Dolphins Break Two Team Records, Swimmers Head to Final B-Meet

Dolphin swimmers set two new team records this past week and we’re moving rapidly into the final opportunities for swimmers to showcase their skills. We’re excited about where this team is going and the unfinished business still ahead this season. 

This week’s calendar at a glance: 

• Monday—Indicate availability for Saturday A-Meet (deadline is Monday at 11 pm) 
• Monday—Home B Meet w/Mansion House (warm-up 5:00 pm; no afternoon practices) 
• Tuesday—6 pm deadline to Indicate availability for IM Invitational 
• Thursday—Teen Night: Dolphin Prom 
• Friday— Pep rally: Pie in the face @6 pm 
• Saturday—Home A Meet (& Senior Day) vs. Canterbury Woods (warmup 8:00 am) 

In This Message: 

1. A-Meet vs. Sleepy Hollow B&R highlights (& New Team Record) 
2. Division 7 Relay Carnival highlights (& New Team Record) 
3. Home B-Meet with Mansion House (Monday 7/7) 
4. Upcoming Home A-Meet vs. Canterbury Woods & Senior Day, Saturday (7/12) 
5. IM Invitational (7/14) overview 
6. Teen night: Dolphin Prom, Thursday (7/10) 
7. Pep rally: Pie in the face, Friday (7/11) @6 pm 
8. Buy your Dolphins banquet tickets! 
9. Division 7 Championships T-shirt reminder 
10. Collect your Dolphins shirt 
11. Opportunity to check out year-round swim club NCAP 
12. Look Ahead

1) A-Meet vs. Sleepy Hollow B&R highlights (& New Team Record!) 

Waynewood gave another strong performance Saturday but came up short 193-227 in its matchup with Division 7 leader Sleepy Hollow B&R. The results and new team ladder are up here. Dolphins relay teams on Saturday swam to a 30-30 point draw in relay races while facing the Division 7 Relay Carnival champion. One Dolphins squad even had to break a Waynewood team record in order to win their relay. Dolphins highlights from the meet: 

• Outstanding meet contribution: Waynewood’s 13-14 girls won 23 of 36 possible points in individual events going up against a talented Sleepy Hollow squad that hadn’t lost an NVSL relay race all season. Abby Minear, Lydia Schourek, Lucinda Keenan, Sasha Hill, and Whitney Shawn all scored points for Waynewood. The 13-14 girls 100m medley relay team of Minear, Hill, Schourek, and Keenan also set a new team record of 1:03.13, besting the previous mark of 1:03.88 set in 2007 as well as the Sleepy Hollow squad’s 1:03.55 race time. The Waynewood girls set the new mark in dramatic fashion in a race where competitors stayed side-by-side with the Dolphins ultimately prevailing over the Seals squad that took first place in both relay races at Wednesday’s Relay Carnival. Congrats girls!!! (Maybe break it again next week at home?) 
• Race of the meet: The boys mixed age 200m freestyle relay team of Alexander Mamienski, Isaac Exner, Michael Salter, and Luke Morris won another squeaker of a race that saw Waynewood mount a mid-race comeback and hold on to a slim lead at the end, winning 2:07.26 to Sleepy Hollow’s 2:07.65. In holding on, the boys squad ensured Waynewood would at least evenly split the meet’s relay points. 
• Other winning Dolphins relay squads: 
  • Boys 8 & under 100m freestyle relay (1:24.36 vs. 1:25.45) 
  • Boys 9-10 100m medley relay (1:28.46–Sleepy Hollow B&R DQ’d) 
  • Girls 9-10 100m medley relay (1:23.08 vs. 1:24.65) 
  • Boys 13-14 100m medley relay (1:01.61 vs. 1:14.15)

2) Division 7 Relay Carnival highlights (& New Team Record!) 

The Waynewood Dolphins took third place at Wednesday's Division 7 Relay Carnival scoring 172 points. Sleepy Hollow B&R took first with 206 points and Canterbury Woods finished second with 184. The full, race-by-race results are up and available here. 

