It’s the close of the short course yards season for the competitive pool swimmers! Many of the team’s record boards for the various age groups are completely filled and are now closed out! For all you open water swimmers, open water events are about to begin! (Hurrah!) Consequently, we should be hearing of the exploits from a new set of Terrapin Masters during the summer months, including the likes of Diane Corbin and Allison Thomson!

Hey, speaking of hearing from folks, we’ve had the pleasure of hearing from three old Terrapins: Charles "Little Ed" Stoner, Saul Vesonder, and Bengt Bengtsson! "Little Ed" who’s not at all small when it comes to dominating the competition in the long distance swims – including the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim – came back from upstate New York recently to visit and swim in early April’s Colony Zones SCY Championships. He’d sure enjoy being back and swimming with Terrapin Masters (where he kicks everyone’s butts during practice!). Ed says hello to all! As well, Saul Vesonder’s happy being a dad and teaching high school classes in Bowie. Not only does he look to teach his one-year old son to swim soon, but to teach the little guy Swahili!

We moreover have the pleasure of hearing from our beloved and trusty Bengt Bengtsson who is now back in Malmo, Sweden. He’s living a life of leisure-swimming and gets to the pool about once a week to hang out with friends. Yes, Bengt’s swimming is akin to Eric Nordlund’s style, and involves a lot of strenuous sitting on the pool deck, but he’s having fun and enjoys rediscovering all of the hedonistic pleasures he and his fellow Viking progeny can offer up to one another up in the land of fire and ice.

Hedonistic Viking pleasures? So, what delectable imparts a particularly pleasing sapor to our friend Bengt? Why, it’s herring! Herring is such a fine fish! Bengt happily reports that his countrymen no longer just stuff raw herring into a brine solution for pickling, storing, and subsequent consumption at a later date. (Mmmmm, surstromming!) "Oh, no," Bengt purred, "there are about a dozen different flavors of herring now: not only including onion and garlic, but as well cherry and citrus flavored herring."

Yum.

Ok, I eat herring too and love it. I’d also love it if I had an underwater dolphin kick like Jenn "JT" Teerlink, and could currently swim in the same league as the Terrapins that swam at the Maryland Masters’ 1000/1650 meet! Here’s a bit about JT’s swim and Maryland Masters’ "mile" meet.

First, regarding JT, JT’s 2:13.24 recorded during the UM Club Team’s Invitational not only set the 200 backstroke record for 19 to 24 year old women, but it established the former BYU swimmer as the team’s dominate backstroker for the age group! Yes, JT already owns the 50 and 100 backstroke records and with this third back record she becomes one of the few Terrapins on the team to earn the illustrious "Hat Trick"! Congrats, JT! Over the summer, JT’s aging up into the 25 to 29 women’s division. Will Susan Altman’s records from 1992 and Mandy Pagon’s 200 backstroke record be safe?

Now the Maryland Masters distance meet. In early May, Maryland Masters held their 1000/1650 meet, and all the non-wimpy people showed up.

Of course, Mrs. Wimpy Crowder, Kelly "Bows-to-ALL-Men" Bowman, didn’t show and decided at the last minute that she simply couldn’t face the onslaught ensured when swimming with and against the likes of Meredith "Happy" Stakem, Diana Corbin, our favorite Muppet Jeff Strahota, Monte Lewis, Michael Goodison, Andy Ellis, and Curt Reynolds. (It was Kelly, you may recall who cried out to her boy-toy not to be such a wimp and swim the meet. "Just swim it and stop complaining," She wrote in an e-mail. "I guess you’re just scared that all of us including yours truly will kick....")

Oh where, oh where did our lil’ "Bows-to-ALL-Men" go? Oh where, oh where could she be?

Well, Mrs. Wimpy Crowder had reason to balk at even trying to compete, and our team mates showed her why – each and every one of the Terrapin swimmers swam record setting swims in their age group or set down times that are second fastest swims ever recorded in the Terrapin Master’s age groups! According to Jim Nealis’ December 2003 ranking of Top Times, Meredith Stakem and Diane Corbin’s swims rank these two distance divas with the second fastest times ever to be recorded in their respective age groups. (Both of these ladies are swimming the 4.4 mile Bay swim, too!)

