GEORGIA LMSC NEWSLETTERS
Today's Headlines
Roll Tide
October 31, 2009 - Three Georgia swimmers competed in the 2009 Crimson Tide Masters SCY Sprint Cup; held at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. Those swimmers were Jonathan Dunn (27) Dynamo, Bob Bugg (52) Dynamo and Mark Schremmer (50) Unattached. All three swam extremely fast, with Bob Bugg lowering three (3) more Georgia Records - (50-54) 50y Fly, 100y Fly and 100y I.M.
Dunn and Bugg
Dixie Zone SCM Championship Meet Summary
GAJA Wins Out of State Team Award
Submitted by Walter Leen
This year, the annual Columbia, SC meet was also the SCM Championships and had over 150 swimmers from 16 teams.
Twenty one swimmers from 4 different Georgia clubs bonded on 11 winning comingled GAJA Superteam relays to contribute two hundred points to help GAJA win the Out of State team award against arch rival North Carolina. The In State Award was won by the Beaufort Masters (BMST) team which again had an army of swimmers. For overall meet honors, it was quantity over quality as the math of BMST’s numbers overwhelmed our top gun individual performances. For example, BMST fielded 24 relay squads and while we defeated them in every head to head race, they had A, B and C team scoring points. However, individual age bracket High Point winners were virtually the same. This in fact is the blueprint for GAJA to win Atlanta 2010 by fielding 80+ relays.
While the North Carolina team only had 17 swimmers there male/female balance provided them the capabilities to field more relays than us, so every point was valuable, from the 14 earned by new swimmers Anna Janss (50-54) and the 15 contributed by new swimmer Paul Harwart (50-54) to the 87 contributed by John Zeigler who won the High Point in a packed 60-64 field of 10 swimmers. Anna and Paul competed just Sunday and swam in a relay while John won the 1500 free on Friday night and swam 10 events and 2 relays. Relays were the key and every Georgia swimmer was in at least one relay while Chris Carroll lead all Georgia a swimmers with 4 relays. He also raced 9 individual events including a win in the 100 IM . However, it was Head Coach Donna Hooe who provided the in pool and deck leadership by swimming 11 individual events and 3 relays to win the 45-49 High Point via 3 first, 5 seconds, 2 thirds and a 4th place, swimming all strokes and all distances from 50 to 1500 meters.
Two Georgia families provided 4 High Point winners as Dolores (70-74) and Gary (45-49) Petmecky won their first Masters High Point awards while Masters National gold medal winners Irwin (80-84) and Hal Stolz (75-79) continued their streaks of excellence performances. Irwin won 8 of 8 events setting Dixie Zone records in six and Georgia records in seven events .Meanwhile e Hal won 8 of 9 races and broke 8 Georgia records held by three different swimmers including the Georgia 100 fly and 400 Individual Medley records. Meanwhile Dolores had 5 first while son Gary had 4 first. Each also swam 3 relay legs.
Two other GAJA swimmers won High Point awards with great efforts. Kristie Aziz (40-44) won in an unorthodox manner swimming just one non-freestyle event (the 100 IM which she won) to go with impressive wins in every freestyle event. Meanwhile new GAJA swimmer Doug Michalke (a HS swimming coach) ignited the team with a battleship effort swimming every fly event on the program (50, 100, 200, 100IM, 200IM, 400 IM) among his ten event effort. He had 4 first and 6 seconds in times that would have been Dixie Top Ten performances last year, just off Top Ten USA level.
He broke the Georgia 100 IM record recently set by AWJ’s Robert Brown.
A number of new swimmers raced their names in the Georgia record books via strong individual event or relay performances either breaking or establishing new marks including Bill Dudley who broke the 65-69 age 50 and 100 free records while winning 5 of 7 events. He was also in a runner-up tie for the High point award with 58 points. Bentley Marane (W65-69) broke two existing records ( 50 free and 50 back ) and established 2 others while winning the 50 free and attaining 4 close second place finishes while Dolores Petmecky(70-74) established 5 records. Veteran swimmer Skippy Mattson (W55-59) won the 5 events she raced in while improving her own records in 4 events and adding the 400IM record. Berry Hamilton (55-59) broke the 50 breast and 200IM records while winning 6 events. Jack Mitchell (80-84) won 6 of 7 events and broke the 100 fly record.
