Waynewood Dolphins Weekly Newsletter 

(7/7/24) 

The Dolphins are headed for the last leg of the 2024 season with the final B Meet and final A Meet rapidly approaching. The team still has some fun events ahead after these meets: IM Invitational, Little Dolphin Mini-Meet, Dolphin Duel, Divisional Championships, and the Banquet finale. Let’s flip into it!

This week’s calendar at a glance: 

• Monday—Indicate availability for Saturday A Meet (deadline is Monday at 11 p.m.) 
• Monday—B Meet @Mansion House (warm-up 5:10 p.m.; no afternoon practices) 
• Tuesday—6 p.m. deadline to Indicate Availability for IM Invitational 
• Thursday—Teen Night: Dolphin Prom 
• Friday— Pep rally: Pie in the face @6 p.m. 
• Saturday—Home A Meet vs. Parklawn (warm-up 8:00 a.m., Senior Day) 

In This Message: 

1. A Meet vs. Rolling Hills highlights 
2. B Meet @Mansion House (Monday, 7/8) 
3. Upcoming Home A Meet vs. Parklawn & Senior Day, Saturday (7/13) 
4. IM Invitational overview 
5. Teen night: Dolphin Prom, Thursday (7/11) 
6. Pep rally: Pie in the face, Friday (7/5) @6 p.m. 
7. Look Ahead 

1) A Meet vs. Rolling Hills highlights 

Waynewood gave another strong performance Saturday but came up short 197-223 in its matchup with Rolling Hills. Notably, the Dolphins relay teams swam to a 30/30 points draw with the Division 7 Relay Carnival champion. Dolphins highlights from the meet:

• Outstanding meet contribution: Waynewood’s 8 & under girls won 25 of 36 possible points in individual events, leading all Dolphin age groups in points Saturday. Violet Dunstan, Catherine Beaton, Violet Smith, Nora Agnini, and Alice Drake all scored for the Dolphins. The 8 & under girls 100m freestyle relay team of Beaton, Drake, Agnini, and Dunstan also won their relay race 1:35.08 to 1:47.27 giving the Dolphins an additional 5 points. 
• Race of the meet: We’ve mentioned our 9-10 girls winning close A Meet relay races before, but this one was Waynewood’s closest win yet this season. The 9-10 girls medley relay team of Ava Reese Minear, Vera Hill, Fiona Mead, and Heidi Evans won out over the Rolling Hills squad 1:23.46 to 1:23.58. Just a little over one-tenth of a second separated victory from defeat in a race that featured two lead changes as our 9-10 girls squad calmly pulled out another close one.

• Change can be good: The Dolphins’ boys 15-18 200m medley relay team of Caleb Wolf, Moses Wolf, Marshall LoCascio, and Joshua Wolf have been chasing the event record all season, but kept coming up short. At this week’s meet Marshall and Joshua switched things up: Marshall moved to butterfly replacing Joshua and Joshua moved to freestyle replacing Marshall. The tactic worked and the team set a new record of 1:51.90, eclipsing the old mark of 1:52.22 (from 2022) and besting the Rolling Hills’ squad that finished in 2:01.02. Congrats boys! The relay team still has two more chances to break the record again: this week at All-Star Relays and Saturday vs. Parklawn. 
• Other winning Dolphins relay squads: 
  • Boys 13-14 100m medley relay (59.00 vs. 1:00.83) 
  • Girls 13-14 100m medley relay (1:05.28 vs. 1:06.90 
  • Boys mixed age 200m freestyle relay (2:00.95 vs. 2:01.52) 
• SmugMug: Photos from the A Meet are up on SmugMug. Check’em out!

2) Monday (7/8) B Meet @Mansion House 

The Dolphins swim @Mansion House at 6 p.m. Due to a Mansion House pre-meet activity, Waynewood’s warmup starts a little earlier than usual at 5:10 p.m. – please arrive 10 minutes before this at 5:00 p.m. 

