ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               7-18-11

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

AVALANCHE OF JO CUTS ACHIEVED

AT 12 & U SILVER BRONZE!!!

21 SWIMMERS EARN 41 JO CUTS!!

            There is something special about performing one’s best when one’s best is needed. This past weekend at 12 & Under Silver Bronze Championships held at Princeton University, 21 Elite swimmers earned 41 Junior Olympic qualifying times during their last chance this season to qualify. Team JO totals now stand at 51 JO swimmers earning 245 JO events. The hard work this summer has obviously paid off!

            Other numbers were equally impressive: against 60 teams (virtually every team within NJ Swimming), 24 Elite swimmers placed within the top 8 swims 57 different times. 5 swimmers earned their 1st JO cuts this season (3 of them 1st time JO qualifiers!!). In the 12 year old Girls 200 fly, Elite went 1-2-4!. 4 Elite swimmers won a total of 6 events!!

            12 year old Isabelle Malinowski had a superb meet, as she won 2 events, placed in the top 8 in all 6 of her swims and added 4 JO cuts to her impressive 13 Junior Olympic qualifying time resume! Isabelle won both the 50 breast (41.47) and the 100 free (1.07.55), placed 2nd in the 100 breast (1.30.00), 4th in the 200 free (2.30.16), 5th in both the 100 back (1.21.13) and the 400 free (5.21.60). The 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, and the 100 breast were all new JO cuts.

            12 year old Christina Pick, who entered the weekend with 12 JO cuts, earned her 13th & 14th in her only 2 swims: winning both the 200 fly (2.47.42) and the 100 breast (1.28.43).

            Possibly the biggest surprise swim of the weekend was 10 year old Michael Rizzo, who rocketed to a victory in the 50 back with his 3.2 second drop to a 42.83. Michael’s time earned him his 1st career JO cut!!

            12 year old Alicia Iizuka, no stranger to winning events, placed 1st in the 200 IM in 2.49.85 & a JO qualifying time. Alicia also placed 7th in the 400 IM (6.10.25) to add her 2nd JO cut of the weekend. Alicia also placed 5th in the 50 fly (36.00).

            That other fast Gorham kid (Emily) also had a “Gorham-like” meet. Emily swam 6 times and earned JO’s in 5 of those events: 400 free (5.17.14-2nd place), 200 free (2.29.85-3rd place), 200 fly (3.04.12-4th place), 100 breast (1.32.53-5th place) & 200 breast (3.21.44-9th place). Her only non-JO cut was in the 200 back, which she missed by .06 of a second!!!

            10 year old Sydney Slepian (that other fast Slepian kid!!) corralled 4 new JO qualifying times to finish her lcm season with 9. Sydney placed 3rd in both the 100 free (1.19.96) and the 50 fly (40.81) and followed up with a7th place 400 free swim (6.16.88). Sydney’s last JO cut was the 200 free (2.57.43).

            11 year old Evan Ng placed 2nd in two of his events: the 400 free (5.20.85) and the 100 fly (1.21.41)-both in JO style. Evan also went gold in 400 IM (6.17.43) in placing 5th and added a 4th place finish in the 200 fly (3.15.44).

            12 year old Amy Duren pushed her JO totals to 9 with her 2 new ones this weekend: 400 free (5.24.61) and 200 back (2.54.46). Ironically, Amy’s best finish was her 6th place in the 50 back (36.90), which missed JO’s by .01!

            11 year old Brandon Li placed in the top eight 4 different times in earning two new JO cuts. Brandon placed 2nd in the 100 breast (1.32.89) and dropped 8 seconds to place 8th in the 400 IM-6.20.20-both were JO swims. Brandon also nabbed 4th place in the 200 IM (2.57.50) and 7th in the 200 back (2.59.61).

            12 year old Brandon Rossi rocked both his 100 breast (1.32.26-2nd place) and his 50 free (31.66-3rd place) races for future JO swims. Brandon also placed in the top 8 in both the 50 breast (44.02-5th place) and 100 free (1.10.96-8th place).