Leading Waynewood’s success at Relay Carnival, the team’s 8 & under boys won first place in both their relay races setting a new Waynewood team record in the 100m medley and earning a birth in the NVSL All-Star meet in the 100m freestyle. The new 8 & under medley relay record of 1:37.56 won by Bear Bowman, Oz Hiler, Davis Rukenbrod, and Chris Herbert eclipses the previous mark of 1:38.04 set in 2016 by a team that includes two current Dolphin coaches. 

The following Waynewood Dolphins squads placed first, second, or third at Division 7 Relay Carnival: 

1st place finishes 

• Boys 8 & under 100m medley relay (1:37.56): Bear Bowman, Oz Hiler, Davis Rukenbrod, Chris Herbert 
• Girls 9-10 100m medley relay (1:20.27): Sophie Smith, Vera Hill, Violet Dunstan, Laurel Blackledge 
• Boys 13-14 200m medley relay (2:10.29): Luke Bluey, James Gallagher, Beau Gibson, Michael Salter 
• Boys 8 & under 100m freestyle relay (1:20.91): Davis Rukenbrod, Clement Fowler, Oz Hiler, Chris Herbert 
• Boys 13-14 200m freestyle relay (1:54.47): Luke Bluey, Beau Gibson, James Gallagher, Michael Salter 

2nd place finishes 

• Girls 13-14 200m medley relay (2:17.85): Abby Minear, Sasha Hill, Lydia Schourek, Lucinda Keenan 
• Girls 11-12 100m freestyle relay (1:01.75): Violet Farris, Charlotte Dunstan, Annie Popowich, Cully Rufe 
• Girls 13-14 200m freestyle relay (2:03.72): Lydia Schourek, Sasha Hill, Lucinda Keenan, Abby Minear 

3rd place finishes 

• Girls 200m freestyle mixed age relay (2:08.82): Cully Rufe, Vera Hill, Abby Minear, Bella Connally 
• Boys 15-18 200m medley relay (1:58.94): Moses Wolf, Jonathan Salter, Luke Morris, Charlie Schourek 
• Girls 9-10 100m freestyle relay (1:20.27): Laurel Blackledge, Sophie Smith, Paige Simonelli, Vera Hill 
• Boys 15-18 200m freestyle relay (1:49.43): Moses Wolf, Charlie Schourek, Jonathan Salter, Luke Morris 

Relay race swims of three Dolphins teams also earned entries into the 2025 NVSL All-Star Relay Meet on July 9: 

• Boys 8 & under 100m freestyle relay (seed #13): Davis Rukenbrod, Clement Fowler, Oz Hiler, Chris Herbert Boys 
• 13-14 200m freestyle relay (seed #16): Luke Bluey, Beau Gibson, James Gallagher, Michael Salter 
• Girls 13-14 200m freestyle relay (seed #19): Lydia Schourek, Sasha Hill, Lucinda Keenan, Abby Minear 

2025 relay fun facts: 

• No Dolphin teams at Relay Carnival this year were disqualified. This means every Dolphins relay team’s finish contributed points to Waynewood’s third-place finish. 
• The Dolphins’ 13-14 200m girls freestyle relay team is the first Waynewood girls team to earn an NVSL All-Star Relay Meet birth since 2017, the summer season when three of the squad members were Little Dolphins and the fourth was five years old and hadn’t yet joined the team. 
• The 8 & under 100m medley relay, for which this year’s boys squad broke the team’s 2016 record, is a relatively new event for NVSL as prior to 2012 participants swam a “modified medley” that did not include butterfly. 

Congrats to all the Relay swimmers on a great showing. We’ll be rooting for our All-Star Meet relay teams on July 9.

3) Home B Meet w/Mansion House (Monday 7/7) 

The Dolphins swim Monday with the Mansion House Piranhas. 

