Poll on competitive history pre-Masters

Swam four years at U of Texas and came frustratingly close to Olympic Trials cuts in both the 400 free and 400 IM in 1988 ... I can't say every day was fun and missing those cuts (as well as getting close to NCAA cuts in my senior year) was a huge bummer, but the college swimming experience was fabulous. Fortunately for me, I was a distance guy, didn't mind the 1000 - 500 dual meet duo and tended to swim pretty consistently in season so I got to travel. Travelling with the team was a blast, except for one notorious blowout by the Cardinal. My all-time best swimming experience, though, came when I was in the Peace Corps after college and managed to find my way to both helping coach and swim with the Swaziland National Swim team (on weekends away from my normal teaching duties). I got to go to a southern African swim championships (minus South Africa) in Mozambique shortly after the civil war had subsided. Aside from catching malaria while I was there, it was an infinitely cool swim meet.

Swam four years at U of Texas and came frustratingly close to Olympic Trials cuts in both the 400 free and 400 IM in 1988 ... I can't say every day was fun and missing those cuts (as well as getting close to NCAA cuts in my senior year) was a huge bummer, but the college swimming experience was fabulous. Fortunately for me, I was a distance guy, didn't mind the 1000 - 500 dual meet duo and tended to swim pretty consistently in season so I got to travel. Travelling with the team was a blast, except for one notorious blowout by the Cardinal. My all-time best swimming experience, though, came when I was in the Peace Corps after college and managed to find my way to both helping coach and swim with the Swaziland National Swim team (on weekends away from my normal teaching duties). I got to go to a southern African swim championships (minus South Africa) in Mozambique shortly after the civil war had subsided. Aside from catching malaria while I was there, it was an infinitely cool swim meet.