            12 year old Jimmy Coyne earned just one JO cut, but it was a very special swim. Jimmy placed 2nd overall in dropping 8.7 seconds in the 200 IM (2.51.59).

            Like in the spring Silver Bronze meet, 10 year old Sandeepan Mukherjee waited until the last chance to earn his JO shirt; Sandeepan earned his 1st two JO cuts this weekend by placing 3rd in the 100 free (1.18.07) and 6th in the 400 free (6.12.96). Sandeepan also placed in the top 8 in 3 other events: 5th in the 50 fly (43.19), 7th in the 200 free (2.55.04) and 8th in the 50 free (35.83).

            9 year old Erica Iizuka became the 1st Iizuka to earn a freestyle JO cut with her 5th place, 100 free 1.20.94 swim. Erica followed that up with another freestyle doozy: dropping nearly 14 seconds to place 5th in the 400 Free (6.10.66), also in JO style.

            12 year old Angharad Healey, new to Elite this spring, earned her 1st Elite JO swim with her 2nd place, 3.02.71 time in the grueling 200 fly!

             9 year old Melody Chen, who arrived from California just last month, earned her 1st NJ Junior Olympic qualifying time with her 3rd place finish in the 100 back (1.29.94). Melody also placed 5th in the 50 back (44.06).

            10 year old Summer Felsen (that other fast Felsen kid) earned her 1st career JO qualifying time with her 1.3 second drop in the 50 free (36.06).

            10 year old Emily Fu earned her 6th Junior Olympic swim with her 41.88, 6th place performance in the 50 butterfly.

            10 year old Monica Iizuka pushed her JO total to 4 with her 7th place, 3.18.78 time in the 200 IM.

            12 year old Abbie Bigham finished up the lcm season with 8 JO cuts, adding the 200 free this weekend in her 2.32.43, 7th place finish. Abbie also placed 8th in the 50 fly (36.14) and just missed the 100 free JO cut when her 1.10.20 time came up just .01 short!

            12 year old Gian Soriano grabbed his 3rd JO swim with his 3rd place, 38.25 swim in the 50 back.

            9 year old Joe Pick earned his 2nd swim at JOs with his 41.17, placing him 2nd in the event. Joe also earned a 3rd place finish with his 3.17.83 time in the 200 IM.

            Also placing within the top 8 were:

1)      Claire Xu-placing in the top eight 3 different times: 4th in the 200 back (2.57.34), 5th in the 1oo back (1.21.84) & 6th in the 100 breast (1.35.72)

2)      Megan Balbo-6th place finish in the 400 IM (7.20.45)

3)      Katy Shepard-7th place finish in the 400 free (5.50.69)   

            Please note the following 14 (!!) swimmers had 6 personal bests in 6 tries: Megan Bablo, Amy Duren, Emily Gorham, Alicia Iizuka, Monica Iizuka, Rachel Keselman, Audrey Kim, Isabelle Malinowski, Sandeepan Mukherjee, Evan Ng, Sydney Slepian, Gian Soriano, Adam Vaynerman & Claire Xu!!

Full results are posted on the team website.

Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite LCM best times):  Megan  Balbo (6), Abbie Bigham (5), Jimmy Coyne (4), Nathan Davidovich (1), Amy Duren (6), Summer Felsen (1), Emily Fu (4), Emily Gorham (6), Jasmine Gulati (2), Gabby Hayek (3), Alicia Iizuka (6), Erica Iizuka (4), Karen Iizuka (5), Monica Iizuka (6), Katie Iovel (3), Rachel Keselman (6), Audrey Kim (6), Jessica Kraus (4), Brandon Li (5), Sarah Lowe, Teddy Maguire (5), Isabelle Malinowski (6), Sandeepan Mukherjee (6), Fred Nagle (4), Evan Ng (6), Emily Peter (2), Christina Pick (2), Joe Pick (3), Michael Rizzo (5), Niki Rizzo (4), Brandon Rossi (5), Katy Shepard (5), Sydney Slepian (6), Gian Soriano (6), Will Stearns (4), Adam Vaynerman (6), Vivian Xia (4), Claire Xu (6) & Katherine Zhang (2).

