The Bayonne Mermaid-Starfish Swim Team celebrated the completion of a very successful winter short course-racing season with an awards dinner at the Polish Community Home on 22nd Street.
It was an evening where the entire team and proud parents were gathered to look back and recognize the accomplishments achieved by the team as a whole, as well as its individual members and coaches.
Rookie head coach Mohamed Abdelaal along with his brother Ahmed Abdelaal and assistant coaches Rodolfo Morel, Martina Nozhenko and Thomas Feuker guided the BMS team to an undefeated dual meet season with a team standing of 6-0. In addition, all team members competed in invitational meets in bronze, silver or gold levels in their respective age group divisions.
Sixteen BMS swimmers competed in the New Jersey State Age Group Championships and Junior Olympic Championships, and eight were selected to represent New Jersey in the United States Swimming Eastern Zone Championships in Rochester, N.Y., in April.
While the coaches were quite pleased with the competitive development of their senior swimmers, they were quick to acknowledge that every swimmer on the team exceeded their established personal goals for the season.
Special awards were presented to a boy and girl in each of the team’s age groups. These awards were to individual swimmers who embodied the team mission statement through their positive character, commitment, perseverance and spirit.
The awardees of the Team Mission Recognition were: Group AG1 – Danielle Prekop and Steven Jimenez; Group AG2 – Dimitry Shlypanikov and Aisha Goncalves; Juniors – Sarah Mahmoud & Yousef Abdelmotaal; Seniors – Maria Vira and Mohamed Nouser; Iron Man Award – Zachary Hyman.
It was announced that there were 33 team records set during the course of the short-course season. New Starfish age-group record holders include: Zachary Hyman, Andrew William, Omara Hassan, Jack Long, Peter Jimenez and Mohamed Nouser. The list of new Mermaid record setters include Logaina Omer, Maria Vira, Alex Domanski, Yasmeen Abdelhady and Sarah Mahmoud.