Sunday, June 6, 2021 was a banner day for Western Washington swimmers! The long Covid-19 break from competition finally ended with PSM’s “Give it a Shot!” swim meet!
This welcome event was held in the beautiful Snohomish Aquatic Center facility, and TWIM was well-represented there! The Fearless Five were Brad Jones, Holly Lickwala, Brent Barnes, new TWIM member Todd Edison, and Dan Underbrink.
I should say that we started out as the Fearless Five, but I am going to change that to the Stupendous Six, because by the end of the meet, another new member, Dave Varner had decided to join us in our swimming adventures! Dave recently relocated from Virginia to the Bellingham area. With Brad and Todd also hailing from up Bellingham way, fully half of the TWIM squad commuted in from Skagit County. This was also Todd’s first meet with TWIM. Welcome to the team, Dave and Todd!
Social distancing restrictions are starting to ease, but certain protocols were in place for this meet to ensure everyone’s safety. Masks were worn by all except when actually in the pool. Traffic flow was counter-clockwise around the pool, and everyone attempted to maintain six feet of separation. There was no clustering of swimmers and timers at the starting blocks and no paper results posted (posted results often provide for a crowded gathering point).
Meet officials were able to connect to the facility’s network, so results were readily available on apps like Meet Mobile and SwimPhone. There was also a YouTube stream of the meet, but I have not heard from anyone who viewed that.
To limit the number of people in the facility at any given time, the meet was divided into three sessions. Session One (morning) and Session Three (afternoon) offered identical menus of events and were limited to 40 swimmers per session. Many of the volunteer slots for timers, runners, etc. were filled by swimmers from the session where they were not swimming. Session Two ran from 12:30-1:00 and consisted of just one event: the 1650 yard freestyle. Through no particular plan, somehow all of the TWIM contingent signed up for the morning session, so great opportunities to see teammates swim!
TWIM was the only team there displaying a team banner! Each of the TWIM contingent sat in the bleachers behind our banner, where the seating area was marked off in six-foot sections. Nice that our banner could be displayed once again, as it had spent the last 16 months hanging across my home office windows!
It was great to see competition again! Here is a recap of TWIM events:
- Brad showed us his prowess in 50 and 100 Butterfly and 200 I.M.
- Holly was amazing in the 200 Breaststroke, the 50 Butterfly, and the 200 I.M.
- Brent picked up where we last saw him, wowing us with his 100 and 200 Freestyle and the 100 Breaststroke.
- Todd showed us some very fast Freestyle, swimming the 100, 200, and 500-yard events.
- Dave brings the team some great depth, showing well in both the 50 and 100 yard Freestyle.
- Dan filled the morning session with the 200 Backstroke and 200 Breaststroke events, then swam in Session Two with a 1650 Freestyle effort.
A big thank you needs to go out to the PSM members who worked hard to put this event together and also to all of the officials and volunteers who helped make this meet a reality and helped keep things safe for all.
If you were hesitant to sign up for this one (maybe in the “let’s wait and see” camp) this seemed to be a very well-run event with ample consideration for everyone’s safety a top priority. Hoping to see many more TWIM swimmers at the next competition!
