At the 2025 PNA Championship in Federal Way this past weekend, a record 19 TWIM-mers raced 14,700 yards in 125 swims to splash and dash their way to 3rd in the Large Team Division against two larger teams, Cascade Masters and Bernardo’s All Stars.
Sandwiched between the two day meet was the always fun PNA Social that saw our own Dan Underbrink win the coveted Dawn Musselman Inspirational Swimmer Award! Congratulations, Dan!!
I wish I could have bottled the surprise on Dan’s face when Steve Peterson flipped to the slide showing him the winner.
Congratulations, also, to Pete Colella of Cascade Masters for winning Coach of the Year!
Many thanks to Sally Dillon, Steve, and the PNA Board for putting on another great Social.
Now back to swimming.
Tom Walker would have been so proud to see his team garner a record 20 sign-ups and battle so effectively against the Large Teams this year.
While we have work to do recruiting more women, this was the first year we were able to field multiple all-women relays!
Congratulations to Cascade and Bernardo’s for securing 1st and 2nd, respectively:
Cascade Masters (1st)
Bernardo’s All Stars (2nd)
Team Walker Intl Masters (3rd)
As for TWIM, we dominated on the Men’s side of the ledger according to Meet Mobile!
Everyone swam so well, it’s impossible to hit all the highlights. In the order of how they are pictured in our team photo, I shall try…
Joseph Shelley had an amazing 50 fly, clocking in at 26.70 to grab 1st in the 25-29 age group. He was instrumental in two of our 25+ relays. This guy was on fire with speed this weekend.
One of our newest members, Katy Stuart logged 1,000 yards of racing on Sunday and improved in all of her races. She dropped over 10 seconds off her guess for a seed time in the 200 back to snag 2nd.
Stephen Fogg was an animal this weekend, swimming in the 200 Fly, 400 IM, and 500 free just to name 3 of his 6 races. Except for the 50 breast, he secured 5 blue ribbons and landed us lots of TWIM points.
Not to be outdone, Graham Anderson logged 1,000 yards in 6 races. He capped off his two days by participating on the winning Men’s 65+ 200 free relay.
New member Bill Krieger demonstrated to everyone he is a breaststroke specialist, swimming in every breast event and dropping time in all three. Amazing performances after coming off some major surgery recently.
Carl Haynie was perhaps happiest about his 100 breast (1:11.5) among his 6 individual events. But like Atsuko, Keri, and Holly, he got lassoed into doing 4 relays. Who organized those things anyway? They need a talkin’ to…
If there was a ‘Way to Step Up’ award, it would go to Kerry Ness this weekend who admitted to me after the fact: ‘I hate fly’. He normally doesn’t volunteer for relays and he swam FLY in both medley relays.
Atsuko Takahashi continues to amaze us in the pool. I think she actually does like fly. If you have ever looked at her stroke, you can see why. Her 33.64 50 fly looked so easy but was so fast.
Ruben Guerrero has been with TWIM since nearly the beginning and is always a delight to be around and to watch swim. He snagged 1st in the 200 breast in the highly competitive 30-34 age group.
Only a couple of us notched 10 races in our belts and Keri Falkner was one of them. She was all smiles after her 100 back performance. A 1:18.5 was well under the NQT she was shooting for. And the smiles continued after 4 relays.
Holly Lickwala swam 4 relays and 4 individual events. Her 100 breast was super speedy as was her other races. She was excited to finally swim on not one but two all-women TWIM relays for a change; the women’s medley captured 2nd.
Mary Underbrink, affectionately referred to as First Lady in our ranks, officially claimed TWIM as her new home recently, and we’re so happy to have her. She dropped over 6 seconds off her seed time in the 200 Free.
Eight races and 1300 yards must have felt like a light weekend to a guy used to swimming around Mercer Island. Dan Underbrink dropped over 12 seconds from his seed time in the 200 back and would have gladly swum in 4 relays if we had worked it in.
David Scott continued to amaze us in breaststroke. His 100 was a personal best with a blazing time of 1:10.95. Not normally one to volunteer for relays, he proved instrumental in both of the ones he swam in.
Move over Dan and Stephen as we have a new winner for the animal award. Shannon Singer swam 2,000 yards over 5 races this weekend. Two blue ribbons and 3 red ribbons for her effort. That’s a lot of TWIM points.
Steven Schwartz swam 4 races on Saturday including two relays. His 100 IM was smokin’ fast, clocking in at 1:12.28 in the 60-64 age bracket, good for 1st place and more precious TWIM points.
Another one or our newest TWIM members, Jonathan Banks, hails from Oregon and if there was a more enthusiastic guy about swimming this meet, I can’t think of one. Seven races and 900 yards included a 27 split in the men’s free relay.
Proving he is no slouch, Brent Barnes swam 6 individual events and 3 relays. I think if he could have swum 8 individuals and 8 relays, he would have gladly done so. A sub-32 split in the free relay was superb.
Greg Walsh is a consummate sprint freestyler in the 70-74 age group but is also a fine breaststroker. He proved both of these things true this weekend including landing a 2nd place finish in the 200 breast.
A meet like this one takes an army of volunteers and the folks at Blue Wave Aquatics are to be commended. To all the officials and volunteers who helped out, thank you!
