From The Chairman’s Lane- by Jerry Clark

This article was prepared one week prior to departing for Baltimore for the long course national championship meet. We have made arrangements for our swimmers’ results to be included in this Newsletter. Maybe its something about Baltimore being fairly close to NC, maybe its my past pleas for more of our swimmers to participate in national meets, but whatever the reason, there are 40 of us going to this meet (41 entered, but Shannon Lange had to scratch due to a twisted ankle). This is a record for NC participants at a national meet since 1992 when Hill Carrow directed the national short course championships in Chapel Hill. I hope we look shiny (and go fast) in our new suits with the green/white North Carolina Masters Swimming logo embroidered on them. If you don’t know about our relationship with Kast-A-Way Swimwear, check it out on our web site ncmasters.org By the way, for $5.00 they will be glad to embroider the logo on your existing suit if you send it to them. I suggest calling their 800 number to make the necessary arrangements.

The Board of the LMSC for NC has unanimously approved annual awards to be presented to the outstanding female swimmer, the outstanding male swimmer, and an annual service award for an individual who has contributed/volunteered to NCMS affairs during the past year. Further, we have approved going back to 1999 to begin these awards (you’ll have to think back to last year for 1999 nominees).

Nominations are welcomed from anyone; a form will be put on our web site (as well as in this Newsletter) so that there is a common format to follow when identifying people for these awards. We hope many of you will give these honors serious consideration and submit nominations for all three awards. They will be due by December 1^st of each year. The LMSC Board, the LMSC registrar, the LMSC top ten chairperson, and all the team representatives will vote on the nominations. The most votes for any one person will decide who wins each of these awards. For your information, the outstanding swimmer award doesn’t necessarily have to go to a person who has scored the most points at a national meet, or at any meet, for that matter. I encourage your participation to help make these annual awards a significant part of our statewide Masters swim program.

We plan to present the awards for both 1999 and 2000 at the meet in Charlotte on the last weekend in January, 2001 (no snow/ice planned for then!).

We hope many of you will participate in the short course meters meet in Hillsborough October 21^st. This is a great meet, and it’s a fun day at a great pool. Meet information/entry form is on the web site, and for those of you whose email addresses we don’t have, it is included with your snail mail "Across The Lanes" Newsletter.

That brings up another subject, which is financial in nature. We can really save some significant money if we could put our Newsletter only on our web site each quarter. The 77% of you who have e-mail addresses are receiving notification of the website Newsletter by e-mail this time. Please update any e-mail address change to George Simon at ncregistrar@usms.org so he can keep the database correct. It will be USMS Registration renewal time shortly (George usually gets these out a couple of months before December 31^st). Please print your e-mail addresses legibly for him on your renewal form. I plan to push for delivering the Newsletter notification each quarter by e-mail to our board, even though many of us (me included) enjoy receiving and reading a hardcopy. I’d rather do this than suggest a dollar or two increase in the annual fee. I’m sure we’ll have a lively discussion about this at our upcoming LMSC meeting(s).

Thanks to those of you who remembered to pull for us in Baltimore August 17-20, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Hillsborough Fall Invitational in October.

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Well, Jim has held the newsletter until I got home, so I get to tell you that the women, men and combined team all finished 3^rd at the national championship meet. Further, John Murphy (back), John Kortheuer (breast), Mitch Mitchell (fly) and Dick Webber (free) stepped up to the occasion and set a new state, national and world record in the 280+ bracket of the 200 medley relay. Their time was almost 2 full seconds faster than the previous record. Fritz Lehman made 3 attempts at the 50m back world record in the 40-44 age group, and came within :03 of making it. What valiant efforts, especially when everyone on your team knows you’re trying for a new record. Congratulations, not only to these guys, but to all who gave it their best and to the many who had personal best times.

