Swim Stories

We had a very similar thing with our conference champs in the Northwest Conference of the NAIA (now NCAA Div 3). The Univ. of Puget Sound had been champs for the past 500 years or so, and we (Linfield College) thought we could unseat them that year. Our coach had done careful planning in order to extract every point out of the meet possible, and this meant for some of us to swim back to back races and win them. Some people were swimming the 200 fly, 400 IM, & 1650 etc. just to take the 10th-16th places to steal points. Everything worked out basically as planned, and we were leading the meet by something like 4 points or so going into the final 400 free relay, and every team knew this. Basically we had to win the 400 free relay, because if UPS won it they would have enough points to overtake us. Well, UPS was a powerhouse and definitely cleaned our clocks in the relay, but we had backup! Whitworth College was also a strong force in the 400 free relay, and the entire pool began cheering for Whitworth to beat UPS, so that we could win the meet. Our coach actually missed the last 2 splits for our swimmers because she was so involved in the big race. That's how it happened, and we ended up defeating the defending champions by a mere 2 points! Sooo, all those points that each person ended up "stealing" all throughout the meet paid off for a total team effort. Sometimes it's not who wins the events, but the strategy implemented to win.

Some people were swimming the 200 fly, 400 IM, & 1650 etc. just to take the 10th-16th places to steal points. My college team used to do that every year at our conference meet. My sophomore year, one of our swimmers trained for the 1M springboard to try to steal points there. He ended up swimming the 400 IM instead though. (If it was me, I'd have given up on the diving idea right around the time the word "reverse" was first uttered :afraid:)

Paul Tietze - greatest relay swim ever. In the early 70’s SMU and Michigan swam a dual meet in Dallas. At the time, both teams were very strong and evenly matched. The meet came down to the last (4 x 100) free relay. The first three Michigan swimmers gradually built a 1/3 pool length lead and the nearly packed natatorium had quieted - that is until SMU’s anchor, Paul Tietze, took the water. Paul was a big guy who blasted from the block and, in what seemed an impossible feat, caught the Michigan swimmer breaking out of the first turn. The entire crowd was on their feet and louder than any swim meet I have ever attended. I don’t remember the rest of the race except that Paul finished first and SMU won the relay and the meet. At the time, it was the fastest relay split ever recorded. I watched Jason Lezak beat Alain Barnard in Beijing and while I had the same feeling about it, I still rank Paul’s swim as the greatest relay swim ever.

My sophomore year, one of our swimmers trained for the 1M springboard to try to steal points there. A friend of mine did just that in a dual meet against Indiana. We found out they only had only diver (albeit one hell of a diver--Mark Lenzi) on the travel team so my coach decided to let my friend train as a diver that week. Basically he just had to complete his dives to score points. We ended up winning the meet because of diving. Apparently Doc wasn't real happy on the bus afterward!

Some people were swimming the 200 fly, 400 IM, & 1650 etc. just to take the 10th-16th places to steal points. Stealing?! with these events, any point is well-earned. Although, I have seen meets where a swimmer got drafted to dive to scavenge up points and he was clowning around with it. If I were a referee, I'd caution him about a possible DQ for poor sportsmanship. That little SMU indoor pool can be very exciting. The echos in there just lift the roof off and people just get stoked.

And some say that swimming isn't a team sport.

at open Dutch Masters SCM last weekend was lucky to meet a Master Jan Willem Heuten, 50-55, with a inspiring story about his Master swimming : learned to swim 6 years ago, started to workout with a group and is doing 3:17.91 200 fly; 23:01.63 1500free; 6:46.26 400IM!:bow::applaud:

I recently asked Kris Kubik what were some of the most impressive swims he saw at USA's 2008 Olympic Training Camp? He said Lars Jenson did 15 x 100 LCM on 1:10 or 1:15 & held 57's on all of them.

Was on business in Newport News and was excited about swimming at the gym pool next door. It was 25 meters but 88 degrees with a ton of noodlers. Somone told me about a better pool one mile away. I checked it out and it was an awesome facility with a 50m pool at the proper 80 degrees. There were two teams sharing it and they looked serious. One team was the Coast Guard team and the other ?? Anyway, after swimming I was telling someone in the locker room how awesome the pool was and he agreed. He went on to tell me how Katie Hoff and Dave Walters swam here. He told me he knows Dave Walters like family. We had a nice chat. That was my brush with Olympic swimmers once removed.

I recently asked Kris Kubik what were some of the most impressive swims he saw at USA's 2008 Olympic Training Camp? He said Lars Jenson did 15 x 100 LCM on 1:10 or 1:15 & held 57's on all of them. roughly 50 sec in yards- amazing :notworthy::notworthy: