In the end, the relay team of Payne, Monte Lewis, James Crowder and Andy Ellis were JUST able to beat the team of Nealis, Michael Lee, Jeff Strahota, and Emad Elshafei by 14 one-hundredths of a second! (That’s about the time it takes to slap your hands together as fast as you possibly can twice in a row.) It came down to a touch on the wall between Emad and Andy Ellis. Ellis got ‘em. (That’s no small feat considering Emad recently made top ten globally in three events: (http://www.fina.org/masterstop10_LCM03.pdf)

Now, while these two "Young Man Terp teams" were finishing with times just above the one minute and 45 second mark, the "Old Man Terp team" of Rob Costello, Curt Reynolds, Michael Goodison, and Mike Doane had already finished - beating the pants off their brethren with a time of 1:42.36. After the swims, it was simply amazing to see this big group of Terps circled around exclaiming, "That was great!", smiling, looking for one another, and feeling totally jazzed. A few minutes later, folks had tracked down Robert Costello, stating, "YOU are the Secret Weapon!" (Check out his times.) Yup, Curt Reynolds is the Stealth Shark and Costello is bequeathed the team’s new Secret Weapon!

The Lane 6 Relay!

Pica Adrienne also took the initiative to organize "The Lane 6 Relay." Yes, the Lane 6 Relay Team of Monte Lewis, James Nealis, Adrienne Pica and ringer Jillian Martin scored a second place finish in the Mixed 19 plus 400 yard free! That’s 14 points to the team’s total! This is the sort of stuff that made it possible for the Terrapins to be titled SCY Colony Zone’s Medium Team Champions! (Note, also, that the team is also the defending Short Course Meters Champions.)

Women's 19-Plus National Record!

Other relay fun included the woman’s 19-plus 400 medley relay with Jenn "JT" Teerlink, Jillian Martin, Kelly Bowman, and Meredith Stakem. Fun - heck! - they demolished the National Record, BABY! Yeowzah! The time was 4:03.73. By leading off the relay, JT as well notched new team record times in the 50 and 100 backstrokes for 19 to 24 year old women. That big "Comp" bug might be biting at JT’s heels again!

Team A & The Spoilers

And then as well there was the Mixed 19-plus 200 Yard Medley Relay. This race is a classic. It will be a race folks talk about for years to come, entering into Terrapin Lore. Here’s the scoop: Two Terp Teams are competing, Team A and Team B. Both were going after the Colony Zone’s record in the event. Team A contained James Crowder, Jillian Martin, Mike Doane, and Kelly Bowman. It’s an all star line up! Team B was composed of Jenn "JT" Teerlink, Michael Goodison, Andrew Ellis, and Meredith Stakem. Think of Team B as "The Spoilers" in this little story.

At the start of this Terp relay race (isn’t it fun competing against one another at big meets! Surprise James!) THE James Crowder on Team A barely held off JT in the 50 back (28.27 to 28.39 split times). You should see JT’s underwater kicks! She’s propelling herself under the surface for most the pool length while everyone else is already up and swimming stroke after stroke! Next, the Spoiler’s Michael Goodison pulled ahead of Jillian Martin for the breast leg, but Team A’s Michael Doane narrowed the gap back down by reeling in Andy Ellis on the fly. Going in to the final free leg of the relay, the two teams were only two-tenths of a second apart! For the last two laps, the Spoiler’s Meredith Stakem was able to hold off Team A’s determined Kelly Bowman to touch the wall first: 1:46.91 to 1:47.02. New Colony Zone record: 1:46.91!

Individual Swims

19 to 24 Women

Briefly, some of the noteworthy individual swims include the 19 to 24 Women’s 200 breast. Of course, who’re you going to call on but an Olympic Trials qualifier to try and take out the National Record in that event. Yes, our old coach Jillian Martin came to the meet! After demolishing the existing record, to our horrors, we discovered she had been terminated by the Terminators! Yes, DQ’d, dinked, disqualified. (Kinda reminds you of the 100 IM, eh, Emad?) Well, after an arrangement with the overseeing officials, the meet director, Ms. Martin was allowed an officiated and sanctioned re-swim solely for the record.

Well, what do you think she did? Yeah, she nailed it, going even faster! The old National Record was set in 1999 with a time of 2:24.51. Jill swam almost five seconds faster with a 2:19.89! Jill also swam the 100 Breast in a 1:06.88, roughly a tenth of a second faster than Petra Adamkova’s record setting time.

Kelly Bowman also "monstered" the 100 free record, previously held earlier in the year by Meredith Stakem, swimming a 54.73! Kelly also knocked her 200 free record down to a 1:55.83! That’s the fastest women’s 200 free in any age group!

50 to 54 Women

Cheryl "Wonder Woman" Wagner scores records with her 50 breast swim (45.29) and 100 free split (1:12.22). Way to fill those boards in Cheryl! Yes, Cheryl’s 100 free split from her 200 time even beats the record time of 1:14.48 set in the younger 45 to 49 year old age group. Nevertheless, Cheryl’s definitely got a lot more juice left in the tank! Plan on seeing her knock that split time right out of the park when she gets to focus all her might on four laps instead of eight! With the special Petra Adamkova sprint workouts and stroke drills she’s undertaken, perhaps we’ll have the opportunity to see her beat her best marks from nearly ten years ago! Come on, Cheryl!

