By Will Woodbery, Staff Writer

The Dalton Dolphins will be taking a cue from their top Blue Division rivals at the Chattanooga Area Swim League city meet today and Saturday.

The Dolphins registered about 120 swimmers for the meet at Warner Park in hopes of matching the depth of defending champion Signal Mountain.

“We have everyone and their sister entered in this meet,” said Dalton coach Charles Todd, who is in his 10th year of leading the team.

Dalton (5-1) defeated the Green Giants on June 23 in the first of two regular-season meetings, but Signal Mountain (7-1) evened the series on July 17.

“A revenge factor will be there because of the last dual meet,” said Signal Mountain coach Brian Gill, whose team won five straight city meets before Dalton’s title in 2006. “They’ll be gunning for us, that’s for sure.”

Dalton went undefeated in the 2007 regular season but was second to Signal Mountain in the season-ending competition.

“We’re hoping to dethrone them,” Todd said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. We’re hoping we can regroup and go after them.

“It’ll come down to speed and depth.”

Weather also may be a factor. For the past two years, the meet was held indoors at Baylor’s pool. Teams may have to adjust to the heat at Warner Park’s outdoor pool.

“Going outside, if kids aren’t hydrated properly, it could be a rough second day,” Gill said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Ringgold and Cleveland each had one loss in the Red Division, while Fort Oglethorpe in the lower White Division was the only undefeated team during the regular season.

“We set our goals high at the beginning of the season, and we met those goals,” Fort Oglethorpe coach Tony Womac said. “We have a lot of great individual swimmers, but our best asset is how we swim as a team.”

That team won’t be in its entirety at the city meet, however. Many of the Marlins will be competing at Georgia’s GRPA state meet.

“You won’t see a unified team, but I believe our team is going to do well,” Womac said.

Warmup sessions for the 8-under and 9-10 age groups will begin at 7 a.m. with an 8:30 start time today and Saturday. For the 11-12, 13-14 and 15-18 age groups, warmups will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a start time expected not before 1 p.m. Finals will begin at 6 p.m. both days.

E-mail Will Woodbery at sports@timesfreepress.com

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