While all 11 relay squads won their races, it was the foursome of Doug Michalke, Berry Hamilton, Bill Dudley and John Zeigler that had the most impressive performance breaking two existing 240 age bracket Georgia records while defeating BMST A, B and C teams in the process. They broke both the 200 free and 200 medley relay records in times that would have been Top 5 USA performances last year. Both 280 age Mixed relays and Men’s 280 Free Relay established Georgia records and added new swimmer Steve Schyck name to the recordbook. Steve (65-69) also won the 50 back and swam a fast 50 free in his first major Masters Meet.
Other swimmers with first place finished included Tracy Collett ( 35-39) with three first in three Sunday races and two solid relay legs, and Herb Chuven (70-74) who swam 9 events in a journey that included beating the High Point winner in the 100 IM. Meanwhile Walter Leen (65-69) contributed 1800 meters of effort in 9 events including his first 400 IM sortie which was his only first place to attain High Point runner-up with 58 points.
Other swimmers with first place relay and 2nd place individual event places were Mike Gowland (50-54) who swam 3 relays and Anna Janss and Paul Harwart both of whom had solid 2nd place 400 meter freestyle swim efforts in initial Masters efforts.
While not part of GAJA, Andy Dyer of AWJ, a consistent Top Ten USA swimmer, had a very successful 6 for 6 win effort just missing Georgia records in virtually every event.
Overall the GAJA effort was both successful and fun and set the benchmark in relay participation for the upcoming St Nicks meet which has added 400 Medley relays to allow some record breaking/establishing attempts. We thank Columbia Master’s Meet Director Barry Clark and his team of officials for a first class meet.
Bob Bugg - Chris Weissman Shine at 1st Annual Rowdy Gaines Classic
Bob and Chris; both from Dynamo Masters; were just two of five Georgia swimmers who competed in the 1st Annual Rowdy Gaines Classic in Orlando, Florida. Also putting in appearances were Caroline Gatto (SAMS), Jonathan Dunn (SSS), and John Zeigler (GMKW). Chris shined in the Men's 40-45 age group setting four new Georgia records and three Dixie Zone records while just missing a National Record in the 50m and 100m Breaststrokes by hundreth's of a second.
Bob Bugg swimming in the 50-54 age group went head to head with his old buddy Rowdy Gaines in both the 50m and 100m Freestyles; where it took world records to beat him.......In the 100m Free, not only did Rowdy go under the existing WR - but so did Bob. In the 200m Free it was all Bob as he cruised to a 1:56.75 to break the World Record held by Jim McConica for the past 9 years. Bob finished with six new Georgia records, three new Dixie Zone Records and a World record - not bad for a weekend's work.
NOVEMBER 3, 2009
Some Aging Competitors Call High-Tech Swimsuits Dirty Pool
(Reprinted from the Wall Street Journal)
Fabric Streamlines Bulges, Adds Buoyancy; Lifetime Bests From a $500 Fountain of Youth
Competition was fierce at a July swimming meet in Thousand Oaks, Calif. At the starting buzzer,
Clay Evans, 56 years old, dived into the pool, dressed in a get-up like the one he wore in the 1976 Olympics: a flimsy nylon Speedo bikini. It took less than 2½ minutes for the Los Angeles athlete to fall hopelessly behind the times. Michael Mann of Centennial, Colo., flew past his opponents, swaddled shoulder-to-ankle in a black neoprene bodysuit. Mr. Mann, 55, won the 400-meter individual medley race and set a world record for his age group, 55 to 59. Mr. Mann set new world marks in the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle while Mr. Evans steamed.
"You don't set records anymore unless you're wearing a floating suit," Mr. Evans said. "It's obviously cheating....It's not that I have a grudge. But this guy is swimming lifetime bests. It just distorts things."
Mr. Mann admits he's swimming faster times than he did in college. The suits, he says, are available to anyone with the money to buy them. "You can't say it's cheating," he says. "It's technology." In fact, it's inorganic chemistry and it has upset the aquatics world. By making new suits with polyurethane and neoprene, materials more buoyant and less porous than traditional spandex, swimsuit companies touched off the biggest flap since East German athletes started bulking up on steroids. The fight has spread beyond the world's elite swimmers, who wrangled over the new attire this past summer.
