2016 Eastern Zone LC Championship – Day 4
by Rich Sanidad
At the end of the fourth and final night of finals, the PVS team was on the winners’ podium with 1780.5 points! Congratulations to the athletes whose work and determination propelled them to the top! Metropolitan Swimming surged on the last day to cement second place with 1391.5 points. Virginia Swimming, Inc. (VSI) finished in third with 1308.5 points. Some very un-scientific analysis is below, but first, some notes about the last finals session.
The athletes obviously knew the end was near as the cheering was cranked up to “11.” I noticed that several spectators in the stands wore ear plugs to preserve their hearing. And, with the last events of the night being the 200 meter Medley Relays, the end of the meet ended on a “wave” of enthusiasm.
The evening saw two PVS swimmers who swam in two finals events:
- Margaret Shi, Girls 11 – 12 200 meter Butterfly and 200 meter Individual Medley
- Jack Moore, Boys 13 – 14 200 meter Individual Medley and 50 meter Freestyle
Jack Moore won the 13-14 200 meter IM with a strong freestyle length off the final turn. Similarly, Liam Redman waited until the final length of the Boys 13 – 14 200 meter Butterfly to lay down the hammer, winning by nearly 1.5 seconds out of lane 8. Cole Greenberg and Andrew Blusiewicz pulled away from the field during the Breaststroke length of the Boys 11 – 12 200 meter Individual Medley, finishing first and second, respectively. And, for the PVS team’s final victory of the meet, Jack Moore did it one last time, splitting a 24.82 Freestyle length to bring the Boys 13 – 14 200 meter Medley Relay team from behind to victory.
Below is a list of the top point winners in each age group:
| Girls | |||
| 10 & U | 11 – 12 | 13 – 14 | 15 – 18 |
| Courtney Watts (66 points, perfect meet!) | Jill Berger and Margaret Shi (22 points each) | Abby Carr (32.5 points) | Cassandra Sanidad (19 points) |
| Boys | |||
| 10 & U | 11 – 12 | 13 – 14 | 15 – 18 |
| Michael Mullen (66 points, perfect meet!) | Liam Redman (59 points) | Jack Moore (41 points) | Danny Calder (30 points) |
So, how did the PVS team become the 2016 Easter Zone Long Course Champions? Some observations based on back of the envelope calculations, with no scientific basis, whatsoever:
- Breaststrokers rule! On average, the team earned 13.7 points per Breaststroke event. Butterfly was next with 11.4 points per event.
- 10 and Unders rule! The boys won 34.9% of the points available in their events, while the girls won 31.8% of the available points. The 15 – 18 boys were next with 28.4%.
- Relays rule! The PVS team took advantage of the increased double points available in the relay events, placing either first or second in 19 of the 32 relay events.
It was a long week, but a very successful one! Congratulations again to the PVS Zone team for winning the Eastern Zone Long Course Championship!