Swim Stories

Mid-January of my senior year of college, I won a 1000 free with my flip turns. Here's how I did it. I dove in and didn't really look at anyone for the first 200 yards as I settled into my pace. Hey, if you get away from me in the first 200 of a 1000, you're either on a suicide mission or you're just plain better than me. I'm fine with either possibility. Anyway, approaching the 200 mark, I looked around and saw that my opponent in the next lane was about 1.5 body lengths ahead of me and that on the other side of him, my teammate Chris was even with me. Everyone else in the pool was way behind us. My opponent had sort of a sloppy kick. We had heard that they had just returned from their training trip and might be jetlagged. His kick looked jetlagged, if that makes any sense. So I decided to beat him using my turns. I don't know why I decided that, maybe just because it was a way to pass the time in an otherwise boring race. Also I was certain that Chris would never think of something like this, so our opponent would be dealing with two very different strategies at the same time. So I started hitting every turn as fast as I could, stealing about 1 foot with each one. And then I would swim the exact same speed as my opponent to the next wall. He must have found it maddening, I know I would have... I could see that Chris was making progress as well. Slowly I pulled even and then started building a small lead. Just after turning at the 625, all of a sudden I pulled away. I hadn't sped up, I had just broken my opponent's will. For some reason Chris slowed down as well (he told me after the race that he decided to let me go at that point, though I have no idea why) so I was all alone until the 975. WHOA, WHAT THE HELL HAS GOTTEN INTO CHRIS??? He came back at me full throttle and almost ran me down on the last 25. We both went under the school record for the 1000. I lowered it one more time before Chris led off his 1650 with a faster split at our conference championship meet. My name was never on the wall but I did have the 1000 free record for a month.:groovy:

I was inspired yesterday. The pool was closed for my usual lunch-time swim because the university team had a meet against Army. Since I was in that area of campus at that time anyway, I decided to stop by and watch a few races. Among other races, I caught the women's 200 back. What a race! A woman from Army held the lead by about 0.5-0.75 body length for most of the race. She was trailed by one of the women from the home squad. At the end of the 7th length the trailing swimmer put down a fantastic turn. She got a ferocious push-off and stayed down much longer than the leader. When they surfaced the Army swimmer was only ahead by a head. Everyone started screaming and cheering. The home-squad swimmer slipped by right at the end for the win. I really respect that. Basically she won the 200 back on the 7th turn. That 7th turn is soooo hard and she really nailed it.

My swim story is from my freshman year of NAIA National Champs @ the Palo Alto pool in San Antonio, March 1996. I had been unbeaten in the 500 free up to that point so far, including the preliminaries. We dove in for the finals, and right off the dive/first 25 the two swimmers on either side of me went almost a bodylength ahead, and gradually got a little more. This in a way was startling to say the least. I was actually behind for the first time in the 500. We continued that way lap after lap, turn after turn, with no changes of position forward or backward in relation to each other. I was thinking wow, this will be kinda nice...my first swim in college, and to take 3rd place...that great! Going into the 400 point, I then saw my team captain standing tall in our team area of the bleachers with his hands up in the air basically saying "WTF? Get on it boy!!!" I thought about it and came in hard into the wall at the 400, gave a couple SDKs and went for it. The other 2 swimmers ahead of me caught on quick though and also started going for the finish. At the 475, I was still in 3rd place by about 1/2 bodylength, but was determined to try for the win. The true acceleration didn't happen until the last 10-15 yards of the race as I pulled even with the other 2 swimmers. We all 3 nailed the finish like it was a 50 Free final - all basically simultaneous touching. None of us knew who had one the race until we lifted our heads over the bulkhead to see the clock. It was me!!! 4:35.43, with 2nd and 3rd places within 0.10 seconds back. I was out of the pool so fast, jumping around excited, even though I should have been exhausted at this point, it was the best thing in the world to me. To this day, it was my most exciting race I've swum, so much that I remember my time 4:35.43, and splits, 52.7, 56.5, 56.5, 56.0, 53.0. It was also the closest I'd ever had my last 100 split to my first 100 split. My only wish is that someone had videotaped the race, because I would have loved to watch it from an "outsiders" view.

Speaking of close 500's, this happened at the 2007 PNA Championships: Men 18-24 500 Yard Freestyle 1 Whitbeck, Dave 24 HMST 4:59.01 27.18 56.70 1:26.17 1:56.66 2:27.38 2:58.09 3:28.85 3:59.90 4:30.09 4:59.01 Men 35-39 500 Yard Freestyle 1 Kays, David 39 PRO 4:59.01P 27.25 56.49 1:26.16 1:56.52 2:27.11 2:57.71 3:28.34 3:58.85 4:29.46 4:59.01 I watched that race from the pool deck. Of course I'd seen ties before, but never in an event that long. While we're on the subject, I didn't see any of this insanity happen but here's a video of the swimoff tie: YouTube - 2008 EISL SWIM OFF TIE (and where's my :jawdrop: smilie?)

In college, I was at a meet where the Stanford band (a small portion) came to play during the contest. They added a lot of excitement to boring races. They were quite creative in the songs they played. And they were pretty dang loud. During the 400 hundred free relay they played the "William Tell Overature" and it fit like a glove.

That 200 Free swimoff was just insane...did they go for a coinflip; rock/paper/scissors; or just swim again!???? HAHAHA. In Masters, tie goes to the eldest, right? :applaud:

In Masters, tie goes to the eldest, right? :applaud: Depends on the situation... :bolt:

Speaking of close 500's, this happened at the 2007 PNA Championships: Men 18-24 500 Yard Freestyle 1 Whitbeck, Dave 24 HMST 4:59.01 27.18 56.70 1:26.17 1:56.66 2:27.38 2:58.09 3:28.85 3:59.90 4:30.09 4:59.01 Men 35-39 500 Yard Freestyle 1 Kays, David 39 PRO 4:59.01P 27.25 56.49 1:26.16 1:56.52 2:27.11 2:57.71 3:28.34 3:58.85 4:29.46 4:59.01 I watched that race from the pool deck. Of course I'd seen ties before, but never in an event that long. While we're on the subject, I didn't see any of this insanity happen but here's a video of the swimoff tie: YouTube - 2008 EISL SWIM OFF TIE (and where's my :jawdrop: smilie?) That 200 Free swimoff was just insane...did they go for a coinflip; rock/paper/scissors; or just swim again!???? HAHAHA.

That 200 Free swimoff was just insane...did they go for a coinflip; rock/paper/scissors; or just swim again!???? HAHAHA. Recycled bits are recycled.

The SMU vs. Michigan story reminded me of a dual meet my team (MSU) had against Michigan. Michigan was the best or close to the best team in the Big Ten. We were middle of the pack. Anyway, the meet was at Michigan and we actually could win the meet if we won the 400 free relay. We* had the lead until our anchor hit the water. Michigan's anchor was Gustavo Borges. Borges pretty much buried our guy. All I remember is the wind coming out of our sails in a matter of seconds. I'm sure Urbanchek was never even worried. :) * Just to be clear I wasn't swimming the relay. If I swam at all in this meet it was exhibition!