• Arrive @WRA by 4:50 pm for a 5:00 pm warmup. The first meet event (boys 8 & under freestyle) starts at 6 pm. 
• Please don’t park in the WRA lot on Monday. By tradition, NVSL pools leave lots for visiting teams and home pool families walk or utilize street parking. 
• Volunteers: please remember that timers, clerks, and table workers are requested to wear a white top and navy (or dark) shorts/pants/skirt while on duty. We still have open roles for this meet so please help us out by signing up. 
• Swim schedule: The meet will follow the standard order of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and IM. 
• Food forecast: We’ll have Chick-fil-A, pizza, and an assortment of snacks. 
• No afternoon practice on Monday due to the meet (there is morning practice). 

4) Upcoming A Meet vs. Canterbury Woods & Senior Day, Saturday (7/12) 

The Dolphins’ final NVSL dual meet of the 2025 Division 7 season takes place this Saturday, July 12. The Dolphins will compete with the Canterbury Woods Sea Serpents. 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 pm on Monday, July 7. 
• We can’t yet open the meet for swimmers to indicate availability just yet but look for it tonight or tomorrow morning. 
• Swimmers indicating availability will be notified of team selections no later than Thursday evening via email. 
• The meet is at WRA. Dolphins are scheduled to warm-up at 8 am. Please arrive 10 minutes earlier, at 7:50 am. 
• 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 am. 
• We’ll share more meet details later in the week.

5) IM Invitational @Waynewood Overview (7/14) 

Waynewood is hosting IM Invitational this year on Monday, July 14. Warm-ups begin at 3:30 pm and the first heat will be at 5 pm. Warmups 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 2025 volunteer obligation by working at this meet. Click here to indicate swimmer availability. 
• To be considered for selection, swimmers need to indicate availability no later than 6 pm on Tuesday, July 8. 
• Waynewood gets to 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 two additional bid-in/alternate entries that we’ll send along to beneficiaries. 
• 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). 

6) Dolphin Prom Teen Night—Thursday at 6:30 pm 

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.

7) Pie in the Face Pep Rally—Friday at 6 pm 

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! 

8) Buy your Dolphins Banquet Tickets! 

Click here to buy tickets by July 13! Details below. It’s a can’t miss event.

9) Division 7 Championships T-shirt order reminder 

Our friends at Sleepy Hollow B&R are hosting Division 7 Individual Championships on Saturday, July 19. While we don’t know exactly which swimmers from Waynewood will be swimming at the meet, Sleepy Hollow’s online meet merch store needs to finalize orders by July 13 to have them in time for the meet. You can check out and purchase meet merch here. 

10) Collect your Dolphins shirt 

For those swimmers who still haven’t collected your Waynewood Dolphins T-shirt with your name on the back, we are putting these shirts in the file folders where swimmers collect ribbons. Please collect your shirt or let us know if you don’t want it placed in your file folder.

11) Opportunity to check out year-round swim club NCAP 

If your swimmer is loving summer swim and interested in taking swim skills to the next level, the Alexandria chapter of Nation’s Capital Swim Club (NCAP) is hosting open house events including at nearby Hollin Meadows and Mount Vernon Park. 

NCAP candidates should know multiple strokes and have some knowledge of starts and turns (like most Dolphins who have spent a summer swimming meets). The open house is an opportunity for a swimview where swimmers can be evaluated for programs, meet coaches, and parents can ask questions. Swimmers should wear a suit and bring goggles. Here are the details on the upcoming open houses: 

• Thursday July 10, 5:30-6:15 pm at Hollin Meadows: 2500 Woodlawn Trail, Alexandria 
• Tuesday July 15, 5-6 pm at Poplar Heights: 2463 Buckelew Drive, Falls Church 
• Wednesday July 16, 3-5 pm at Mount Vernon Park Association: 8042 Fairfax Rd, Alexandria 

NCAP has multiple Waynewood Dolphins who swim and attend meets year-round as team members. In addition, NCAP has offered a $1,000 scholarship credit for the Waynewood Dolphins to award to a new club swimmer enrolling in an eligible team program. E-mail team reps if you are interested in the scholarship.

12) 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 

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