SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind: 1979 U.S. Short Course National Championships

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 17. LAST week, Rewind concluded its series on the USA Swimming Short Course National Championships with a check back on the 1981 meet. In the future, we will be looking at the past of various major events in the coming year. Right now, we present the 1979 AAU Short Course National Championships as a look into the AAU series we plan on presenting leading up to next year's Short Course Championship.

That year, Florida Aquatic Swim Team claimed a team-title sweep, for the first indoor sweep since 1970.

Here is an excerpt of the stories written by Bill Bell and Ann Churchill in the May issue of Swimming World Magazine that year.

It's been a long time coming, but Florida Aquatic Swim Team's combined victory in the AAU Indoor Nationals men's and women's races, giving FAST the overall team title, was the first such sweep since Santa Clara Swim Club's win at Cincinnati in 1970.

The last outdoor sweep was by Mission Viejo at Philadelphia in 1976.

Indoor sweeps are about as rare as snow in Gainesville. Since 1925, the year the championships were first held, only two other teams in addition to Santa Clara and FAST have swept both the men's and women's races – Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1932 and Lake Shore in 1936. Santa Clara also won both indoor titles in 1967.

"Since we didn't win the NCAAs with our men, we were aiming for a sweep at the AAUs – that was our goal," a relieved Randy Reese, Florida Aquatic coach, said following his team's victory in the men's 400 yard freestyle relay, the meet's final event.

The University of Florida's women's team had swum to the AIAW title at Pittsburgh in mid-March, while their men finished third in the NCAAs.

Combining the talents of the cream of Southeastern Conference male swimmers, including Auburn's David McCagg, Rowdy Gaines and Billy Forrester, plus Reese's own Florida contingent, and bolstered by the strong Gator women's squad that featured such additions as Stephanie Elkins and Nancy Hogshead, FAST was just too fast for the rest of the nation's clubs, not to mention foreign contingents from Hungary and France.

Defending overall champion Mission Viejo was second with 679 points, followed by Longhorn Aquatic (429), Pleasant Hill (2441/2) and Cincinnati Pepsi Marlins (244). Last year's third-place finisher, Nashville Aquatic, was not among the Top 10 teams in 1979.

Mission was third in the men's standings, runner-up in the women's, and Southern California was second to Florida among the men. Defending women's champ Nashville, with superstar Tracy Caulkins but minus Joan Pennington and Jann and Dian Girard (who now swim for Longhorn), slipped to third despite Caulkins' four wins and five American records.

For the complete Swimming World Magazine article on the 1979 Short Course Championships, click here.

Premium online subscribers can view the entire 1979 May edition of the magazine, as well as any other edition of the magazine back to 1960. To order a premium subscription, please click here.

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