A rare three-day swim meet was held, April 1-3, in Mollala, Oregon. This was the 2022 Northwest Zone Short Course Yard Championships. For those unfamiliar, the Northwest Zone is a geographic area within US Masters Swimming, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. Zone meets are periodically conducted in one of the three pool formats: Short Course Yards (SCY), Short Course Meters (SCM), and Long Course Meters (LCM). Ideally, one of each (SCY, SCM, and LCM) would be held annually, somewhere within the Zone. Due to COVID shutdowns, the NW Zone had not seen a Zone meet in quite some time.
As one would expect, typically the host area for the Zone meet provides the bulk of the attending swimmers, but there are always at least a few visitors from elsewhere in the Zone, and this was the case of the five stalwart TWIM contenders who made the drive to Mollala last weekend.
The TWIM presence at the Zone meet built slowly but inexorably over the course of the weekend. The first to arrive, for the Friday swim session, was Steve Fogg. The intensity built on Saturday morning with the arrival of Dan Underbrink, Brent Barnes, and Holly Lickwala; and the TWIM crescendo was complete on Sunday morning with the arrival of Dave Scott.
Steve swam the 400 IM on Friday, the 50 Breaststroke, 200 Backstroke, and 500 Freestyle on Saturday, and 100 Backstroke and 200 Butterfly on Sunday.
Dan’s Saturday schedule included the 200 IM, 200 Backstroke and 500 Freestyle. The follow-up on Sunday was the 200 Breaststroke, and the 50 and 100 Backstroke events.
Brent had an all-Freestyle meet, with both the 200- and the 500-yard events on Saturday, and the 1000-yard on Sunday.
Holly was a powerhouse in the 50 Breaststroke, the 200 IM, and the 50 Butterfly on Saturday. Her Sunday encore included the 200 Breaststroke and the 100 Freestyle.
Dave’s Sunday swims included a phenomenal 200 Breaststroke and then a side-by-side race with Holly in the 100 Freestyle.
Dave was also featured in this “Best picture from the Meet”, showing his start in the 100 Freestyle!
Our thanks to Meet Director, Tim Waud, and the many Oregon volunteers who showed up to help host this Zone Championship meet.
TWIM posted some great performances at this meet with six first place finishes, 15 second place finishes, and one third place finish. These are not in the books yet, but the times indicate PNA Top-12 All-Time Swims for Dave, in the 200 Breaststroke, and Holly, in the 100 Freestyle! Congratulations, TWIM Champions!
