So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye

In my opinion, Montclair's greatest tradition is the farewell that swimmers give to team members who are aging off.  MST goes through age 12, so 13 year-olds are cast off to the less caring clutches of High School or other teams as soon as the session with their 13th birthday ends.  Picture Logan's Run but without the futuristic Armageddon aspects.

Anyway, the farewell involves getting the entire team crouching over the far end of the "retiring" swimmer's lane and screaming for the 30-120 seconds of that swimmer's final Montclair Swim Team race.  The fun is when you have two swimmers in the same event, one heat and five lanes apart.  You end up with a mass of 30 be-parka'd swimmers shuffling from one lane to the next to continue their screaming.

This session we had three swimmers receive the screaming farewell as they aged off ... Justine, Maddy and Jack.  We wish them continued swimming success.

Jack:

Justine:

Maddy:

Thanks for all the great swims!