The one-day short course meters meet held at the Urbana Indoor Aquatic Center produced four Masters world records, including two from a fast foursome from Illinois and two from 90-year-old Tom Maine.
Illinois Masters’ Liz Dillmann, David Sims, AJ Block and Jim Tuchler swam alone in their chase of the world record in the mixed 800 freestyle relay for the 200-239 age group, but didn’t need another team to push them. The foursome obliterated the world record of 8:53.46 set by Team Blu Frog in 2011 with an 8:36.91.
Splits:
Dillmann (50 years old): 2:11.86
Sims (53): 1:58.35
Block (54): 2:22.08
Tuchler (50): 2:04.62
Dillmann’s leadoff split got her 1.1 seconds within the world record for the 200 free in the women’s 50-54 age group, which is a 2:10.72 by Suzanne Heim-Bowen.
The four participated in a time trial for the mixed 400 medley relay, and were racing the clock once again. On the line was the world record of 4:27.64, set in 2013 by North Carolina Masters, and that record went down with a 4:23.63.
Splits:
Tuchler (backstroke): 1:02.93
Sims (breaststroke): 1:10.46
Block (butterfly): 1:09.97
Dillmann (freestyle): 1:00.27
That makes four relay world records for this foursome in 2015. In June, they set two long course relay records in Wisconsin.
Maine, representing St. Louis Aquatic Masters, was likely the busiest person in the pool, racing four times and setting two world records. The first came in the 400 IM, where Maine posted a 9:49.61. Maine took a sledgehammer to that world record in the 90-94 age group, which had been an 11:15.65 from Walter Pfeiffer since 2003.
Maine’s 400 IM splits
Butterfly: 2:25.27
Backstroke: 2:35.04
Breaststroke: 2:46.09
Freestyle: 2:03.21
Maine was back in the pool for the 200 butterfly, where he cruised to a world record of 5:24.08, crushing Pfeiffer’s mark of 5:37.23 from 2003. Maine got agonizingly close to the world record of 2:08.86 in the 100 IM by Japan’s Tokushi Komeda, posting a 2:08.89 in his swim. It will be good enough for a U.S. Masters Swimming national record, which had been a 2:14.23 by Pfeiffer.
Maine also swam in the 200 breast, and posted a USMS national record of 5:24.31, beating the former record of 5:37.31 by Jurgen Schmidt. At the 100-meter point, Maine split 2:39.24, which just barely broke the USMS record of 2:39.48 by Schmidt.
I am awestruck and inspired by all of these world-record swims – and by those who get into the often chilly water day in and day out. Cheers to you all!
Just want to point out that Thomas Maine swims for SLAM which is St Louis Area Masters (not Aquatic Masters). Tom lives in Carbondale, IL and works out with the Saluki Masters Swim Club workout group. We all think he is awesome and expect more records from him in coming meets.