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The final day of
the USMS National Championships concluded on Sunday afternoon and
the 18-swimmer VCM team ended a very successful meet with 7 more
national titles (bringing the total to 11), and 498 points to
capture 10th place in the team standings.
There were numerous
highlights on Day 4 starting with several great swims in the
men’s 500 free including national titles #5 & #6 by Jim
McConica in M55-59 (5:05.81) and Mike Shaffer in M40-44
(4:41.87). The latter missed a national record by 29 hundreths of a
second. Chris
Cooper also posted a PR (5:06.52) to place 14th
in M40-44 with Kurt Baron a few seconds back (5:11.62) in
17th. Larry Raffaelli (6:16.11) and Michael
Wood (6:57.94) placed 3rd and 9th in
the M65-69, while Michael Blatt (5:22.45) and Ron Powers (5:36.88) had
solid swims to place 14th and 20th in
M50-54.
In the 50 breast
VCM nabbed national title #7 with a speedy effort (:29.79) by Hubie
Kerns in M55-59. 4th place finishes were posted by
Bryant Lum (:28.73) in M45-49 and John Derr (:31.06) in
M60-64. Chris Cooper (:29.06 – 9th M40-44)
and John Chung (:32.05 – 16th M35-39) also had
solid swims.
John Derr came back
in the next event, 100 IM, to get national title #8 in the M60-64
(1:01.03). Hubie Kerns nursed a sore groin to take
2nd in M55-59 (1:00.92), and John Chung (1:02.30 –
27th M35-39) and Andy Marker (1:06.17 –
26th M45-49) rounded out the VCM sprint
IMers.
Mike Shaffer was
VCM’s lone 200 butterflyer and grabbed national title #9 with
a strong second half to break open a close race
(1:53.00).
Seven VCM swimmers
tackled the 100 free with the highlight being Michael Blatt’s
first sub-50 clocking since his college days (:49.71), and get
this, it only got him 5th place in the super tough
M50-54 division (Rowdy
Gaines was 1st in :46.50). Other strong
efforts were posted by John Chung (:52.77 – 38th
M35-39), Stacey Warmuth (1:00.07 – 9th W50-54),
Bryant Lum (:50.32 – 8th M45-49), Michael Wood
(1:04.73 – 8th M65-69), Ron Powers (:56.21 –
29th M50-54), and Andy Marker (:56.24 –
35th M45-49).
The final event of
the meet was the 50 back and VCM picked up national titles #10
& #11. The best of the two was the victory by Stacey
Warmuth in W50-54 (:31.83), her first national title in masters
swimming. The other was special for Mike Shaffer since
it completed a 3-for-3 day in M40-44 (:25.02). Larry Raffaelli
completed a successful meet with a 7th place effort in
M65-69 (:33.63).
Four members stayed in Fresno one extra night to
compete in the One Mile Open Water
National Championship in Millerton Lake. The conditions were
perfect (72F water temp) and the competition was strong as several
of the top distance freestylers from the meet were there. The
top miler in the pool who Mike Shaffer chased for the
2nd best overall time in the pool, Jeff Erwin of Idaho,
repeated his feat in the open water (17:09) while Mike came across
the line in 2nd (17:36)….well sort of. An
ex-Stanford swimmer who was drafting off Mike and challenged him
coming in to the shore, appeared to be beaten out of the water and
into the finishers chute, but triggered the timing system a
fraction of a second before Mike. Thanks to several
eye-witnesses and a camera picture taken at the finish, both were
awarded 2nd place overall (and M40-44). Larry
Raffaelli had a similar finish with Richard Burns of Tamalpais Masters for
2nd place in the M65-69 division, winning a sprint out
of the water and triggering the clock a fraction before
Richard. Michael Wood finished 7th in the same
division (M65-69) and Coach Kurt placed 10th in the
tough M40-44 division.
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