by James Mange
Maybe it’s because I was never an A Lister, or maybe it’s from my years of coaching, but I firmly believe it’s the B and C listers that make for successful teams. The stars are, of course, great, but it’s the rank and file who support them as well. A relay is only as strong as its weakest link, and all.
With that said, the stunning success of Team TWIM at the 2018 PNA Championship Meet was maybe the exception that proves the rule. With only 14 swimmers, TWIM won the Small Team division in a runaway. If not for a couple of highly questionable calls by the referee on relay starts (I have no idea if the calls were questionable or not, I’m just playing team press agent), we would have gone over 500 points and beat our closest competitor by over 100 points!
Forget about just scoring points for the team, 88% of all our individual swims won medals, with a full 45% being of the Gold variety! Colleen Wahlstrom, Kathy Pelham, Erin McPeak and Maoz Alsberg were all perfect, winning every event they swam. Kathy was the champion in all five of her freestyle events, making her golden for an amazing 3,500 yards! Colleen earned four golds, and Erin and Maoz each earned three. Colleen is a serious threat to the PNA record in the 200 IM; Erin had her best times in all of her wins; and Maoz was only a hundredth of a second off his best blistering 50 freestyle.
So if that fearsome foursome were our “stars,” the rest of us weren’t any slouches. Betsey Kassen racked up three firsts and a pair of seconds. Carl Haynie did the same, and added a PNA record to his impressive resume! Carl stepped outside Team TWIM for one relay, and his scintillating 27.9 backstroke leadoff helped his team come within six tenths of a second of a National Record! Dan Underbrink added six individual medals to our count, winning two gold, two silver and two bronze, racking up 44 points! Our illustrious leader, Thomas Walker, struck gold in the 200 free, slashing an amazing 46.5 seconds off his 200 Breaststroke. He also added a pair of silver medals, amassing 37 points.
Those who didn’t earn the top spot came as close as you can come, with Emily Castillo securing second in three events even though she was fresh off a bout with the flu! Vince Carmosino was instrumental in powering the men’s free relay to gold and added four silvers and a bronze out of his five events (41 points!) Father Tom Fritschen pitched in with two silvers and two fourth place finishes. Tammy Koppelberger swam only once, but made it count, improving her 1,000 free time by 47 seconds! Her mom was on hand in the stands to make the silver medal even more meaningful. Last, but not least, was our newest team member, Andrew Brill. In his first Masters meet ever, Andrew earned a bronze medal with a fine swim in the 50 backstroke.
Overall, TWIM won 27 individual gold medals, 21 silver, five bronze, and had only seven swims fail to reach the top three, although they all scored valuable points. We averaged 34.4 points per person, just a quarter of a point off the top team in the meet. Bainbridge Island (Lovey, bring the check book!) averaged 34.7. Only two other teams scored over 30 points per person, with only one of those in our division (the second place NEO team at 33.8).
TWIM really ruled the weekend! Hats off to Blue Wave Aquatics for hosting and executing another well-run meet.
Long live TWIM (and Thomas, you better build a trophy case in your home)!
[Editor’s Note: While Jim is too modest to mention it, he racked up 47 individual points on his way to winning 3 out of 6 events himself!]
