JENNA COFFMAN The Mariposa Marlins swim team has selected Jenna Coffman and the 11-12-yearold boys’ medley relay team as the Swimmers of the Week for the Dos Palos quad meet that was held on July 17. At this meet the Marlins competed against the Dos Palos Dolphins, the Los Banos Hydrocats, and the Atwater Stingrays which are all teams from the Merced County Swim League.

Coffman, 12,has been swimming with the Marlins for six years, did exceptionally well in all of her events at this four-team meet. She placed second in her 50-yard backstroke with a time of 39.32 seconds. This was an improvement of 1.42 seconds off of her best time. She cut even more time off of her best 100-yard IM swim, dropping it by 2.47 seconds. Her time of 1:27.40 seconds allowed her to capture another second place finish.

Coffman’s greatest improvement occurred in her 50-yard breaststroke event where she shaved 2.67 seconds off of her career best time. With this swim of 41.22 seconds, Coffman took down all of the competitors in her 11-12-year-old age group, bringing home a first place ribbon. At this meet Coffman also helped her teammates Lucy Cummings, Christine Garrett, and Chasie Burrough earn second place in their freestyle relay and first place in their medley relay.

THREE MEMBERS MARLINS’ 11-12-YEAR-OLD BOYS’ RELAY TEAM ARE PICTURED AT THE DOS PALOS QUAD MEET. Jenna is the daughter of Brent and Lisa Coffman, and sister to Chad and Jacqui who are also veteran Marlin swimmers.

The boys’ 11-12-year-old medley relay team consisted of Van Cummings , Lukas Har, Bernhard Wall, and Jacob Montgomery. At this quad meet, these boys placed first overall out of seven teams in their age group. They posted a time of 2:51.28 seconds, finishing over six seconds faster than the second place team from Atwater.

Cummings started his team off with a great leg of backstroke. He was followed by Hart who swam 50 yards of a powerful breaststroke. Stretching the lead further ahead of Atwater was Wall, swimming butterfly. The anchor freestyle swimmer was rookie Montgomery, who came into the wall almost a half of a pool length ahead of the second place Stingrays.

Jacob is the son of Kristin and David Montgomery. Bernhard, the most experienced swimmer in the relay, has been a Marlin for four years. He is the son of Christy and Walter Wall, and brother to Matthew, Franz, Katie, Analise, Bernadette, Margaret, and William who are all Marlin swimmers.

This is Hart’s second year as a Marlin and he has really improved, especially in his breaststroke and backstroke this season. He is the son of Carol and Steve Hart. Van is also a second year Marlin who has made remarkable improvements over his first season. He is the son of Ginny and George Cummings and brother to Eleanor, Lucy, Geep, and Alice who also swim as Marlins.