The Madison Dodgers Swim team opens the season up on December 12th home, against Hackettstown at 6PM.
The boys team went 5-6 (.450), unfortunately losing out in the NJSIAA tournament quarterfinal round to Bernards. The girls team 6-5 (.545), making it to the semifinal round of the NJSIAA tournament, but unfortunately falling to Caldwell.
Both teams are out for redemption. The boys team lost 2 seniors and the girls team lost 6. Both teams hope to have the underclassmen step up and with the leadership of the current seniors and lead the team to a successful season.
On the boys side, Senior Jacques Chemaly broke 3 records last year. He individually set the 500 free record time, swimming 4:59.22. He was also a part of 2 relay records, the 400 Free Relay, and the 200 Medley Relay with the help of Ethan Simms, Spencer Rosenbaum, Kaden Chou and Anuthra Abeysinghe. Senior Anuthra Abeysinghe broke 2 solo records, the 200 IM with a time of 2:16.39 and the 100 Breast, swimming 1:00.44.
For the girls, Senior Layla Knoll, the lone remaining swimmer from the record holding 400 free relay team, along with other senior captains Meredith McKeever, Caitlin Jobe, and Evelyn Juliano lead a deep squad of talented swimmers. The female dodgers will look to these seniors and several underclassmen swimmers to fill the gap created by the graduation of key swimmers from last season.
Many of the boys and girls swimmers also participate in club swimming year round. When swimming coach Mr. Coviello was asked about club swim he said “This offers an additional opportunity to hone their craft while maintaining top cardiovascular shape.” The team has many swimmers that compete for a club, which include Jacques Chemaly, Anuthra Abeysinghe, Ethan Simms, Spencer Rosenbaum, Jacob Lee, Oliver Liu, Layla Knoll, and Alexis Lee.
Heading into the season, the boys feature 7 seniors and the girls feature 11.When asked about mentoring the underclassmen, Senior Martin Bria said “We want to teach them about the proper etiquette on how to be a good member of the team, and we get a lot of freshman from club and they are already very experienced, but we also get a lot of newcomers who have never swam before, and we just want to make them feel comfortable as well as sharpening their skills”Both teams host their home meets at the Madison YMCA and there is free entrance to the meets. The schedule is listed below.
