The Kentucky Derby is over and so is the 2011 FISH LC Derby. What a great meet!
It seems, each year, the FISH LC Derby gets better!
Congratulations to all:
LC AG Champs:
Ryan Allain, Mustafa Ayvaz, Haley Bergthold, Oliver Bernasek, Andrew Bernstein, Sophia Bernstein, Aaron Boyd, Chase Bradshaw, John Bradshaw, Fiona Carcani, Evan Chang, Dereck Charles, Rachel Clark, Callan Cramer, Madeleine Daum, Stephane de Cazotte, David DiMeglio, Madelyn Donohoe, Molly Ellor, J.T. Ewing, Jason Fu, Joanne Fu, Allison Goldblatt, Leo Goldblatt, Caroline Grass, Mason Greenblatt, Will Harvey, David Herbert, Matthew Herbert, Joseph Hosi, Jillian Johnson,Terence Keffer, Anna Liang, Maria Liu, Emily Meilus, Ignat Miagkov, Hannah Modder, Chris Murphy, Megan McCreary, Megan Murphy, Diya Murthy, Anh-Huy Nguyen, Jonathan Nguyen, Amy Owens, Michelle Owens, Phillip Pan, Radames Pena, Alan Phlips, Isabella Rongione, Ian Russiello, Daniel Schmidt, Ben Sharrer, Nick Sharrer, Rachel Shogren, Connor Smith, Jacob Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Casey Storch, Nina Talwar, Aaron Tingley, Kaithlyn Torrez, Ryan Vintimilla, Gerry Wan, Claire Wolff, Veronica Wolff, Jocelyn Wulf, Chris Yang, Rachel Yoon, Fred Zhang.
Zone Qualifiers:
Gerry Wan, Ian Russiello, Isabella Rongione, Michelle Owens, Chris Murphy, Emily Meilus, Joanne Fu, Jason Fu, Madelyn Donohoe.
Our swimmers were well prepared to swim fast and got their first taste of the long course season. Team records were broken and many best times were swum. The FISH coaches were on top of their game getting swimmers ready for their races in their colorful Derby caps. Actual horse races on the large scoreboard and excellent announcing by Andy Storch and Darren Ewing heightened the spirit of the Derby. What a show it was.
None of this would have been possible without our wonderful parents. Al Meilus our Officials' Chair made sure we had an excellent group of officials take us through the meet so that every single time that was swum counted in the official way. Thank you Al for assuring that we had a sufficient number of officials and for working every single session. There was one other Marathon Man, Gerry Fu, who also worked every the entire the meet as a Stroke and Turn Judge.
And of course, our Hospitality Chair, Chris McCreary, continues to impress us all with her creative, healthy and well-balanced meals. At one point she served cherry tomato with Buffalo Mozzarella and fresh basil. It cannot get better than that. Without a question, she is say is our Marathon Woman as she worked every single session of the meet as well.
Big thanks to our FISH Parents. Whether you helped setting up the meet, working the computers, timing, working in Hospitality or Concessions, selling programs or t-shirts, getting ribbons ready, doing Costco shopping, serving as "runner", or if you came at the end of the meet to help break down the meet, it is all important and greatly appreciated. We could not host a meet like this without your generous support. Your donations were plentiful and our swimmers and guests enjoyed having the opportunity of getting an ice-cold drink between the races, a bagel, or a piece of fresh fruit.
A very special thank you goes to our Meet Director, Coach Matt, who did a super job in actually getting the meet and the events set up. He worked hard before the meet and he worked hard during the meet to make sure everything was going according to our timeline. Matt was working everywhere and he even managed to coach his swimmers. This is quite an accomplishment at his very young age of 22. Oops, today is his birthday and he will be 23! All these long ours paid off. Everyone went home happy.
We were fortunate in having a few corporate sponsors support our Derby this year and a special thank you goes to Chain Bridge Bank in McLean, Long and Foster, the Reston Office and Shula's at Tysons Corner Marriott.
Let's celebrate the end of a successful SC season and the beginning of an exciting LC season on Sunday, May 15th at our picnic from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm.
