RECAP: INAUGURAL CLUB TRIBE MASTERS CLASSIC (3.19.16)

It was an honor and a thrill to spend the day with multiple generations of Tribe swimmers and our awesome Friends-of-the-Tribe at the Inaugural Club Tribe Masters Classic.  The key takeaways seem to be that we’re going to host this meet every year, and that all of us know other people who would have loved this event and who will be there next year if we work on them a little.  There was also a lot of discussion about enhancing the fundraising aspect of the meet in support of W&M Swimming.

Below please find a meet recap that I wrote for the Wet Gazette, the Virginia LMSC newsletter.  After the recap, swim geek territory: I thought you might like your 100 Medley Relay splits, calculated by taking 5 splits for each swimmer off the videos, averaging the middle three results, and rounding to the nearest tenth.

INAUGURAL CLUB TRIBE MASTERS CLASSIC

MEET RECAP

On Saturday, March 19, 2016, Club Tribe Masters Swimming (1693) hosted the Inaugural Club Tribe Masters Classic, welcoming 76 swimmers from 15 clubs to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.  The meet was a special homecoming for the many Club Tribe swimmers who are W&M Swimming alumni, replete with venerated pre-meet rituals and our beloved Towel Cheer before the final relay.  Current W&M swimmers volunteered to run the meet, serving as timers, lap counters, dry deck clerks and jovial announcers.  We were pleased to be joined by fellow competitors from across Virginia and beyond, and we were particularly glad to offer a Masters meet on the Peninsula, which enjoys strong and growing USMS participation.  We plan to make this an annual event.

There were many impressive individual swims, including 11 new Virginia LMSC records:  Miriam Tuovila of TMAS, W 90-94 50 BR (1:22.99) and 100 BR (3:24.13); Johnnie Detrick of VMST, W 80-84 50 BK (50.15), 100 BK (1:52.18) and 50 Fly (53.01); Gabby Mizerak of 1693, W 18-24 200 IM (2:14.60); Doug Slater of 1693, M 55-59 50 FR (24.18r), 100 FR (52.72), 50 BK (28.03) and 100 BK (1:00.16), and Greg Harris of VMST, M 50-54 200 IM (2:08.37).

The smaller scale of the meet gave Club Tribe the opportunity to split relays evenly for some spirited intra-squad racing. In the first heat of the 200 Free Relay, Club Tribe’s Mixed team opened with a scorching 20.95 from Kevin Gallagher.  Club Tribe’s Women’s team valiantly fought all the way back, only to be DQed for an early takeoff.  Two Club Tribe Men’s relays faced off in the next heat, with Slater, Mike Cook, John Rockwell and Scott Hensley out-touching Dan Earle, Rich Williams, Jim Griffin and Michael Lovett by a fingernail (0.09), despite a 21.92 anchor leg from Lovett.  SHYM joined Club Tribe for a single combined heat of the Women’s, Men’s and Mixed 200 Medley Relay, with notable splits from Club Tribe’s Mizerak (Fly – 26.15) and Sidney Glass (BR – 26.96).

The meet concluded with its marquee event: the 100 Medley Relay, with each swimmer on the winning Men’s, Women’s and Mixed 100 Medley Relay receiving custom engraved pewter Jefferson cups commemorating victory.  With the gorgeous hardware gleaming atop the relay table, a fantastic Women’s team from QMST faced off against the Women of Club Tribe, who laid down quite a marker for teams to chase in future years: Stefanie Farhat, Courtney Hurtubise, Mizerak and Katie Grier touched in 54.43.  In a three-way all-Club Tribe nail-biter, the Men’s record was established at 50.97, as Rockwell, Glass, Griffin and Cook re-took the lead on the final stroke and won by 0.14.  The meet concluded with some more mayhem in the Mixed version, with all three Club Tribe relays finishing within 0.21 of each other.  The final batch of Jefferson cups went to Slater, Williams, Farhat and Grier in 53.04.  We know there is a ton of talent (and speed!) in our LMSC, and we look forward to more teams joining the fray in the 100 Medley Relay next year.

We are tremendously grateful to Heather Stevenson, Chris Stevenson and Charlie Cockrell for helping us launch and run a brand new meet, and to Janet Law and her outstanding officiating crew for their work.  We look forward to growing this meet into a Virgnia LMSC mainstay.

100 MEDLEY RELAY SPLITS

WOMEN

BK S. Farhat:                   15.2

BR C. Hurtubise:           Fast (no vid)

FL G. Mizerak:           Fast (no vid)

FR K. Grier:                 12.3

MEN

BK J. Rockwell:              14.3

BR S. Glass:                        12.1

FL J. Griffin:                   12.6

FR M. Cook:                11.8

BK S. Hensley:          12.8

BR D. Slater:              14.3

FL M. Lovett:             10.1

FR K. Ahlgren:           13.8

BK D. Earle:                          14.9

BR R. Williams:           14.0

FL K. Gallagher:                  10.0

FR A. Obuchowski:             14.3

MIXED

BK D. Slater:                    13.7

BR R. Williams:               14.0

FL S. Farhat:                    13.1

FR K. Grier:                 12.1

BK S. Hensley:               12.8

BR M. Lovett:                 13.5

FL S. Greene:                 14.0

FR M. Choe:                   13.0

BK L. Lovett:                   18.9

BR S. Glass:                     Fast (no vid)

FL G. Mizerak:                     Fast (no vid)

FR K. Gallagher:              9.9

ONE TRIBE !!