NVSL News

NVSL News has broken down the seed sheet for All-Star Relays and is presenting you with the top races to watch this Wednesday.    It appears that for the 2009 All-Star Relay Carnival the old adage is true… records are made to be broken… You don’t want to take a bathroom break for these events!

(Listed in chronological meet order)

Event 1. Girls Mixed Age
The team from Fairfax is seeded with a time of 1:59.45, 6/10 of a second off the 27 year old NVSL record, and is seeded with the perfect age for each leg with a 10, 12, 14, and 18 year old.

Event 3. 8 and Under Girls Modified Medley
Shouse Village’s 8 and under girls are seeded 6 seconds ahead of the field and only a second off the 26 year old NVSL record. Also, the backstroke leg is swam by Sinead Eksteen who goes an 18.61 (only 2/10 of a second off Janet Hu’s record).

Event 8. 11-12 Boys Medley
The top seed Overlee is only 6/10 of a second off the NVSL record, with the relay from Mclean seeded 1/3 of a second behind them. Look for this to be a tight finish as well as a record breaking race.

Event 11. 15-18 Girls Medley
The team from Tuckahoe is seeded with a 2:04.79, just a second off the NVSL record set in 2008. However, on Saturday the girls went a 2:01.34 which shattered the NVSL dual meet record. These girls will blow everyone out of the pool on Wednesday.

Event 12. 15-18 Boys Medley
Highlands returns to defend their title as top seed. With a former NVSL record holder in the 13-14 back leading off (Charlie Putnam), and a 23 split anchoring (Brian Murphy) the only question that remains is the middle 100. Both legs (Steven Richards and Chuck Katis) are 30 point splits in the breast, so the problem to solve will be  who will swim the breast and who will swim the fly. Look for the team from Highlands to defend their title and lower their record.

Event 13. 8 and Under Girls Freestyle
Shouse Village returns with the same lineup for their freestyle relay and a seed time less than a second off the NVSL record.

Event 17. 11-12 Girls Freestyle
The teams from Overlee and Orange Hunt are seeded 8/100 of a second apart. Both teams consist of three 12 year olds and one 11 year old. With both teams boasting the color orange as their team color the plot is thickened even more.

Event 18. 11-12 Boys freestyle
7 teams are seeded within a second of each other. Not much else needs to be said.

Event 20. 13-14 Boys Freestyle
Sleepy Hollow Bath is less than a second off the NVSL record held by Sean Fletcher’s Hunter Mill relay from 2006.

Event 21. 15-18 Girls Freestyle
The medley record breaking Tuckahoe girls showdown against the Overlee girls in one of the final events of the night.  Overlee may not have any big time NVSL names like Eva Greene and Megan Howard, but seeded only 2/10 of a second behind, they are sure to give the Tigers some trouble.

Event 22.  15-18 Boys Freestyle
Seeded over 2 seconds off the NVSL record it may seem like a stretch to predict either the Highlands boys or the Chesterbrook boys breaking the NVSL record, but with a slow swim last Wednesday, look for both teams to kick it up a notch as they race each other.  Also, both Steven Lee-Kramer and Brian Murphy are seasoned veterans of the NVSL as well as clutch performers, neither one will be wanting to let their teams down.

With two Olympians and an Auburn sprinter holding the back, breast, and free senior boys NVSL records respectively, holding an NVSL senior boys record has become quite a prestigious accomplishment.  The breastroke record is held by Olympian Ed Moses with a time of 28.81 (note: Ed Moses took out his american record breaking swim in the 100m breast in a 28).  Ed Moses’s record is easily the fastest among these senior boys records, considering only a handful of swimmers have ever broken 30 seconds in the race, with Rick Eddy being the lone wolf in the past 5 years to break the 30 second barrier.  The backstroke record is held by Olympian and world record holder Markus Rogan with a time of 26.45. The freestyle record is held by Steve Scheren who swims for Auburn, which arguably has the best sprint program in the NCAA.  Also, Steve’s time of 23.32 was fresh off of a U.S. Open shave and taper.

Standing amongst these elite swimmers is 16 year old Sean Fletcher of Hunter Mill.  After knocking 3/4 of a second of the former fly record last summer, Sean’s time of 25.28 is just as legitimate as both Rogan and Scheren’s records.  However, if he were to break into the realm of 24 seconds and go somewhere around 24.7. his record would rival Ed Moses’s as one of the fastest in the NVSL.  The only question that remains is will Sean Fletcher continue on to greatness as the other three record holders have?

Janet Hu isn’t the only swimmer looking to set new NVSL records this season.  Last Saturday, several other swimmers indicated that they too were on the prowl to put their names in the NVSL record books.

First off, Charlie Putnam’s 13-14 50 backstroke record is hanging on by a hundreth after Philip Hu (Janet’s brother) went a 28.29 on Saturday.  Hu dolphin kicks off the wall like a banshee (a huge advantage in backstroke), and you can look for Philip to break Charlie’s record within the next 2 weeks.

Another record that is close to being broken is 8 & Under girls backstroke record, held by… you guessed it, Janet Hu.  The record is a 18.47, and 8 year old Sinead Eksteen went a 18.81 last weekend.  On The Top is predicting that Hu’s 8 & Under record will go down by the end of the season.

Look for more predictions next week, as well as MVPs from this weekend.