The Turlock Seadogs swim team was able to notch a tight win against Tracy and Manteca in a tri-meet in Manteca last Saturday. This would be the closest match for the Seadogs all season long as they nudged out 1,477 points to Tracy's second place score of 1,470, with the Manteca Dolphins finishing last at 1,201.

"This meet was our closest meet by far, as far as win loss goes, but for a lot of the kids it was a great day," said Seadogs coach Michaela Solario. "The reason that we've been seeing the results we have is the kids work very hard, but we also have fun. Of course, there are kids who just have natural ability, but our kids who are consistently doing well are at practice almost every day pushing themselves."

Heading into the bye week, which coach Solario is thankful for, the Seadogs are a perfect 5-0, which was not expected she said.

"It's been hard for a lot of teams to get the numbers at meets, but we have great parents who try their best to get them there," said Solario about their current success. "The kids are always asking where we are in terms of points throughout the meet, while winning is not everything, it is nice to see the kids working harder to try and earn points for the team and caring because they know every point counts."

At one point early in the meet, Manteca was close to Tracy in points total, considering the smaller number of swimmers, but when the race got close to the Seadogs, the local kids picked it up—drastically.

The Seadogs managed to come away with 78 top three finishes across 102 events with the ages ranging from 6 to 18.

Although the team participation was tremendous, one of the top performers of the day was Jen Hamilton who competes with the 10-year-old girls.

Hamilton had been battling a cold and multiple illnesses but she still made it to as many practices as possible coach Solario said.

During her 50 free event she dropped nine seconds off her best time and ran to her mother to let her know what she had accomplished.

"Jen [Hamilton] was so happy she swam well, while she did not make points for the team in that event... As a coach, it is moments like that which are better than a win," said Solario. "I am just so proud of all our Seadogs. Can't wait to enjoy our weekend off and look forward to our dual with Ceres then ending the season with a bang."

After the week off, the Seadogs will return to the pool with a final dual meet against the Ceres summer swimming program on July 12 in Ceres.