Federal Way 25 year Birthday Bash
A small but motivated group of Oregon swimmers made the trip up to Federal Way for the NW Zone SCM Championships, November 21st & 22nd. There were a few OMS no-shows, but they missed a fun meet with some great swimming. It was also the 25th Birthday for the King County Aquatic Center (KCAC) and during a break on Saturday they did a balloon drop over the diving/warm up pool, which made things interesting for those swimming at the time, and they also had some very good birthday cake up in the lobby. I felt it was my duty as your reporter to try both the chocolate and white cake flavors and give them both an “outstanding” rating. After a day of swimming, the cake also hit the spot for most of the competitors.
Being a world-class pool, there were some major record-setting swims to help celebrate the birthday of KCAC. Five Oregon swimmers set new OMS or Zone records: Hailey Bambusch in the (W 25-29) 50 Free & 50 back; Jill Asch in the (W 45-49) 50 Free, (Jill and Hailey were in the same heat and pushed each other to a good time!) [see times on page 8]; Colette Crabbe (W 55-59) 200 IM; David Hathaway (M 55-59) 800 Free; David Radcliff (M 80-84) 50 Free. The host, Puget Sound Masters, also had a great meet as they set 9 World and National records, 35 Zone, and 96 PNA records. Masters legend Lara Val came up from California and also set a World & National record. Thanks to Steve our OMS records guru for this info. Many other OMS swimmers also did personal bests and were happy overall with their performance. Overall it was a good meet, but the only negative was the constant plea to get people to volunteer as timers as there was a steady need throughout the meet. This is now to be an annual event, so hopefully things will be better organized next year. Cheers, and I’ll see you at the pool! Coming next: Canby and Chehalem!
Charlie Helm at Federal Way Pool