The 50,000 members of U.S. Masters Swimming are divided over polymers, too. Some members of this association for swimmers 18 and older are accusing their fellows of unfair propulsion and are pushing for a ban. But pressure from many senior swimmers has kept the suits legal for now.
As tight as a corset, the new speed suits make the wearer sleeker and more streamlined. They soak up less water, reducing drag. They compress muscle and can shave off seconds. "You're...on top of the water," says Joel Stager, an exercise physiologist at Indiana University in Bloomington and a Masters swimmer. "Your legs feel effortless."
The suits are credited with -- or blamed for -- 196 new world records since February 2008. Polyurethane bodysuits caused a ruckus when the sport's ruling body, the Fédération Internationale de Natation, or the International Swimming Federation, known as FINA, decided in July it would ban the suits as of January 2010
following pressure from coaches. The day of the announcement, Germany's Paul Biedermann, wearing a new Arena X-Glide, beat American star Michael Phelps, in an older-generation Speedo, in the 200-meter freestyle.
The federation's decision doesn't yet apply to Masters swimmers, because there are different rules for those competitions. The organization is expected to tackle the matter come January.
In September, U.S. Masters voted to comply with a speed-suit ban if FINA imposes one.
For many of these adult Masters competitors, speed suits are a fountain of youth. The costume magically helps the wearer shed decades and seconds off the clock. The suits provide a kind of support that elite athletes never have to think about. They suck in nonaerodynamic paunches, flatten aging flab and bolster
arthritic knees. Alex Boutov of La Grange, Ill., tried to persuade his fellow teammates to boycott the suits for a local meet. Unsuccessful, he then slipped one on to swim 1,500 meters. "As soon as I put the suit on, I shaved two minutes," said the 53-year-old. "I couldn't believe the clock."
Men say the new suits, which can cost $500, have the added benefit of eliminating the need for a shave. "My wife says when I shave my body, it's like making love to a porcupine for three months after that," says Gary Hall Sr., 58, a Masters member and three-time Olympian. Still, all the new records have some officials fretting. Carolyn Boak, a member of the U.S. Masters rules committee from Woodlands, Texas, says friends implored her not to support a suit ban. But Ms. Boak says added speed from special swimwear is not unlike extra home runs from baseball players using steroids.
It's anyone's guess how the federation will vote. "FINA is a somewhat, I won't use 'bizarre,' but a somewhat odd organization," says Ms. Boak, 64. "Why did they allow these buoyant type suits in the first place?" A FINA spokesman said he wouldn't comment. Many of the suits' fans say that it's ridiculous for the federation to bar them after letting the world see what they can do. Cycling organizations, they point out, approved lighter metals, transforming bicycles and shortening race times. FINA "opened up the can of worms. It's too late," says Rowdy Gaines, an Olympic gold medalist who is a paid endorser for the suit maker Blueseventy LLC. "Accept that the suit is a technological advance in our sport."
With the suits still allowed for Masters, even some purists have fallen under their spell. Mr. Stager, the Indiana exercise physiologist, is appalled by their use. "I am philosophically opposed to it, absolutely positively," Mr. Stager says. Still, as he readied to swim the 400-meter medley relay at the Masters national championships in August, he put his feelings aside. He donned an Arena X-Glide, one of the most buoyant of the polymer-powered body wraps. "If they're keeping records, why would you handicap yourself?" His three teammates in the event, including Mr. Hall, who also wants them banned, suited up in similar attire. As Mr. Hall finished the butterfly, Mr. Stager, 56, dived in and began a furious freestyle. When he touched the wall, the team had set a new national record of four minutes, 27.93 seconds. His feat sparked another competition. Within minutes, three swimmers were jockeying to buy Mr. Stager's suit, he says. "One guy stopped me and said, 'I'll give you $300. Cash. Right now.' " Mr. Stager says he declined. Mr. Stager's X-Glide has gathered no dust. Friend and colleague Dave Tanner borrowed the bodysuit and headed to Australia last month to compete in the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games.
Nine years ago, Mr. Tanner, 59, held the world record in his age group for the 200-meter butterfly.
Wrapped in the suit, Mr. Tanner won the Masters event in 2:37:52, beating similarly clad opponents. Mr. Tanner says he's cheating. "But so is everyone else."