LAST CHANCE UPDATES TIMES:

            21 swimmers competed in Bayonne on Friday night, as a make-up from the rained out meet last Friday. Despite a “cloudy” pool that made navigating turns difficult, 16 of those swimmers posted new best times.

            14 year old Elizabeth D’Altrui led Elite as she posted 3 new best times. Elizabeth snagged a Silver time in her 1st attempt at the 200 fly lcm and placed 5th with her 3.03.64 swim. Elizabeth also dropped significant time in the 100 fly (1.19.11-4 seconds) and the 200 breast (3.18.45-6 seconds).

            14 year old Karl Melchior sliced off 14 seconds from his 200 breast time (3.05.87). In placing 7th, Karl put himself within range of a JO cut. Earlier, Karl clipped 7 seconds off his 100 breast time (1.26.90).

            13 year old Jared Kovacs reduced his 200 IM time by 19 seconds (2.50.60), his 100 breast by 1.3 seconds (1.30.37) and posted his 3rd best time in his 1st attempt at the 200 back (3.02.64).  

            No new JO cuts were achieved. Full results are posted on the team website.

            Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite LCM best times):  Chelsea Allocco (2), Brielle Barba (1), Meggie Butler (2), Alyssa Cataldo (2), Grace Chang (2), John Chiang, Elizabeth D’Altrui (3), Corey Duren, Avinash Duvvuri (1), Andrea Ferrell (1), Natalie Kawam (2), Jared Kovacs (3), Clark LaRaia (1), Patrick Lai (1), Cody Matheson (1), Karl Melchior (2), Isabella Morreale (1), Charlotte Morrissey (2), Eugene Ng, Nicholas Pachiolo, Abir Thakur.

TRYOUTS TUESDAY, JULY 19; VOLUNTEER TIMERS WELCOME:  

            Tryouts for Elite’s Winter 2011-12 Season will be held Tuesday, July 19 at Morristown-Beard from 4 pm to 6 pm. There will be no pm practices held that day.  

            The Supplemental Tryouts will be held Tuesday, September 6 at Newark Academy at 4:30 pm.  

            Elite swimmers and/or Parents are welcome to volunteer their time to help the coaches out at both tryouts!

OLYMPIANS COMING TO DREW UNIVERSITY SUNDAY, SEPT 25TH:

 

            Drew University Swimming has announced that the Swim Champions: Fitter & Faster Tour will once again be stopping in Madison, NJ. This year’s clinic will be held on Sunday, September 25th @ 1:00 pm.  Local Olympic Silver & Bronze Medalist (2008) Julia Smit and Olympic Gold Medalist (2000, '04 & '08) Ian Crocker.

 

            Please note that in order to afford a world class swimmer like Jason Lezak to come to Elite, ESCPO will not be hosting an Olympian Day this year but will be saving its money for 2012-13. Thus, this clinic at Drew University may be one’s best opportunity to see Olympians this coming winter!

 

            Space will be limited, so sign up early. Be sure to go directly to the web page to register: http://www.swimchampions.com/detail/madison-nj/.  

SENIORS & SENIOR PREPS: YOUR VIDEO IS ON YOUTUBE;

            Along with the new website that will signal a new technological era in Elite Swimming history, Coach Bill Deatly has begun filming Elite swimmers in their competition. Most recently, Seniors and Senior Preps were filmed digitally at Summer Sizzle and many of those videos have been uploaded to YouTube: EliteswimmingNJ link: http://www.youtube.com/user/EliteSwimmingNJ#p/u.

            Going forward, Elite coaches will devise a plan on what and whom to video. Plans are being made to have the Seniors & Senior Preps underwater stroke technique video uploaded so parents and swimmers can visit the coaches stroke technique sessions.

