South Orange Dolphins make a splash during swim season
By Joe Ragozzino
Sports editor
The South Orange Dolphins had a successful season competing in the North Jersey Swim League.
Moving up to Division 2 of the league this summer, the Dolphins fashioned a 5-3 record. They beat Mountainside twice, Maplewood, Berkeley Heights and Verona.
The Divisional meet was held on July 26 at Verona. The meet determined the qualifiers for the Meet of Champions on July 29 in New Providence.
The Dolphins had some strong performances at the Divisional meet. In the boys’ 8-and-under, Aidan Dwyer won the 25-yard freestyle and took second in the 25-yard backstroke.
In the girls’ 9-and-10 division, 10-year-old Gracie Jo Benn won the 25-yard freestyle and was second in the breaststroke, losing on a touch-out. Benn joined Marie Fagen, 10; Grace Hut, 11; and Maya Bryant, 12, in winning the 12-and-under freestyle relay.
Avi Duvvuri, 12, won three events in the boys’ 11-12 division: freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
The season was certainly gratifying as the team avenged its earlier-season losses while improving its times.
“Last season, we had a great season and we got moved up, so no one knew what to anticipate,” said head coach Claudia Minde, in her seventh year at the helm.
“Our first meet of the season was against Maplewood, which is a little bit of a rival of ours, and we were missing a lot of our swimmers and we lost by like 60 points.
“That being the start of our season, we really weren’t sure what to expect. After building up the kids and getting back some of our superstar swimmers from vacation, we came back to beat (Maplewood) by 60 points at the end of our season. So to us, it was like a growing experience throughout the year. Same thing with Berkeley Heights, who we lost to by 28 and we ended up, in the last meet of the season, beating them by over 100 points, which is a huge amount of points. We felt really strong at the end. We had our full team there and our kids were getting their best times and improving their strokes. For us, it was a success.”
Sports editor
The South Orange Dolphins had a successful season competing in the North Jersey Swim League.
Moving up to Division 2 of the league this summer, the Dolphins fashioned a 5-3 record. They beat Mountainside twice, Maplewood, Berkeley Heights and Verona.
The Divisional meet was held on July 26 at Verona. The meet determined the qualifiers for the Meet of Champions on July 29 in New Providence.
The Dolphins had some strong performances at the Divisional meet. In the boys’ 8-and-under, Aidan Dwyer won the 25-yard freestyle and took second in the 25-yard backstroke.
In the girls’ 9-and-10 division, 10-year-old Gracie Jo Benn won the 25-yard freestyle and was second in the breaststroke, losing on a touch-out. Benn joined Marie Fagen, 10; Grace Hut, 11; and Maya Bryant, 12, in winning the 12-and-under freestyle relay.
Avi Duvvuri, 12, won three events in the boys’ 11-12 division: freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
The season was certainly gratifying as the team avenged its earlier-season losses while improving its times.
“Last season, we had a great season and we got moved up, so no one knew what to anticipate,” said head coach Claudia Minde, in her seventh year at the helm.
“Our first meet of the season was against Maplewood, which is a little bit of a rival of ours, and we were missing a lot of our swimmers and we lost by like 60 points.
“That being the start of our season, we really weren’t sure what to expect. After building up the kids and getting back some of our superstar swimmers from vacation, we came back to beat (Maplewood) by 60 points at the end of our season. So to us, it was like a growing experience throughout the year. Same thing with Berkeley Heights, who we lost to by 28 and we ended up, in the last meet of the season, beating them by over 100 points, which is a huge amount of points. We felt really strong at the end. We had our full team there and our kids were getting their best times and improving their strokes. For us, it was a success.”
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