• Mansion House address: 9321 Old Mount Vernon Road Alexandria 22309 (park in the lot) 
• Strokes order: IM, free, back, breast, fly. 
• Note for WW families: Mansion House has informed us that their meet has a hard stop of 9 p.m. so it’s possible the meet will not get to all swim events. 
• Special note from our host: 
  • “LOCK your cars. In 2019 we had a car broken into at a B Meet as a purse was left in it. We think it was a crime of opportunity (not a swimmer or swim family) but we ask everyone stay vigilant, lock cars, and not leave valuables in the open in a car.” 
• Food forecast from Mansion House: 
  • “We will have concessions available for purchase, including plenty of water, sodas, and Gatorades. We serve burgers and a variety of snack items so bring your appetites. We accept Cash, Card & Venmo.”

3) Home A Meet vs. Parklawn, Saturday (7/13) 

The Dolphins’ final 2024 Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL) dual-meet of the 2024 Division 7 season takes place this Saturday, July 13. The Dolphins will compete with the Parklawn Piranhas. It’s also Senior Day so please come to honor our senior swimmers. 

• Waynewood swimmers available for this meet will need to indicate status by 11 p.m. on Monday, July 8. 
• We can’t yet open the meet for swimmers to indicate availability just yet but look for it tonight or tomorrow morning. 
• The meet is at WRA. Dolphins are scheduled to warm-up at 8 a.m. Please arrive 10 minutes earlier, at 7:50 a.m. 
• We can’t rule out the possibility the meet start time might be moved up again due to heat concerns, but for now it’s still 9 a.m. 
• Volunteer sign ups for this meet open Tuesday at 7 p.m. 
• Swimmers indicating availability will be notified of team selections no later than Thursday evening via email. 
• We’ll share more meet details later in the week. 

4) IM Invitational @Waynewood Overview (7/15) 

Waynewood is hosting IM Invitational this year on Monday, July 15. Warm-ups begin at 3:30 p.m. and the first heat will be at 5 p.m. Warm-ups for IM are done by age group, we’ll have more information soon. 

• Note: Waynewood will need a significant number of volunteers for this meet, including parents who do not have a swimmer in the meet. We’re offering double volunteer credit for this meet and families may work both shifts. In theory, most any family could fulfill their entire 2024 volunteer obligation by working at this meet. Click here to volunteer and to indicate swimmer availability. 

Like an A Meet, the Waynewood Dolphins will send our fastest IM swimmers to this meet. For this meet (per our volunteer policy), we will also prioritize swimmers from families who have been registering shifts as volunteers (or serving as leads) over those who have not. 

• To be considered for selection, swimmers need to indicate availability no later than 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9. 
• Waynewood gets to (initially) send three swimmers from each age/gender group. In the days immediately before the meet, there’s a good chance Waynewood will get one or maybe two additional bid-in/alternate entries for most age groups that we’ll send along to beneficiaries (there are typically extra lanes available). 
• Please note that while 8 & under swimmers may compete in the 10 & under age group, there is no 8 & under IM age group at this meet. 
• The IM Invitational is all IM swims and there is a trophy for the team winning its respective division at the meet through a scoring system (loosely based on NVSL Division seeding).

5) Dolphin Prom Teen Night—Thursday at 6:30 p.m. 

It’s the Dolphin Prom for our teens! Dress is “As Classy As You Wanna Be.” You might want to wear your “sensible shoes” though. It’s a walking progressive dinner. 

• Teens should sign up at practice starting Tuesday morning – there will be a TBD dinner cover charge. 
• The path of the progressive dinner is still being finalized. 
• Participants are asked to wear swimsuits under their outfits rather than changing this year. 

IMPORTANT: Participants must be registered Waynewood Dolphin swimmers and have finished 7th grade. Please respect that no exceptions will be made.

6) Pie in the Face Pep Rally—Friday at 6 p.m. 

Our favorite pep rally is just days away—Pie in the Coaches’ Face! A timeless classic involving trivia questions and lots of whipped cream. We’ll also announce practice monsters and fill the grounds with Dolphin spirit! 

7) Look ahead 

In next week’s Sunday newsletter we’ll have information about: 

• Swimming at IM Invitational 
• Little Dolphin Mini-Meet 
• Dolphin Duel 
• Division 7 Individual Championships 
• End-of-year banquet 

The full Dolphins season schedule is available on the website. 

Questions? 

Don’t hesitate to contact our Team Reps, James & Genna, at [email protected] 

Go Dolphins! 

Waynewood Dolphins Communications