500 Free Banditos!

Terps also appear to have a group of Harley riding banditos swimming with us in the 500 free! See, typically when swimming the 500 free, you’ve got to move through the water swimming strong, smooth, and effortlessly. These guys look like they’re cruising. Swimming this race is kinda like going for a cross country ride on a big fat Harley Davison. One can look at swimmers racing and visualize these guys being swim-toughs riding the race as if it were a big black Hog! Ride on, swim toughs! Bowman, Ellis, and Muppet were the folks traveling on the backs of those 500 frees as fast as blue lightening at the meet. They definitely earned their Hog Hats by swimming tough lap after lap and coming in under the 5:20 barrier! Here’s the summary:

Thirty-six year old Andy Ellis captures the men’s overall fastest 500 free record with a time of 5:14.59. (He’s really developing a nice long stroke.) However, 23 year old Kelly "Bows-to-No-Man" Bowman posts a 5:12.23 at the meet to score the team’s overall top women’s 500 free time! Bowman simply shot past every one of her teammates! Before this season, breaking the 5:20 barrier in the 500 free had only happened once, nine years ago. Jane Kleine West rode that beast with a time of 5:15.23. Now we have a total of four folks swimming below the 5:20 barrier! Posting the fourth sub-5:20 500 free time at Colony Zones was our favorite Muppet, Jeff Strahota! Time: 5:19.17. That’s the men’s 19 to 24 year old records, and he’s sure to go even faster!

19 to 24 Men

Other 19 to 24 year old men’s records were posted by Kelly Ryan who joins us from the club team. Regarding these 19 to 24 year old records, you know how you just get used to seeing the same names over and over in the age group, and you think those times will remain forever? Every time you go over the records, you see Rob Butcher (50 free, 1996), Chris Benedick (50 back, 1995), Chris Bell (50 fly, 2003), and Barney Lynch (100 fly, 2002). You think those times will be with the team forever. Well, that’s what the record books are for - for other people to come along and better the score! And, young Kelly Ryan scored big, swimming right on over all those historic names and all those great times in the age group. The new times from the amazing young swimmer: 50 free: 22.36, 50 back: 26.13, 50 fly, 25.70, 100 fly, 54.93. Ryan also takes Muppet out in the 200 free with a very respectable 1:53.80. That 19 to 24 year old age group is being re-written!

35 to 39 Men

We’ll spend a little time with the 35 to 39 year old men’s age group. As stated previously, Emad "The Bull" Elshafei has targeted specific records in the age group at each and every meet throughout the season. Due to The Bull’s focus and ability, most of the age group’s records now have four big letters next to them: E-M-A-D! Emad came close to continuing the march across the record boards unopposed, until that fly on the wall, Michael Lee showed up to a certain "Invitational."

Yes, Emad knocked over additional records in the 200 fly with a time of 2:09.03 (the team’s fastest regardless of time) and the 400 IM with a 4:30.23 at Colony Zones, but Lee flanked The Bull in the shorter 50 and 100 fly event’s. Lee "Double Tapped" Emad in the 100 fly, beating Emad’s 50 fly record at the turn and then managed to hold on to finish the four laps with a time of 57.36. Lee may have been flying at that first half of the race,but he looked to be a cooked goose for the third and fourth laps, going six seconds slower on the second 50 (not the best way to swim a race)!

Ironic, as well, is how back in October of 2003 Emad focused on being crowned the record holder in certain 100 yard event. Hmmm. Well, it appears Emad has something to train for going into his final year in the age group before aging up!

40 to 44 Men

The men’s 40 to 44 year old age group is also getting new entries for the records, primarily by that Stealth Shark Curt Reynolds. However, Steve Payne posted a new 100 fly record for the team, swimming a 1:33.60! The not-so-stealth-of-a-shark-anymore posted one, two, three, four, five,....seven new records, including a 26.70 50 fly and a 4:58.68 400 IM!

Friends

We’ve had several requests to mention the other swimmers swimming with us at practice and hanging out with us socially and at the meets. That’s a great idea! These include Carolyn Voorhees, Jenn Bistrack, Suzanne Gedney, and Katie Hennessey. Carolyn’s 50 free, 100 free, and 50 and 100 fly times might just be good enough to get her in the Nation’s Top Ten. Jenn Bistrack won all six of her age group’s events that she entered. Suzanne Gedney swam and placed in the top of her events in the tough 35 to 39 year old age group against the likes of Laurie Hug. Both Suzanne and Hennessey swam relays with Central Maryland YMCA that should surely make Top Ten in the Nation! Hennessey moreover won her age group’s 1000 free and place second in the 500. If registered with the team, all of these swimmers would post new team records on the Terrapin Master’s boards!

Last, all the best to our swimmers competing April 22-25 in Indianapolis at the USMS Short Course Yards Nationals!