Dolphin Times
Issue 4, Season 2017
Please share the newsletter with your swimmers as the point is to get their names in print. Back issues are available at http://bannockburnswimteam.blogspot.com. Our editor is a dog, but we will mess up names and times occasionally. Let us know and we will fix the online version.
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Analytics
Dolphins Only Team that Controls Own Fate in Division H
By Adele the Dog
Dolphin Analytics Expert
The Bannockburn Dolphins enter the final A meet of the season as the only team that controls its own fate.
The Dolphins have a one point edge over Old Farm and Manchester Farm. This means if the Dolphins win this weekend and win the Divisional meet, then there is no way for either of the farms to pass them.
If the Dolphins don’t win out, then it gets more complicated.
The Dolphins have a one point edge over Old Farm only because Old Farm tied with Manchester Farm for first place at relay carnival. That gave Old Farm five points instead of six points.
This meant Old Farm was only five points ahead of the Dolphins going into last Saturday’s meet. As a result, the Dolphin victory put Bannockburn into the lead rather than leaving the teams tied.
Manchester Farm has lost only to Old Farm. So it also is 3-1 with a first at relay carnival. If the Dolphins lose to Manchester Farm and if Old Farm wins its A meet, then the Dolphins go int Divisionals five points behind both teams.
This is a problem as the winner of Divisionals gets 20 points while second gets 16 points and third gets 12 points, fourth gets 8 points and fifth gets 4 points. So if the Dolphins are down five, then they would have to win Divisionals and a team other than Old Farm or Manchester Farm would have to finish second. That is the only way for Bannockburn to pick up more than five points on Old Farm or Manchester Farm.
By contrast, a Dolphin win this weekend will put it one point ahead of Old Farm and seven points ahead of Manchester Farm. This means the Dolphins could lose to Manchester Farm at Divisionals but still win the Division by coming in second place.
What the Dolphins could not do is come in second to Old Farm. If that happened, Old Farm would get four points more than Bannockburn. That would then leave Old Farm three points ahead, which means they would win the Division.
Got it?
Dolphins Win Close Meet Against Old Farm
By Doll Finn
Senior Dolphin Correspondent
Wow, that was close.
Before 13/14 fly, the Dolphins had a four point lead over Old Farm as Old Farm won every fly event up to that point. In most fly events, Old Farm took first and second. This allowed the team to eliminate almost all of their 40 point half time deficit.
Then the Bannockburn 13/14 girls righted the ship.
Sophie Duncan took first, Shifra Eskin took second and Valerie Mello was third. The best Old Farm flyer was 13 seconds behind Valerie.
Then there were the 15/18 boys in 50 fly. Jake Winter and Jeffrey Su tied for first with Lucca Scott in third for another Dolphin sweep. the nearest Old Dolphin swimmer was more than six seconds behind Lucca.
The lead was firmly restored with 15/18 girls with a sweep in 50 fly with Katya Damskey in first, Danielle Lair Ferrari in second and Jessica Kline in third. Jessie was a comfortable 1.4 seconds ahead of the top Old Farm swimmer.
That was three sweeps in a row which netted the Dolphins 39 points to just 9 points for Old Farm.
At this point, no one really knew whether the Dolphins were safely ahead or would it come down to the 175 relays. That meant there was a ton of attention and cheering as the boys took to the pool.
Hearts skipped a beat after the boys A relay DQ’d for an early start. Still, Oliver Bartolomeo, Zane Shami, Hisham Shami and Alexander Watkins finished clean and got points for third.
Then came the girls and the tension was even higher as it appeared as if the teams might be close to tied. Old Farm won the relay but the relay of Julia Ulrich, Darby LeFaivre, Valerie Mello and Nadia Lall took second while Lauren Faulkender, Maya Lall, Sophie Duncan and Eleanor Snyder took third.
At this point, both teams were nervous as they awaited the final score from Tom Helf, our announcer extraordinaire. Over the loud speaker came Old Farm 385, Bannockburn 407.
Dolphins immediately jumped in the pool in celebration.
Of course, there were some big wins to get to the victory. The Dolphins swept the 200 girls Medley relay with Maya Fawaz, Shifra Eskin, Katya Damskey and Danielle Lair Ferrari in first and Gabby Helf, Alexa Crist, Jessica Kline and Kaili Gregory in second.
James LeFaivre took first in 9/10 boys 50 free. That was followed in girls 9/10 50 free with Julia Ulfrich in first and Lauren Faulkender in second. Gideon Helf then took first in 13/14 50 free, which was an All Star time and .57 seconds off his feed time.
Valerie Mello and Sophie Duncan went first-second in girls 13/14 50 free with Darby LeFaivre in first for girls 11/12 50 free.
True Dolphin dominance then was on display in boys 15/18 100 free with Jake Winter in first, Jeffrey Su in second, Ray Crist in third, Jonathan Rufino in fourth, Lucca Soctt in fifth and Jack MacIsaac in sixth. In other words, every Bannockburn swimmer beat every Old Farm swimmer.
Some other performances to highlight include Eleanor Snyder winning under 8 25 back for girls. Charlie Conroy took first for boys 9/10 25 back. Meyer Eskin won boys 11/12 50 breast.
It was an overall strong win for the deal. Way to go Dolphins.
Rain Shortens B Meet Against Sommerset
By Walter Tu Kold
Dolphin Correspondent
Rain hit during the under 8 girls 25 breast stroke, forcing a cancelation of the second half of the B meet against Sommerset.
It is not that Dolphins cannot swim in the rain. But the lifeguards need to be able to see the bottom of the pool. When that is in doubt, no one can swim.
Because we had so few times recorded — and even fewer that were improvements given the weather — we will incorporate all of our data into our final B meet wrap up next week
