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Ten Federal Way Kings made their way done to Gresham, Oregon for a scorching weekend of swimming and weather from August 14-17 for the USMS LCM Nationals. The meet was held at the renovated Mt. Hood Community College pool, an outdoor pool in the center of the college. The pool was very fast and the weather was very hot. On Friday it reached 103 degrees, an unexpected temperature for an outdoor meet in the Pacific Northwest. The bleachers remained in the shade and there was a cool breeze and an indoor pool to help keep cool. The meet was a large meet by Long Course standards, with 1,130 participants, so large in fact that they scratched the sixth event for everyone. They not only deck seeded the 400, 800 and 1500 distances, they also deck seeded all the 200s, requiring positive check in for those events as well, in the attempt to keep the meet as short as possible. They pushed back the start time to 7:30am but the meet still lasted until after 8:00 pm each day. For instance, I was in heat 17 of 22 for the 1500 Freestyle, an event which started at 11:30am, and I swam my heat at 8:30 pm. Still, the meet never seemed long, and it gave you a chance to leave and come back, the facility was very spacious, even the warm-up was tolerable. As was expected, Oregon Masters won the meet, but PNA was in a constant battle for second place with Arizona Masters, finally taking second place with 1,277 points, only 43 more points than Arizona. PNA was helped by 156 points from Federal Way Kings, who recorded some very fast swims. Zena Courtney was the pool warrior, swimming five events and all four relays, and turning in some nice 3rd places. Scott Lautman won both the 100 and 200 Fly events, and also swam all four relays. John Williams also found himself on some fast relays, winning the Men’s 200 Medley Relay. Dan Smith had a nice 2nd on his 1500 Free, dropping over 85 seconds. Steve Freeborn crammed five events and three relays all in two days. Jessie Hickel also took on the Long Course 200 Fly and placed 7th. Hugh and Jane Moore were in attendance as well, with Hugh dropping time in both his individual events.
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