New Breaststroke Record, Preparation for Relay Carnival & Four-Stroke Cap Swims

(7/5/26) 

We hope you had a great Fourth of July and your A/C is still pumping out cool air! The summer fun continues this week with Waynewood’s last home A and B Meets as well as Division Relay Carnival Wednesday. Both Relay Carnival and Saturday’s A Meet are now open to indicate swimmer availability. 

This week’s calendar at a glance: 

• Monday— Home B Meet w/Little Hunting Park (warm up 5:00 pm; no 4 pm or later practice) 
• Monday—Indicate availability for Relay Carnival (deadline Monday at 11 pm) 
• Monday—Indicate availability for Saturday A Meet (deadline Monday at 11 pm) 
• Wednesday—Division 7 Relay Carnival @Springboard (no 4 pm or later practice) 
• Thursday—Teen night activity Friday—Pep rally TBA @6pm 
• Saturday—Home A Meet with Dunn Loring (9 am, warmup 8:00 am) 

In This Message: 

1. A Meet w/Dowden Terrace highlights 
2. Home B Meet with Little Hunting Park (Monday @6pm, 5:00 pm warmup) 
3. Division 7 Relay Carnival (7/8) 
4. Lap-a-thon fundraiser 
5. Teen Night, Thursday (7/9) 
6. Pep Rally, Friday (7/10) @6pm 
7. Upcoming Home A Meet, Saturday (7/11) with Dunn Loring 
8. Look ahead 

1) A Meet w/Dowden Terrace highlights 

Waynewood built a sizable lead at Friday’s meet winning the freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly portions against the Dowden Terrace Dolphins but ultimately succumbed to Dowden Terrace’s roaring comeback in the relay portion of the meet. The meet came down to the final relay race, which Dowden Terrace won by 0.02 seconds to snatch the win away 213-207. The full meet results and new Dolphins team ladder are available here. Highlights from Friday’s meet: 

• An All-Time Dolphin Great: The Waynewood highlight of Friday’s meet was undoubtedly swimmer/coach Moses Wolf breaking the Dolphins team record in the 15-18 50m breaststroke. The new 30.32 seconds record breaks the previous mark of 30.73 seconds set by Leo Clifford on August 5, 2017. In taking the 15-18 breaststroke record, Moses also padded his resume as an all-time Dolphin great by taking his eighth individual record on the Dolphins record board – one more than the seven individual record board entries owned by Leo’s sister Maxine Clifford. Maxine set her last Waynewood record in 2012 (almost fourteen years ago!) and continues to lead all Dolphin girls in records held by a wide margin. Congratulations Moses! 
• Outstanding meet contribution: The early morning rise didn’t stop Waynewood’s 13-14 boys from getting the job done Friday taking 25 of 36 points in individual events, including all four first place event finishes. 
  • James Gallagher, Luke Bluey, Connor Simonelli, Norman Temple, and Alex Leth all scored points for the Dolphins. 
  • The 13-14 boys 100m medley relay team of Bluey, Gallagher, Simonelli, and Leth also won their race 59.68 to 1:01.40. 
• Race of the meet: This designation typically goes to a Waynewood squad that won its race in dramatic fashion. But we’re changing it up this week to add some context – and an opportunity for motivation – from the final race of the meet. 
  • The girls 200m freestyle mixed age relay is the last event of every meet featuring the fastest freestyle swimmer from each team’s 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18 age groups. 
  • Our mixed age girls squad of Vera Hill, Violet Dunstan, Abby Minear, and Lucinda Keenan got put in a tough spot at the end of the meet as none of Waynewood’s five girls age-group relays had won their races and the Dowden Terrace mixed age squad’s best time was more than three seconds faster than the Waynewood squad’s season best. 
  • Aware Waynewood was down to its last chance of the day, our mixed age girls showed the mettle you’d expect from our fastest-time swimmers putting up a herculean effort that dropped 3.29 seconds from the squad’s prior best time. 
  • After the race’s near-simultaneous touch finish, silence momentarily overtook the Dowden Terrace pool as the result remained unknown. Once the timers calculated and posted results it showed Waynewood had fallen incrementally short – 2:12.34 to 2:12.36 – of winning the race and meet. 
  • We tip our hats to Dowden Terrace on their victory, but multiple Dolphin relay squads should have plenty of motivation going into rematches at Division 7 Relay Carnival this Wednesday. 
• Other winning Waynewood relay squads: 
  • Boys 8 & under 100m freestyle relay (1:22.25 vs. 1:41.39) 
  • Boys 15-18 200m medley relay (1:57.22 vs. 1:59.83) 
  • Boys mixed age 200m freestyle relay (2:02.50 vs. 2:07.06)

2) Home B Meet with Little Hunting Park (Monday 7/6 @6:00 pm, 5:00 pm warmup) 

The Dolphins swim Monday (7/6) at WRA vs. the Little Hunting Park Gators. 

