No record-breaking 200 Medley Relay, but fun! L to R Lauren Santamaria,
Claudia Daly, Laura Worden and Christina Fox
A cold foggy day, a beautiful new pool, and a hopeful new year intersected to produce a fast Chehalem SCY meet on January 27, 2019, at the new Aquatic and Fitness Center in Newberg, Oregon. The meet hadn’t been held since 2016 while the pool, funded in a partnership by the city of Newberg and nearby George Fox University, was being transformed into a state of the art natatorium named for Jim McMaster, legendary water polo coach at Newberg High School. The meet got off to a late start, but once it began, folks dove right in and began breaking both National and Zone records.
The water temperature was perfect and the flush sides of the pool helped propel swimmers to fourteen new Zone records, and included two National records as well. Dan Kirkland and Willard Lamb were the National record-setters—both in the 1000 yard Free. Dan set his mark in the Men’s 70-74 age-group, with an 11:52.71, breaking the old record of 12:09.40. Willard broke his old standard of 20:14.21 (set last year) by seven seconds, swimming a 20:07.46.
Dan didn’t stop with his National record; he also set a new Zone record in the Men’s 70-74 age-group, 200 yard Backstroke with a 2:26.36. Sue Calnek-Morris was busy in her freestyle events and set four new Zone records in the Women’s 75-79 age-group: 100 yard Free, 1:27.29; 200 yard Free, 3:19.68; 500 yard Free, 8:16.44; and 1000 yard Free, 17:11.35. Four more swimmers followed in her wake with one new Zone mark each – Kurt Grote, Men’s 45-49 age-group, 100 yard Free; Arlene Delmage, Women’s 55-59 age-group, 50 yard Fly, 29.73; Colette Crabbe, Women’s 60-64 age-group, 200 yard Fly, 2:38.97 and Janet Gettling, Women’s 70-74 age-group, 50 yard Breast, 40.79.
The new, state-of-the-art Aquatic Center in Newberg where the Chehalem meet was held
Three teams of relays also broke Zone records. The relay team of Nancy Vincent, Colette Crabbe, Arlene Delmage and Karen Andrus-Hughes broke two records – the Woman’s 55+ age-group, 400 yard Freestyle Relay, 4:28.68, and the Women’s 55+ age-group, 800 yard Freestyle Relay, 9:57.27. Arlene and Karen then teamed up with Rick Howell and Brent Washburne to set another new mark in the Mixed 55+ age-group, 400 yard Medley Relay swimming to a 4:28.94.
The new pool got great reviews from the competitors, many of whom are looking forward to returning next year and garnering more fast times!
