Will Turner of the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club gets a quick breath on his way to finishing second in the 50 meter freestyle, behind Ross Valdez of the Dalton Dolphins, foreground. The Chattanooga Area Swim League held its final meet at the Gilbert Stephenson Park pool in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., on Saturday afternoon.His swimmers, having claimed their first Chattanooga Area Swim League city meet title in six years, were circling, waiting for the right time to throw their coach into the not-so-cool water at Fort Oglethorpe’s Arlene Crye Pool.
Charles Todd didn’t mind one bit.
Todd’s Dalton Dolphins won the championship Saturday with a two-day total of 2,263.5 points to easily outdistance runner-up Stuart Heights (2,071). Upstart Ooltewah from the league’s middle division was third with 1,811.5 points, with five-time defending champion Signal Mountain fourth with 1,439.
“I am really proud of my Dolphins,” Todd said. “We had 11 first-place finishes yesterday and another 10 or 11 today, and we had several records broken by our swimmers. The kids are swimming fast, which is the name of the game. It was nice to come in here full strength for a change.”
Led by 100-point scorers Ethan Young (13-14 boys) and Taylor Dale (15-18 boys), the Dolphins took control Friday and never let up. Dale, who took part in the recent United States Olympic Trials and who will soon go to the Junior Olympic training facility, was happier for the team than for any individual accolades.