Dolphin Times Issue 1, Season 2019

Dolphin Times

Issue 1, Season 2019

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For Dolphin Seniors, 2019 is About Div. E to Div. E

By Doll Finn

Senior Dolphin Correspondent

It is back to the beginning for many of the Bannockburn Dolphins who are in the final season of swim team eligibility.

Those Dolphins were under 8’s in 2009 when Bannockburn last competed in Division E.  That team included current swimmers Ray Crist, Alexa Crist, Tyler Crist, Urban Seiberg, Gabby Helf, Jack MacIssac and Owen Wassiliew.

Those swimmers were part of one of the most successful seasons in the team’s history.

The 2009 Bannockburn Dolphins won Division E in 2009 by defeating Darnestown, Lake Marion, Franklin Knolls, Connecticut Belair and Olney Mill. In the Divisional meet, the Dolphins took first with 907.5 points. That was 112 points better than second place Darnestown. In fact, the margin between Bannockburn and Darnestown was greater than the margin between Darnestown and Olney Mill, which finished last in the meet.

In that historic season, the Dolphins won all of the one-on-one meets except for the final competition of the season against Darnestown.  The team also finished third in the relay carnival, missing an outright win by just four points.

So who was on that team?

Besides so many of our graduating seniors, the team was also filled with some of the all-time, all-star Bannockburn swimmers. Former Bannockburn Head Coach Malena Lair Ferrari led the way in backstroke. The Fosburgh family was swimming strong with Caroline in 15/18,  Elizabeth in 13/14 and Pieter in 11/12,   Also on that team was Danielle Schulkin, another star swimmer and two other Lair Ferrari’s in Andy and Cookie.

That Division E win in 2009 vaulted the team up to Division C in 2010. To say the least, that was a more difficult year. Still, the team got to celebrate a huge accomplishment as it was the little pool in the woods defeating many of the much bigger pools in the county.

All Star Performances To Start 2019 Season

By Walter Tu Kold

Dolphin Correspondent

To be fair, the Time Trials is always the most chaotic meet.

New volunteers are doing new jobs while old volunteers are trying to remember how everything operates. Coaches are still getting their flipflops wet and trying to recall what it is like to herd cats. And timers are trying to get the rust off the fingers so they can quickly start and stop the watches so the differences between times can be measured in 1/100th of a second rather than 1.6 seconds.

One group, however, had no rust.

The swimmers remembered exactly what they were doing. Our time trials featured eight swimmers getting a combined 16 All Star Times. To call this impressive would be an understatement.

Leading the way was Sophie Duncan with All Star Times in Girls 15/18 in 100 free, 100 back, 100 IM, 100 Breast and 100 Fly. We are sure if side stroke or doggie paddle were events then she also would have an All Star times in those.

On the other end of the age spectrum, Caroline Conroy took down three All Star Times in under 8 for 25 Free, 25 Back and 25 Fly. We highlight 25 Back where she beat the time by almost two seconds.’

Meyer Eskin and Gideon Helf both had two All Star Times. In 13/14, Meyer got the time in 100 IM and 50 Breast. Gideon in 15/18 took the time in 100 IM and 100 Breast. Also with All Star Times where Lauren Faulkender in 11/12 50 Breast, Valerie Mello in 15/18 100 Back, Andrew O’Brien in 15/18 100 Back and Lucca Scott in 15/18 50 Fly.

Unfortunately these times are unlikely to count for the All Star meet as they were not swum at an A Meet. Still, they bode well for the season ahead.

Under 8 Invasion Dominates Time Trials

By Flip Turn

Dolphin Correspondent

There are a lot of fast under 8 swimmers.

That might be the biggest takeaway from time trials where under 8 swimmers dominated the meet and posted some fast times. 

Twenty-five free tells the story. Eli Nigri posted a 23:45 followed by Max Genereux in 24.33 and Wessel van der Werf in 24.67. Also breaking 30 seconds were Noah Haas, Charlie Garvin, Oliver Spooner, Teddy Komosa, Parker Wilson and Jad Shami. Breaking 40 seconds were Max White, Roman Van Leeuwen, Jimmy Crino, Max Thompson, Noah Governski, Elias Del Solar and Colby Epanchin. And Evan Pender and Nate Satlof came in under 43 seconds.

It was a similar story for the under 8 girls though there were fewer of them. Caroline Conroy scored an All Star Time in 25 Free while Ambre Verhoeven took second in 23.35. Breaking 30 seconds were Molly Wilson, Lila Levine and Anna Goecke while Tess Brennan nearly broke 45 seconds and Beatrice Hyman nearly broke 60 seconds.

With all of these under 8s, the future looks good for the Dolphins.

Welcome Back to the Dolphin Times

By Tucker the Dog

Dolphin Times Editor in Chief

Welcome to the first edition of the 2019 Dolphin Times. As always, the intrepid staff of the Dolphin Times will do it best to chronicle the upcoming summer swim team season. Our goal is to publish lots of names and give lots of shout outs. 

Our coverage includes both the A Meets and the B Meets as well as our more informal events.

Editing this fine publication is a dog. Yes, I am a dog. So everyone needs to be forgiving when it comes to typos, especially for names. A quick email will get the online version fixed.

There also needs to be a replacement news squad for the Dolphin Times as half of this dog’s home team will be graduating this year from team and the other half isn’t around quite as much as before. Please reach out if you have an interest in taking over this fine journalistic endeavor.

Finally, Dolphin Times welcomes freelance contributions. We pay on dog biscuits. Really good stories might even get you a small rawhide bone.