The Ooltewah Tidal Waves have only been part of the Chattanooga Area Swim League for five summers, but they're doing their best to get a little respect from other teams in the league.
They had a makeup meet at Fairyland on Tuesday night and the visitors from North Hamilton County made themselves quite at home in the pool with the most picturesque view of the city. With smiles covering their faces, the Tidal Waves headed back home with an impressive 423-339 victory.
With the win, Ooltewah improves to 2-4 overall and into third place in the ever-competitive Blue division, trailing unbeaten Signal Mountain and once-beaten Dalton.
Fairyland is still looking for its first win after dropping their fifth straight.
The Tidal Waves led from the start, including a 60-50 advantage following the freestyle races.
Ooltewah had the upper hand in all seven events, although Fairyland was basically even in the butterfly and medley relay events where Ooltewah had advantages of 56-54 and 60-56, respectively.
The Tidal Waves flexed their muscles a bit in the individual medley and backstroke with a scoring difference of 51-36 and 67-43 in those two events.
Ooltewah coach Ed Dailey was more happy than a new father as the meet headed toward its climax with the freestyle relays.
"I'm a happy man right now as we've had a very good meet here today. Getting a free swim at the end is the cherry on top," he began, knowing that he would be getting wet as soon as the final race ended.
"We have a lot of firepower as we have a lot of dedicated swimmers, in addition to great support from parents and others in the community. Everyone is driving to push this team to the top. This is exciting as close races make it fun. We still have a lot of stuff to work on, but we plan to finish strong and we're pointing toward the city meet in two weeks.
"That's one thing we talked about at the very beginning as the city meet is a priority for us. We'll be bringing it that weekend," he promised.
Fairyland coach Kendall Jacobs is just trying to remain upbeat and positive for her kids. The Flash is sitting in last place in the Blue division, but they aren't a bad team. Jacobs is just trying to emphasize that point.
"This was an interesting meet, but it's been a long week for us," Jacobs said, knowing they had a meet at Dalton on Monday while they jump from the frying pan into the fire on Thursday with a meet at first-place Signal Mountain.
"Ooltewah has an outstanding team and they don't mess around. They came up here today to win, but I'm just glad it was a relatively-close meet. We didn't win, but we swam great. We lost a lot of close races.
"It gets a little discouraging when you don't win a meet, but we deserve to be in this division as we've proven ourselves. It's a totally different animal from being in the other divisions, but our kids broke five relay records today, so there's really nothing for me to complain about," Jacobs added.
The 9-10 girls and the senior boys set new standards in both relays while the senior girls rewrote the record in the medley relay.
Carlin Hudson and Jacob Kiemeyer both scored the maximum 19 points to lead the Ooltewah attack while Ellie Waldrep was next with 18.
Joby Nash added 14 points for the winners, but he did so despite swimming with a cast on his right arm. He wasn't too sad after celebrating his 11th birthday on Monday.
Kristen Myers scored 19 points to lead Fairyland while Anne Dassow and Colmore Hurst were next with 17 and 16 points, respectively.
OOLTEWAH HIGH-POINT SCORERS:
19 -- Carlin Hudson, Jacob Kiemeyer;
18 -- Ellie Waldrep;
17 -- Taryn Dailey, Reid Wilson, Peter Dyr;
15 -- Faith Isbell, Julia Dergunov, Haley Grider;
14 -- Joby Nash, Jordan Crumpler;
13 -- Leah Boyd, Andrew Tallent, Andrew Thomas;
12 -- Jaxon Thurman, Jonathan Boyd;
11 -- Luke Waldrep, Luke Burks;
10 -- Sara Davidson, Brianna Norman, Carter Miller.
FAIRYLAND HIGH-POINT SCORERS:
19 -- Kristen Myers;
17 -- Anne Dassow;
16 -- Colmore Hurst;
15 -- Ben Bevill;
14 -- Dennis Sohn, Ellie Taliaferro;
13 -- Ethan Bevill;
11 -- David Horne, Dean Magat, Simon Parker;
10 -- Mary Margaret Arrowsmith, Anna Ward.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)