Contributed by Guy Davis, NE-LMSC Vice-Chair
Great Bay Masters hosted another successful summer LCM meet on July 17 at Dover's Jenny Thompson pool. The meet is popular with swimmers looking to achieve LCM top 10 times and to prepare for the LCM Nationals. 64 swimmers from 7 clubs participated.
Meet Director Crystie McGrail hard at work running an excellent meet
Contributed by Mike Leake
Maurice Regan and Liz MacBride flew in from New Hampshire
On Saturday, April 9, 2016, Bennington's adult swimming team, Monument Masters, hosted the 5th Annual Monumental Masters Mini Meet, as 36 swimmers from eight teams from MA, NJ, NH, NY, and VT traveled to the Bennington Recreation Center. Two swimmers traveled from Concord, NH, in a Cessna airplane, and the the Pittsfield Polar Bears and Simon's Rock Pace Makers from Great Barrington arrived in large numbers to compete.
Warmups at Bennington Recreation Center
This meet welcomes athletes of all abilities for a morning full of fun swimming and encouragement with all proceeds benefiting the Bennington Marauders swim team, providing youth swimming for our community. For many the meet was their first experience with competition, and all participants were eligible for US Masters Swimming caps and stickers as well as sweet treats of stroopwafels from Bakkerij Krijnen and maple syrup from Cluett Farm.
Heat two of the 100-yard freestyle
Swimming for the first time with Monument Masters were Matt Moon, Carol Newell and MG Nightingale. Gabrielle Betit-Mattison and Amanda Robson returned to action in the pool following previous splashes at the meet. Siblings Jeff, Jill and Mike Leake along with Kevin Murphy and Greg Sellei continued their streak of swimming in each of the Monumental meets.
Monument Masters also fielded two relay teams in each of the relay events offered. We look forward to our sixth meet in April of 2017!
Casco Bay YMCA and Maine Masters hosted the 9th Annual "Toughen Up Challenge" this past Sunday, February 21.
The challenge is a five-event competition to find the "toughest" masters swimmers. Participants race five times, then their times are age graded and added together. The swimmer with the lowest total time in each category take the title.
Men: Michael Regan ('13, '16)
Women: Katrine Alcaide ('14, '16)
Men: Mike Hurd ('15, '16)
Women: Anne Uecker ('13, '14, '16)
Women's Sprint Challenge winner Katrine Alcaide with 3rd place finisher (and 5-time champ) Mary Estabrook
Women's Distance Challenge winner Anne Uecker
Thank you to Crystie McGrail for submitting the photos!
Men's Sprint Challenge winner Michael Regan
Men's Distance Challenge winner Mike Hurd
Results are up from the 2016 Exeter Mini Meet! It was an excellent meet, hosted by Great Bay Masters at the beautiful Phillips Exeter Academy pool.
The New England LMSC Short Course Yard Championship is now accepting entries!
The meet will take place at Harvard University, March 18-20, with distance day on March 12.
More information and registration info available here.
Adaptive Sports New England will host the 2016 PSC Boston Swimming Open on Sunday, January 31 at UMass/Boston's Clark Athletic Center pool. The meet is open to swimmers who have physical disabilities or visual impairments ages 6 and up. This is a great first-ever swim meet for novices, though we also expect several local swimmers contending for spots on the USA's team to Rio. Full meet information is available here.
Registration for the PSC Boston Swimming Open will be available on January 1 and Early Bird registration runs through January 15. Questions about the meet or about the PSC Boston Sunday swim practices should be directed to Michael Prout, Jr.
Swimmers shattered four world records during the New England LMSC SCM Championships, held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute December 11-13.
Hosted by Worcester Area Masters (WAM), 478 swimmers, some from as far away as Texas and Florida, participated in the meet. It was a highly competitive meet during which 208 New England LMSC SCM Championship meet records and 63 New England records were recorded.
The four world records were set by:
Additionally, five national records were set, which include the above world records plus Kathy Silver's 6:14.34 in the women's 70-74 400 freestyle.
The top individual point scorers were:
Men:
Women:
Thanks to all of the volunteers who worked so hard to plan and run another spectacular meet!
For anyone who would like to review the meet results, you can find them at http://scmchamps.blogspot.com/.
More than 500 swimmers are expected to converge on Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester Dec. 11-13 for U.S. Masters Swimming's New England LMSC Short Course Meters Championship.
This is the first year that Worcester Area Masters (WAM) will host this highly anticipated annual meet. Worcester, New England's second largest city, is truly the heart of the Commonwealth. Centrally located to all of New England, the city is just one hour from Boston, Springfield, Hartford, Providence and Nashua, and easily accessible via mass transit.
Worcester is "A City on the Move" with attractions far beyond the sparkling new pool and free parking at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center. Great restaurants and bars will be offering special deals to swimmers, Cirque du Soleil's TORUK will be flying high in the DCU Center all weekend, and the Worcester Art Museum's world famous collection - including "Knights!" from the Higgins Armory collection - is on exhibit just down the street. The Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra performs its holiday pops concert Saturday at Mechanics Hall, metal lovers can hear the Acadia Strain at the Palladium, and other nearby museums include the Ecotarium science museum, the Worcester Historical Museum, and the historic Salisbury Mansion.
Several of the city's hotels are offering reduced rates for swimmers who book before November 7.
The meet has been designated as the Colonies Zone SCM championship meet with swimmers from Virginia to Maine competing. For the first time in several years, the 1500 meter freestyle is being offered as one of the meet's 24 events.
Entries are now open. They close Monday, November 30. No late entries will be accepted. To register, visit the meet website.
Para Athlete chair Laura Dennison has two great opportunities to share with our para swim community - Gateway to Gold and Paralympic Sport Club Boston. These two awesome opportunities for athletes with disabilities involve the identification and development of para swimmers. For more information, contact the event leads on the flyers or reach out to Laura via email.
Congrats to everyone who swam at this weekend’s New England SCM Championships hosted at the Boston University pool. As usual, there was a large turnout of swimmers from all across New England.
Cambridge Masters Swim Club took top honors with 4,299 points; Great Bay Masters was second with 3,105 and Worcester Area Masters was third with 2,651.
David Russel of CMSC took home swimmer of the meet honors.
The weekend saw numerous New England records fall, and three Masters Age Group World Records!
Men 25-29 100-meter back set by David Russell from CMSC (53.88).
Women 100-119 400-meter free relay set by NEM-BUMS (4:04.38)
Men 50-54 50-meter back set by Frit Bedford of the UV Rays. Frit lowered his own world record from 2013 to 27.28.
Thanks to all of the volunteers who worked so hard to plan and run another spectacular meet! Special shout-outs to the BU Fit Rec Center staff; Doug Sayles, NEM Registrar; the officials, led by Bob and Priscilla; Simmons Swim & Crew for the back-up timing; Joe Fraier from Swimwear in Motion; Bart, Jacqui and other Great Bay Masters volunteers for running the concessions and finally the NE-LMSC and NEM for the support.
Happy Holidays to all!
