Polar Plunge news: A stunning turn of events (seriously)

By RED SMITH

The Daily Double

 

LAKE GEORGE – Eric Guenther may or may not be a Yankees’ fan, but as far as the memebers of Agni Dentati are concerned, he’s Bucky F. Dent.

Guenther, the president of Adventure in Food Trading in Menands, blew TEAM Momentive, Agni Dentati and the rest of the 40-plus teams in the Lake George Polar Plunge out of the water.

Guenther, whose team was in third place going into the day, is practically assured of being the top fund-raising team after he received an anonymous $5,000 donation and pushed his team’s total to $9.015, more than twice any team has ever raised at Lake George.

TEAM Momentative, which has been the consistent leader, is second at $6,126.

The news was especially hard on Agni Dentati, which is listed at $4,565 on the Polar Plunge web site, but received a $1,000 donation from BMI Supply of Queensbury to push its total to $5,565 and put it in position to make a run at TEAM Momentive.

“I don’t have a pithy quote today,” said team captain Bill Toscano, who early in the day had moved to $2,000 in donations, $320 ahead of TEAM Momentive’s John Scharf. Now he has a mere $4,150 to make up to catch Guenther.  “Seriously, dude, this is all about Special Olympics anyway. The plunge raised more than $10,000 for Special Olympics just today and this is going to be the best Lake George Plunge ever.

“Perfect game. Gotta give it to ’em.”

GF Indians, a team from Glens Falls High School, received a $1,600 boost from a “mini-plunge” done by team members who can not attend Saturday.

Yes, Agni Dentati is still shamelessly hustling for donations. “We really want to be able to say, `We’re No. 2’ again,” Toscano said.

Please go to the team page and pick an individual to donate to.