FREEPORT — The Casco Bay YMCA swim team has had a successful first half of the season.

“As they approach the Christmas and New Year’s break they have set many team and pool records, as well as winning both of their dual meets so far,” said head coach Dan St. Pierre. “To start off their season they were not even sure what the name of their team even was as YMCA guidelines made it so they had to get a new team mascot. The staff at the YMCA had heard from many sources that the team name was not well-liked or received by the athletes.”

Team members were asked to submit possible names.

“The leading candidate to face off against the Stripers’ name was “The Dash” — an 1812 privateer built in Freeport that has an interesting ghost ship story to go with it,” said St. Pierre.

“When all was settled the name Stripers won by a two-thirds majority vote,” said St. Pierre.

First meet

The first meet of the season was a double dual meet against the Kennebec Valley YMCA and the team from the Concord, N.H. YMCA. The Stripers beat the team from Augusta, 387-270, and beat the team from the Concord, 448.5-150.5.

Along the way two team records were set. Eliza Lunt set the 11-12 girls 50 breaststroke with her swim of 36.99. The 15-18-year-old boys of Travis Libsack, Zack Roland, Luca Seid and Conner LaJoie broke the 200 medley record with a time of 1:48.87. Libsack’s time in the 500-yard freestyle of 5:13.62 was also good enough for a pool record.

For the second meet of the season, the team traveled to Bates College to swim against the Auburn/Lewiston YMCA in their temporary meet home. This was the first time in the history of the Stripers program they were able to defeat Auburn/Lewiston YMCA with a score of 517-469.

During that meet the 15-18 year old boys relay of Libsack, Ethan Nightingale, LaJoie and Seid set a team record in the 200 free with a time of 1:38.95.

The next weekend brought the squad into two different directions. The team’s USA Swimming members competed at the Bowdoin Open and their YMCAonly swimmers at the Portland YMCA for a non-scoring meet.

While at the Bowdoin Open, team records were set by Lunt in the 11-12 girls 50- and 100-yard breaststroke races with times of 35.06 and 1:19.67.

Seid broke the team’s 15-18 boys 200 butterfly record with a time of 2:23.48, while Roland broke the 200 breaststroke record with a time of 2:31.46.

Libsack went to town with the 1,000 freestyle, the 1,650 freestyle and 400 individual medley events with record times of 10:34.20 in the 1,000 free, 17:34.20 in the 1,650 free and 4:36.43 in the 400 IM.

This past weekend the team traveled to another non-scoring meet to the brand-new Boothbay YMCA pool to swim against the Bath Area, Kennebec Valley and Boothbay YMCAs. Three team records were set.

Sophie Harrington set the 8-and– under mark in both the 50 butterfly and 50 backstroke races with times of 48.97 and 46.84, respectively.

Libsack established a Boothbay YMCA pool record and crushed the 200 butterfly team record set the week before by Seid with a time of 2:15.21.

Other Boothbay pool records established by the Stripers were Libsack in the men’s 500 free (5:13.14) and Haley Estabrook in the women’s 500 free (5:59.59, just .24 seconds off her team record that she set the previous week during a high school meet).

After the holiday break the Stripers will kick off a very busy month of January by taking on Waldo County YMCA at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 7.