The TWIM spirit was soaring high once again as 6 dauntless aquatic gladiators brought the TWIM Way to that beautiful tank at Mt. Hood Community College in the charming little hamlet of Gresham, Oregon for the 2019 Gil Young Memorial/NW Zone LCM Championship meet!
This is a signature event in PNW swimming and this year’s edition was hosted as always by Meet Director Coach Dennis Baker, who can truly be said to be the Soul of this place and of this meet. He was assisted by a hard-working crew of volunteers and officials and the event was yet another success!
So thanks to Dennis for keeping this wonderful tradition alive! It was also great to see these old friends and these fantastic swimmers who sport the Green of Mighty Oregon!
The TWIM juggernaut was comprised of that hot Tag Team, Holly Lickwala and her sidekick Brent Barnes, Betsey “The Machine” Kassen, Carl Haynie, Valerie Powell and yours truly, who provided comic relief, both in and out of the pool.
It was so wonderful to have Valerie with us again and she didn’t disappoint!
There was a dazzling array of great swims, first places and seconds dropped by everyone in an amazing display of talent and determination!
Now here is the scroll of TWIM Champions. Time improvements off seed times are shown in bold [Editor’s note: Tom broke nearly all his seed times, but then he sandbags his so much… :-D] –
Brent Barnes:
50 Free – 1st Place (-1.70)
200 Breast – 2nd Place
200 Free – 3rd Place (-8:88!)
100 Free – 2nd Place (-4.55)
Men 400 Medley Relay – 1st Place
Carl Haynie:
50 Free – 1st Place
200 IM – 1st Place
Men’s 400 Medley Relay – 1st Place
200 Back – 1st Place
50 Breast – 1st Place
Mixed 400 Free Relay – 1st Place – PNA Record
Betsey Kassen:
1500 Free – 2nd Place
800 Free – 1st Place
200 Free – 1st Place
400 Free – 1st Place
Holly Lickwala:
50 Free – 1st Place (-0.83)
100 Breast – 1st Place (-5.60)
50 Fly – 1st Place (-2:46)
50 Breast – 1st Place (-1:52)
Mixed 400 Free Relay – 1st Place – PNA Record
Valerie Powell:
50 Free – 1st Place (-4.77)
50 Back – 1st Place
200 Free – 1st Place (-13.30!)
200 Back – 1st Place
100 Free – 1st Place (-11.12!)
100 Back – 1st Place
Thomas Walker:
200 Breast – 1st Place
100 Breast – 1st Place
50 Fly – 1st Place
100 Free – 2nd Place
50 Breast – 2nd Place
And just for good measure, the Puget Sound Masters team of Holly Lickwala, Morena Calvo, Erik Peterson, and Carl Haynie set a new PNA record in the 4×100 Mixed Free Relay (160-199 AG) with a time of 4:30:99, smashing the old record by almost 7 seconds!!! All in all, not a bad outing for the Old Blue and White!
I was struck once again by the spirit, passion and determination that we all share and the family that we are! We support each other in every swim at every meet and our energy is off the charts!
It’s the TWIM Way!
2 thoughts on “TWIM EXPLODES IN GRESHAM!”
You all did fantastic. I wish I could have been there to see everyone perform so well. Great Job!
Did you see ALL those first place 🥇
Wow you guys did great and especially the relay.