DCST Exterminates the Geneva River Rats On a cool, rainy evening, DCST defeated the Geneva River Rats 193 – 160 in a weather related shortened meet. The meet was called after only 42 of the scheduled 84 events were swum. The weather also put a damper on DCST’s performance. Out of 80 individual events swum, DCST only had 15 career best swims. Swimmers with at least one career best time were as follows: Melissa Cherry, Michael Cutsinger, Trey Guzman, Carter Howell, Daphne Howell, Jensen Keck, Emily Keiner, Matt Marchewka, Caitlynn...

DCST Takes 3rd at Joliet USS Meet With 44 swimmers entered in the meet, DCST was the 10 th largest team entered in the meet. With 166 career best times out of 274 swims (61%), DCST was able to finish third behind two much larger teams - New Trier (116 swimmers) and Hickory Willow (61 swimmers). Congratulations to Daniel Hein (9 – 10 Boys) and Grant Alef (Senior Boys), who won high point awards for their age groups; and to Alexa Miller (9 – 10 Girls), Emily Launer (Senior Girls),...

DCST, I wanted to bring to your attention a great event coming to Chicago on August 29th & 30th. The event is called the Swim Champions’ Fitter & Faster Tour. This is a great opportunity for our team members to meet 5 Olympians who have had great success in the pool and out of it. The purpose of the Tour is to energize, motivate and inspire swimmers. The organizers of the Fitter & Faster Tour want to give young swimmers the chance to meet their heroes and connect with some...

DCST Starts Summer Season with a Win DCST opened its 2009 summer season with an impressive 442 – 267 win over visiting McHenry. As a team, DCST had 99 lifetime best swims on Tuesday (out of a total of 216 swims or 46%). After each meet, the coaching staff picks two swimmers, one girl and one boy, as the “Big Dogs" of the meet. Big Dogs are not only selected on their performance in the meet, but the coaches also take into consideration the swimmer’s practice attendance, work ethic, team...

Listed below is an article which appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times about DCST Swimmer Grace Waller on April 17th. Fighting with Grace DeKalb swimmer, 16, vows bone cancer won't be the end of her career Recommend (19) Comments April 17, 2009 BY STEVE TUCKER [email protected] In Illinois' swimming world, they are calling her ''Amazing Grace.'' Just days after the girls state swim meet in November, DeKalb sophomore Grace Waller was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. ''Everything happens for a reason,'' the 16-year-old said. ''The only way I...

Congratulations to Coach Brian and Coach Amy on the arrival of their new bundle of joy. Brooklyn Pierce Bickner was born Friday, April 17th at 5:34 a.m. She weighed in at 6 pounds - 11 ounces and is 20 inches long. Mom and baby (and dad) are doing well and hope to join big sisters Ava and Callie at home soon. Only one more and the Bickners will have a complete girls relay team!

Check out this Webpage! http://www.stbaldricks.org/home/referral.php?Ref=L2V2ZW50cy9ldmVudF9pbmZvLnBocD9FdmVudEtleT0yMDA5LTIyNTY= DCST, We are hosting a St. Baldricks event for Grace Waller (and a couple of other Dekalb kids with cancer) Friday May 8th at O'Learys and I would like to get the word out to the swim team. People can donate to our event, sponsor a shavee(Joe is shaving his head look for him under event participants in our event website) or people can BE a shavee. Wallers are excited about this as it's greatly supported by her oncologist & funds her cancer research. Thanks,...

On the last day of the YMCA National Championship, DCST’s swimmers had some huge time drops while setting 4 DCST Team Records. Leading the way was Katie Hallenbeck who had a 2.8 second time drop in the 200 yard Butterfly. Her time of 2:07.76 broke the previous DCST Team Record by 0.8 seconds. Both David Gordon (16:09.47) and Grant Alef (16:21.44) broke the team record in the 1650 yard Freestyle. David dropped 16 seconds in this event and shattered the previous team record by 13 seconds. Grant also set another...

Wednesday, the third day of the YMCA National Championships, was DCST’s best day of the meet so far. DCST’s women’s 800 freestyle relay of Emily Launer, Katie Hallenbeck, Casey Jepsen and Emily Waller had a phenomenal preliminary swim which cut 4.55 seconds off their seed time. This time drop earned DCST a 15 th place finish and a spot in the final session. In finals, the foursome dropped an additional 0.71 seconds to remain in 15 th place. All four swimmers earned National All – American honors. This was the...

Prior to the start of the final session on Tuesday, April 7 of the YMCA National Championships, DCST swimmer and coach, Emily Waller, gave the opening devotion. Listed below is a copy of her devotion. 04/07/2009 My last Winter Nationals is somewhat bitter sweet. Four months ago, 13-time YMCA All-American, and 4-time Illinois High School All-State Team member and my sister, Grace, was diagnosed with bone cancer in her right lower femur and knee. These last 4 months have been surreal for Grace and for our family. Treatment for bone...