I dwell on teamwork when writing about these meets, and it was prevalent again. Jon Klein did another masterful job of setting up relay teams before the meet commenced, and there is no doubt that this organized approach led to maximization of points over the 4 days of the meet. Next year’s meets are in Santa Clara, CA in May for short course, and Federal Way, WA in August for long course. Air fare to San Francisco and Seattle may not be too high if you search for ticket bargains. Both are great pools with experienced organizations who have conducted many national events, and both locations are fun vacation areas. Give some thought to training over the winter and participating next year. I am proud to have been with the team in Baltimore and look forward to competing with these teammates again in the future.

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Call them the "Backstroke Boys." North Carolina swimmers Alan Godfrey, Jon Klein and Fritz Lehman dominated the men's 40-44 backstroke events at the USMS Long Course Nationals held in Baltimore from Aug. 17-20. At least two North Carolina swimmers placed in the top five in all three backstroke events in their age group:

- In the 50-meter back, Fritz finished first at 28.72 (just .03 shy of the world record) and Jon was fourth at 30.92.

- In the 100-meter back, Fritz finished first again at 1:02.89. Jon was fourth at 1:06.63, and Alan was fifth at 1:07.13

- In the 200-meter back, Godfrey was second at 2:24.67 and Klein was third at 2:30.14.

Lehman, 41, swam at the University of Oklahoma from 1976-80. He was a Big Eight champion in the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes. After a break from swimming, Lehman returned in 1989 to set short-course meters world records in the 100 and 200 back. He got back in the pool again in 1997 and has made routine Top 10 appearances ever since. He trains in Raleigh with RAM.

Godfrey, 43, also trains with RAM and has just stepped down after five years as a member of RAM's governing board. He was the director for RAM's long-course meet in July - the state's only LCM meet this year - running the meet and still swimming a full slate of events. Alan also has posted Top 10 rankings. As an age group swimmer in Australia, Alan trained under the legendary coach Forbes Carlisle.

Klein, 42, swam at Johns Hopkins University from 1975-79. He returned to swimming in 1991. He began training seriously for the 1992 nationals held in Chapel Hill, where he posted lifetime bests in freestyle and placed in the top five in his backstroke events. Klein is now a fixture in Top 10 rankings. Earlier this year, he participated in a Masters camp at the U.S. Olympic training center. Klein trains in Chapel Hill with NCAM.

While Godfrey, Klein and Lehman chalked up point after point in the backstroke events in Baltimore, they aren't North Carolina's only national-caliber backstrokers in the men's 40-44 age group: Joe Rhyne, 41, of Winston-Salem, has been ranked in the Top 10 in the 200 backstroke. In fact, his third-place swim at last summer's long-course nationals in Minneapolis - 2:19.13 - would have won the event this year in Baltimore. And Bill Davis, 42, who trains with Klein in Chapel Hill, also has been ranked in the Top 10 in backstroke events. Davis still holds state records in the men's 30-34 200-yard back (1:58.24 in 1992) and the men's 35-39 200-yard back (2:00.64, in 1995).

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There wasn't any particular strategy involved in our relay. I just swam the fly leg because they told me to!! As far as strategy is concerned, after they told me which leg to swim, they just said "when John touches the wall, get in there and get to the other end as quick as you can." It's exciting to even be swimming for a possible record and even more so when you're competing on a team of proven winners, like those other three. I'm very proud of them and thankful I could do my part.

Congratulations to all participants for a fine meet! This was the largest long course championship in the history of USMS, with 1380 swimmers entered. There were 77 USMS and 51 world record breaking performances in the meet by 33 individual swimmers and 7 relay teams.

New Men’s 280+ 200M Medley Relay world record holders:

John Murphy, John Kortheuer, Clarke Mitchell, and Dick Webber

One way to swim faster is to remove all the padding from your swim suit

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Capitol pitches new meet By Dale Gibson

The Business Journal; Week of August 21, 2000

RALEIGH ­ A 10-day, Olympics-style competition involving as many as 8,000 national and international athletes is being planned for the Triangle in 2003 by Capitol Broadcasting Co. owner Jim Goodmon.

