North Carolina Outstanding Swimmers of the Year 2011

By Hans van Meeteren

For many years the LMSC for North Carolina has provided outstanding NC Masters' male and female swimmer of the year awards during the annual Sunbelt meet in Charlotte. Traditionally, a swimmer's point scores in the USMS Top Ten was used to determine the winners. In Top Ten listings 11 points are awarded for a first place, nine points for a second place down to one point for a 10th place.

The Top Ten listings consider only the traditional pool events. For 2011 the LMSC decided to award open water and long distance swimmers with separate open water/ long distance awards. As it is difficult to compare one open water or long distance event to another only scores in national championship events were considered.

At the discretion of the USMS Long Distance Committee national long distance championships can take place in the following categories:

· One mile open water cable swim

· Two mile open water cable swim

· Open water greater than one and less than three miles

· Open water greater than three and less than six miles

· Open water greater than six and less than nine miles

· Open water greater than nine miles

· Postal one hour (in a pool 25 yards or longer)

· Postal 5 kilometers (in a 50 meter pool)

· Postal 10 kilometers (in a 50 meter pool)

· Postal 3000 yards (in a 25 yard pool)

· Postal 6000 yards (in a 25 yard pool)

For the NC long distance swimmer of the year awards point scores have been used similar to the scoring for the Top Ten. As the Postal swims can take place in swimmer's pool of choice, points can be accumulated without travel to other national championships.

And the winners are:

· Outstanding female swimmer of the year: Erika Braun. Erika scored 205 points followed by Justine Mueller and Andrea Packard who each scored 106 points.

· Outstanding male swimmer of the year: Ole Larson. Ole scored 120 points followed by Jeff Murray and Jon Klein who scored 100 and 60 points.

· Outstanding female long distance swimmer of the year: Debbie Wilson. Debbie scored 26 points followed by Andrea Packard and Melanie Deal who scored 20 and 19 points.

· Outstanding male long distance swimmer of the year: James Green. James scored 31 points followed by Filippo Porco and Graig Anderson who scored 22 and 21 points.

A closer inspection of the point counts shows that one needs to be an outstanding swimmer and that participation in many events is needed to become a winner. So keep participating. For all other North Carolina swimmers, meeting your personal goals will make you a winner too.