Two Former Georgia Masters Swimmers Score Big In Hawaii Ironman
Congratulations to Dynamo (Mulitsport) athletes at the Ironman in Hawaii on Saturday the 10th of October. Both Betty Mills and Haley Chura were first out of the water in the age groups, and finished 4th and 12th respectively. What a great performance, and experience!.
About 1,800 triathletes waded into the Pacific Ocean early Saturday morning in Hawaii for the Ironman World Championship. Somewhere among them were two women from Smyrna, wherein lies a story.
One is a 24-year-old auditor with an impressive swimming background and a glowing future in her new sport. The other is a 45-year-old corporate lender, a former national triathlon champion who is trying to ward off a cancer for which there is no known cure.
Haley Chura and Betty Mills make quite a pair.
"It is a mother-daughter relationship in several ways," said Matthew Rose, their coach at Chamblee-based Dynamo Multisport, a triathlon training group. "Betty was Haley's second coach, almost."
Chura, the auditor, and Mills, the banker, were two of about 10 metro Atlanta triathletes competing in the Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii. Both were competing for the first time in one of the most punishing events on the planet: a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Bound together by hundreds of training hours, Chura and Mills got to Hawaii together, both figuratively and literally.
"Even when it's cold and raining, it's been so much fun," said Chura, a Georgia graduate who was on the Bulldogs' 2005 national championship swim team. "If you're going to be out there for 10 hours biking and running, you might as well enjoy it."
Chura and Mills met while swimming for the Dynamo Masters Swim team in 2007. Mills, who won the Olympic-distance triathlon national title in 1996 for the 30-34 age group but later left the sport because of injury, had taken up open-water swimming. Chura, even though she had begun working full-time, was training for her second U.S. Olympic trials, which she eventually did.
Sharing a lane with other women, the two became quick friends.
"We have the best time," Chura said. "We get in trouble for our words-to-yards ratio."
Like Chura, Mills had swum in college at Texas Tech. Both, in fact, had been coached by Georgia coach Jack Bauerle, Chura at Georgia and Mills when she was in high school in Athens.
"I think we both have the same temperament," Mills said. "We both like to work hard in athletics, and I think we're both positive people."
Said Chura, "She's a pretty hip 45-year-old, and I'm probably an extremely dorky 24-year-old, so we even each other out."
Bauerle speaks fondly of both, noting they were "aggressive" in their training.
Mills' and Chura's competing in the Ironman "doesn't surprise me," he said. "If I were to pick a few [former swimmers] out that might do this, these would be the ones."
When Dynamo started a triathlon group in late 2008, they were the first two to sign up. Chura had gotten into marathons through co-workers, who then egged her on to expand into triathlons. Mills decided to get back into the sport after an inspirational visit with her boyfriend (and now husband, Ernie Jenelle) to Kona and the Ironman course while on a work trip to Hawaii.
Chura was a novice.
"She had a little bit of a clunker-type bike that she had bought on the cheap off of Craigslist," Rose said.
Mills, an expert cyclist, helped her friend along with advice and encouragement. On training rides, Rose explained, triathletes can be like sharks smelling blood, pushing the pace when they sense a rider is faltering.
"There'd be times Haley would get dropped from the group and Betty was always making sure she'd wait up for Haley," Rose said.
It is the sort of graceful act consistent with someone who has made peace with her disease. About six years ago, Mills was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer that counts for just 1 percent of all diagnosed cancers. Mills has not developed symptoms of the disease, for which a cure has yet to be found.
"I just go to the doctor every three months and, God willing, hopefully I never have to have treatment and it doesn't progress," Mills said. "I don't let it worry me. I just turn it over to God and that's what I do."
"I think it's remarkable for anybody" to compete in an Ironman, said Jonathan Kaufman, an oncologist at Emory University who specializes in multiple myeloma. "And for somebody who has this, I think it's uniquely remarkable."
At their peak, Mills and Chura trained more than 20 hours weekly in all three disciplines. Mills qualified for the Ironman in May by finishing second in her age group at a half-Ironman in Hawaii. Chura won her age group at a different half-Ironman in Rhode Island in July to qualify. Both Mills and Rose believe that Chura has the potential to compete professionally.
GAJA Scores Big
Finishes in 9th Place at USMS LCM Nationals
See September 2009 Newsletter for details
2010
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2009
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2008
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2007
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
For copies of back issues of the Georgia Masters Newsletter - please contact:
Bob Kohmescher - newsletter editor.