by Dave Scott
The 2023 PNA Champs meet was held across two days with an encouraging number of swimmers participating. This meet seemed to signify the official “come-back” from the COVID era reduction in swimming activity. I made note of several swimmers who had not yet re-activated their racing activities in 2022 but were present at this 2023 meet. Welcome back!
Let us all pause to give a shout out to Blue Wave Aquatics for putting together this glorious come-back event.
T H A N K Y O U B W A Q!
As I slowly become a tad more familiar with meet mechanics, I feel an every-increasing gratitude for the volunteers I see hustling around the deck to make it all happen.
The folks that dedicate an entire weekend to officiating, running the timing systems, staffing the various desks, entering relay data, etc. are the reason we all get to have fun racing. It’s important to appreciate that and utter a “thank you” on occasion.
Of the 270 swimmers registered for the meet, 80 are also registered for the fast-approaching Spring Nationals in Irvine.
The PNA Champs get-together Saturday night was very well organized and both PNA President Sally Dillon and PNA Secretary Steve Peterson gave inspiring and polished presentations. Sally expounded on the need for help from all the local clubs for the upcoming 2025 LCM Nationals, which will be hosted by our local PNA LMSC. Sally also noted that the Weyerhaeuser facility is no longer considered acceptable for SCY Nationals due to a shortfall of warm-up/warm-down lane capacity. Steve Peterson answered Sally’s rhetorical question regarding the last time our LMSC hosted a USMS Nationals event – 2007. So, it’s been a while, but fortunately quite a few of the local LMSC leaders have experience hosting Nationals from back in the day. If I heard correctly, Sally mentioned she’s been involved with all four Nationals that our LMSC has hosted throughout the decades. It’s good to have that kind of experience hanging around.
A high point for yours truly was the gluten-free pizza that was available in great quantity during the gathering after the meet Saturday. I have a restriction (celiac) and cannot eat wheat. I heaped praise on the volunteers who ordered the pizza…. I’m pretty sure they could tell the pizza-consuming opportunity made me quite happy. Usually at these types of events my only involvement with the tasty food is watching others enjoy it.
I kept quite busy working at the PSM desk handing out goodies to PSM swimmers who’re destined for Nationals, so I didn’t get to kibitz with the TWIMmers as much as I’d normally do. I did however meet many wondrous and interesting swimmers as a result of working the PSM desk, handing out swag. It was great! Throwing caution to the wind I also accepted the challenge of creating relays (thanks to help from Carl and others) along with a request to produce this blog entry based on limited information. I am recklessly adept at writing stuff up without a lot of first-hand knowledge, as I am able spew out large volumes of syntactically incorrect assumptions, embellishments, wise-cracks, and yarns, all in a relatively shameless devil-may-care, disorganized fashion. If you’re looking for professional writing finesse call 1-800-NEUHAUS, or if not, you just have to be a brave reader.
So brace yourself and let’s get started with the TWIM activities …. never a dull moment!
TWIM had 14 swimmers show up for the meet, enough to wring out four relays. New USMS swimmer and TWIM acolyte Guilherme Anzilago-Tesser got to meet the gang and participated in a relay wherein he cranked out a quick 25.20 as the anchor. It appeared that he enjoyed the experience!
I have not yet inquired as to Guilherme’s stroke preferences, but with my luck he’s probably another backstroker. A while back I came out with my position on eliminating the backstroke, as in, tolerate it for use in the Medley but ban it otherwise. Not an unreasonable position if you were to ask a backstroke authority such as myself.
It would appear that my TWIM teammates responded to my philosophical rejection of backstroke by further excelling in backstroke events, presumably to spite me. Carl, Joseph, and Maoz were all in the fast heat of the 50 backstroke, which I personally witnessed. I must admit that it was inspiring to watch these guys blast away, aside from the wrong-side-up aspect of the stroke – which always makes the ordeal appear as though a Crawl swimmer has become spatially disoriented and simultaneously confused about how gravity works. Regardless of my feelings, whoever is racing these fast cats at Nationals better be on the look-out!
Not to be left out, Holly also piled on with the backstroke, racing the 100 and 200. Looking at USMS results for Holly, it appears that she’s only raced backstroke one other time, suggesting that there is definitely some type of clandestine backstroke conspiracy afoot within TWIM. Holly’s times of 1:11.95 in the 100 and 2:38.90 in the 200 launched her firmly into the PNA Top-12 Fastest rankings. This success puts me in an increasingly awkward position in my campaign to stamp out backstroke. Unsurprisingly, I was not consulted prior to the increased backstroke engagement, but now that she’s in the Top 12 it’s pretty much out there, in the open, that Holly has embraced backstroke culture. Another swimmer lost to the allure of swimming belly-up…
It wasn’t ALL backstroke for Holly. She also swam the 50 breaststroke and the 200 butterfly! Four first place finishes for Holly!
Brent Barnes stayed aligned with his recent SCM gains in breaststroke and applied the new-found speed to SCY. At this meet Brent dropped almost 3 seconds in his PB for the 100, swimming a 1:17.87 !! Dropping three seconds in a 100 is a phenomenal improvement. But Brent was not content to leave it at that, he was on a roll. On Day 2, Brent dropped over 3 seconds in the 100 Freestyle! What is up with Brent? Save some improvement for the rest of us.
