Grinalds, Woods, and Ortega Break Long-Standing WRAT Team Records
December has been a busy time for the Water Rats. The senior swimmers traveled to Nashville for the Music City Invitational, other senior swimmers attended a meet at Chelsea Piers, the age group swimmers swam at the Canterbury School, and the 8 & under swimmers swam in Cheshire. There was some very fast swimming with two longstanding Water Rat team records broken. Nicolas Ortega broke Matthew Yacco’s 17 year old record in the 1650 yard freestyle in a time of 15:37.18 and Willow Woods broke Savitri Horrigan’s 7 year old record in the 100 yard breaststroke in a time of 1:05.57. Nicolas’ time in the 1650 is now the new CT Resident Record for 15-16 year old boys.
This past weekend had the Water Rats traveling once again, several senior and age group swimmers traveled to Boston/Cambridge for the NSSC-MIT Invitational meet while Sarah Grinalds and Dashiell Hunter headed to Columbus Ohio for the 2016 Speedo Winter Junior Championships. At the Winter Junior Championships, Sarah Grinalds set a new team record breaking Emily Claire Fenn’s 16 year old 500 yard freestyle record in a time of 4:49.66. Sarah also broke her own team records in the 100 yard freestyle in a time of 50.11 and 200 yard freestyle in a time of 1:46.76. The 200 yard Freestyle is also a new CT Swimming 15-16 and Senior Resident Record.
Meanwhile, at the NSSC-MIT Invitational meet in Cambridge, our Water Rat swimmers also had a great showing. Jude Dequeljoe won four events the Boys 10 & under 50 backstroke, 100 yard freestyle, 200 yard freestyle and 50 yard freestyle and came in 2nd in the 10 & under 100 yard breaststroke. Other event winners included Andrew Berkowitz winning the Boys 10 & under 50 yard butterfly and Kate Murray winning the Girls 10 & under 50 yard butterfly. Other top three finishers at the MIT meet included Caroline Begg placing 2nd in the 11-12 Girls 500 yard freestyle, Annam Olasewere placing 3rd in the Girls 10 & under 50 yard butterfly, and Sean Paul Stolarski placing 2nd in the Boys 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle and placing 3rd in the Boys 200 yard freestyle.
We end our December meet frenzy with our very own Blue vs. Red Intra-squad meet on Saturday, December 17th. The meet begins at 10:00 a.m. and is open to all swimmers and their families. So come join the fun and maybe even participate in the parent/child relays! Hot chocolate and other goodies will be provided by the Parents Club on the observation deck following the meet.
Congratulations to all Water Rat Swimmers for some great mid-season swimming!
GO WRATS!