            Filming all swimmers at all meets is not feasible (especially during short course-winter session, when many of our competitions are held in two pools simultaneously).

COACHING STAFF FOR WINTER 2011-12

            Head Coach Bill Deatly announces the coaching staff for the Winter 2011-12 training cycle:

            Seniors & Senior Preps: Head Training Group Coach: Bill Deatly

                                                    Stroke Technicians: Cindy Ross & Michael Turkot

            Wavebuster Golds: Head Training Group Coach: Ashley Johnston

                                            Stroke Technicians: Patty Martin & Michelle Ducharme

            Wavebuster Blacks: Head Training Group Coach: Krystal Slepian

                                             Stroke Technician: Patty Martin

            Wavebuster Teals: Head Training Group Coach: Michelle DuCharme

                                           Stroke Technician: Emilie Hottat

            Marlin Blacks: Head Training Group Coach: Brandy Deatly

                                     Stroke Technician: Patty Martin

            Marlin Teals: Head Training Group Coach: Michelle DuCharme

                                    Stroke Technician: Jess Kurylak

            Pre-Elite: Stroke Technicians: Brandy Deatly, Emilie Hottat & Jess Kurylak

“SOFT SELLING” ELITE IS LIFEBLOOD OF CLUB;

BILL AVAILABLE FOR CLINICS AT SUMMER CLUBS

 

            Summer Swim Teams are the lifeblood of year round swim clubs like Elite. Swimmers who enjoy the training and competition of their summer clubs form the vast majority of new swimmers into “winter” or “club” swimming.  

 

            The expected terrific swimming performed by Elite swimmers this coming summer in their dual meet and championship competition will be the main selling point of the club. Elite swimmers will be among the best (if not the best) swimmers in their races. They should be, they have worked hard and have earned that right!!  

 

            Parents of Elite swimmers are requested to “soft-sell” Elite; meaning they should await an approach by an interested swimmers/parents, but then earnestly provide information to such people upon their approach. Elite parents and swimmers are highly encouraged to point perspective swimmers to the team website and to instruct interested parties to email Bill regarding questions about the club.

 

            As in past summers, Head Coach Bill is available to provide a swim clinic at local summer clubs. If your summer club or summer swim coach has an interest in a clinic by Bill, please contact Bill to set up a clinic date!  

RISING SENIORS (IN HIGH SCHOOL), JULY AND AUGUST ARE THE “OFFICIAL COLLEGE ESSAY MONTHS!!!:

 

            All rising Seniors in high school should take advantage of some down-time and prepare your college essay this summer. July and August are “Official College Essay Months!!!

            1st semester Seniors have a tremendous workload in addition to being under a tremendous amount of stress. 1st semester Seniors have: 1) college visits (swimmers may have college recruiting visits that last Friday thru Sunday) 2) SAT preparation 3) preparing college applications 4) keeping up their grades (colleges will want to see the 1st semester grades) and 4) swimming workload (college coaches expect swimmers to be training at their usual full schedule).

            Thus, organizing and writing one’s college essay during the “down” months of July and August is extremely productive and wise.

SAY CHEESE AND DOWNLOAD PLEASE!

MEMORY BOOK PICTURES NEEDED!

 

            It is never too early to think about next years memory book!  Thank you Pam Coyne for doing a great job with the memory book this year!  Laura Matheson (Cody's mom!) has agreed to put together the book and slide show for next years banquet.   Parents and swimmers can provide pictures to Laura by email kmatheson531@earthlink.net, by thumb drive or by compact disk.  Laura can usually be found in the bleachers during Wave Gold practices.  Send your pictures to Laura as you take them and she will be sure that some of your favorite photos are included in this years memory book!  Remember, summer is a great time to get candid shots of your favorite swimmers at practice or at our many fun filled events.   

 

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: 13 & OLDER SILVER BRONZE GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be 13 & Older Silver Bronze Friday, July 22nd thru Sunday, July 24 at Rutgers. Elite will have multiple timing assignments. Please have your swimmer get in the habit of checking the team website 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!!!