Mike and Jeff would like to congratulate the following people for having the great honor of making FINA WORLD TOP TEN 2011.  Yes that was world top times.  In SCM Individual events:  Galen Rinaldi, 6th in the 400 Free, Fred Goldner, 4th in the 1500 Free and John Craig, FIRST in the 200 Fly.  In LCM Individual events:  Galen Rinaldi, 10th in the 200 Free, 9th in the 400 Free, 4th in the 800 Free, 2nd in the 1500 Free (to Janet Evans), Sheila Stolarski, 9th in the  100 Back, Fred Goldner, 8th in the 400 Free, 6th in the 800 Free, 4th in the 1500 Free, John Craig, 6th in the 100 Fly.

For SCM Relays:  200 Free:  200-239 Women’s:  Colleen Brandon, Barbara Baker, Pam Henry Moss, Sheila Stolarski, 800 Free:  200-239 Women’s FIRST PLACE:  Colleen Brandon, Barbara Baker, Pam Henry Moss, Sheila Stolarski, 160-199 Mixed:  Michael Hoffman, Galen Rinaldi, Tait Michael, and Jeff Sargent, 200-239 Men’s:  Andy Reul, Jake Gulick, Jack Geoghegan, and Jeremy Virgil.

For LCM Relays:  400 Free:  160-199 Men’s:  Myles Lynch, Jeff Sargent, Greg Sargent, James Lewis.  200-239 Mixed:  Andy Reul, Michael Laux, Charlene Puska, Galen Rinaldi.  200 Medley:  160-199 Mixed:  Sheila Stolarski, Myles Lynch, Gregory Sargent, Galen Rinaldi.

Apologies to anyone who was missed.  Please let me know if you know of someone else who should be included in this distinguished list. 

CONN Masters went to another big meet and did very well.  High point winner for Connecticut was John Craig with 22 points.  He got a 1st in the 200 Fly, 4th in the 100 Fly, and 7th in the 100 Back.  Almost as impressive as the top finishes was that in 2 events, John was able to swim within .1 seconds of his seed time.  Fred Goldner also got a first place in the 1650 and 3rd in the 200 Free.  Greg Sargent had a 6th place in the 100 IM, 7th in the 200 Fly, and 10th in the 100 Fly.  William Traester had a 9 place finish in the 200 IM and Arthur Gunzl had 2 10th place finishes in the 50 and 100 Back.  CONN Masters had 55 points which got them 63rd out of 152 teams.  Way to go CONN Masters.

For those of you who love open water swimming, this is shaping up to be a good year.  For those of you who haven’t done open water swimming, try it.  All triatheletes, get a jump on the competition by practicing some open water swims where you can concentrate just on the swimming.  The CT Open Water Championships in honor of Dave Parcells will be held in a new location this year at Lake Quassapaug on June 30th.  This is a USAS and USMS joint meet and a great opportunity to see some of the best swimming in Connecticut by all ages.  For more information, see CT Open Water Champs.  Greenwich has posted information on both their 1 mile and 2 mile swims.  Quassapaug Sailing Center has posted information on their Open Water Festival which offers a 3 mile, 1 1/2 mile, and 1/2 mile swim and the opportunity to try all three.  Information for all of these events can be found in the Meet Results tab.  Westport has also stated that they will be hosting their Compo Beach Mile Swim.  Information will be added when it is available.

Please help me welcome Jeff Sargent to the list of Conn Master’s Officers in the Vice Chair position.  He humbly accepted the position for which he was unanimously voted into at out last meeting.  This is a position that is required by USMS.  Thank you to Jeff for allowing CONN Masters to meet this requirement by accepting the position.  Please visit the Officers page if you would like to contact Jeff.

Connecticut sent two teams to the Y Nationals last weekend: Westport/Weston and Wilton.  There were so many great swims that it would be to difficult to name them all so here are the highlights.  Westport had 6 relays place, 3 got second places.  Wilton had 20 relays, 9 got first places.  Mike Laux, Sheila Stolarski, Kristin Gary, Catherine Milton, Susan Wager, Mereidth Moore, Margit Jebe, Barbara Love, Dan Goodwin, Peter Holmquist, Jeff Sargent all had an individual first place.  Lauren Finnegan, Pam Moss, Markley Rizza, Bill Geoghegan, Danielle Honrath, Denise Callahan, Jill Looney, Cheryl Kupan, Lynne Zareski, Gregory Sargent, James Lewis received at came in top three.  Tracy Phillips, Heather Friel, Coleen Brandon, Sian Nimkoff, Sara Schrager, Alexander Jason, Steven Shtab, James Kroll also all placed in individual events.  That is 30 swimmers in all.  Hope everyone had fun and we are very proud of all of you.  If I forgot anyone or left out a team, please email me for a correction.

CONN Master’s only had one swimmer at the Zone Championships but Peter Berghaus did us very proud.  Peter swam 8 events over 2 days.  He placed second in the 100 Ba, 200 Ba, 200 IM and 400 IM.  He placed third in the 50 Br, 200 Br, and 50 Ba.  He placed fifth in the 100 IM with a great time (which just goes to show having a great time and a great place don’t always happen together).  The results can be seen at Colonies Zone Championships 2012 or by going to the Meet Results page.

All members are welcome to come to the meeting and practice at Meriden YMCA on Wednesday, April 18th.  The meeting will start at 6:30 and the practice will start at 7:30.  Meriden Y is located at 110 West Main Street in Meriden.

Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen is going to be doing a freestyle clinic on April 21st at East lyme High School from 12:00-4:30.  Karlyn is a world record holding Masters Swimmer who has been giving swim clinics for pool and open water swimmers/triathletes for years.  Participants will have before and after videotaping of their strokes.  Space is limited to 12 participants and the cost is $175.  Go to:  Faster Freestyle Clinic Registration to register.

Incase you want another chance at SCY before Nationals, The Colonies Zone SCY Championships will be April 13th to April 15th at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  Registation can be done online at https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1463&smid=3616 and is open until April 6th.  There will be a Colonies Zone meeting April 15th at 8:30 am for any LMSC officer or delegate who is interested in attending.  If you are interested in becoming a CONN Masters officer, please contact Mike Laux at ctchair@usms.org.

Online registration for Spring Nationals in Greensboro, NC closes March 23 at midnight.   Click http://www.usms.org/content/scnats12meetinfo to register.  If you are interested get your entry in quickly.