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Sports

Underdog Orcas To Go Up Against Sea Lions

The Terra Linda Orcas will visit Sleepy Hollow to square off against the Sea Lions in Saturday's meet.

This Saturday the swimming season kicks off with the Terra Linda Orcas visiting the perennial powerhouse and defending champion Sleep Hollow Sea Lions in San Anselmo.  Pick a local dynasty: San Francisco Forty Niners, the Cal Bears Rugby team, or the Redwood High Rugby team (until I joined), the Sea Lions are that good. 

Last year the Orcas got crushed by the Sea Lions, and this year the Orcas will be the underdogs on the pool deck again.  Part of the reason for the disparity has been team size.  The Sea Lions literally have twice as many swimmers.  It’s like taking on a small army, and this week the Orcas will be traveling into enemy territory. 

Other meets of interest for our San Rafael swimmers include the Lucas Valley Lightning visiting the Scott Valley Sea Serpents down in Mill Valley.  Both teams have been very good in the past, which should make this a very exciting meet.  Swimarin will have their hands, feet and flippers full in their home pool at as the Strawberry Seals pay them a visit.  Swimarin, like the Orcas, enters this meet as a heavy underdog. But meets aren’t won and lost on paper, it’s what happens in the water on Saturday morning that counts. 

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Another close, exciting dual meet to watch that should be the Marinwood Waterdevils versus the Novato Riptide.  Both of these teams finished in the lower half of the league last year and will be battling hard for bragging rights and possibly one of only a few victories this season.

Speaking of bragging rights, the Terra Linda Orca’s own Nicolette Jasko is already putting on a heck of a show.  A true natural in the pool, she had the best times during this past Saturday’s time trials in every event except the IM in the nine and 10 girls group.  Look for her to feed the Sea Lions some of the bubbles from her considerable wake and put those girls in their places: that would be second to her!

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Similar to Nicolette, Blake Thompson dominated the eight and under boys group during the time trials and should be fun to watch against the Sea Lions.  Last year Jonah Albers ruled the pool as an eight and under boy, including at the championships where he took home no shortage of metals and trophies. This year he will be swimming in his first year with the nine and 10 boys group where he is already a standout performer.

Fortunately swimming isn’t always about being the fastest swimmer in the water.  It’s about doing your best, and trying to get better every week throughout the season.  Regardless of the place you finish in your heats, when you achieve ‘best times’ you are ultimately winning because swimming is one of those sports where the person you compete against most is yourself.  This week will be the first of many opportunities this season for our swimmers to dig down deep and go after their best times, and I can’t wait for Saturday morning to see what our Orcas will do!

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