Sparked by a combined forty-seven top three placings – including sixteen gold medals – the Greenwich YWCA Dolphins Swim Team – stroked their way to an impressive second place finish in the 2025 Sunkissed Junior-Senior Championships in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Dolphins accumulated 2,730.50 points in the 80-event four-day meet. The Empire Swim Team of New York took the team title with 3,323 points. The Zeus Swim Team of Norwalk (2,337); the Host Team Charlotte (1,623.5); and the Raritan Valley Riptides (1,245.5) were the only five of the eighteen teams to break the 1,000-point level. The Dolphins were also second in the girls’ and boys’ divisions.
“We have been going to the Charlotte meet for over 25-years, and this was the most competitive team wide effort we have seen top to bottom,” commented Head Coach Nick Cavataro. “We had scoring is distance, sprints and strokes.”
Leading the Dolphins individually with four gold medals each were Luke Mendelsohn and Oliver Bjerke. Mendelsohn won two gold medals in meet record times, winning the 100-yard Individual Medley and the 50-Breaststroke with respective times of 51.34 and 25.96. The Johns Hopkins-bound GHS Senior also won the 100-Butterfly and 200-Freestyle at 50.22 and 1:40.11, respectively. The 17-year-old also took silver in the 500-Free (4:35.92); 200-Breast (2:04.59) and 100-Freestyle (46.49).
Bjerke took Junior Boys high-point honors with four golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The 13-year-old took gold in the 50-yard Butterfly (25.73); 200-Free (1:50.35); 100-Butterfly (56.28); and 200-Butterfly (2:05.08). Silver medals for Bjerke came in the 100-Free (50.84) and bronze in the 50-Free (23.69).
Other boys grabbing gold included Felix Flakstad, 18, who took the title in the 200-Individual Medley at 1:51.10 and in the 100-Freestyle at 45.80. John Landers, 15, grabbed gold in the 50-Backstroke at 23.78 and 50-Free at 21.25, while adding a bronze medal in the 100-Backstroke at 52.63.
In the women’s division Melissa Geiger and Vivian Jacoby combined for three individual gold medals and two silver medals.
Geiger, 16, claimed titles in the 500 and 1000-yard Freestyle with respective best times of 5:01.69 and 10:20.05. Jacoby, 13, took the gold medal in the 50-Backstroke at 28.54. Geiger added a pair of silvers in the 200-Backstroke and Butterfly events with respective times of 2:05.82 and 2:06.60.
Other girls reaching the podium with silver medals included Wesley Wales, 16; Audrey Li, 15; and Samantha Packard, 14.
Wales was second in the 200-Individual Medley (2:09.65); Li was second in the 400-Individual Medley (4:35.13) and Packard was second in the 500-Freestyle (5:04.33). Jonathon Packard, 15, took silver in the Boys with silver medals including 200-Backstroke (1:51.26). The 15-year-old also led the team with four bronze medals coming in the 1000-Free (9:32.08); 500-Free (4:36.40); 400-Individual Medley (4:08.06) and the 200-Butterfly (1:55.79).
Other Dolphins with individual bronze medals included Isa Guzman-Milligan, Jackson Waters, Brighid Dowling, and Olivia Devries.
Dowling, 12, was third in both the Junior 50-Free (25.82) and 50-Butterfly (27.85); Devries, 14, was third in both the 1000-Free (10:33.21) and 500-Free (5:04.65); Guzman-Milligan, 17, was third in the 200-Breaststroke (2:25.68). Waters, 13, swimming in the Junior Division was third in the 50-Backstroke (28.09).
Other Dolphins in the senior (14-and-over) division scoring included: Sophia Bens, 15; Colin Bucaria, 16; Laurel Cary, 16; Siena Christiansen, 16; Nico Della Pietra, 17; Ilse Fedoronko, 16; Gus Femenia, 14; Garyn Finz, 18; Sara Jee, 15; Anden Kennedy, 16; Penny Lazar, 18; Scott Luecke, 15; Connor McMahon, 15; Luke Merrill, 18; Nathan Rudolph, 16; Ainsley Sahrbeck, 17; Henry Wise, 16; Hadden Wood, 17; and Kensie Worden, 15.
Other Dolphins scoring in the Junior Division included: Jacob Greenberg, 13; Madeline Guarnera, 13; Natalie McMahon, 13; Molly Melcher, 12; Natalie Ranta, 11; John Wick, 12.
Scoring on relays were Zoe Barth, 15; Nico Brown, 16; Norah Eldredge, 14; Elle Ernst, 12; William Femenia, 12; Lily Hakim, 18; Amaya Khwaja-Patel, 15; Olivia Linehan, 14; Hudson Maciejewski, 14; and Katie Nalepka, 17.
