Dolphin Times

Issue 1, Season 2016

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Bring on the Points!

Dolphins Likely to Field Swimmers in All Lanes

By Tucker the Dog

Editor in Chief

Things are looking good for the Bannockburn Dolphins.

Massive turnout for time trials shows that the 2016 team has not just some really fast swimmers, but also more than enough teammates to fill all the lanes at each Saturday’s A meet. That is important as the easiest way to lose a swim meet is for a team to lack enough kids to fill all the lanes at the A meets.

Every single age group had at least three swimmers in it, including the 15 to 18 year old category which is often the toughest to fill. And it appears there will be at least six kids available in each age group for free style as well. Free is the only event where six kids — rather than three from each team — compete.

On the boys side for 15 to 18, there was Jeffrey Su slicing through the water with Ray Crist and Owen Wassiliew on his heels. Jack MacIsaac, Jonathan Rufino and Alex Butman were close behind.

For the 15 to 18 girls, Jessy Kline took first with Bryna Steele close behind. Danielle Lair-Ferrari was third, Gabby Helf was fourth and Katya Damskey was fifth. While only five swam, the Dolphin Times has heard from sources that Alexa Crist and Urban Seiberg may be available to fill that lane.

Speaking of the 15 to 18 year olds, it is impressive how so many them either are coaches or life guards at the pool. In fact, the odds will always be on your side if you see a 15 to 18 year old swim teamer that they coach or life guard.

Now this editor in chief is only two years old — but please don’t call me a puppy as I am a mature two year old dog — but we have heard from others that this group has pretty much been together since starting as under 8s. 

It is really impressive to see so many of these kids stick with swimming and with the team. These older kids seem to know how to enjoy swim team and the pool-based friendships that are created.

Okay, this dog got distracted from his story. Again, what do you expect when you turn over control of the Dolphin Times to a dog? Be thankful a rabbit doesn’t run by or this issue might never get published.

So as I was writing before the tangent, points are awarded for every spot but last in the A meets. That means if a team sweeps the top three spots, then they get 6 points for first, four for second and three for third. That makes for 13 points.

Yet what really matters is how many points the team nets off the event because fourth is worth 2 points and fifth is worth 1 point.

As a result, the team that can fill all the lanes can reduce the value of the other team sweeping that event by 23%. 

Of course, the real key to success is finishing in the top 3 spots in as many events as possible. Unfortunately, that is also the goal for the other team and it does appear that there will be many strong swimmers in those other lanes.

That said, a quick Dolphin analysis of the results suggests Bannockburn might be more competitive this season than the Las Vegas casinos are suggesting. While we understand that some prop bets will pay out five to one if the Dolphins repeat as Divisional champs, we see the data as more promising. The Dolphins have three home A meets this season, which means we are seeded at the top of the division. And we know how well Bannockburn Dolphins can do in their home waters.

This is one reason why a team tradition is to dump a bottle of Bannockburn pool water into the opposing team’s pool to bring us some of the Bannockburn Swim Club good fortune in that day’s competition.

All this will be put to the test on June 18. The list of A meet swimmers for the event should appear on the pool bulletin board on Thursday, June 16. 

As a public service announcement, it is incumbent on swimmers and their families to let the coaches know if you cannot participate in the A meet. There are rules which severely limit last minute substitutes for A meets. So the failure to let the coach know likely means that lane will be empty, which means the team will lose points.

Strong Under 8 Dolphin Showing at Time Trials

By Doll Finn

Senior Dolphin Correspondent

Scores of Dolphin swimmers returned to the Bannockburn Swim Club on Saturday for time trials, which is the official start of the 2016 swim season.

This correspondent was overwhelmed by the turnout, which featured a heavy response from the under 8 crowd with 18 boys and 13 girls swimming the 25 free. Even more impressively, nine boys and 6 girls braved the 25 fly, which is a challenging stroke for that age group so early in the season.

There were several legal swims by the under 8s in the tough strokes. Nadia Lall finished first in the 25 free, 25 breast stroke, 25 back and 25 back and 25 free. She appears to be the leader of the under 8 girls heading into Mars. v. Venus on Wednesday.

She wasn’t alone with legal swims. Eva Peterson finished second in back while Willow Boison finished third and Alisha Mink was fourth. Amelia Claud took fifth fastest with Leila Ackil in sixth, Caroline Conroy in seventh, Alex Generux in eighth, and Gabriela Noya in 9th. Eleanor Synder also braved the 25 back.

For the under 8s in breast stroke, Amelia took second with a legal time. What is even more important is that most of the other girls got to practice the stroke even if they were not legal for the meet. This includes Eva, Eleanor, Kyla, Alisha, Alex and Caroline.

