ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               11-22-10

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

 

ELITE HOSTS WITH USUAL CLASS:

SWIMMERS AND PARENTS PERFORM MAGNIFICIENTLY AT DISTANCE DERBY;

C. BALBO (3), A. MAYERS, E. NG, O’GORMAN, SEBASTIAN, A. SHEPARD, K. STEARNS (3), STRAND, SUN, C. XU & G. XU (3) WIN 17 EVENTS;

E. GORHAM, E. IIZUKA (2), K. STEARNS, SUN  & C. XU ADD 6 JO CUTS:

 

            By the narrowest of margins, the Elite Swimmers outperformed their Parents yesterday at Newark Academy. While Elite swimmers were pulling in 17 wins (out of 52 events) in the pool, their parents were providing a smoothly run meet that enabled swimmers from 9 different teams over 1300 splash opportunities. Countless participants and their parents thanked Elite workers for their hard work throughout day and a half meet.

 

             10 year old Grace Xu, 12 year old Kaitlin Stearns and 12 year old Chris Balbo lead Elite as each won 3 individual races. 10 year old Xu won the 100 breast (1.25.56), 100 fly (1.23.72) and the 100 free (1.08.89).  

 

            Stearns’s continued hard work on her weakest stroke, the breaststroke, enabled her to drop 31 seconds to win the 400 IM in 5.10.62 (also a new JO swim for her; Kaitlin now has 15 JO cuts!). Stearns won the 500 free (5.30.52) and the Open 1000 free (meaning she beat swimmers of all ages) with a 11.26.23 performance.

 

             Balbo dropped 11 seconds to win the 500 free (5.26.01) and followed up with a win in both the 200 fly (2.22.28) and the 400 IM (4.59.56).

 

            Four Elite swimmers (Ryan Sebastian, Evan Ng and Claire Xu) won an event and followed up with a 2nd place finish in another event. 14 year old Ryan Sebastian continued his assault on his best times, going two for two this week. Ryan won the 200 breast (2.22.06) and placing 2nd in the 500 free (5.04.75).

 

            Along with winning the 100 free (1.05.44 with a 4.45 second drop), Evan Ng also had personal bests in each of his other 3 events, including the 100 fly (1.18.34) where he placed 2nd.

 

            10 year old Claire Xu’s 12 second drop in the 200 IM (good enough for 2nd place & a new JO cut) was topped only by her 1st place finish in the 100 back (1.18.87).

 

            9 year old Angelina Mayers snagged a 1st place medal in the 50 back (47.41) after placing 2nd in the 50 free (39.36).

 

            14 year Darragh O’Gorman, who this summer swam from Alcatraz Prison to San Francisco, showed off his pool stuff in winning the 400 IM (5.03.08-a 32 second drop). Darragh’s 500 free saw a 40 second drop!

 

            14 Andrea Shepard, racing stroke for stroke for the 1st 150 yards, pulled away from her competition to win the 200 fly (2.30.55).

 

            10 year Brittany Sun dropped 4 seconds in winning the 200 IM (2.l55.30) and dipping under the JO standard! Brittany also placed 3rd in the 100 back (1.20.90).

 

            17 year old Michael Strand, in his only event of the meet, won the 500 free in a personal best 4.46.70.

 

            9 year old Erica Iizuka (turned 9 last Monday) grabbed her first two Junior Olympic cuts this weekend. Erica dropped almost 10 seconds in the 100 fly (1.25.44) to pick up her first gold time (JO time=gold time) to place 2nd and then followed up with a 14 second drop in the 100 breast (1.32.68) for her 2nd gold swim.

 

            14 year old Lindsay Stearns placed 2nd in each of her events (200 breast-2.43.81 & 200 back-2.25.01). 17 year old Maggie Nelson also placed 2nd in both her events (200 fly-2.25.23 & 1000 free-11.37.33).

 

            13 year old Cullen Walsh, who arrived at Elite this fall with distance freestyle on his mind, expanded his horizons by placing 2nd in the 200 fly with his 2.35.85 performance. Still on fire is 14 year old Caroline Watt, who has had a spectacular season already (and we are not yet half way thru). Caroline placed 2nd with her 5 second drop in the 500 free (5.30.59).

 

            13 year old Gabrielle Pick dropped 7 seconds in the 400 IM to place 2nd (5.18.33). 8 year old Will Nash snagged 2nd place in the 50 back (44.36). 8 year old Sophie Lawrence was 2nd in the 50 back (51.34). 12 year old Scott Harris picked up a 2nd place medal in the 200 IM (2.30.01). 12 year old Morgan Conley, who had significant time drops in all 4 of her events, placed 2nd in the 200 breast (3.01.46).

 

            11 year old Emily Gorham refuted her belief that she is a sprinter by dropping 27 seconds to earn her 1st JO cut of the year in the 400 IM (5.31.20).

 

            Full team results are on the website under Meet Results while full meet results are on the website under Distance Derby.         

