by Dan Underbrink
The folks over on Bainbridge Island always put on a great meet, and BAMFest! 2023 was no exception! A big TWIM thank you to Meet Director, Tamara Tulou, and Meet Referee, Julee Longridge, and the host of volunteers and officials who worked to make the day such a success!
The meet was on Sunday, October 8. Six TWIM stalwarts made the trip this year. Those were Carl Haynie, Scott Neuhaus, David Scott, Steve Fogg, Kerry Ness, and Dan Underbrink. Most of us (except for David, who lives over that way) got to start and end our outing with a ferry ride, from either Seattle or Edmonds. It was a beautiful day on Puget Sound. Carl’s morning boat ride was even slightly delayed by an Orca sighting!
Here is how the team did:
Steve Fogg, swimming in the 70-74 age group, swam three individual events and both relays. He dropped over half a second in the 50 Back and came away with three first place and two second place finishes! Nice job, Steve, and thanks for putting together the relays for this one.
Carl Haynie, swimming in the 60-64 age bracket, had two individual events and two relays. He went 30.51 in the backstroke leg of TWIM’s Medley Relay and swam a blazing 26.44 in the 50 freestyle! Three first place finishes and one second place finish. Go Carl!
Kerry Ness, swimming in the 60-64 group, swam four individual events, dropping below his seed times in three of those! He dropped more than 5 seconds below seed in the 100 IM. Excellent swimming, Kerry, and glad to see you there!
Scott Neuhaus, swimming in the 65-69 age group swam four individual events and one relay. He racked up a perfect five first place finishes, including a 0.45 second drop in his 50 free! Scott told me he is feeling able to recover better than in previous months, and that was apparent all day long!
David Scott (55-59 age group) swam in three individual events and one relay, logging three first place ribbons, and one second place (the relay). Dave dropped 2.6 seconds in his 200 IM and 13.81 seconds (!) in his 500 free. Nice contribution all day long, Dave!
Now for your author. Dan Underbrink (65-69) swam six individual events and both relays, taking home four first place and four second place finishes. Despite the high placement and high ribbon count, my times were terrible! My best was adding nearly 5 seconds to my 50 breaststroke time! Sitting there pondering what my major malfunction might be, I remembered laying on a table Friday morning.
Note to self: Don’t donate blood two days before a swim meet! I will say that I had a PR on the blood donation, contributing one pint in a speedy 00:04:38!
Anyway, the day was a great one, and everyone had a great time doing what we all love, swimming!
