by Dan Underbrink
The 2-day PNA 2024 Championship meet was held on April 13-14 at the King County Aquatic Center, in Federal Way. Huge thanks to Blue Wave Aquatics for organizing and hosting this huge event! Thanks also to Meet Director, Steve Freeborn, and Meet Referee, Mike Murphy! These guys always present a very professional and well-run event.
TWIM fielded thirteen swimmers across two days of competition, swimming in 44 individual events and one relay. Additionally, on Saturday, we were happy to see Steve Fogg among our numbers. Steve was unable to swim in this one but came to offer team support. Greatly appreciated, Steve!
There was so much going on at this meet, that we largely forgot to break out our cameras on Saturday, so my apologies if we did not capture a picture of you on deck, or in the pool.
TWIM could really use some volunteers to either be there taking photos, or at least gathering photos from any teammate who has taken some and funneling these (via email) to whoever is writing the blog piece for the event.
Thinking about the blog, would YOU be willing to step up and write a blog article for one of our events? A swim meet, a clinic, or some other event?
At the end of the day on Saturday we had the annual PNA Social. This event included a meal of pizza and salad, and a (short) PNA Business meeting – mostly a few announcements. TWIM had eight members at the PNA meeting and among PNA, PSM, and TWIM, the eight of us represented 11 Board of Director positions!
After dinner and announcements, the PNA Coach of the Year and the Dawn Musselman Awards were announced and presented. Congratulations to 2024 PNA Coach of the Year, Diana Hermanson of Bernardo’s All-Stars, and to Brian Woodbury of Lake Washington Masters, the winner of the 2024 Dawn Musselman Inspirational Swimmer Award!
Anyway, back to what happened at the swim meet – and after the meet!
Here are the results of everyone’s swims. I will relay these in reverse alphabetical order this time, just because I don’t think anyone has done it that way before! Team scores were in three groups; small teams, medium teams, and large teams. I heard that TWIM scored third in the medium team division. We have room to improve! Just a few more swimmers registering will push us into that top spot!
Thomas Walker – Tom was in the pool a lot! He brought us 30 team points, swimming in 200 Back, 100 Breast, 100 IM, 500 Free, and 200 Breast! That’s a lot of swimming, Tom, including a first place in the 500! Excellent contribution to the team point total too!
Dan Underbrink – Your author of this blog piece brought in 44 team points. I swam the 500, 1000, and 1650 Free, the 100 and 200 Breast, and the 100 Back. I also swam the Backstroke leg of the 200 Medley Relay. I felt like the 100 Breast was my best event of the weekend even though I only placed 3rd in that event.
David Scott – Dave tied with Tom at 30 team points. Dave swam the 100 IM and 50, 100, and 200 Breast. He was particularly pleased with the 200 Breast, where he got to battle out the entire race against a very tough challenger!
Steven Schwartz – Steve scored 35 team points while swimming in the 50 and 100 Free, the 50 and 100 Fly, the 100 IM, and the 200 Medley Relay (the Breaststroke leg). Thanks for the great contribution to the team, Steve. That 100 Fly was impressive!
Kathy Pelham – Kathy swam the 1000 Free and the 1650 Free and also handled her Head Coach duties by getting relays set up for us. Two first place finishes in her events brought TWIM 18 team points. Thanks for your contribution, Kathy!
Robert Moore – Bob was with us on Saturday and scored 20 team points, swimming in the 100 and 200 Back. the 50 Fly, and the 200 Medley Relay – the butterfly leg. Thanks for those great swims, Bob!
Kathy McDaniel – This was Kathy’s return to competition (her last meet was in January of 2020) and she showed us some great stuff with two first place finishes in the 100 Free and the 50 Back. That adds up to 18 shiny team points! We are so glad to have you back with us, Kathy!
Holly Lickwala – Holly swam three events for three first-place finishes and 27 team points. She doesn’t pick the easy ones either! 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 Fly. Holly, you were phenomenal!
Carl Haynie – The recent winner of TWIM’s prestigious 2024 Elizabeth Kassen Award for Achievement of Excellence, Carl was also top point man for TWIM this time out, with 52 team points! Carl swam the 50, 100, and 200 Back, as well as the 50 and 100 Breast, and the 200 IM. Way to go, Carl!
Ruben Guerrero – Ruben (who suffered a broken arm, just 8 weeks before this event!) came in and swam the 50 and the 200 Breast with amazing times. 16 very fast team points! We thank you, Ruben!
Brent Barnes – Brent went for the distance events this time out, swimming in the 500 and the 1000 Free for 11 team points. Brent, you just keep getting faster in everything!
Guilherme Anzilago Tesser – Guilherme (Tom just calls him Tesser) tore up the pool in the 50 Free and the 50 Fly. Then he anchored the 200 Medley Relay in a blazing 23.50! Guilherme’s speed earned TWIM 14 team points! Thanks for that strong showing, Guilherme!
Maoz Alsberg – Maoz gave two strong first-place performances in the 50 Free and the 50 Back, netting TWIM 18 gorgeous team points! We love those team points at Championship meets, and we thank you for those Maoz!
After he swam the 50 Back in a blazing 28.13, we had a scare, when Maoz was stricken with unrelenting leg pain. Pool staff rendered first aid and advised that he should be transported to the nearby hospital. Carl took Maoz over and got him checked in. this was Sunday, late afternoon.
We later found out that Maoz was transported to a hospital in Tacoma and was awaiting a surgery to correct the leg condition, but the surgery was delayed until Thursday morning. On Wednesday, several of us went down to visit Maoz, and hopefully saved him from being bored out of his mind. he seemed happy to see us and we talked for a long while.
Maoz had the surgery on Thursday, and at last report was doing well. TWIM wishes you a speedy recovery, Maoz!
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