TWIMMERS Haul in the Medals at WA State Senior Games

Sunday, July 25, 2021, was an especially great day. It was a day of reunion with the TWIM team and other great seniors participating in the swimming events of the Washington State Senior Games held at Briggs YMCA in Olympia.

Due to Covid-19 precautions, no one was allowed to camp inside the pool facility except for the announcer, timers, officials, coaches, and support personnel. So, all participating athletes and spectators had to remain outside of the building when they were not called to the blocks; it was quite comfortable to be honest. Canopy shelters were provided by WSSG staff…thank you for those!

TWIM Team members participating in the Senior Games were, in no particular order:

• Tom Walker
• Carl Haynie
• Dan Underbrink
• Val Thompson
• Brent Barnes

We had 3 new members camping with us who participated in the games as well. They were:

• Candace Jacobs (who Val is recruiting to join).
• Leyton Jump (who Tammy is recruiting to join).
• Neil Reeder from Vancouver, BC (perhaps putting the International in Team Walker International Masters?)

Other TWIM members and/or family members included:

• Tammy Koppelberger, TWIM Head Coach and chief motivator!
• Mary Underbrink (Dan’s wife) who competed in swim events as well,
• Holly Lickwala and family (Brent’s significant others and chief cheer squad for the team), and
• Vic Pace (Val’s husband) – team supporter, writer sometimes, and sort of like your cousin from Boston 😊

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At the venue, there were about 50 athletes, which made competition pretty tough but racing fairly easy because all of the events were mixed ages and gender (M/F).

NOTE: The following symbols are used below to denote the place a swimmer finished in their age group.

Green text means the swimmer’s finish time was faster than their entry time

Tom Walker

Tom swam the following events: Note: Tom asked that his finish times not be shown.

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
1. 500 yd Free	20:00.00
2. 100 yd Breast	03:00.00
9. 50 yd Breast	01:30.00
18. 200 yd Breast	06:00.00

Medal Haul: 3 Silver, 1 Bronze

Dan Underbrink

Dan swam the following events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
1. 500 yd Free	07:01.09	06:58.49
2. 100 yd Breast	01:26.10	01:30.61
10. 200 yd Back	03:02.28	03:05.23
12. 400 yd IM	06:23.36	06:21.12
17. 100 yd Back	01:27.46	01:27.46
18. 200 yd Breast	03:09.82	03:13.84

Medal Haul: 6 Gold

Also, to Dan’s credit, he ran the Men’s 10k road race on Saturday, July 24^th for the WSSGs and finished in 53:02.60. A personal best according to him. Yeah Dan!!

Carl Haynie

Carl swam the following events. WSSGs had mistakenly left Carl off the heat sheets this year, but he was able to work with the organizer before the meet and get himself entered correctly:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
5. 25 yd Back	16.17	14.10 *
10. 200 yd Back	2:27.20	2:21.53 *
17. 100 yd Back	1:08.54	1:03.37 *
21. 50 yd Back	30.75	29.46 *

* WSSG Record (60-64 age group)
Medal Haul: 4 Gold

Val Thompson

Val swam the following 9 (count them…9!) events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
1. 500 yd Free	11:01.90	11:30.29
3. 25 yd Fly	00:37.47	00:37.47
4. 200 yd Free	04:13.48	04:29.25
5. 25 yd Back	00:38.68	00:36.87
7. 50 yd Free	00:53.65	00:57.71
11. 100 yd Free	02:03.00	02:00.67
15. 25 yd Breast	00:40.18	00:42.55
19. 100 yd IM	02:36.52	02:38.42
20. 25 yd Free	00:23.98	00:25.76

Medal Haul: 4 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze

Brent Barnes

Brent swam the following events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
4. 200 yd Free	02:44.04	02:48.01
7. 50 yd Free	00:33.95	00:34.44
9. 50 yd Breast	00:36.50	00:38.00
18. 200 yd Breast	03:01.50	03:07.86
19. 100 yd IM	01:30.00	01:28.15

Medal Haul = 5 Gold

Candace Jacobs

Candace is a new team member 😊, who swam the following events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
7. 50 yd Free	00:35.00	00:34.56
11. 100 yd Free	01:24.00	01:21.14
16. 50 yd Fly	00:45.00	00:43.24
19. 100 yd IM	01:40.00	01:37.38
21. 50 yd Back	00:45.00	00:44.53

Medal Haul = 5 Gold

Leyton Jump

Leyton is a new team member 😊, who swam the following events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
1. 500 yd Free	12:30.00	11:38.09
12. 400 yd IM	10:48.00	09:46.39 *
18. 200 yd Breast	05:06.00	04:35.00

* WSSG Record (70-74 age group)
Medal Haul = 2 Gold, 1 Silver

Neil Reeder

Neil is a new team member 😊, who swam the following events:

Event	Seed Time	Finish Time	Medal
3. 25 yd Fly	00:17.60	00:17.88
5. 25 yd Back	00:20.40	00:21.18
7. 50 yd Free	00:32.90	00:35.25
9. 50 yd Breast	00:41.40	00:40.63
15. 25 yd Breast	00:17.00	00:19.05
20. 25 yd Free	00:14.90	00:15.38

Medal Haul = 6 Gold

Team Relays

Last but not least, Event 13, the team 100 yd Medley Relay:

Dan Underbrink (Butterfly)
Neil Reeder (Breaststroke)
Val Thompson (Backstroke)
Candace Jacobs (Freestyle)

Finish time: 01:24.91

I must say Sunday was a great day.  First of all, just the welcoming sight of not only this great team of TWIM, but of all the great folks who organized the meet or participated in the activities from the athletes to the support personnel, judges, medical, timers, lifeguards, announcers, and other volunteers. Thank you.

This story was brought to you by Vic, The Fatman, Pace, you cousin, from Boston 😊!!