Brent kept it classy and refrained from backstroke. Good man, Brent, good man. We have to stick together.
Editor’s Note: Brent is also our new PNA Treasurer – announced at Saturday afternoon’s PNA Social. Thanks for stepping into this crucial leadership role, Brent!
In addition to the aforementioned 50 backstroke, Carl seemed to be in the fast lanes, all day, both days! He also swam the 50 breaststroke, 50 freestyle, and 50 butterfly, as well as the 100 freestyle, the 100 I.M., and two high points relays! Way to represent, Carl!
Steve Fogg showed amazing stamina, representing TWIM in the 50 and 100 backstroke, the 100 freestyle, the 100 butterfly, and both the 200 and 400 I.M. races! Steve finished off his events by swimming a leg in the 200 Free Relay. Steve!
Newly-minted PNA Vice-President, Bob Moore came and gave his all for TWIM on Saturday. Bob swam the 100 I.M. and turned in a first-place finish in the 200 backstroke! Bob aided and abetted another TWIM first place in the 200 Medley Relay. Look for Bob next at USMS Spring Nationals! Thanks for your leadership, V-P Bob!
I counted Joseph smiling at the meet well over a dozen times. My instincts tell me that he is enjoying Masters swimming, and TWIM is lucky to bear witness to his youthful enthusiasm. Joseph raced the 50 Free in the face of stiff competition and acquitted himself quite well. Joseph also swam the 50 Breaststroke, Backstroke, and Butterfly, along with the 100 IM. His 100 IM came in at a smokin’ 1:02.19, bettering his PB by a smidge over one second. Rock-on Joseph! He also swam in two relays, blazing through the butterfly for the TWIM 25+ 200 Medley relay.
Maoz came within .05 seconds of his PB in the 50 Free, hitting the wall in 24.23. Yowza! We need to coin a nickname for Maoz, like “The Rocket” or something else that sounds befitting of a speed junkie. I’ll leave that to our management.
I’ve been experimenting with wearing a swimming cap and I have had problems with three different types of caps – Maoz clued me in to the crease-free Arena cap he was using, and I ordered one the same evening…. I’ll be excited to try it out. Thanks for the tech-tip!
Maoz also helped out with two relays…. he is so fast that I could have swum my leg with a duck floaty, holding a margarita, and we still would have won.
[Tech Note: The above reference was used for comparison purposes only. Racing while using a duck floaty and consuming a beverage would result in a DQ – We are here to educate.]
And a warm welcome-back to Scott Neuhaus! It was great to see you after your hiatus from meet activity. It was obvious you were having fun upon your return. And fun is largely the point, is it not?
President Dan Underbrink swam the 100 and 200 in backstroke and breaststroke. Yes, backstroke.
Dan also swam the 500 Free and the 100 IM, racking up some high-volume racing yardage for the overall meet.
Kerry swam the 50, 100, and 200 Freestyle events along with the 50 Backstroke, 50 Breaststroke, and 100 Breaststroke. Kerry swam a PB within his current age group, slipping under 40 seconds in the 50 Breaststroke and besting three previous swims.
A swimmer who recently joined TWIM, Steven Schwartz, made significant improvements in his PBs within his current age group, dropping nearly a second in the 100 Free and a whopping ~25 seconds in the 500 Free.
Editor’s Note: Your TWIM Blog author for this epic piece was no slouch at this meet, even though he neglected to mention his many contributions! Dave swam the 50,100, and 200 breaststroke events, as well as the 100 freestyle and two relays! He also manned the PSM Nationals desk for much of the meet, while gathering his notes for this fine write-up. Dave also assumed his new duties as a PNA At-large Director at Saturday afternoon’s PNA Social Event. Amazing contributions, Dave! Thank you!
Tom Walker racked up some serious yardage in the 75-79 age group, plugging away at the 200, 500, and 1000 Freestyle races, and also swimming all the breaststroke races. I’m trying to imagine how sore I’d be if I attempted all those races. Very impressive Tom!
Tom Walker was presented with a special edition bag-tag. To catch you up – there were numerous tags given away at the meet, which can be used as swim-bag tags or a doo-dad for a key ring. If you’re familiar with the “One Ring” from Lord of the Rings, it takes a special custodian to bear the burden of the One Ring, and the One Tag presented to Thomas is no different. It was surmised that Tom possesses the special fortitude required to bear the burden of the singular Tag that rules them all. The One Tag is cloistered in a special protective housing suspended from the Bearer’s neck by a snazzy faux-gold chain. If you speak with Tom on the matter, please assure him that “it looks like real gold.”
In related news, Brent Barnes checked in with me at the end of the meet to make sure I wasn’t forgetting stuff, like say, a chair. Apparently Brent believes that “twice in a row” constitutes an established pattern, like he’s some kind of math wizard. It would be easier on me if I could just have Brent bring all my stuff to and from the meets. I’ll try to work that out the next time I speak with Brent, if he’ll humor me.
I think that’s enough rambling for now. See you at the next meet!
One thought on “PNA Champs Comes Roaring Back!”
Had me rolling, thanks!