Dolphins Swim Club Returns from Niagara Championships in US with 33 Medals and 3 Highest Point Winners

Posted 2019-07-22

Dolphins Swim Club swimmers Melissa Er, Aly El Shamy, Aidan Lee show off medals and highest point awards from Niagara Championships 2019 30 swimmers from the Dolphins Swim Team that qualified for the Niagara Championships 2019 stand happily with their coaches in front of Nelson Pool Burlington

Melissa Er (10), Aly El Shamy (14), Aidan Lee (9) hold their awards from Niagara Championships 2019 - All 30 Niagara Championship Qualifiers from the Dolphins Swim Team with Coach Ken and Coach Sylvia

July 22nd, 2019: Last weekend, an entire 30 athletes from the Dolphins Swim Club of Burlington and Oakville competed in the LSC Long Course Niagara Championships in the United States. The young swimmers achieved impressive results.

Out of 52 teams, the Dolphins Swim Club placed 4th overall - with the STAR club of New York placing first, the Victor club of New York placing second, and the Clarence club of Clarence NY placing third.

The Niagara Championships gives points to swimmers who place highly in their races. The Dolphins Swim Club had three swimmers who won the highest amount of points within their age groups in the competition. 12 year old Melissa Er was the high point winner for girls 12 and under, 14 year old Aly El Shamy was the high point winner for boys 14 and under, and 9 year old Aidan Lee was the high point winner for boys 10 and under. All together, these three swimmers won 17 gold medals and 1 silver medal.

These three champions weren't the only impressive Dolphins swimmers at the meet. In total, the Dolphins brought home 33 medals - 29 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze.

Melissa Er (12 and under) won gold medals in 100 Breast, 200 IM, 200 Fly, 400 free, 400 IM and 200 Breast and won the high point award for girls 12 and under. Ethan Chen (10 and under) won silver medals in 200 IM and 100 Fly and Bronze medals in 400 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Aly El Shamy (14 and under) won gold in 200 breast, 400 IM, 100 Fly, 400 Free, 200 Free and 100 Breast and was the high point winner for boys 14 and under. Aidan Lee (10 and under) won gold in 200 IM, 100 Free, 50 back, 50 free and 100 back, silver in 200 free and was the high point winner for boys 10 and under. Sophia Lee (14 and under) won gold in 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free and silver in 200 IM. Joyo Mc Mayo (12 and under) won gold in 50 free and 50 fly. Vanessa Xia (12 and under) won silver in 50 free, 100 free and 50 fly. Jinyi Zhou (12 and under) won gold in 100 breast, 50 breast and 200 breast. Roberto Mendoza (12 and under) won bronze in 200 free. Alex Maio (14 and under) won gold in 200 fly. George Poulos (16 and under) won silver in 200 free and bronze in 800 free.

The team also broke 7 club records during the course of the weekend; the new records are as follows:

Boys 9-10 50 Free LC - 00:31:29L - Aidan Lee
Boys 9-10 100 Free LC - 1:07.76L - Aidan Lee
Boys 9-10 50 Back LC - 00:37:23L - Aidan Lee
Boys 9-10 100 Back LC - 1:19:10L - Aidan Lee
Boys 11-12 50 Breast LC - 00:35:59 - Jinyi Zhou

The following swimmers scored points in finals: Avishka Delivera, Yassine El Shamy, Rosalie Er, Ashley Hodge, Daniel Jiang, Yasin Labib, Allan Lee, Andrew Liu, Louis Low, Marthi Pranav, Roberto Mendoza, Alex Miao, Kathie Moore, Paige Moore, George Poulos, Brayden Rajotte, Konrad Sands, Ryan Si, Benjamin Tong, Merrick Wang, Tommy Wen, Nicole Xie.

Dolphins head coach Coach Russell is celebrating the team's success from South Korea with Kristina Steins who is attending World Championships this week. "Although I was in Korea during the Niagara Championships, I made sure that the athletes were prepared for the competition," he says, "I was writing their last few workouts for the competition and was constantly in touch with the other coaches about how they were doing. When it came time for Niagara, I was not worried."

The LSC Long Course Niagara Championships were the team's last competition for the summer as there will be no training in August. The athletes are eager to start competing again in September.