Thanks for your participation in the 2011 April Pools Swim Meet!

Hello swimmers, volunteers, and supporters:

I wish to thank all of you for making the 2011 April Pools meet a success. BIGGEST thank you to our officials Russell Hurst and Annette Vickery, and to our computer man, Gene Vickery. Also to Coach (and swimmer) Jason Sauer for assisting in getting Tulsa Public Schools to give permission to rent the pool for the meet. The meet would not happen without these four people! Oh, one more person I should add to the list is my boyfriend, Steve Lee! I can't be a meet director if Steve isn't around to keep me in line. THANK YOU!

Next big thank you goes to everyone who responded to my request for help at the meet. Coach Jason's Booker T. Washington HS swim team cleaned the pool deck and tested the touch pads for us. Thanks to the timers and to those of you who came early to help me get things set up before the meet, and to those that stayed a little longer to help clean up. Swimmers, if someone in your support crew assisted in timing, and they aren't getting this email, please thank them for me. Events big and small require a lot of volunteers, so thank you so much for all you did to help me with this meet.

Finally, thanks to all the swimmers who participated in the meet. We had a good turnout in 35 swimmers. Of course, I always strive for more entries so I hope you will recruit your swimming buddies for future masters meets.

Allow me to give you a few tidbits about some of the swimmers:
--I'd like to recognize Ruth Atkinson, who at 74 yrs old, swam in her first masters meet. Her BTW swim group is so proud of her!
--It was fun to have former Tulsan David Zimmerman at the meet with his swim group from Missouri. Rick Wooden, I hope you will swim some individual events at the next masters meet!
--Good luck to Sean Callan who is going to USMS Nationals in Arizona at the end of the month.
--Courtney Nichols, who I've know since she was an age group swimmer for Swim Tulsa, swam today along with her husband, Casey. Leslie Ellis, another new masters swimmer, swam for Coach Courtney at Broken Arrow HS just a few years ago.
--Thanks to Thad Davis for representing Kansas at our meet! Thad is from Wichita.
--Colin & Kriss McClain's daughters, Sophia and Briana, help to time during the meet. The McClains, along with Tonya Vandermey, swim in Arkansas.

We are in the process of finalizing the results and they should be posted very soon. I will send out another email when they are ready for viewing. Any state or citizen records will be indicated on the results. I also have split sheets for each swimmer. If you swam an event over a 50 in distance, you will have a split time. I will send these out individually, so give me time to get that done.

Last, to those of you that went to eat at Spaghetti Warehouse: so sorry for the delay in getting seated. We arrived much earlier than expected and they weren't ready for us. Totally my fault in planning that one, so PLEASE don't hold it against S.W. Once we got some food in our bellies, everything was great! Live & Learn! Can someone take over the party planning next year, please! :)

Again, I very much appreciate your support of the April Pools meet. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make it better. There is a very good chance that this meet will move to a new venue (brand new pool) next year. I hope to see all of you at upcoming masters events. I believe next on the schedule in our area is the Bentonville, AR meet June 11. As for Tulsa events, you can expect a long course meet in August-- no date set yet. Also, the 4th annual Tallchief Open Water Challenge will be September 11 at Zink Ranch in Sand Springs.

That's all for now. Keep Swimming!!

Denise Smart
Tulsa Masters Swim Club
918-749-2253