By Robert Seltzer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 24. THE first day of the 2003 NE Short Course (Yards) Championship saw a number of New England records broken as swimmers competed in the 1650 ("the swimming mile") and the 1000 freestyle.
The 1650
Dan Rogacki (55-59) of Andover Y continued his assault on the record book as he completed a swimming "two-fer," breaking Jeff Galper's NE 1000 record with a 11:58.93 on his way to completion of the mile in a time of 19:55.94 — more than a minute faster than Win Wilson's 19 year-old NE record. Dan was the only new NE record breaker in the 1650.
Jenny Mooney (25-29) of SWIM RI had the fastest women's time of 18:48.37.
Jason Eaddy (25-29) of Cambridge Masters, was the fastest man, swimming a 16:31.90 — about 4 seconds off his NE record set last year. Jason might have broken his record if he hadn't encountered some technical problems with his swim. He had trouble with his googles and stopped once to adjust them early in the race (he still went out in 1:52 for the 200) and then at the 450 mark he stopped swimming to remove his cap and goggles. After a pause of several seconds (good transition, Jason) he resumed the race. That undoubtedly cost him a new record swim.
A number of poolside observers noted that Jason's problem was eerily similar to that experienced by Harvard's distance ace, John Cole, a few weeks ago at EISL when he also had to stop to remove cap and goggles.
The 1000
Jessica Stokes (25-29) of Cambridge Masters broke Diane Sagaser's NE record in the 1000, swimming a 10:59.49, which was also the fastest women's 1000 that day.
Jacki Hirsty (50-54) broke Susan Livingston's 13 year- old women's record by more than 2 minutes swimming an 11:34.29. Jacki also managed the second fastest swim for all women that day.
The final new record was set by Ethan Saulnier (30-34) from Minuteman who broke Todd Bryan's 19 year-old NE record with a 10:08.42.
WORKOUT GROUP STANDINGS AFTER DAY ONE
NEM Workout Group Standing
Cambridge opened up the meet with a pretty good lead on Great Bay and Minuteman. However, we do expect Great Bay to close that gap this weekend since they are scheduled to swim more events than CMSC.
Minuteman is right there with Great Bay in contention for the top spot and should make it a close contest. Keeping scratches to a minimum and fielding lots of relays will determine the final outcome.
1) Cambridge 618
2) Great Bay 325
3) Minuteman 317
4) Swim RI 263
5) Andover Y 228
6) South County Y 99
7) Granite State Penguin 90
8) Y of the NS 83