The Oregon Club had another strong performance in the 2020 USMS One-Hour Postal National Championships, held in January and February in your local pool. Our overall participation was down slightly from previous years, a disturbing trend, but there were many fine swims. The Oregon Club placed second Overall.
Oregon Participation summary:
- 81 Oregon swimmers entered the event;
- 35 women & 46 men swam and entered, relatively equal numbers which really helps for mixed relays;
- 11 Oregon clubs/local teams were represented, fairly typical for this postal event, also slightly down in numbers. Well done, teams, but we’re still missing participation from a few of you, and we’re still missing full representative participation from many of you. Coaches, please notice that ALL of Oregon’s perennially most successful teams are represented!
Congratulations to…
- Our TWO individual National Champions (USMS Long Distance All-American). Dave Radcliff, and Willard Lamb
- Our TWENTY-SEVEN other individual swimmers who made the top ten (and thus received medals)
- Our SIX relay team National Champions (USMS Long Distance Relay All-Americans)
- Our TWELVE other relay teams who made the top six (and thus received medals)
- Our TWO relay teams that broke Oregon Relay Records:
- Women’s 55+ team of Stephanie Martin, Colette Crabbe, and Valerie Jenkins, going 13,535 yards.
- Mixed 55+ team of Colette Crabbe, Valerie Jenkins, Pat Allender, and Hardy Lussier, going 18,890 yards.
- Hardy, who broke the Oregon individual record in the Men’s 55-59 age group
- Our TWO swimmers, Valerie Jenkins (4665 yards) and Kurt Grote (5340 yards), who topped the Oregon women’s and men’s categories respectively
- Our FIFTEEN swimmers whose performances qualified or moved them up on the Oregon All-Time Top Twelve list for the One-Hour Swim. This list is ever harder to make.
- Everyone who participated!
There’s a bonus—81 Oregon-registered swimmers have now completed the first of the three legs of the Oregon Postal Participation Award. These swimmers just have to swim & enter two more swims—the 5 or 10-km postal and/or the 3000 or 6000-yard postal—later this year to snag this award. You’ve seen the patches—now you can earn your own. Put these swims on your calendar! Of course, the truly compulsive swimmers—like me—plan to complete all four remaining postal swims this year to earn the National Participation award.
Where do we go from here in 2020? Keep on swimming—the essence of the postal events is to do them. Next up are the 5 & 10-km postal National Championships, to be done between May 15 and September 15 in a long course pool.
Where do we go from here in 2021? In a bid to earn a little more income to keep our LMSC programming humming along, the OMS Board won the bid to host the 2021 One Hour Swim. I mention this now so that ALL OF YOU can adjust your sights and make the long-term commitment to swimming in this event next January or February. There are many good reasons to swim this event, but this is an especially good one since the direct beneficiaries of the entry fees are YOU! My goal is to have EVERY ATHLETE REGISTERED IN THE OREGON LMSC swim this event! All for one, one for all!
Look for the full 2020 Oregon LMSC results for the One Hour Swim in this Aqua Master here:
https://swimoregon.org/2020-oms-one-hour-results/
Good luck and good swimming!