Masters athletes, generally those over 20 who are certified by age group within various sports, would be invited to the Triangle every two or three years to participate in such events as swimming, cycling, baseball, golf, tennis, basketball and track and field.

Goodmon says the plan was sparked by his frustration with the Triangle's unsuccessful bid for the 2007 Pan Am Games, which the U.S. Olympic Committee awarded to San Antonio. "It was obvious we had the best facilities and the best presentation, but we lost politically inside the Olympic group," he says. "I'm rebelling against the system. I didn't think we were treated fairly, and I decided we needed to do our own event."

Goodmon says no cost estimates have been developed to launch the 2003 games. "Our agreement is that we keep working on it and investing in it as long as we think we have a viable proposition. If it turns out we don't, we'll quit. This is about as entrepreneurial as it gets."

A new company called Carolina Sports Marketing has been incorporated to plan and stage the event. Hill Carrow, who headed the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival in the Triangle, has been named president of the company and Winkie LaForce, a Capitol Broadcasting employee who headed the region's bid for the 2007 Pan Am Games, has been named vice president.

Carrow is a former Raleigh resident who was working with Carolina Power & Light Co. in the mid-1980s when he left to head up the Triangle's bid for the Olympic Festival. He left the region in 1993 to join Sara Lee Corp., where he oversaw the company's Olympics sponsorships.

Since 1993, he has worked with the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs and has now relocated to Raleigh. Besides staging the 2003 event, Capitol Sports Marketing also will offer sports-marketing services as a part of the sports division of Capitol Broadcasting.

Carrow and LaForce are working with sports organizations such as U.S. Masters Swimming to pitch the concept and develop a list of invitees. "We have done research with the national governing bodies that indicates they would support this and they would like to see this happen," says Goodmon.

The scope of the event would fall somewhere between the Goodwill Games launched by broadcast tycoon Ted Turner and the U.S. Olympic Festival.

The 1987 festival in the Triangle drew 4,000 participants in 33 sports over 14 days. A total of 464,000 spectators attended, and it produced $7.1 million in revenues on $5.6 million in expenses.

Carrow says the 2003 competition probably would attract more participants but fewer spectators and less national exposure. But, he says, it also would be less costly to stage because existing facilities would be used and athletes would be responsible for their own expenses.

Masters athletes are certified in their individual sports and generally represent veteran performers who have a desire to win but are no longer considered world-class competitors. Masters athletes in running include the likes of former Olympians John Tuttle and Ruth Wysocki.

Though the Triangle has hosted a number of amateur events, this one would be different in a significant respect: It would aim to make a profit for Capitol, whose media holdings include WRAL-TV, WRAL-FM radio and the North Carolina News Network along with the Durham Bulls.

It also holds the promise of injecting tourism dollars and bringing recognition to the region, which would allow Capitol Sports Marketing to make a pitch for sponsors to help underwrite costs. No sponsors have been approached.

"This has the potential to be a winning formula," says Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. "We have an excellent community for amateur athletics; we have an organizational team that has worked at the highest levels of amateur athletics; and we have very attractive venues to attract performers."

Besides the competition, Carrow says companion events focused on health and well-being as well as entertainment and cultural productions are planned to make the games an attractive destination for adults who maintain a desire to compete.

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Forms in this Newsletter

Sandhills Sharks Open Water Swim Meet, Pinehurst on September 23, 2000 Meet Information and Entry Form

NC Fall Invitational Short Course Meters Swim Meet, Hillsborough on October 21, 2000 Meet Information and Entry Form

Outstanding 1999 Swimmer and Volunteer Award Forms

Outstanding 2000 Swimmer and Volunteer Award Forms

LMSC - NC Officers and Staff

Return to Masters Swimming in North Carolina home page.
September 1, 2000
http://www.NCmasters.org/atlsep00.html