ELITE NEWS BULLETIN               7-25-11

 

    “Cultivating Excellence in Academics, Character and Swimming”

17 JO CUTS ACHIEVED AT 13 & O SILVER BRONZE

TWO WEEK TOTAL = 58

C. ALLOCCO, GIOSTRA, M. LI, G. PICK (2), WALSH & WYER WIN 7 EVENTS!!!

G. PICK EARNS ZONE CUT!!

            Seven Elite 13 & Olders picked up 17 new Junior Olympic qualifying times this past weekend and 6 Elite swimmers won 7 events at New Jersey Swimming’s 13 & Older Silver Bronze LCM Championships held at Rutgers University. With the last of the pre-JO meets completed, Elite qualified 54 swimmers in 262 events (2 more swimmers than last summer and exactly (!!) the same amount of events!).

            14 year old Gabrielle Pick completely blew her heat away in the 200 butterfly, winning by 10 (!!) seconds while scoring both a Junior Olympic and Zone qualifying time with her 2.35.59 time. Gabrielle added two additional JO qualifying times: 1) in the 50 free (29.87)-she also won that event and 2) 100 free (1.05.43) which she placed 6th.

            14 year old Cullen Walsh lived the distance swimmer’s dream by qualifying for JO’s twice within the same race. By winning the 1500 free in a 19.03.19 time, Cullen also grabbed the 800 free qualifying time along the way. Not satisfied, Cullen pushed down his JO time in his actual 800 free race with a 9.54.70 time to place 3rd. Within that race, Cullen had identical splits for each of his 400s: 4.57!

            17 year old Ryan Wyer won the 100 fly with a 1.04.12 time (just .03 over the JO cut) and followed up with a 2nd place finish in the 200 fly (2.35.42). Ryan also placed 7th in the 100 free (59.03).

            13 year old Chris Balbo pushed his JO total to 10 with his 4 JO qualifying performance. Chris placed 2nd in both the 200 IM (2.33.38) and the 200 back (2.36.17), 3rd in the 100 fly (1.10.87) and 7th in the 200 breast (2.59.87).

            14 year old Isabel LaRaia added a pair of JO swims to top off her totals at 7; Isabel earned swims next week in both the 400 free (5.03.21) and the 100 free (1.04.96-5th place). Isabel just missed the 800 free time (by .4) with her 27 second drop (10.32.93). Isabel also dropped 26 seconds in her 400 IM swim (5.48.76).

            13 year old Danielle Peterson continued her torrid improvement, represented by her 3rd place finish in the 100 breast (1.25.95) and her 4th place finish in the 200 breast (3.06.95).

            14 year old Karl Melchior rocked his 200 breast swim with his 8 second drop (from last weeks Last Chance Meet) to place 2nd with a 2.57.53 time and earn his way onto the JO squad. Karl also placed 6th in the 200 back (2.39.57).

            13 year old Caroline Nash went gold in the 100 fly with her 1.13.86 swim. Caroline also placed 7th in the 50 free (30.59).

            16 year old Lindsey Giostra placed both 1st and 2nd in her butterfly events, yet came up a bit short of JOs. Lindsey’s 1.11.43 100 fly swim was a 4 second drop-good enough to win the event while her 2.39.81 swim in the 200 fly placed her 2nd.

            College kid Chelsea Allocco, who continued her remarkable development this past winter at SUNY-New Paltz, won the 15 & O 1500 free with her 19.38.08 swim. Chelsea followed up with a 2nd place finish in the 800 free (9.59.98-losing by just .06).

            17 year old Michael Li, in his only event of the weekend, dipped under the JO cut in winning the 400 IM (5.05.98).

            15 year old Katie McGrath placed 2nd in the 200 back with her 2.37.82 performance while touching 3rd in the 50 free (29.78).

            15 year old Andrea Shepard dropped 34 seconds with her 3rd place swim of 20.06.76 in the 1500 free.

            16 year old Krishna Duvvuri dropped 3 seconds in the 200 back (2.33.54) to place 3rd and also picked up two 6th place finishes (200 breast-2.55.13 & 100 breast-1.18.95).

            13 year old Kaitlin Stearns picked up her 9th JO swim with her 5th place, 1.14.46 time in the 100 fly.

            Also placing within the top 8 were:

1)      Rachel Emodi placed 5th in the 100 fly (1.12.32) & 7th in the 50 free (30.10)

2)      Eugene Ng earned a 5th place finish in the 100 breast (1.22.95) & a 7th place finish in the 200 breast (3.01.67)

3)      Clark LaRaia touched 5th in the 200 breast (3.00.13)

4)      Lindsay Ellerthorpe placed 6th in the 100 back (1.17.07)

5)      Caroline Watt placed 7th twice: 200 free (2.19.48) & the 400 IM (5.45.86) and 8th in the 800 free (10.12.42)

6)      Matt Ahlmeyer placed 7th in the 100 back (1.10.56)

7)      Darragh O’Gorman earned a 7th place medal in the 400 IM (5.41.84)

8)      Ryan Miller came in 8th in the 400 IM (5.48.44) 

            Please note the following 10 (!!) swimmers had 6 personal bests in 6 tries: Chris Balbo, Elizabeth D’Altrui, Clark LaRaia, Isabel LaRaia, Karl Melchior, Charlotte Morrissey, Nick Pachiolo, Danielle Peterson, Gabrielle Pick & Cullen Walsh!!

