Age: 57
Workout Group: Lacamas Headhunters
Occupation: Engineering Manager at HP
Nancy Vincent
As a child growing up in Palo Alto, CA, I swam in a few summer league meets, but really started competing when I joined my Junior High Swim Team in 7th grade. After that season, I begged my parents to let me join an Age Group team and I’ve been swimming ever since.
I attended Dartmouth College as an engineering major and swam all 4 years there. After college in 1982, I moved to McMinnville, OR, to work at HP. I was tired of spending so much of my time devoted to swimming and I decided to try other things. I really didn’t think I was going to get back in the pool any time soon. I started running, which led to triathlons, which led back to swimming.
In 1986 I joined OMS and started swimming in meets because I found out Masters Nationals would be in Portland that summer. I’ve now been a member of OMS for 31 years, although I haven’t been active in swimming during all those years. In the 80s and early 90s I swam with Masters workout groups in McMinnville and Newberg.
In 1997, I took another job with HP in Vancouver, WA, when HP decided to close the site in McMinnville. When I first moved to Vancouver, there were very few places to swim and none were convenient. I took a year off from swimming and went back to exercise classes and running. In early 1998, Lacamas Swim & Sport opened in Camas with a 3 lane 25m indoor pool that was near the HP office. I joined before the club opened and started swimming again, but didn’t compete for several years as my kids were young. In 2003, the outdoor 8-lane 25m pool was built at the club and we started a Masters team. I joined and was one of the charter members. I’ve been swimming there ever since.
As a Masters swimmer, probably my most memorable experience is competing in the World Masters Championships at Stanford in 2006 with a large group of OMS swimmers. That was a fun team experience.
Currently, I am a manager of a team of engineers at HP developing ink jet printers. I try to swim 4 times a week with the Lacamas Masters team, although sometimes work and family get in the way.
I am married to a runner and have 3 children, one in college and two in high school, none of whom are swimmers. In my limited free time, I enjoy reading, hiking and skiing.