CUTS;

 

            The Elite Wavebuster Teals, Marlin Blacks and Marlin Teals traveled to Cranford to compete against the Jersey Gators in a dual meet this weekend. Nine different Elite swimmers won 16 of the 38 events, demonstrating that Elite’s younger program is equally as strong as the other parts of the team. For the Marlin Teals, the meet was their first competition of this training season.

 

            10 year old Gian Soriano and 8 year old Jack Wenzel led Elite, winning all three events they competed in. Gian won the 50 free (32.05), 50 back (38.85) and the 50 breast (44.37). In his first meet of the year (Jack is a Marlin Teal), Wenzel won the 50 free (37.81), the 50 back (46.86) and the 50 fly (46.34).

 

            10 year old Emily Gorham and 8 year old twins Erica and Monica Iizuka won 2 events apiece. Gorham touched first in both the 50 back (35.45) and the 50 breast (43.87) while finishing 2nd in the 50 fly (35.30).  Erica won both the 50 breast (50.64) and the 50 fly (44.80) while also finishing 2nd in her 3rd event, the 100 IM (1.34.62) behind sister Monica. Monica won the 100 IM (1.34.46-dropping 9 seconds) and the 50 back (43.47).

 

            10 year old Evan Ng also had a 1-2 day in winning the 50 fly (37.36 in a Junior Olympic time-his 1st this year) and placing 2nd in the 50 back (40.21). 8 year old Summer Felsen, also appearing in her first meet this season, won the 50 free in 38.50 time while placing 2nd in the 50 back in 47.76.

 

            8 year old Joseph Pick dropped 11.5 seconds in winning the 100 IM (1.40.61). Alicia Iizuka as the fastest in the 50 free (34.37).

 

            Finishing 2nd in JO qualifying time fashion was Claire Xu in the 50 back-37.42. Xu and Ng’s JO cuts push Elite’s JO resume to 34 swimmers in 138 events.

 

            8 year old Will Stearns finished 2nd in all three of his swims: 100 IM-1.43.66 (26 second drop!), 50 free-39.02 & the 50 fly –49.85 while 8 year old Sachi Tanwar was a double 2nd place finisher (50 free-40.25 & 50 fly-48.71).

 

Also finishing 2nd was 10 year old Karen Iizuka (100 IM-1.22.39), 10 year old Andrew Huang (100 IM-1.25.80),  11 year old Emily Goad (100 free-1.14.01) 11 year old Michael Macchia (100 free-1.22.93), 8 year old Maddy Kretten (50 breast-58.44), 10 year old Brandon Li (50 fly-41.56) and 12 year old Cody Matheson (100 fly-1.30.30).

 

Swimmers who participated (# in parathesis is number of best Elite SCY best times):  Megan Balbo, Brielle Barba (3), Katie Brosnan (1), Schulyer Bunn (3), Cordelia Burn (3), Eloise Burn (2), Sarah Burn (3), Meggie Butler (2), Peter Carchia (3), Richie Carchia, Claire Chiperfield (3), Jimmy Coyne (2), Aaron Damesek (2), Carolyn Delaney (1), Ryan Dorneo (2), Avinash Duvvuri (1), Summer Felsen (3), Elizabeth Fenton (3), Andy Fresen, Katherine Friday (2), Clio Galea (3), Tabatha Georget (2), Patrick Gilfillan (2), Emily Goad (2), Emily Gorham (2), Gab Hayet (3), Rachel Hong (3), Andrew Huang (1), Jennifer Huo, Lynna Huo (2), Alicia Iizuka (2), Erica Iizuka, Karen Iizuka (2), Monica Iizuka (1), Katie Iovel, Alex Jacobs (3), Sara Jacobs (1), Rachel Keselman (3), Lara-Grace Kology (2), Jessica Kraus (2), Maddy Kretten (3), Alyssa Levy (3), Brandon Li, Michael Macchia (2), Livia Maguire (3), Teddy Maguire (3), Cody Matheson (2), Reid McBoyle (3), Sandeepan Mukherjee (1), Evan Ng (3), Joseph Pick (2), Natalie Pruitt (2), Angela Relota (3), Katy Shepard (1), Abigail Shvorin (2), Delaney Smith (3), Dante Soriano (2), Gian Soriano (2), Will Stearns (2), Sachi Tanwar (2), Katie Tselepis (3), Jack Wenzel (2), Doris Xia (3), Vivian Xia, Claire Xu (2) & Grace Xu (1).

 

PRACTICE SCHEDULE CHANGES (SLIGHTLY) TODAY FOR MARLIN TEALS & MARLIN BLACKS….

 

Swimmers and Parents are reminded that the practice schedule will change today Monday, November 16. The changes will only affect the Marlin Teals and the Marlin Blacks practices.

           

Starting Monday, November 16, Newark Academy’s high school and middle schools will begin training for their winter competitions. To accommodate NA, the immediate effect will be that the Marlin Teals and Marlin Blacks will “lose” 15 minutes of training (actually, we add 15 minutes of training in September and October and just revert back to the original practice schedule) and begin training at 5:15 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Practice for these groups will still conclude at 6:00 pm.

 

….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 into Elite’s practice times.

 

            On days when there are no meets, Elite’s practices will be held at the identical 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!!

 

DISTANCE DERBY THIS COMING WEEKEND; COST POLICIES IN PLACE;

 

            In order to help provide racing opportunities for our swimmers, Elite hosts or co-hosts New Jersey Swimming/USA Swimming sanctioned meets thru the swimming year (September thru July). Times from these meets are downloaded into USA Swimming’s SWIMS database (truly, the national swimming database for times, as in addition to USA Swimming meets, YMCA championship meets and NCAA championship meets are included in this database). One can access this database at http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=358&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en-US.

