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Federal Way Kings create a team feel at BAMFest 2005 Doug Parrish is probably not going to have fond memories of Bainbridge Island Aquatic center. It really is a nice pool, with Jacuzzi and brand new recreation pool for warming down or playing in. It has good locker rooms and a very friendly host team. But it eats goggles. Especially lane six. Federal Way Kings swimmers made the trek up to the fourth annual BAMFest. It is a high school format meet, with all the same events as a high school duel meet, sans diving. On my way out the door, my son who swims high school jokingly asked me if this was a meet for old fogies to relieve their high school days. We had a good laugh but later I realized how much fun it was to spend an days with so many nice people, doing what we love to do, spending time talking about our high school and college swimming days, they things we remembered and the fun we had. The beauty of masters swimming is that the fun never ends. If you don't believe me, check out the photos and look at all the smiles. Seven of us met at 7:45am at KCAC and carpooled up together, meeting three more Kings at the meet. Ironically there was a early morning workout car, a brunch workout car and an evening workout car. But it was clear we were going as one team. We had made a concerted effort to get the word out to attend this meet which was growing in popularity. This year's meet boasted 94 swimmers, the most they have ever had. We had ten swimmers representing FWM, the second largest team next to the host team, and way better than in the past, which has only seen two swimmers from FWM. We were able to enter both women's and men's 200 IM and 200 Free relays. Peter Roach and Doug Parrish both signed up for five individual events, a difficult feat considering that the entire meet only lasted three hours. And even though Allen Igawa only signed up for the 50 free, he did it so well that we made him do it two more times in two relays. I guess the third time is a charm. Jean Blackburn had an impressive 100 butterfly, looking long and strong throughout the whole swim. A newcomer to Masters swimming, Julie Longridge, the assistant swim coach for Todd Beamer high school, brought her whole family up with her for some great cheer support, and turned in some great swims. Linda Sullivan, John Leet and Dan Smith all contributed to the team feel, as did Steve Freeborn and Krys Postma who turned in a nice 500 free. Which gets me back to the goggle-eating pool. Doug had dove in at plenty of meets with the same pair of goggles with no problems, but on his first start, the pool reached out and ripped the goggles from his face. He was unable to finish, which at least gave the official something to do. Next start, another hungry pool, another DQ. He made it through the 100 fly unscathed, but when he started his 500 free, not only did he lose his goggles, the pool was hungry for his cap as well. Not to be deterred, Doug proceeded to swim the entire 500 without his goggles. Now that's Old School! Pretty fitting for a high school format to show us all how it used to be. Way to get the last laugh, Doug. The last event of the day was a fantasy relay, which involved Steve Freeborn swimming the 50 backside-innertube swim, Peter Roach swimming the 50 scull, Dan Smith swimming the 50 underwater kick, and Krys Postma finishing up with a 50 water polo swim, which involved swimming head out of the water while scuttling a water polo ball in front of you. I don't think any records were broken except for the fun-finish to a fun meet. It was good training for our Friday Fun-Fin days. The meet was topped off when the group went on a greasy burger quest. Finding a neat diner that had been moved out from the east coast, we all bellied up to the bar and had a really good old fashioned burger, fries and a shake. Hmmm... kinda just like high school. |
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Copyright (c) 2007 Federal Way Masters.
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