Full results are posted on the team website.

Swimmers who participated (# in parenthesis is number of best Elite LCM best times):  Matthew Ahlmeyer (4), Chelsea Allocco (4), Jenni Allocco (1), Chris Balbo (6), Brielle Barba (3), Lindsay Behar (3), Mark Berns (2), Katie Brosnan, Caitlin Brown, Emily Buckman (3), Meggie Butler (1), Alyssa Cataldo (4), Grace Chang (1), John Chiang (3), Morgan Conley (4), Elizabeth D’Altrui (6), Corey Duren (3), Sam Duren, Avi Duvvuri (3), Krishna Duvvuri (4), Lindsay Ellerthorpe (2), Rachel Emodi (3), Andrea Ferrell (2), Ariel Gelman (1), Lindsey Giostra (1), Brent Jones (1), Nat Kawam (5), Jared Kovacs (4), Clark LaRaia (6), Isabel LaRaia (6), Patrick Lai (4), Michael Li (1), Cody Matheson (5), Katie McGrath (5), Karl Melchior (6), Matthew Migliozzi (3), Ryan Miller (4), Isabella Morreale (2), Charlotte Morrissey (6), Caroline Nash (3), Eugene Ng (5), Darragh O’Gorman (4), Nick Pachiolo (6), Danielle Peterson (6), Gabrielle Pick (6), Andrea Shepard (1), Abigail Shvorin (4), Kaitlin Stearns (2), Jason Steinberg (5), Abir Thakur (1), Cullen Walsh (6), Caroline Watt (2) & Ryan Wyer (3).

TRYOUTS YIELDS NEW TALENT!!

15 NEW SWIMMERS WILL JOIN COMPETITIVE PROGRAM:

MARLINS GROUPS FULL;

WAVEBUSTERS & PRE-ELITE STILL HAS SPACE: 

            July tryouts for the Elite Swim Club’s Winter 2011-12 Training Session has yielded 18 new swimmers to the competitive club and 3 new swimmers to Pre-Elite.

 

            Joining Elite this spring will be:

 

Wave Blacks: Marie Fagan, Caroline Kelly & Emma Zawacki

 

Marlin Blacks: Alex Ferandes, Owen Healey, Keerthi Jayaraman & Naomi Lynch

 

Marlin Teals: Kelly Adamski, Lily Connor, Luc Francis, Abhinav Khandrika, Adithi Jayaraman, Zoe Lynch,

                       Caitlyn Sleeman, Alisa Stellini

 

            Also joining Elite in the Pre-Elite program will be 16 new swimmers:

 

Pre-Elite Wavebuster Teals: Gabriella Bellard, Jennifer Speckhart & Sarah Speckhart

 

Pre-Elite Marlins: Devanshi Banerjee, Ryan Boyd, Rebecca Brown, Evan Fagan, Alex Facq, Jonathan Fu, Anirudh

                                Khandrika, Ruby Pollack, Gabrielle Romano, Nick Slover, Michael Speckphart, Anusha Veluri

            The Supplemental Tryouts will be held Tuesday, September 6 at Newark Academy at 4:30 pm. By reason of our successful July Tryouts, the Marlin training group is now closed. Openings are available in all three Wavebuster training groups and within Pre-Elite.             

WINTER 2011-12 SEASON TO HAVE STAGGERED START:

            Elite will stagger the start of its Winter 2011-12 season. The start will occur as follows:

            Seniors & Senior Preps-begin Monday, August 29th

                Supplemental Tryouts: Tuesday, Sept 6

            Wavebuster Golds: Wednesday, Sept 7

            Wavebuster Blacks: Wednesday, Sept 7

            Wavebuster Teals: Tuesday, Sept 13

            Marlin Blacks: Monday, Sept 12

            Marlin Teals: Monday, Sept 12

            Head Coach Bill Deatly will hold a “New Parents Meeting” on Wednesday, Sept 21 at Newark Academy at 5:00 pm.

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).

 “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: JUNIOR OLYMPICS GO ELITE!!!; MEET INFORMATION POSTED; PLEASE RESPOND TO TIMER COORDINATORS EMAILS:

 

            Elite’s next competition will be Junior Olympics Thursday, July 28th thru Sunday, July 31 at Rutgers. Go Elite!!!

 

             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!!!