Swim Ninja

This Division 7 matchup brings certain intrigue to the Ninjas because there is enormous potential for major chunks of NVSL history to be written within the course of a few hours Saturday. Kent Gardens is 3-0 and looks to be cruising towards a Divisional Crown, and should get the team result this week at home. Regardless, Sully Station is well coached and replete with strong swimmers across their age groups. Kent Gardens also has a number of notable swimmers, which makes this meet incredibly noteworthy…but why?

Kent Gardens is one of two remaining yard pools in the NVSL–NVSL keeps league records for both yards and meters–the later of which is used by the other 100 teams in the league. As the sport of swimming has become so strong and well coached in the area, plus the explosion of technology affecting competitive ability, the NVSL meters records have been constantly rewritten over the past decade. However, the yards records retain the spirit of an older era in the league when the opportunity to swim in the shorter distance was far more common. Of the 40 individual short course yards records, 22 are from before the year 2000–that is extraordinary compared to the 3 remaining meters records from before this millennium!

Sully Station and Kent Gardens have a few races that immediately jump out to us as noteworthy

1. 8-Under boys 25y Free: Little Andy Li moved into the neighborhood a few weeks ago for Kent Gardens and has already started breaking league records, taking down the 25m fly record last week. This race has extra importance because it is one of the two oldest records in the league, held by the same mythical 8 year old, Roger McLeod, who has held the 25 free record in both yards and meters since 1965. If Andy can break this, then we like his chances to take down the meter record before the season is over.
2. 9-10 girls 50y Free/ 25y Fly: Sophie Fredericks (KG) and Katherine Mcarthur (SS) will square off twice on Saturday in each of these races. The fly record is probably in more danger, but let’s not underestimate these two preseasons All Swim Ninja selections–they are fast, and prime to do something memorable!
3. 15-18 girls 50y Back: Elise Mozeleski, on a converted time, is a few tenths off Marshi Smith’s 2000 record in the event. Especially with an experienced older swimmer like Elise, we like the odds that she gets herself ready to compete, and truly challenges this mark!
4. 8-Under boys 25y Breast: Andy Li will be back after another record in the breast, and despite having little data on this 8 y/o stand out, there appear to be indications that he will be way ahead of the 1974 mark set by Steve Scannell of 19.10!

Watching one NVSL record go down would be a treat, and make covering this meet well worth it–seeing multiple would be nearly unheard of outside of an all star meet. We hope both teams swim hard and compete well for their team’s first and their chance at personal accomplishment last–we here at Swim Ninja will be cheering on all athletes on both teams, hoping they can do something truly special, and we will be sure to capture the moment if it arrives!

Good luck to both teams!