Hello again, water lovers,
FEDERAL WAY MEET WAS A SUCCESS! MORE RECORDS FALL TO SOMA SWIMMERS!
What a great time we had at the Puget Sound Masters (PSM) Short Course Meters (SCM) meet in Federal Way this past weekend! As mentioned in the last email just before the meet, there were 8 of us from southern Oregon who participated in the meet. For 3 of us (Maggie Trujillo, Mike Oxendine, and Christopher John), this was the first masters meet ever! And the first swim meet of any kind in over 17 years!!!
We all swam very well, with many of us posting personal best times! Yay! Many of those swims made it into the top 12 times in Oregon swimming history. Those times will also likely be national top 10 times in our age group this year. National top 10 times for 2017 will be posted in the early spring after the completion of SCM season on December 31st. I’ll send out an update of top 10 times earned by SOMA swimmers after they are posted.
Superior swimmer Barry Fasbender set a new Oregon record for men aged 80-84 in the 200-meter butterfly. Congrats Barry! Barry also would have had the Oregon record in the 400 IM but unfortunately was disqualified on his breaststroke leg. Barry and I are planning to travel to Bend, Oregon in a few weeks to attend the Bend pentathlon meet (more about this meet below) so that he can try the 400 IM again. We will keep you posted with results from that meet!
I (Matt Miller — also at Superior) got my first Oregon record in the pool, getting to the top of the Oregon list in the 1500 meter freestyle for men 40-44.
Additionally, Superior swimmer Mike Servant and I teamed up with two fast girls (Sonja Skinner and Megan Tosh) from Portland to do a 4 x 100 meter mixed freestyle relay that also set an Oregon record.
Just an FYI, for those who aren’t familiar with Oregon Masters Swimming, it’s pretty unusual to see so many records being broken by a small group of swimmers, especially one that is newly forming. We in southern Oregon are making a name for ourselves, Superior Athletic Club, and southern Oregon!
Full results from the meet this past weekend can be found here: 2017 PSM SCM Results
I hope to see more people from our group at meets in the future.
SOMA SWIMMER JAN HILDEBRANDT FEATURED IN AQUAMASTER
Jan Hildebrandt, who swims with most of us at Superior, was recently featured in the Oregon Masters Swimming newsletter. Read her story here:
Jan Hildebrandt – Swimmer Spotlight
I’ve also attached the PDF page from the most recent version of the OMS Aquamaster.
All AquaMasters can be found here: http://swimoregon.org/
Great write-up, Jan! Very cool!!!
NEW SWIMMERS
Welcome two new swimmers to Superior! Both Mike Dix and Yeonjoo Lee-Jones have joined Superior in the last few weeks. Mike Dix recently transferred from the Medford YMCA to swim with our group and is an amazing swimmer with a long history in the sport of swimming with many achievements.
Yeonjoo Lee-Jones recently moved to the area from New Mexico and is interested in swimming with a group for fitness. She has swum with us the last few mornings at Superior and is a great addition to the group, bringing a warm smile and good, positive energy to the pool. She and I have worked out together the last two mornings and it has been really fun getting to know her a bit. Her daughter, Leah, is an age group swimmer who will be visiting tomorrow through the holiday weekend and plans to join us for morning workouts this week (6am). It will be fun to swim with her and Yeonjoo.
Our newly formed group of aquatics enthusiasts is growing! Don’t hesitate to ask your swim friends to join us at Superior if they have even small interest in swimming.
UPCOMING EVENTS
I want to make sure everyone knows about the upcoming Oregon swim meets. See below for a list of upcoming events.
Bend SCM Pentathlon – December 9th
For the last several years, Central Oregon Masters Aquatics (COMA) has played host to a different and fun event at the Juniper Swim & Fitness Center in Bend. Titled the “All-Around Challenge: SCM Pentathlon and Brute Squat Meet,” meet director Bob Bruce shares that the event started as an intrasquad contest and evolved into a regular meet on the Oregon Masters swim calendar.
The All-Around Challenge has four different Pentathlons to choose from:
- Sprint Pentathlon is 50’s of each stroke (fly, back, breast and free) & the 100 IM.
- Mid-Distance Pentathlon is 100’s of each stroke & the 200 IM.
- Long-Distance Pentathlon is 200’s of each stroke & the 400 IM.
- Brute Squad is the 200 fly, 400 IM and 1500 free.
A neat motivator for this meet format is that Oregon Masters Swimming keeps records for the cumulative time of the five events in the Sprint, Mid-Distance and Long-Distance pentathlons:
More details and registration can be found here:
Barry and I will be carpooling up to the event, so if you’re interested in joining us, please reach out. Six years ago now, this was my very first swim meet ever. It’s a great meet to start with because it offers all events and is small and unintimidating. So if you’re looking to go to your first meet, this is a good one. In addition to Barry and I, I hope to see some of us from Superior attend.
Canby Animal Meet – December 17th
This meet is a lot of fun, and is definitely unique in its format. Regardless of age group, swimmers channel their inner animal into one of three categories: Sprint Animal, Middle Animal or Grand Animal.
Each category requires three events to be swum: an IM event, a butterfly event, and a distance freestyle event. Placing is determined by the cumulative time of all three events.
The Sprint Animals go for it in the 100 IM, 50 fly and 200 free. Middle Animals take a swing at the 200 IM, 100 fly and 500 free. The Grand Animals try to survive the 400 IM, 200 fly and 1000 free. Some swimmers do pick and choose their favorite events only, but in order to be eligible for the coveted Gargoyle trophies, the Animal category combo must be completed.
This meet is a favorite of mine because of how intimate and friendly it feels and also because there is usually some really great racing to be had. I plan to attend this meet also and would love some company.
More details and registration is here:
One-hour ePostal in Jan-Feb
The 2018 season is almost upon us…start preparing now! For those of you who did the 3000 and/or 6000 ePostal swims, be sure to get this one on your to-do list too. It’s a really fun event and unique in the fact that it’s not a set distance but rather a set amount of time to swim to see how far you can go.
The One-hour ePostal is the most popular of the 5 ePostal events, and Oregon is always near the top in the team title. I believe that with our new group of swimmers this year, we might be able to help secure the overall Club win for Oregon.
Again, as with the 3000/6000 ePostals, I will time anyone who is interested in swimming the one-hour ePostal. Please let me know when you want to do it and I will try to make it work with my schedule. I like to do this swim twice, especially now that it runs through both Jan and Feb. It’s a great training event and builds confidence and endurance. Please do it!
Oregon Association Champs – April 20-22
I’ll make quick mention again of Oregon Association Champs. This is THE target meet of the year for most Oregon swimmers. I would love to see all of us on this list attend this meet and swim together as a team. It’s the only meet of the year where we have the opportunity to do so (for all other meets, everyone in Oregon is on the same team). It’s a total blast! Let’s do it!
A full list of upcoming Oregon swim events can be found here:
OK, that’s enough for now. Sorry this email got so long!
See you all poolside sometime soon, I hope!