ILMSA the OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER of the ILLINOIS MASTERS SWIMMING ASSOCIATION Fall 2006
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THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE ILLINOIS MASTERS SWIMMING ASSOCIATION ILMSA Fall 2006 THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL MASTERS SWIMMING ASSOCIATION ILMSA Fall 2006 INSIDE THIS ISSUE POOLSIDE NEWS 3 Chat From The Chair 4 World championships 6 Big Shoulders 8 You know you’re competetive when... 9 See who swam a marathon Swimmers take off at the beginning of the Annual Big Shoulders 5k in downtown Chicago. 10 Gay Games recap 10 Have you met Mark Conlon? TEAM ILLINOIS TAKES ON THE WORLDS by Jane del Greco 10 Sue Welker, USMS coach of the year! It had been 31 years since they last swam a relay together... 11 ILMSA semi annual meeting Full story on page 4 11 ILMSA long distance committee LANE 1 YOU KNOW YOU’RE A COMPETETIVE MASTERS SWIMMER WHEN... 12 Shea Long Course Challenge recap by AJ Block 13 Get your Team Illinois lapel pins You know you’re a competetive masters swimmer when you have enough items on 14 Evanston invite entry your list to fill an entire article. Thanks AJ! Full story on page 8 15 ILMSA officers LANE 2 BIG SHOULDERS by Marcia Cleveland th Design, layout and production This year’s 16 Big Shoulders 5K & 2.5K Swim Classic drew a field of 538 competitors from all over the USA. Full story on page 6 coordination by Alex Helfers / Editing and content coordination by Rebecca Keller LANE 3 PARTICIPATION, INCLUSION, AND PERSONAL BEST by Nadine Day There were 11,500 athletes from 70 countries represented in the Gay Games. Photos in this issue by Phil Dodson, Swimming had over 10 percent of the athletes. Full story on page 10 Rebecca Keller and Mary Pohlmann HAVE YOU MET...MARK CONLON? Meet Mark Conlon of the Beuhler Breakers. Full story on page 10 WHO SWAM A MARATHON? See who swam a marathon this summer! Full story on page 9 LANE 6 LANE 5 LANE 4 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE POOLSIDE NEWS Nadine in action CHAT FROM THE CHAIR Dear Fellow Illinois Swimmers, This will allow more swimmers to become involved in the organization. My goal will be to have at least one swimmer Wow, the summer has gone by fast. In June, we had the great from each team be represented on a committee. This will also opportunity of hosting the Gay Games in Chicago. We had over help with communication between the members. If you want 1000 Master swimmers swim in the first Masters meet held at to become involved in ILMSA, please e-mail me at NDAYPT at the University of Chicago. A special thanks to both the Chicago AOL dot COM. You can access both the current and proposed Smelts and the Chicago Riptides for showing the rest of the by-laws at www.ilmsa.com. We will discuss and vote on the athletes Chicago hospitality. proposed by-laws at our fall meeting on October 18th. Then in August, Illinois Masters had 49 swimmers travel across In September, Illinois will have 10 swimmers (Mary Pohlmann, country to participate in the FINA Master’s World Championships Marcia Cleveland, Greg Weber, Barbara Delanois, Jennie Quill, and they represented Illinois Masters Swimming well. However, Phil Dodson, Fred Piggot, AJ Block, Robert Zeitner and me) at the local level, we only had two LCM meets; Park Ridge and representing ILMSA at the 2006 USMS Convention in Dearborn, Saluki-Carbondale meet. We had to cancel two meets due to Michigan. As we head to the convention, the main topic of lack of participation. I know that Masters Swimming isn’t all discussion will be online registration. about competition, but we need to support each other. Also, meets give swimmers goals to help motivate them to swim more. Keep on swimming…..Swimming for Life -Nadine KM Day, ILMSA President The ILMSA Board had a meeting in June where we revised the ILMSA by-laws and passed 5 new policies. 1) Waive membership dues for ILMSA swimmers over the age of 75 years that have been members of ILMSA for 2 years. 2) Waive membership dues for USMS Official with the approval of the Officials and Safety Committee 3) ILMSA will pay for 15 coaches to attend a coaches safety course 4) There will be a $25.00 expedited fee for registration. 5) The fee for lost cards is $5.00. 6) The fee for transferring is $5.00 (changed from $10.00) Under the proposed by-laws, we will have 15 ILMSA committees. 