The Marlins Swim Team has selected Lucy Cummings and the 13-14 year old boys relay team as the Swimmers of the Week for performances at the Dos Palos Invitational held June 23. This meet was attended by almost 600 swimmers from nine Central Valley area swim teams.

The Marlins sent a small, but very talented squad of 51 swimmers to the event and came home with an overall fifth place win, just missing fourth place to the 87 member Dos Palos Dolphins.

Head coach Tammy Kudela says the Marlin swimmers are training harder this season than ever before and she is confident that the team will surpass Dos Palos at the championship meet which will take place July 21 and 22.

"Lucy, 12, competed against a large field of 72 girls in her age group and did exceptionally well, improving her personal best times in every one of her events," Kudela said. "She has been working extremely hard in practice and it showed in this meet.:

Cummings placed 22 in the 25 yard breaststroke event with a time of 21.66, 12th in the 25 yard freestyle in 14.85 and 10th in the 25 yard butterfly event, coming in at 17.43 seconds.

Her most notable performances came in the 25 yard backstroke and 100 yard individual medley swims. She dropped almost a second off of her best backstroke time, finishing with a time of 18.66 seconds for eighth place.

"Lucy then topped this performance by cutting her best 100 yard IM time by 7.55 seconds, touching the wall in 1:27.58," Kudela said. "This earned her a seventh place finish, and allowed her to score two points for the Marlins.

This is Lucy's third season with the Marlins along with her siblings Eleanor, Van, Geep and Alice. She is the daughter of Ginny and George Cummings.

The boys 13-14 age group relay team consisted of Bernhard Wall , Van Cummings, Walker Phillips and Phillip Kudela.

At Dos Palos, the four 14 year olds placed second overall against six other teams in their 100 yard freestyle relay.

The lead off swimmer was seventh year Marlin, Wall, whose quick start gave his team a lead in the race. Cummings, in his fourth year on the team, swam the second leg in the relay with his life time best relay split.

Following Cummings was Phillips, who also swam his life time best relay split and who has also been swimming for four years.

The anchor position was held by 11 year veteran swimmer Kudela, a fierce competitor who narrowed the gap between the Marlins and Los Banos from six body lengths to two with his efforts.