Stop the presses! Or as they say in the big top, "On with the show!" Or in the words of late night television host Ed Sullivan, "we have a really, really big sheeeew for you tonight." Or as the reader of this snippet says, "Get on with it!"

Lightning hits twice! Lightning hits twice! Kelly Bowman breaks the two minute barrier in the 200 freestyle! Her time of 1:59.44 sets the new team record for 19 to 24 year old women! Bowman, who bows to no man, appears to be only the second woman in Terrapin Master’s swim history to swim a sub-two minute 200 free. Grande dame Jane West swam the 200 in a time of 1:58.33 in 1995, setting the women’s 25 to 29 age group record. The race is on! Will Bowman capture the overall team title in this event?

Muppet, that stud, swam the 200 fly in a time of 2:21.20 setting the 19 to 24 year old men’s record (details of his exploits are presented in the 2/10/04 Tropical Freeze and the Secret Weapon report).

Speaking of secret weapons, we have a new shark in the water. And if you don’t hear the music from the Jaws theme creeping up behind you (Bwaah-dump, bwaah-dump!), that’s because you're not swimming in the Men’s 40 to 44 year age group! Minnows will tremble and the age group’s big fish will have to show up and get to work, because Curt Reynolds is back in the competitive waters and he’s frothing up a storm! (Bwaah-dum, bwaah-dum, bwaah-dum, bwaah-dum!)

Curt’s been that stealth shark swimming in the right-hand lanes of practice for some time now. You know him, you see him quietly stalking you in the pool during practice, lurking there with the cold dark eyes of a killer waiting to claim your lunch on a particular set – and now you know he’s the team’s new owner of the 100 and 200 IM records for 40 to 44 year old men, swimming 1:01.79 and 2:18.19 respectively! (Whew, was that a long sentence!) Curt drops two and a half seconds from Paul Barret’s 1997 time in the 100 IM, he checkmates the King-o-Beers Steve Payne’s 200 IM record, and also just missed Paul Barret’s 1997 record of 1:04.22 by a single tenth of a second! There’s more in store for that age group 40 to 44!

Previously unknown swims for Ed Switzer and James "Captain Tact" Crowder are also presented in the Record Books. These two rowdies went down to Saint Petersburg, Florida back in 2001 to swim and debauch. Ed "The Brick" Switzer’s 1000 free time of 11:41.21 decimates what was up to now considered to be the team’s fastest time (spawned by Sean McCrossin – who now teaches in the Bangladesh region of the world I hear. The guy’s having an amazing life!) Captain Tact Crowder set records in the 100 and 200 back and the 100 and 200 IM for the 19 to 24 year old age bracket. More Terrapin Masters records are bound to trickle in from around the United States! We know former UM varsity and current Terrapin Master swimmer Marie Tomarelli not only continues to swim but is heard to compete in Chicago while working on her doctorate! Other new reports should trickle in shortly, but for now, let’s get this issue out on to the streets! That’s a wrap!

Over and out!