By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
INDIANAPOLIS, April 22. WHILE the rain was falling outside, records were falling inside the majestic IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, where the USMS Short Course National Championships got underway today.<\/p>\n
Today was distance day — only the 1000 and 1650 yard freestyle events were contested. Eight USMS national records were wiped out this day, four in the 1000 and four in the 1650.<\/p>\n
1000 yard freestyle<\/b>
\nLavelle Stoinoff, of the Multonomah (Oregon) AC lowered her own record in the 40-lap event for women 70-74, set just last year. Stoinoff, 71, sliced almost 10 seconds off her 2003 standard of 14:08.02 when she touched in 13:58.55.<\/p>\n
In the women's 85-89 division, Rita Simonton, 86, continued to rip it up, slashing Marjorie Sharpe's record of 22:06.79 by over two minutes with her 20:04.17. Simonton, however, has a pending sub-20-minute effort — 19:55.44 — swum in March.<\/p>\n
Tod Spieker took the men's 55-59 record down to 10:36.93, breaking the 2001 standard of 10:52.60 by his Olympic Club teammate, Tim Birnie.<\/p>\n
In the 90-94 age group, Woody Bowersock negative split his race, going out in 11:38.01 and coming back in 11:28.52 to stop the clock at 23:06.54. In doing so, he broke Gus Langner's 24:18.33 from 1995. Woody even had a sprint left at the end, as he raced to a 52.59 second effort for the final 50 yards.<\/p>\n
1650 yard freestyle<\/b>
\nIn 1999, Laura Val set the record in the "mile" at 19:09.33 for women 45-49. Very fast! Today, Walnut Creek Masters' Suzanne Heim-Bowen, not only smashed Val's record, but she crashed through both the 19- and 18-minute barriers along the way. The new standard: 17:49.94.<\/p>\n
In the 55-59 age group, Barbara Dunbar did much the same to Ardeth Mueller's 21:12.19 mark from 1998. Dunbar touched in 19:33.02, slashing Mueller's old mark as well as her own pending 19:36.20 from earlier in the year.<\/p>\n
Dunbar's San Diego Swim Masters teammate, Jackie Marr, wrote her name in the record book in the 60-64 division. Marr's time of 21:19.25 was almost a minute faster than Lavelle Stoinoff's 11 year-old mark of 22:13.13. It also toppled her own pending 21:50.12 from March.<\/p>\n
Dallas Area Masters' Bobby Patten, 41, was the only man to break a record in the mile. It took a superb effort to erase Hess Yntema's time of 16:18.14 from 1994 but Patten, a DAM coach as well as swimmer, touched in 16:13.92.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten INDIANAPOLIS, April 22. WHILE the rain was falling outside, records were falling inside the majestic IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, where the USMS Short Course National Championships got<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n