Birmingham Blue Dolphins Finish Ninth in the Nation at National YMCA Meet

Birmingham Blue Dolphins (BBD) swimmers, parents and coaches fly home from Florida this weekend with three national championships and a ninth-place overall performance by the 40-member team at the four-day YMCA meet that ended Friday evening.

The BBD girls, with 195 points, ended the tournament as seventh among 53 teams. BBD boys finished 17th with 68 points.

A first-place win was added Friday by the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Nikki Barczak, Maggie Pyett, Jaynie Pultie and Taylor Steffl with a time of 1:33.83. BBD also won that event in 2010.

"It was the most exciting moment of the week," Steffl, 17, said Saturday morning. She also was on last year's No. 1 relay team and joked that "it definitely doesn't get old."

The new time "smashes a BBD record that was held by our first group of swimmers to win a relay at the national meet many years ago," said Kevin Fogarty, head coach of the team.  

The girls' stronger performance generated good-natured trash talk among the girls and boys, Steffl said. "It's nice to rub it in a little," she said, "but we cut them some slack."

Another swimmer, 17-year-old Rohan Tangri of Troy, said hoarsely: "Most of us lost our voices cheering."

Intense pace for teens

Fogarty said he and senior coach Michael Wind of Royal Oak are proud of their swimmers.

"It's really a challenge to be ready to swim fast in Florida," Fogarty said. "They have the climate change and prelims (qualifying races) in the early morning, so the conditions are quite different than what they are accustomed to."

Events began at 8 a.m. every day, Fogarty said, and ended about 12 hours later.

More than 100 teams, including six others from Michigan, competed under bright skies in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Birmingham's team, one of the two largest groups at this week's meet, includes teens generally considered Metro Detroit's top prep swimmers. Members, ages 13-18, come from Oakland County and beyond.

Leading point-earners include Barczak of Bloomfield Hills, who won 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races, and Patrick Sheppell of Birmingham, the 10th-place finisher Friday afternoon in the 1,650-yard freestyle at 15:44.90. He earlier placed ninth in the 1,000-yard freestyle.

Endurance swimmer set BBD records

"Patrick Sheppell was outstanding in the distance event," Fogarty said Saturday. "These are events that most swimmers avoid. He set team records in both."

Strong showings also came from:

• Pulte of Troy, who placed sixth in the 50-yard freestyle.
• Rob McGowan of Birmingham, who placed sixth and ninth in two freestyle races.
• Women's relay teams, who placed second and fifth in two events before Friday's win.

The  YMCA National Championships also involved Michigan teams from Farmington, Macomb County, Lenawee County, Flint, Saginaw and Muskegon. The Flint Falcons' combined team scores earned 18th place, thanks mainly to a 13th-place finish by their girls.        

Humbling reality check

"It's kind of a humbling experience and maturing process for the kids," said Jim Steffl of Auburn Hills, father of a girls relay team member. "At home, they're king of the hill, and here, most of them don't qualify for final heats. But it's given them a lot of confidence to swim in the same pool as national champions."

His daughter Taylor, who will swim for the State University of New York at Buffalo next year, welcomed a chance to sleep in Saturday, enjoy a late breakfast with teammates and "hit the beach, finally, to get some sun."

In addition to local swimmers named above, participating Birmingham YMCA national team members are:

• Boys: Roby Bogs, Carl Jacob, Jack Howard, Gust Kouvaris, James LaFave, Miles MacDonald, Josh Murrell, Pat Nodland, Peter Palmer, Jeremy Raisky, James Schena, Rohan Tangri, Matt Wolkham, Jack Russell, Michael Shaben and Nick Wyllie.
• Girls: Alexandra Aboud, Isabelle Bishop, Katie Dever, Christine Edwards, Hanna Hunstad, Hannah Knapp, Kelly McGowan, Morgan McKay, Mollie Pulte, Emily Reasoner, Hailey Sambor, Elli Schinella, Ella Waechter, Merrill Watzman and Charlotte Yaw.

Below are Friday's results (earlier results are ):

Girls

Place

Name(s)

Event

Final time

1

Nikki Barczak, Jaynie Pulte, Maggie Pyett, Taylor Steffl

200-yard freestyle relay

1:33.83

7

Nikki Barczak, Jaynie Pulte, Maggie Pyett, Taylor Steffl

400-yard medley relay

3:51.98

Boys

Place

Name(s)

Event

Final time

10

Patrick Sheppell

1,650-yard freestyle

15:44.90

12

Gust Kouvaris, Rob McGowan, Jeremy Raisky, Nick Wyllie

200-yard freestyle relay

1:25.85

17

Roby Bogs, James LaFave, Rob McGowan, Jeremy Raisky

400-yard medley relay

3:30.21