2 3 ILMSA TEAM ILLINOIS TAKES ON THE WORLDS By Jane Del Greco, special thanks to Mary Pohlmann World Class! The FINA Masters World Championships in said it all. The relay from Oregon with “Will Swim for Beer” Stanford, California was quite an experience! Two ten lane written down their arms were pretty geared to go. If they did 50 meter competition pools going non-stop morning until late well their coach had to buy (which is a motivational tool of which afternoon for seven days, plus two 25 meter warm up pools and a some of the Illinois coaches might take note). There were women huge diving well to boot. The weather was darned near perfect, swimming their first relay together since they were 14 years old-- with just a couple of cloudy mornings, but mostly clear 80 degree about 30 years ago, and a group of Canadian women bagged the days. The water was 78-79 degrees, just crisp when you hit it, and relays altogether taking the wine country tour instead. Everyone was treated with salt water instead of the chlorine we’re used to. knows rehydration is key after a good swim! The walls were straight-up; no gutters to grab on the open turns in butterfly and breaststroke. Five thousand five hundred twenty- Best t- shirts: “Swim, Toto, Swim!” (from the Kansas City Waves), six swimmers 25 years old and up, from over 75 countries around “Old guys RULE!” , “My mom is making me swim- she’s in 85-89”, the world; all were there to follow their passion in the universal “We swim because we’re too sexy for a sport that needs clothes”, language of competitive swimming. More records were broken in “What HAPPENS in the pool, STAYS in the pool”, and “ I came for this meet than in any other Worlds. It was an amazing meet. the wine, I stayed to swim.”, and the everso sporty Team Illinois shirts were the sharpest on deck. The business part: Upon arrival swimmers were issued photo ID credentials to wear around their necks. The credentials bore Of course, watching fast swimming was the best and there were the event numbers they were swimming and status ie. swimmer, too many great races to mention. Olympic legends Gary Hall Sr., coach, or official. Swimmers were not allowed access to the pool Rowdy Gaines, Josh Davis, and Susan Von Der Lippe gave a good or deck on days they did not swim--and credentials were checked. show. Thirty-nine year old Dara Torres blasting a 25.98 for 50m Competitors would show up to the marshaling tent about seven free a mere 4 months after childbirth was truly a feat, and USMS heats before their race, sit in chairs in rows of ten, arranged in legends Richard Abrahams, Laura Val, and Illinois’ very own columns of five heats, and would take their places in the chairs Thomas Maine did not disappoint! The Stanford waters churned as the heats were called. If you didn’t show up in time, you would the entire week and announcer Mark Gill kept in step with the fast be scratched. Period. As one heat lined up behind the blocks pace in the pool. and was started, a new heat would march single file to take their place. Swimmers just finishing a race would stay in the water The results: Team Illinois Masters made a great showing on the until the next heat started and then would exit the pool as soon World stage setting two World records, and surpassing 8 World as the next group started (fly-over starts). Everything was pretty Championship meet records. They also set 4 USMS National well orchestrated, considering the number of entries in the meet, records, 35 individual ILMSA State records, one ILMSA relay and though they always ran over the timeline, the meet ran very record, and three subgroup (non-Team Illinois Masters) relay smoothly. records. The fun part: Sitting in the marshaling area talking with fellow The stars: Thomas Maine set two World, meet and USMS National competitors from all parts of the world was pretty entertaining! records in the men’s 80-84 division in the 100 and 200 butterfly. The women running the marshaling area were upbeat and Maine broke two more meet and National records (200 breast and encouraging and did their best to calm nervous swimmers 400 IM) and set a total of six ILMSA records with the addition of with humor; they did a great job making everyone feel at home. his 50 splits in the breast and fly. Way to go, Thomas!!! Language was no barrier when it came to talking swimming. It Andrea (AJ) Block (women’s 45-49) bettered the FINA World was universal from the informal poll taken before 200 breast---NO Masters Championship meet records in the 50, 100, and 200 ONE LIKES 200 BREAST–in ANY language! “The third leg hurts” butterfly, winning the 100 fly. Ms. Block set new ILMSA records sounds pretty much the same in German, Italian, Portuguese or in the butterfly events and the 100 (split), 200, 400 (split) and 800 Japanese.