DCST Takes Home 2nd Place at Joliet USS Meet The Kishwaukee YMCA / DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) finished second at the Joliet USS Meet on June 10 - 12 in Chicago. DCST finished 144.5 points behind Hickory Willow (Palos Hills, IL). As a team, DCST swam okay with 169 lifetime best times out of 324 swims for an improvement rate of 52%. Listed below are swimmers who an improvement rate of better than 50%. Alexa Miller (8 for 8) – 100% Alyssa Ferrigan (7 for 7) – 100% Phillip...

DCST Finishes 2nd at Fishers USS Meet The Kishwaukee YMCA / DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) finished second at the Fishers USS Meet on May 20 - 22 in Fishers, IN. The only team to finish ahead of DCST was the host team. As a team, DCST had 178 lifetime best times out of 281 swims for an outstanding improvement rate of 63%. Listed below are swimmers who an improvement rate of better than 50%. Michael Carlson (10 for 10) – 100% Mikaila DiCostanzo (10 for 10) -100% Sarah Hein...

DCST National Results – Day 4 Day 4, the last day of the YMCA National Championships, was a busy and productive day for DCST. Emily Launer was DCST’s highest placing finisher on the day with her 9th place in the Women’s 1650 yard Freestyle. With this time, Emily was named a National All-American for the 26th time in her career. Also in the 1650 yard Freestyle, Valerie Jones had an awesome swim by improving her personal best time by 20 seconds. Kei Ishimaru led DCST’s 200 yard Butterfly swimmers who...

DCST National Results – Day 3 Grant Alef continued to be on a roll for DCST earning National All – American honors for the third time this week in his first three individual events. In the preliminary session, Grant went a personal best and new DCST Team Record in the 200 yard Backstroke to finish 11th. In finals, he dropped another 0.7 seconds to finish in 10th place. Just like the two previous days, Kei Ishimaru, Josh DeDina and Michael Gordon teamed up with Alef to set a new Team...

DCST National Results – Day 2 Grant Alef led DCST again on Day 2 of the YMCA National Championships. Grant’s 5 second time drop in the 1000 yard Freestyle earned him National All-American honors for the second time in two days with his 16th place finish. His time was also a new DCST Team Record. Alef then teamed up with Kei Ishimaru, Josh DeDina and Michael Gordon to set the team record in the Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay with a very impressive 6 second time drop. This was this foursome’s...

DCST National Results – Day 1 DCST had a big night on the first day of the YMCA National Championships. The evening started with Grant Alef being named the winner of the YMCA of the USA’s Outstanding Athlete Scholarship Award. This awardpresented by Nike SWIM, recognizes one male and one female for their excellence in academic achievement and commitment to healthy living through YMCA competitive swimming.Grant received a nice trophy, a certificate and a $1,000 college scholarship. Grant continued his big night by winning the consolation heat of the Men’s...

DCST Boys Win IL / MO Area Title The Kishwaukee YMCA / DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) won the 2011 Illinois / Missouri Area title by 50.5 points over second place Edwardsville. This is the third time DCST has won the Boy’s title, and the first time since 2003. DCST finished in 3rd place in 2010. As a team, DCST had an excellent meet with 54 improved times out of a total of 72 swims for an improvement percentage of 75%. On the day, DCST set 4 new IL /...

DCST Girls Take Second Place at Area Championships The Kishwaukee YMCA / DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) took a 2nd place finish at the IL / MO Area Girls Championships. This was up two spots from last year’s 4th place finish. As a team, statistically, DCST had one of their greatest meets of all time with 49 improve times out of a total of 60 swims for an unheard of 82% improvement rate. On the day, DCST set 5 new team records, won 4 events, and qualified for Nationals in...

DCST Sets 7 New Team Records at the Girls Area Meet In the first report about DCST’s results from the Girls Area Championships, it was stated that DCST had set 5 new team records; however, two new relay records were inadvertently not listed. These two new records were both set in the 11 – 12 year old girls age group. Bailey Flemming, Kylie Olson, Serena Allendorfer, and Mikaila DiCostanzo set the Medley Relay record with a time of 2:04.46. In the Free Relay, Jensen Keck and Alexa Miller joined Allendorfer...

DCST Picks up 3 New National Times at Area Qualifying Meet DCST started the IL / MO Area Meet weekend with 3 new national qualifying swim out of 4 swims at the National Qualifying Meet. Kei Ishimaru started the evening with a 7.8 second time drop in his 400 IM which easily made the qualifying time by 4.5 seconds. Not to be out done, Katie Hallenbeck dropped 9.6 seconds in her 200 backstroke to make the qualifying time by 5.2 seconds. Caitlynn Moon had DCST’s third new national qualifying time...