| April is Champs time. But this year we had
the honorable distinction of hosting the Northwest Zones SCY meet as well.
It was decided that rather than have two meets here within two weeks of each
other, we would combine both meets into one "super" meet. And a super
meet it was. With a strong attendance of 282 PNA Swimmers, the Zones
meet brought in an additional 92 swimmers for a total of 374 athletes.
All the states in our zone were represented, Alaska, Washington, Oregon,
Idaho and Montana, as well as swimmers from Arizona, California and
Virginia.
With a meet this size, we needed a large amount of volunteers and Federal
Way Kings certainly rose to the occasion. Hilary Smith, meet directory
was aided with untiring help from Hugh Moore and Hank Kirkland. Holly
Bork did all the meet entries and ran the clerk of course table. Gregg
Metlzer coordinated announcers, Mike Anderson was responsible for all the
timers, Carrie Breed organized the Safety Marshals while Judy Williams and
Julie Fay took responsibility for the hospitality for the meet. Jane
Moore was a great help during the meet to make sure all protocols were being
followed properly. This staff meet weekly before the meet to get
everything organized and to make sure the meet was a success. Mary
Coddington was indispensable in recruiting our Meet Referee, Ken Breiding
and the other twelve officials, which included Dave Coddington and Kim
Boggs. And lastly, there was a great outpouring of support from
Federal Way Kings, who were hospitality helpers, times, safety marshals,
announcers.
Coach Wendy Neely did a superb job of getting us to the meet, fielding a
team of 50 swimmers. She put together over seven relays in each event,
and she led by example, swimming in relays as well as the 100, 200 and 400
IM events. What was also inspiration was the Federal Way Kings who
were swimming in their first ever masters meet. So many Kings
participated in multiple evens. With that amount of participation, it
was easy to win the meet, and yet the other large teams brought a large
contingent of fast swimmers, especially Husky Masters Swim Team. In
total, 48 separate teams attended.
Many national, zone and PNA records were set at the meet. Notable
swims came from Gail Roper of Arizona and Dennis Baker of Oregon who both
hold and set National Records. Frank Piemme also set a National record
in the 1000 Free. In the "I hope I can do that when I get that old"
category, Gene Crossett and Hilda Buel, both 91, swam at least 5 events
each, and Gene was also the recipient of the 2005 Dawn Musselman inspiration
swimmer award. Our own team relay of Scott Lautman, Dan Smith, Mark
Appleby and John Williams broke the Zones and PNA record in the 35+ 800 Free
relay.
Of the three Champs meets I have attended, this was certainly by far the
best organized, best run and best attended I have seen.
Congratulations to all of you Federal Way Kings who participated in some
way, you made this an exceptional meet. |
