Last night, the 2017 Overlee Flying Fish demonstrated that they are truly a force to be reckoned with, as they won their 26th league relay title in the 41 year history of the meet by a whopping 86 points over Chesterbrook. Though some age groups are stronger than others, in order to beat this year’s team, you had better come through with a complete team performance, and not make any mistakes. Overlee has made it perfectly evident that they are too good of a team to lose to anyone, and that they will have to be beaten by a stronger opponent. Both the D1 relay carnival and Tuckahoe meet were not supposed to go our way, but they did because we made no mistakes, and swam above our expectations–as we tend to do at this time in the season. Last night, the rest of the league stepped up in race after race, knocking our higher seeded relays down in nearly every event, giving the impression that we were beginning to crumble. However, everyone was struggling with this reality, but Overlee gave themself the best chance of winning by not allowing any mistakes to exacerbate the situation. Chesterbrook DQed two relays last week–then every time they looked like they were beginning to bring themself back into the meet yesterday with a few consistent good swims, another relay would disqualify, and set them back further. Some may consider this a lucky break for the Flying Fish, but what it really reveals about this team is a steely resolve, and incredible discipline, which demands credit be given to the coaching staff for how they prepared their team for this meet. Even without the two DQs last night, Overlee would have won the meet, but when your team suffers a blow like that, it wipes out any momentum that could have been building, which Chesterbrook desperately needed to erase the deficit they entered the meet with.
With the victory last night, Overlee has won the Allstar Relay Carnival 6 out of the last 7 years, and 9 out of the last 11! They head into Saturday’s final duel meet with the wind at their back, and plenty of confidence.
Saturday’s meet will be a completely different beast than these relay meets because it shows the team’s true depth, compared to the heavy weight clash that relay carnival is, where the best 4 or 5 swimmers from each age group compete–make sure to check back here later in the week for our predictions for that meet!
Due to the layout of the pool, we were not able to do a good job of recording races, but we have a few races below. We want to send an enormous shout out to Ellie Ridgeway for being recognized by the NVSL with the Olivia Aull Spirit Scholarship Award–she received a plaque and was recognized before the meet. After setting the winning tone for the orange and white, her family was able to sit pool side for the exciting meet–from there, I want to give a big shout out to the lovable and incredibly helpful Natalia Ridgeway, for filming a few of the more exciting races from the day. She is as die hard as they come, and you can hear it in the videos. Thank you Ridgeway family, and congratulations on all the victories!
18-Under Girls Mixed Age Relay: Lauren Hartel, Aida Young, Alice Bruce, and Kayle Park got things off to a great start by winning the second heat, and moving up to 5th place!
18-Under Boys Mixed Age Relay: Tommy Weber, Billy Weber, Ryan York, and Sam Ellison held their seed to get 3rd from lane 2 in a great race to the finish!
15-18 Girls Medley: Mary Kate Reicherter, Kayle Park, Ellie Ridgeway, and Michaela Morrison lead the whole way and never look back as they win and reset their NVSL record!
15-18 Boys Medley: Nick Pasternak, Paul Kinsella, Jonathan Day, and Sam Ellison fight for their third place finish in one of the best races in NVSL history!
13-14 Girls Free Relay: Kate Bailey, Alexis Lee, Emmie Ridgeway and Alice Bruce narrowly get edged by .02 seconds to take second!
15-18 Girls Free Relay: Ellie Ridgeway, Maggie Shipley, Michaela Morrison, and Kayle Park swim an incredible race and end up with a solid second place!
First comes the announcement, then the celebration…
…Then the party!
Overlee Booster Club 