Hawai'i Masters master U.S. Championships
By Mike Tymn
Special to the Honolulu Advertiser
They say there is no "home-field" advantage in swimming, but that didn't prevent the Hawai'i Masters from winning the U.S. Masters Swimming Short-Course National Championships at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex in a five-day event that ended yesterday.
With 1,097.5 points, the Hawai'i Masters beat out the Rocky Mountain Masters (947.50) and the Walnut Creek (Calif.) Masters (797.50) for the championship in the men's large-team competition. The Rocky Mountain Masters (766) topped the Hawai'i Masters (722.50) and Pacific Northwest Aquatics (683) in the women's large-team competition. The Hawai'i Masters (2,011) won the combined competition over the Rocky Mountain Masters (1,885.5) and the Walnut Creek Masters (1,577.50).
"We spanked those guys from the Mainland," said Ernie Leskovitz, who won the 500- and 1,000-freestyle races in the 65-69 division. "But it was an ohana event, it really was."
More than 1,100 swimmers representing 138 teams from around the country took part in the competition, which began Tuesday and ended yesterday with an ocean race. Sixty-six individual American records were broken in various age-groups and 10 relay records were set.
Hawai'i's biggest winners were Betty Ann Barnett-Salle, who won six events and broke four American records in the 55-59 division, and Diane Stowell, who won six events and broke one record in the 65-69 division.
"We don't have as much meet experience as many of the Mainland teams, so it's surprising we did as well as we did," said Barnett-Salle, who won the 200- and 1,000-freestyle, the 50-, 100-, and 200-backstroke, and the 100-individual medley. She won a seventh gold medal in the 200 mixed medley race.
"I made so many technical errors, especially on the turns," she added. "That's where the meet experience is important."
Rick Heltzel, long one of Hawai'i's standout ocean swimmers and winner of the 1,650-yard freestyle race in the 45-49 division, agreed. "Anytime I can eliminate flip turns, it's to my advantage," he offered.
In short-course races, the competition is held in a 25-yard pool, while long-course races are in a 50-meter pool. World records are not maintained in short-course swimming because other countries do not compete in 25-yard pools.
It was the first time Hawai'i had hosted a masters championship, which involves competition in five-year age groups beginning with the 19-24 on up to 90 and over. "It came off very well," said Stowell, who mixed her races in with managing the administrative volunteers. She captured the 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000 freestyle along with the 100- and 200-breaststroke races, setting a record in the latter.
The biggest winner among Hawai'i men was Malcolm Cooper of Makawao, winner of the 50-, 100-, and 200-freestyle, 50-backstroke, and 50-butterfly in the 45-49 division.
Many of the competitors have been swimming since they left school, but some, like Tom Landis, winner of five events in the 60-64 division, took many years off. "I didn't start again until I was 55," said Landis, a former UCLA swimmer now living in Oregon. "It didn't take me very long to get back in shape, but it took me a little longer to get serious and to get the intensity back."
One of the more impressive performers was Julia Dolce, 92, of the Garden State (N.J.) Masters. Competing in the 90-94 division, she broke records in the 200-, 500- and 1,000-freestyle races. Her time of 4:56.12 in the 200 bettered the 4:56.80 set by former Olympian Aileen Riggin Soule of Hawai'i in 1996.