• Arrive by 4:50 pm for a 5:00 pm warmup. The first meet event starts at 6 pm. 
• No 4:00 pm or later afternoon practices on Monday due to the meet – this also means no 5:30 pm Little Dolphins practice (but Little Dolphins are welcome to join the noon practice if able). 
• Parking courtesy: Please look for street parking (or walk) and leave the WRA parking lot for our guests – this is a reciprocity courtesy that ultimately helps Waynewood families when we’re on the road. 
• 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 (with no team logos). 
• Swim schedule: The meet will proceed in regular order: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and IM. 
• Food forecast: We’ll have multiple food options so come hungry and order early before it sells out. 

3) Division 7 Relay Carnival @Springboard and Relay Carnival 101 

Springboard is the host of this year’s NVSL Division 7 Relay Carnival—a fun event featuring our division rivals. 

• Make sure that you have indicated your swimmers’ availability or non-availability by 11 pm Monday. 
• Swimmers will be notified Tuesday evening about participation in this meet. 
• What is Relay Carnival? See the attached Relay Carnival 101. 

Relay Carnival @Springboard details: 

• Times: The first meet event swims at 6:00 pm. The Waynewood warmup is at 5:20 pm. Please arrive no later than 5:05 pm for warm up. This meet tends to go quick, it’s realistic it will be over by 8:00 pm. 
• Keep in mind: There is no caravan from the WRA parking lot. You’ll need to navigate rush hour traffic, so allow plenty of travel time. Warmups at Relay Carnival occur in phases and Waynewood has the last warmup – so the parking lot may be full and you’ll need to plan time for walking from neighborhood street parking. Carpooling for this meet is a smart idea. 
• Springboard’s address: 6500 Deepford St, Springfield, VA 22150. 
• Food forecast: We don’t have this yet, but we’re confident they’ll have something. We’ll share more details if we get them by Tuesday. 
• Volunteers: Because there are six teams participating, Waynewood gets a customized and limited list of roles to fill. Team Reps typically fill these roles by reaching out to some participating families rather than online signups. 
• No 4:00 pm or later practice Wednesday: Since the team and coaches will be on the road, they’ll be no afternoon practice for big or Little Dolphins. 

4) Lap-a-thon update 

Thank you again to the many Dolphin families who have donated as sponsors toward the team’s $10k fundraising goal. 

• After the Wednesday swim event, we’ve received 18 additional donations totaling over $1,200. 
• We’re less than $200 from reaching the goal for the team. 
• The opportunity to make a donation is still open here – we appreciate your support! 

We’ll have full results Wednesday and hope to be in a position to announce that all Dolphin age groups have earned a donut party! 

5) Teen night, Thursday (7/9) 

We hear it’s Book Hunt this week (wear your running shoes)! Meet at 6:30 pm @WRA grounds. Please note it is only for registered Waynewood team members who have already turned 13 – no requests for exceptions please. 

6) Pep Rally, Friday (7/10) @6 pm 

Details are TBA. But know that you can count on cheers and the announcement of the week’s practice monsters … don't miss it! 

7) Upcoming Home A Meet, Saturday (7/11) with Dunn Loring 

The Dolphins’ fourth Northern Virginia Swimming League meet of the 2026 Division 7 season takes place this Saturday, July 11. The Waynewood Dolphins will host the Dunn Loring Dolphins (yes, yet another pod of Dolphins). 

• Waynewood swimmers available for this meet will need to indicate status by 11 pm on Monday, July 6. 
• The meet is at WRA. Dolphins are scheduled to warm up at 8:00 am. Please arrive 10 minutes earlier at 7:50 am. 
• Volunteer signups for this meet are open NOW. 
• 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. 

8) Look ahead 

In next week’s Sunday newsletter expect information about: 

• Final B Meet @Mansion House (7/13) 
• Final A Meet @Springboard on Saturday 7/18 

We’ll also soon (but maybe not next newsletter) share information on: 

• IM Invitational (7/20) 
• Ticket sales for the end-of-season Dolphins banquet (7/25) 

Questions? 

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

Go Dolphins! 

Waynewood Dolphins Communications