 

            This year (Sept 2009 thru July, 2010), Elite will host 2 meets and co-host 3 meets. Co-hosting meets allows Elite to run meets without the full burden of hosting the meet. Hosting meets is a significant burden on the club’s membership (fully recognized by the coaching staff and appreciated). Both hosting and co-hosting meets provides our swimmers and swimmers from other clubs “splash” opportunities in racing situations. Next weekend, X-Cel at Fall Festival will be providing that opportunity for our club. Thus, NJ Swimming is a community, and Elite needs to do its part as part of this swimming community.

 

            The first meet Elite hosts each year is Distance Derby, to be held this year on Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22 (this weekend!!) at Newark Academy.  All Elite swimmers in the Senior and Wavebuster training groups are entered into this meet. Parents of every swimmer in the Senior and Wavebuster training groups (Gold, Black and Teal) are expected to work this meet in the sessions that their swimmer(s) are participating in as part of their parental obligation to Elite. Jobs include officiating, timing, concessions, admissions, coaches hospitality, set-up & clean-up.

 

            Coordinating this year’s Distance Derby Parents is Carolyn Balbo (thanks Carolyn!). Carolyn will be emailing a questionnaire to all parents this week requesting preferences as to what work each parent prefers. Response to Carolyn’s emails has been terrific! (thanks parents!). Please maek sure you have confirmed your work assignment with Carolyn, if you have not yet done so. Carolyn’s email is: cbalbo@comcast.net.

 

            Elite’s policy regarding admissions fees at these meets are as follows: 1) Elite worker gets in free for the session the worker works 2) spouse of worker pays admission, unless spouse is also working the session 3) all Elite parents, workers or not, must pay for the meet program. These policies are instituted to help offset the cost of hosting the meet (pool rental, meet management costs, supplies, etc).

 

ESCPO ORGANIZES ELITE SWIM BAGS AND DRAG SUITS TO BE SOLD AT DISTANCE DERBY:

 

            The Elite Swim Club Parents Organization has organized that Elite swim bags and Elite drag suits will be sold at Distance Derby this year as a fundraiser to ESCPO.

 

            Metro Swim Shop, which will be the vendor this year, has created several samples of the swim bags and the drag suits and will bring them to the meet. Elite parents and swimmers will be able to order the swim bags and drag suits at the meet. Swimmers and parents will not be able to purchase these at a later date.

 

            The swim bag will come with Elite Swimming embroidered on it. The cost will be approximately $80. If a parent/swimmer wants additional words embroidered (like one’s name, it will cost an additional $7 per word).

           

            The drag suit will have ESC on the back. The cost of the drag suit will be approximately $40.

 

ADDITIONAL 12 & UNDER ENTRIES FOR WINTERFEST; PRINCETON ENTRIES ALSO MODIFIED FOR 12 & UNDERS:

 

            Elite was able to modify its 12 & Under entries for Winterfest, adding those swimmers and swims achieved at Fall Festival. The 13 & Olders portion of the meet was closed prior to competition at Fall Festival; thus no modifications of entries for 13 & Older were made for Winterfest.

 

            As a result of the modification of the Winterfest entries, the Princeton Invitationals entries were also modified to take into consideration the Winterfest modifications. An attempt was made to provide as many different events per swimmer between the two meets held in January.

 

JOURNALISM INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE WITH SWIMMING WORLD AT CERA VE INVITATIONAL IN JANUARY:

 

            Recreating the opportunity provided to New Jersey Swimmers last winter, Swimming World and Berkeley Aquatic Club will provide journal internships during the Cera Ve Invitational Meet to be held January 15 thru January 17, 2010.

 

            With the overwhelming success of the Summer 2008 Beijing Olympics and what swimming as a sport provided to that success, swimming is becoming more main-stream each year. This winter, NBC Sports will be telecasting the USA/European Dual in the Pool contact in December, 2009.

 

            Swimming World, the most widely read swimming magazine, will be providing internships for those people in New Jersey to 1) to interview Olympians and top swimmers at the meet 2) to be  involved in producing content for Swimming World’s magazine and website-both audio and visual and 3) to interact with the Swimming World Staff.

 

            Last year, Elite swimmer Sam Duren (now a Senior Prep) took advantage of this opportunity.  

 

            Forms for applying for the internship are attached to this memo.

 

“COLLEGE DAY”; BILL TO DISCUSS THE COLLEGE HUNTING/SWIMMING RECRUITMENT PROCESS ON FRIDAY, NOV 27:

 

            All swimmers (particularly juniors and sophomores) and all parents are welcome to a seminar Bill will conduct on Friday, Nov 27 at Morristown-Beard School from 10:30 am to 11:30 am regarding the College Hunting/Swimming Recruitment process.

 

            Bill will provide his insight into 1) when to start the college hunting process 2) how to determine what colleges are right for the student 3) if your swimmer plans to swim in college, how to attack the recruiting process and 4) when and how often to engage conversation with college swim coaches.

 

            Swimmers should bring pens and several pieces of paper to take notes..

 

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 virtually every night.

 

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

 

CLOTHING ITEMS CAN BE PURCHASED THRU ESCPO:

 

            The Elite Swim Club Parents Organization is offering “Elite-wear” to anyone interested in buying clothing with the Elite logo or name on it. This items are great birthday and holiday gifts.

 

            The link to the items available is: http://www.eliteswimclub.org/Parents Org/ELITE 2009 Clothing.pdf

 

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!!!