Now what sort of stories can we tell from the 1000/1650 meet while keeping this missive at two pages?

Andy Ellis proved that he’s not only the team’s fastest 500 freestyler with a time of 5:04.32, but with his 18:36.83 mile time that he is as well the team’s fastest 1650 swimmer. Hold up though! Who’s the team’s fastest 1000 freestyler? Let’s check this out. (Can you guess?) That’s right, we have to go back to 1995 where the Grande Dame of Distance swam that thousand freestyle in a time of 10:34.29! Ellis split a respectable 11:14.82 at the 1000 mark on his way to capture the team title in the 1650, but that’s no where close to Jane Kleine West’s phenomenal performance, where she swam the ten one hundreds back-to-back at a 1:07 pace. Ellis’ 1000 and 1650 swims do however remove Eric "No Show" Nordlund from the 35 to 39 record boards (Show Buddy, Show Buddy, Show Buddy, Show!).

Michael Goodison also has to be pretty darned happy with his 1000 and 1650 team records in the 30 to 34 year old age group from the meet. His thousand split of 11:24.53 knocks Ed "Brick" Switzer’s time from the age group records. (Brick’s another fellow itching to get back in the water and swim some fly once things settle out with his infant and new house.) Goody’s 18:56.17 in the 1650, as well, removes Saul Vesonder from the boards. Goody, nevertheless, does not beat the Grande Dame’s 18:51.97 1650 record! Goody’s just a little over four seconds too slow. (Toooo Slowwwww) Might the breaststroker swim this race again?

Monte Lewis and Jeff Strahota also complete the boards for the 24 to 29 and 19 to 24 year old age groups, respectively, with their record setting swims. Thank you, Gentlemen! Still, Monte’s going to have to learn flip turns! (At least he’s not lifting his head up and out of the water when he starts each turn! Keep at it, Monte!)

Last, we turn to that not-so-stealth-of-a-shark Curt Reynolds in the 40 to 44 year old age group. He’s swallowing up the competition, and the boards may not start to get much name variety in them until Emad Elshafei ages up! Here’s a little story of what happens when Curt swims the 1650.

First, many of you know how Michael Lee placed a swim bet on Eric Nordlund, and put up a case of beer bet on Mr. "No Show" Nordlund in a competition against Steve "King-O-Beers" Payne. Yes, we planned out a little horse race. Lee placed his bet on a horse called "No Show."

Long story short, Lee’s horse died.

Eric was however able to invest a year in his life and lower his 200 time from his previous season’s best time, which was a 2:15.55 (converted), on down to a 2:12.70. (Where’d that 1:58 go?) Though Lee was a case of beer lighter, Eric established the team’s new 40 to 44 year old 200 free record. We thank Eric for his services. King-O, as well, thanks him for the beer.

Now, here comes Curt Reynolds swimming the 1650, and Curt’s got records on the brain! Say! Why not go out like a banshee and get the record for the 200 free! That sounds like a great idea when swimming a mile! Thus, Curt starts off the mile swimming lickety split to see if the age group’s 200 free record can be captured. Off goes Curt! And in what time does Curt strike the wall with his 200 free split? A 2:10.56! That’s over two seconds faster than the previous team record for the 200 free! E-R-I-C OUT!

Does Curt then proceed to die for the rest of the swim? That is the question! Or has he planned an unconventional strategy that will pay off and allow him to hold on and see what other records come tumbling down!

The Stealth Shark comes up to the 500 mark, and what’s Curt’s 500 free split? A 5:46.68! That’s another record by half-a-minute! E-R-I-C OUT! Curt’s split at the thousand and then the completion of the 1650 swim also claim two of Steve Payne’s records. That’s FOUR record setting swims with one start from the blocks!

What a showing from the Stealth Shark! An amazing job, where Curt is able to hold on and claim four records! Alas, there’s not much showing of "No Show" in the record boards anymore, anywhere. Will "No Show" ever show? Will he reassert himself as the top ranked swimmer he claims he once was? Can we count on him to come back to show his dominance in the distance events or do we simply count him o-u-t!

And with that, let’s send this out!