 

Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite SCY best times): Matthew Ahlmeyer (2), Jenni Allocco (2), Tara Balan (1), Chris Balbo (2), Megan Balbo (4), Milind Bangalore (2), Sheetal Bangalore (2), Brielle Barba (4), Lindsay Behar (2), Isabella Beltran (3), Natalia Beltran (3), Abbie Bigham (4), Katie Brosnan (1), Caitlin Brown, Schuyler Bunn (4), Cordelia Burn (1), Eloise Burn (4), Sarah Burn (2), Meggie Butler (4), Ben Campbell (1), Jessica Carchia (2), Peter Carchia (2), Richie Carchia (3), John Chiang (2), Claire Chiperfield (1), Koby Cohen (2), Morgan Conley (4), Jimmy Coyne (3), Matthew Critchley (1), Elizabeth D’Altrui (2), Aaron Damesek (2), Drew D’Andrea (2), Nathan Davidovich (4), Gauri Deorkar (1), Nikhil Deorkar (2), Anthony Don (1), Katharina Dowlin (2), Amy Duren (2), Corey Duren (2), Sam Duren (1), Avinash Duvvuri (2), Krishna Duvvuri (2), Priya Duvvuri, Lindsay Ellerthorpe (2), Rachel Emodi (2), Juliet Felsen, Summer Felsen (2), Andrea Ferrell (2), Andy Fresen (2), Katherine Friday (1), Emily Fu (3), Ariel Gelman (1), Patrick Gilfillan (4), Lindsay Giostra (1), Emily Gorham (4), Jess Gorham (1), Paul Guenther (1), Jasmine Gulati (3), Claire Hagerstrom (1), Scott Harris (2), Abbie Hartwig (3), Meg Hawkins (1), Gab Hayek (4), Jeffrey Ho (2), Andrew Huang (4), Sarah Hui (2), Jennifer Huo (3), Alicia Iizuka (3), Erica Iizuka (4), Karen Iizuka (4), Monica Iizuka (4), Katie Iovel (3), Alex Jacobs (2), Sarah Jacobs (2), Jonathan Kao (2), Rachel Keselman (4), Audrey Kim (4), Jared Kovacs (3), Jessica Kraus (3), Hardie Kressler (2), Sophie Kushen (3), Emmie Lai (1), Ryan Lam (1), Clark LaRaia (2), Isabel LaRaia, Chloe Lawrence (3), Sophie Lawrence (2), Grace Levy, Alyssa Levey (1), Brandon Li (4), Ben Litvin, Sarah Lowe (3), Greg Macchia (2), Michael Macchia (4), Livia Maguire (3), Teddy Maguire (2), Isabelle Malinowski (4), Cody Matheson (2), Angelina Mayers (2), Leighton Mayers (1), Paige McBoyle (1), Reid McBoyle (2), Katie McGrath, Karl Melchior (1), Matthew Migliozzi (4), Ryan Miller (2), Ali Morreale, Isabelle Morreale (2), Charlotte Morrissey (1), Sandeepan Mukherjee (3), Shonchori Mukherjee (2), Fred Nagle (4), Caroline Nash (1), Will Nash (2), Alex N’Diaye, Maggie Nelson (1), Eugene Ng (2), Evan Ng (4), Michael Nitting (2), Darragh O’Gorman (2), Nicholas Pachiolo (2), Betsy Peinado (2), Danielle Peterson (4), Gabrielle Pick (2), Joseph Pick (3), Natalie Pruitt (3), Mikala Quinn (1), Joseph Romano (2), Brandon Rossi (2), Jason Rossi (2), Dmitriy Savomskiy (2), Ryan Sebastian (2), Andrea Shepard, Katy Shepard (3), Abigail Shvorin (4), Jonas Singer (2), Joseph Siracusa (2), Samantha Siracusa (3), Kat Slover (2), Delaney Smith, Dante Soriano (2), Gian Soriano (3), Kaitlin Stearns (3), Lindsay Stearns, Will Stearns (2), Jason Steinberg (2), Michael Strand (1), Brittany Sun (4), Sachi Tanwar (4), Abir Thakur (3), Katie Tselepis (3), Zowie Vukasinovic (2), Cullen Walsh (2), Caroline Watt (2), Ryan Wyer (1), Doris Xia (4), Vivian Xia (4), Claire Xu (3), Gloria Xu, Grace Xu (3), Remena Xu, Katherine Zhang (2) & Grace Zinn (1).

 

ATHLETE PROTECTION: ELITE NOW HAS NAVIGATION BAR TO HELP!!

 

            Following USA Swimming’s lead in trying to be the at the forefront of Athlete Protection in structures sports programs, Elite has added an Athlete Protection Navigation Button on its website. Information on our website is identical to that on USA Swimming’s website.

 

            As additional information regarding Athlete Protection is provided by USA Swimming, Elite will update its Athlete Protection data according.

 

“COLLEGE DAY”; BILL TO DISCUSS THE COLLEGE HUNTING/SWIMMING RECRUITMENT PROCESS ON (THIS) FRIDAY, NOV 26:

 

            All swimmers (particularly juniors and sophomores) and all parents are welcome to a seminar that Bill will conduct on this Friday, Nov 26 (day after Thanksgiving) at Morristown-Beard School from 9:30 am to 10:30 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.

 

ESCPO ANNOUNCES FLEECE AND WINDBREAKERS HAVE ARRIVED:

 

               The fleece and windbreakers, order thru ESCPO, have arrived. Jodi Shepard will be at Newark Academy tonight (Monday) at 6 for Marlins and Wave Blacks pickup, and tomorrow (Tuesday)at 6:30 for Wave Teals and Wave Golds.  Seniors/Senior Preps will be brought to Morristown Beard tonight. 

            Allison also has Elite magnets and Elite Window Clings.  Email her at allisonrnash@msn.com if you need them.
Thanks, in advance, for picking up your Elite wear!!!

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.

 

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 CeraVe Invitational Meet to be held January 14 thru January 16, 2011.

 

            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. NBC Sports has increased its coverage of high level swimming, including telecasting the Pan Pacific Games this past summer.

 

            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.

 

            For the past two years, Elite swimmer Sam Duren (now a Senior Prep) took advantage of this opportunity.

 

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

 

 

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: GATOR GRID IRON; GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be Gator Grid Iron (Wave Golds, Wave Blacks, Wave Teals, Marlin Blacks & Marlin Teals who have 3 or less swims in Holiday Classic). 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!

 

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!!!