Time Trials Bode Well for 2013 Season

Bannockburn Swim Team

Dolphin Times

Issue 2 (June 9, 2013)

Boys Rule! No wait, Girls Rule! Who Rules?

Find out the answer to this and other exciting questions on Wednesday with the annual Mars vs. Venus swim meet.

Often referred to as the Bannockburn vs. Bannockburn meets or the Boys vs. Girls meet, this B-style meet pits the male Dolphins against the female Dolphins for pool bragging rights.

As always, all official meet information comes from the coaches and in the official team emails. But nothing says the newsletter cannot pump up one of the more fun meets of the year.

Olympians Make Bannockburn Their Home

By Flip Turn

Junior Swim Correspondent

Ryan Lochte, Chloe Sutton, Tyler McGill and Katie Ledecky now reside at the Bannockburn Swim Club.

Sort of.

Thanks to the Cloptons – a swim team family that has relocated to Swampscott, Massachusetts – the club has a Division G t-shirt that Ryan Lochte signed. And Gabriella Helf donated a Bannockburn swim cap that Sutton, McGill and Ledecky signed.

Many thanks to both families.

The shirt and cap are framed together and are hanging by the check in desk at the pool.

Time Trials Reveals Bannockburn Really Fast

By Doll Finn

Senior Swim Correspondent

Time trials went off Saturday morning in humid conditions with a ton of eight and under swimmers dominating the lanes and posting some really fast times during our first meet of the season.

With Tom Helf at the sound machine, the parents warmed up to lots of music that the kids never heard of. This correspondent was quite happy with the selections, especially as the play list did not include Gangnam Style by Psy. (Why do I think we will hear that song regardless at Karaoke night.

Overall, the meet seems to bode well for the season as there are at least three strong swimmers in every stroke in every age group. In some age groups, the competition will be fierce.

Your newsletter aims to get lot of names in print and we will focus in future issues on those swimmers with big improvements in their seed times as well as on the top finishers. This is so we can get a diverse group of swimmers in the newsletter each week. For this issue, there are no seed times. So we are concentrating on the top times.  That will change with future issues.

And please remember that the newsletter will occasionally miss a milestone event, spell a name wrong, or get a number wrong. This is all electronic and all mistakes are easy to fix. Plus we welcome guest columns from any and all takers.

As with every season, the big unknown are the under 8 swimmers. We tend to have a lot in this age groups and the times can be very unpredictable and huge improvements over the course of the season are common.

We had one male under 8 and one female under 8 finish first in three of the four strokes. Not only that, but they also each won the same three strokes – free, back and fly. Those top two are Jacob Seiberg and Darby LeFaivre. Those two should give us a strong finish in the progressive relays!

The meet started with the 12 and under IM. For the boys, Owen Wassiliew led the way in 1:25.39. Rounding out the top 5 were Ray Crist, Gideon Helf, Lucca Scott, and Ali Shafi.

For the girls, Naomi Seiberg took first in 1:27.72. This pits her against Owen for bragging rights in the Mars vs. Venus meet. Rounding out the top five were Caitlin Ryan, Gabriela Helf, Shifra Eskin and Maya Lall.

In the free style events, Jacob Seiberg won 8 and under 25 meter in 20.25 followed by Ryan Kaplan and Meyer Eskin. For the girls, Darby LeFairve won in 21.04 followed by Ella Scott and Maya Lall.

For the 9-10s , Gideon Helf took first in the 50 meter in 38.14 followed by Andrew O’Brien and Cole Wassiliew. For the girls, Shifra Eskin won in 40.90 followed by Evelyn Wassiliew and Gevvie Johnson.

In 11-12s, Ray Crist took first in 32.13 followed by Owen Wassiliew and Ali Shafii. Caitlin Ryan won for the girls in 33.98 followed by Naomi Seiberg and Gabriela Helf.

For the 13/14s, it was Jack Blazes in 32.27 followed by Alex Butman and Andrew Ford. Jessica Kline took first for the girls in 31.18 followed by Katya Damskey and Danielle Lair Ferrari.

The really big kids were once again really fast with their 100s. Andy Lair Ferrari won in 58.94 followed by Evan Steingass and Nick Hopkins. For the girls, Maddie Alagia won in 1:07.29 followed by Bryna Steele and Nora Kelsall.

The full meet results are available online so we are not going to go through every stroke. In future newsletters, we will focus extensively on a specific stroke and note major improvements by swimmers in any stroke.

That said, we will go through the top swimmer in each of the three other strokes. For under 8, Jacob Seiberg and Darby LeFaivre won back and fly while Meyer Eskin and Maya Lall won breast.

In 9/10, Evelyn Wassiliew and Gideon Helf won back and fly while Shifra Eskin and Gideon Helf won breast.

For the 11/12s, Ray Crist and Naomi Seiberg took first in back and fly while Owen Wassiliew and Naomi Seiberg won breast.

In the 13/14s, Jack Blazes and Jessica Kline won backstroke and fly while Jack Blazes and Katya Damskey won breast.

For the 15 to 18 year olds, Evan Steingass finished first in the 100 IM, the 100 Breast, and the 100 fly, while Maddie Alagia won for the girls in IM and fly. We did not run all of the 15 to 18 year events.

That is a wrap from time trials. Our hope is to publish before the first A meet with Mars vs. Venus notes.

Until then, swim fast.