On the boys side for under 8, there was a close race for fastest time with Rowan Conroy topping Charlie Penn by just over half a second. The race for third was even closer as Martin Alvarez had a 24.63 while Jackson Mello clocked at 24.80. We are pretty sure head coach Malena cannot even blink that fast.

Theo Zobrist took fifth with Cole Wrege in sixth, Zaki Saberi in seventh, Tate Flowers in eighth, Keller Oneil in ninth, Charlie McCarthy in 10th, Mark Leary in 11th, Hamilton Baker in 12th and Kenneth Pender in 13th. Hamilton edges out Kenneth by 19/100th of a second. Magnus Jenson took 14th, Tobi Saberi was 15th, Faris Afas was 16th, Henry McCarthy took 17th and Dennis Leary was 18th. All were legal swims.

We even had 11 under 8 boys with legal backstrokes, which is very promising for the season. These include Rowan, Charlie Penn, Jackson, Theo, Cole, Charlie McCarthy, Zaki, Keller, Hamilton, Henry and Magnus.

Charlie M, Charlie P and Zaki all swam legal 25 breast strokes with Charlie M. taking first. Charlie Penn swam a legal fly.

While we will have much more coverage of the 9/10, 11/12 and 13/14 age groups in future editions, we wanted to highlight some strong performances. 

Valerie Mello established herself as a strong Dolphin right off the bat, finishing first in the100 IM. Darby LeFaivre, Maya Lall and Sam Macisaac were second, third and fourth. This looks to be a strong group of swimmers.

For the boys in 100 IM, Meyer Eskin got the first official time of the 2016 season by winning the event. Charlie Conroy and Jacob Seiberg were second and third with Andrew Selfridge taking fourth.

In the 9/10 free, Aaron Kraus, Charlie Conroy and Max Kroloff are going to be pushing each other hard all season as they finished within 0.35 seconds of each other. On the girls side, it was not as close with Darby taking first Sarah Selfridge was second, Madeline Mello was third and Shelby Carter took fourth.

In 11/12 50 free, Meyer Eskin easily took first with Jacob Seiberg edging out Constantine Molineus for third.

Valerie Mello was first for the girls with a strong win. Ella Scott and Maya Lall battled for second with Ella winning by 0.13 seconds. Sam MacIsaac was fourth and Anahi Tinel was fifth.

Gideon Helf took first in 13/14 boys 50 free with Lucca Scott in a strong second and Duncan Ryan not too far behind in third. Liam Gilbert-Lawrence was fourth and Damian Molineus was fifth. This appears to be a speedy bunch of boys.

Shifra Eskin won for the girls in 13/14 with Katie MacIsaac in second and Colleen Zeugin in third. From the swim, it looks like these girls will have another great season.

With such an impressive turnout by all the swimmers, we are sure this is going to be a very bright season.

Mars v. Venus on Wednesday Chance for More Times

By Walter Tu Kold

Dolphin Correspondent

For those swimmers who could not make time trials, all hope is not lost.

Mars v. Venus provides another opportunity for swimmers to get a qualifying time for coaches to look at when putting the line up together for the June 18 A meet v. Little Falls. 

And who doesn’t like swimming at Little Falls? Last time we competed there they had fresh baked cookies. We also seem to recall the sale of coffee, which is always coveted by this grizzled reporter veteran of many swim meets.

Dolphin Times Correction and Publication Policy

By Tucker the Dog

Editor in Chief 

As a dog edits the Dolphin Times, there are bound to be mistakes. Our paws will occasionally transpose letters or make other mistakes with names. We also rely on the Team Unify data base for spellings and the data. 

We recognize that many kids have nicknames, but we typically will use the formal spelling that is in Team Unify as there are nearly 150 kids on the team and this dog cannot recall that many nicknames.

We will fix any error as quickly as possible for the online version that is kept at http://bannockburnswimteam.blogspot.com. 

Our goal is to get the names of as many swimmers as possible in each issue. That said, we don’t guarantee anything. This is a volunteer newspaper and sometimes we just lack the resources to give everything wall to wall coverage. Or we decide to take midday naps instead.

This is why the Dolphin Times always welcomes special contributors who would like to write occasional — or very frequent — articles for each edition. Just email Tucker the Dog at tuckerthedogseiberg@yahoo.com.

Our typical publication schedule is to go to print on the Monday after each A meet. This will include coverage as well from the prior week’s B meet. Occasionally we will print more than one issue in a week. And we try to include photos, especially for the version kept on line.

Please share the email with your swimmers as only parents are listed on the official email system for the swim team. We also do post this on the pool bulletin board. 

As always, Go Dolphins!