Held at JSFC in Bend on Saturday, December 11, 2021
It was GREAT to finally get to race in the pool again! This was the first sanctioned meet in Oregon in two years, since the 2019 COMA All-Around Meet (we’re not forgetting the Senior Games meet hosted by Corvallis in August, which was a recognized meet and limited to swimmers 50 and older). We need to have more pool events!
- We had 70 entrants, a very good sign-up, assertive too, considering that all-weather tires are apparently not sold in the Portland Metro area.
- We had about a dozen scratches due to inclement weather—it turned out to be our first real winter day—but we delayed seeding, thus consolidating some heats, and moved forward with a meet exactly within the projected time-frame.
- Many thanks to all volunteers who got out of the wet weather to help us run the show.
- A special thanks to all of our meet officials, many of whom scrambled recently to become certified. It is obvious that of the big challenges in planning swim meets is finding enough officials to run them, particularly as it seems that many officials let their credentials lapse during the pandemic. It’s time to recruit and develop new officials throughout Oregon LMSC if we plan to hold more meets, which we desperately need. Consider asking your non-racing teammates.
- After a two-year layoff, I thought that nearly everyone looked a little race-rusty (we learn to race by racing), but showed good form and good effort.
- We had some fine swimming despite the two-year lay-off, measured in speed (of course), recovery from race-to-race, pacing, and technique improvements.
- Included in this fine swimming were four new Oregon individual records, one new Zone individual record, and three new Oregon Pentathlon records.
- The cherry on the sundae was the new World Record of 14:48.98 in the 320-359 Mixed 4 x 200 Free Relay by Oregon swimmers Willard Lamb, Janet Gettling, Joy Ward and Bob Bruce. This was accomplished in an empty room because it was the final event and almost everyone had already bailed. But it was a fitting finish to a fine and fun meet.
World Record Relay –Willard Lamb, Joy Ward, Janet Gettling, Bob Bruce
Let’s do this again, sometime real soon!