Post by: Tom Ellison
"if anything, Masters for me has been a celebration of all things swimming."
Brothers and Sisters....can we hear a loud AMEN!
Tom, you have my "AMEN!" and Ande, thank you for all the information you put out here for us. I haven't said much since finding the boards and signing on but I read all the time and am encouraged tremendously by much of what I read.
Originally posted by Peter Cruise
And check out Dennis Baker in 200 fly at Santa Clara...not all teenagers!
Also Mike Ross, a member of New England Masters Swim Club , competed as a member of the NE Barracudas. Mike is 37 years old and swim at night in both individual events and on some of the Cuda relays.
Also looked to me that "most" of the finalist were 18 years or older, meaning that they are good recruits for masters.
Finally, my wife and I occasionally get in one of the lanes when our son is at swim team practice. The "kids" think its absolutely great to see parents in there doing the workout. Too bad, it doesn't happen more often. Its never too early to get kids thinking about swimming long after their "competitive" career is over. In fact, my daughter, who will swim at Kenyon this Fall, and her best swimming friend have vowed to swim masters after college. Their reason??? They get to pick and choose their sets, leave the pool when they want, and race when they want. In other words, they get to swim for the pure love of it. This is something that they learned because we are involved in their swimming and they watch us "strive" in the water for the pure joy of the it all.
Wow!!!! msgrupp.....you just don't get it do you? Angel Martino, Rowdy Gaines...just to name two former Olympians that after competing in the Olympics used Masters as a training tool to prepare for more Olympics!!!! You might even get a chance someday to see some of the names listed on the Santa Clara meet at a Masters meet!
I personally love to follow what the younger swimmers are doing!!!! Keep it up Ande!!!! And thanks from all of us who do care!!!!!
msgrupp....like the advice given by others earlier in this thread... don't like it....stay out of it!!!!
What's up with msgrupp? I love all aspects of swimming and going to events such as this serves to pump me up even more. Anyhow, the meet was a great time. No sooner than had we sat down in the bleachers and Natalie Coughlin sits down about 3 rows ahead of us to get ready for her race. Unfortunately I was too close to take many pictures without being overly-intrusive and I chose to leave her alone as she was preparing for the 50 Free Heat. Shortly thereafter Mr. Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay and Bob Bowman are parked in front of us. Without question there were plenty of photo opportunities for my wife! Anyhow, the swimming was quite good and Ryan Lochte taking the win in the 200IM heat was a real crowd pleaser even though it was not a final. Does anybody know what the deal is with Peirsol? He failed to qualify for his signature race. After I had been preaching to my wife about how incredible this guy is in backstroke he truly dissapointed us. Brendan Hansen was absolutely incredible and made it seem like the race was staged. Competition must be scarce for the guy. The facility was incredible and I truly wish I had a place like that around the corner from my house.
Peirsol did win the 200 back, which is his better backstroke event of the two. He swam the 200IM prelim and went out REALLY fast. He went a 26 on the fly and was still in first place after the backstroke leg by nearly 2 seconds, and ended up in 10th place. I think he wore himself out for the 100 back. He had a bad (for him) second 50 and usually that's when he really comes to life ... hopefully everything is ok, he's not injured and there's no personal issues going on ... I'm sure by worlds he be in top form and get both backstroke golds ...
Santa Clara has nine lanes. Better to give three people a chance for a second swim (27 in the three final heats as opposed to 24).
Plus, using nine lanes will make prelims go much faster.
I think next spring's nationals should use more than eight lanes for the two courses. Unless they plan to set it up like it was in Tempe.
You'd be surprised how much faster things go with heats of nine or 10 swimmers. Those 200s and 500s fly by!
How common is that? Seems rare to me...why'd they do it at Santa Clara?
Did anyone see why Phelps DQ'ed 50 free? Was it a false start or non-start?
Lots of fast, young Japanese.
Congrats to Michael Ross 37 and Dennis Baker 43 for giving it a go against the young'uns.
Sidenote to MsGrupp, as with TV or radio, if you don't like what's posted, change the channel. Why invest time and energy getting torqued up about electrically charged phosphor from people you don't know on topics you're not interested in?
Are you the same Mike Ross that swam a backstroke split of :21.81 on those 2 NCAA Championship 200 Medley Relays that won in 1989 and 1990 for Princeton.
Mike:
I was going thru my swimming VHS and found one of those races either 1989 or 1990. I have the one when you swam in Lane 1 and you swam the whole race underwater. Also about 3 months ago on a post, a triva ? about one of those Relays, was there was a breastroker that had the fastest split for about 7 years. I think is name was Rich. The other guy's name was Leroy?
