Making Waves: Bright Future with Young Swimmers

By Door County Pulse , Peninsula Pulse – December 11th, 2015

Featured Swimmers: One of DCY SWIM’s greatest strengths is the younger age-group swimmers. The DCY (pre-team) Dolphins program bridges swim lessons and full-team commitment. Almost all of the younger swimmers are coming over from this program.

The 8 & under swimmers on DCY SWIM are among the best in the state. Pictured are Jaxon Rankin, Jack Monfils, Coach Mike McHugh, Luke Filar, Ryan Felhofer and Colton Blackley. Photo by Suzanne Rose.

The 8 & under swimmers are among the best in the state. This year we have several boys who are tremendous additions to our team: Jack Monfils, Ryan Felhofer, Jaxon Rankin, Colton Blackley and Luke Filar swam at our last meet, with Jack, Ryan and Jaxon winning high-point trophies for their individual performances. We also have several boys that add to this group that will be swimming at our home meet on Dec. 19.

The strength of the overall program starts with this group and continues throughout the older age groups.

Coach’s Notes: There are several types of meets that we attend through YMCA swimming. Our most recent meet in Green Bay was a sprint meet, where each swimmer swims four 50-yard events of each stroke, and a 100-yard freestyle event. DCY SWIM’s upcoming home meet will offer extended event lengths, including all 200-yard events of each stroke.

We also had several high point trophies in addition to the 8 & under boys group: Christi Braun and Max McHugh tied for first overall with 100 points – winning all five of their races during the meet. Brock Aune came in second with 84.5 points, Luke Bousley third with 77 points and Cassie Rankin scored 60 points.

DCY SWIM set a goal of 90 percent “best times” for the team in the 100-yard Freestyle event this meet, somewhat lofty, and ended with 77 percent “best times” in the event, a super accomplishment.

Every meet we set goals to set greater focus on the attention of the team to work cohesively, while diminishing any hyper-focus on individual achievement. Although we certainly recognize and highlight individual performance, we discuss at practice how it helps the team grow and perform when collectively united.

Traveling to the Schroeder Finalist Meet this weekend in Milwaukee, DCY swimmers can choose the added 400 IM, 1,000-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle events. With these choices, especially in the 13 & 14 and 15 & up age groups, swimmers can compete in events that are seen in the larger and much more competitive swimming arena. DCY Elite swimmers are also able to swim events that will be offered at the collegiate level and increase the visibility and interest of college coaches and programs.

In addition, another great feature of YMCA swimming is the number of events swimmers can swim in a meet. This weekend, for example, swimmers can swim nine individual events, and four relays if they choose over the three-day event. This makes every meet DCY SWIM participates in different and exciting.

Upcoming Meets: