Federal Way Kings was well represented when Will Cann,
Eric Dybdahl, Scott Lautman and Dan Smith made their way to Indianapolis,
Indiana on April 22, 2004 to take part in the 2004 USMS Spring Short Course
Nationals Championship. They joined the other 1,560 competitors from
157 clubs or teams at the four day meet held at the Indianapolis
Natatorium. All four
swimmers swam well and were pleased with their results. Each one
placed in events and earned points for Pacific Northwest Aquatics. In
the Men's 30-34 age group, Will Cann was 3rd in the 50 Free, 5th in
the 100 I.M., and 6th in the 100 Free and 100 Back. In the Men's 40-44
age group, Eric Dybdahl was 9th in the 1650 Free and Dan Smith was 9th in
the 200 Breaststroke. In the Men's 50-54 age group, Scott Lautman was
1st in the 200 Fly (barely missing the National record by 52/100 of a
second), 2nd in the 200 I.M., 3rd in the 100 Fly, 5th in the 50 Fly and 5th
in the 500 Free. Scott Lautman also broke the Northwest Zone record in
EVERY EVENT he competed in. He also was the top point earner for
Pacific Northwest Aquatics.
Pacific Northwest Aquatics also
did very well also. With only 21 swimmers, they accumulated 445.50
points and got 3rd place in the combined team totals. That's 3rd out
of 124 teams in the small team category.
In addition to fast swims, the
meet was also very enjoyable. Several past and current Olympic team
swimmers were competing, and whenever their heats came up, the entire pool
came to a standstill as we watched some amazing speed including seeing Sabir
Muhammad swim a 19.44 second 50 Free, and a 42:91 100 Free.
The entire meet was dedicated to
the honor of James Doc Counsilman, one of the greatest swimming coaches in
the world, who passed away this last January at the age of 84. A
former US Olympic and University of Indiana swimming coach, he was first to
pioneer many things we take for granted today. Among them are first
use of underwater cameras to study stroke technique, introduction of
interval training and the standard 60 minute pace clock, revolutionizing the
straight-arm stroke into a curved line motion which he called the Bernoulli
effect, and inventing the isokinetic resistance machines used commonly today
in strength training. A 20 minute video of his accomplishments was
shown during the meet on Saturday, and a one hour autobiography of his life
and achievements is being produced by the local public broadcasting station,
soon to be aired on TV. One of many of his quotes listed in the meet
program was "Mark Spitz is so good my grandmother could coach him, and she
died 10 years ago".
The Natatorium, which our Aquatic
Center was modeled after, is not only a magnificent pool to race in, it is
alive with swimming history. Hanging from the rafters are well known
hall of fame swimmers and divers such as Gary Hall, Jr. and Greg Louganis.
The wall behind the dive well has the last five Olympic swim team rosters
painted on it. There is a hall of fame in the lobby of Olympic
medallist swimmers from the last 50 years, as well as handprints in clay of
many famous swimmers. The meet was well run and well attended.
It was a wonderful meet to take part in and to see the top level of
competition that Masters swimming has to offer. |
