Orca Jonah Albers Breaks Novato Rolling Hills '97 Pool Record

This past weekend, the Terra Linda Orcas belly flopped against Novato’s Rolling Hills Stingrays 243 -313.  While the Orcas had hoped the meet would be closer, they still have a lot to be proud of, such as a record-breaking performance from Jonah Albers.

One swimmer who has impressed non-stop for several years running now is 10- year-old Jonah Albers, the pride of the Orcas.  Albers outdid himself and the entire Stingray club by setting a Rolling Hills pool record in the butterfly of 31.72.  The old record was set 15 years ago at 31.84.  Albers also took first place in all three of his heats, and it looks like we'll have to look for him to break more records this season.

The Orcas have many very good and even a few great swimmers.  As of this past weekend they had 85 swimmers qualify for the All-Star meet on Saturday, June 23. Of those swimmers, 29 were boys and 56 were girls.  With two more dual meets on the schedule, those numbers will likely go up for the kids who are on the bubble.

My daughter Sabrina is one of those bubble kids, knocking on the All-Star door in the freestyle and breaststroke but still on the outside looking in. Her sister, Skylee, broke down the door in the breaststroke against the Stingrays, taking first place against a swimmer who had been faster than Skylee coming into the meet. In an extremely close and thrilling heat (not just for her father, really) Skylee won by .11. She came from behind with her patented burst of speed towards the finish and a technically perfect glide into the wall. Anything less would have landed her in second place.  At this point, Skylee has had the best of the girls in the nine to 10 breaststroke against three of the four teams the Orcas have faced.

One of the neatest things about swimming competitively in the Marin Swim League is going against other teams every year and seeing the names of upcoming swimmers and their times. Skylee will be swimming against three Sea Lions this coming weekend who currently have faster breaststroke times than her.  Two years ago the same swimmers clashed repeatedly in their dual meet, the All-Stars and the Championships. If the kids stick with swimming, they will likely be chasing each other across the pool regularly in the years to come and through high school.

Perhaps the only disappointment for me personally in my years with the Orcas happened on Saturday.  Skylee was part of the Orcas ages nine to 10 relay, and the team came up one boy short. The Orcas literally didn’t have another boy to put onto that team and were waiting until the last second for the scheduled boy to show, but he didn’t. So Skylee swam her breaststroke, and jumped back in the water to swim the freestyle leg of the heat. I feared that would wear her out, but she still took first in the breaststroke and third in the IM.

The point is that we could really use some more Orca boys.  Most boys pick baseball over swimming, a choice which I sort of understand. As a young boy I thought baseball was pretty boring and just played because there was nothing else to do in the spring and summer. Had I known about the Marin Swim League back then I would have been on a local club.

If there are any Terra Linda boys out there who are as bored as I was with America’s past time they should definitely give the Orcas a shot.  Swimming is fun and competitive.  It gets you in good shape.  Swimming meets are like parties every Saturday and the girls on the team by far outnumber the boys.  What’s not to like?         

Next weekend the battle heads straight uphill, to the top of Atlantis with the Orcas going against the legendary Sleepy Hollow Sea Lions.  The defending league champions and perennial powerhouse more than doubled the Orcas score last year at the championship meet. The Orcas have improved since then, but not by that much.