Snow Swimming's Kurt Blohm cools down in the warmup pool following his 50 yard backstroke race. (Photo by Forrest W. Kobayashi)
Twenty-six year-old Kurt Blohm is no stranger to dominant meet weekends.
Blohm, who finished all four of his individual races this weekend in first place, set Sport Fair Winter Classic Invitational Meet records in the 50 yard backstroke (23.64) and the 100 backstroke (51.32).
Blohm is one of three talented swimmers in Snow Swimming’s senior age group. Blohm, along with teammates Matthew Haupt and Matt Fedderly, are all over 23 years old and all swam in this weekend’s meet which was held at George Mason’s Aquatic and Fitness Center and sponsored by Potomac Valley Swimming and the Potomac Marlins.
Snow Swimming’s head coach Mike Pliuskaitis has big goals in mind for the group.
“I think all of them are going to go to the 2012 Olympic Trials,” Pliuskaitis said. “They’d like to make the meet and compete. And I believe that they will.”
Pliuskaitis noted that Blohm’s leadership-by-example approach has positively impacted his younger swimmers.
Matthew Haupt, 29, battled illness for weeks leading up to the meet, but managed second place finishes in the 100 butterfly (50.07) and 200 butterfly (1:51.18).
“It’s tough for my coach or any coach to adapt to someone of my age,” said Haupt, who attended Penn State. “He can’t control me being sick, so I think if I wasn’t sick, it would be a totally different performance.”
Pliuskaitis was understanding when asked about Haupt’s performance.
“He’s been a real stud trying to get through and race his races hard,” Pliuskaitis said.
Matt Fedderly, 23, had a successful race weekend as well. He had top five finishes in five of six races, including wins in the 50 breaststroke (26.63), 100 breaststroke (57.67) and 200 breaststroke (2:05.53).
Blohm, Haupt and Fedderly combined for 12 top five finishes in their 14 races.
And, according to Blohm, we may not have seen his best this weekend.
“I think I need to go faster,” said Blohm, who attended Hope College. “I don’t now if I really hit my taper like I should have.”
The Sport Fair Winter Classic featured many other notable performers.
Ten-year-old Jacquee Clabeaux (York Swim Club) had wins in the 50 backstroke (33.05), 100 individual medley (1:11.12), 50 freestyle (28.14), 100 freestyle (1:03.39) and 50 breaststroke (35.52). She set a meet record in the 50 free and 50 breastsroke, and missed the IM meet record by a mere .04 seconds. With second and fourth place finishes to round out her weekend, Clabeaux was dominant.
Thirteen-year-old Laura Garcia (All Star Aquatics) finished first in the 100 yard butterfly (59.87), 200 \ backstroke (2:09.71) and the 200 butterfly (2:13.11). She teamed up with Hannah Lindsey to anchor the All Star Aquatics girls team.
Alex Montes de Oca, a 14-year-old from the Battlefield Area Star Swimmers (BASS) won six events and set meet records in the 100 butterfly (53.23) and the 200 butterfly (2:01.16).
Loyola Blakefield Aquatic’s Tanja Kylliainen, 16, played a major part in her team’s first place finish. She won the 100 butterfly (56.59), 400 IM (4:19.16), 200 butterfly (2:01.25), setting meet records in all three events. In addition, she also won the 500 freestyle (5:00.01) and 50 butterfly (26.89).
In all, 33 meet records were set.
“From a coaches perspective, the meet gets faster every year,” said Bill Marlin, Potomac Marlins head coach and meet manager. “Everybody is swimming fast, so it gets everybody excited to want to come out and do the meet.”
Sixteen-year-old Potomac Marlins swimmer Anna Johannes set American Paralympic Records in the 200 free (2:10.83/S-9 Classification), 100 free (1:01.66/S-9 Classification), 100 breaststroke (1:19.65/S-8 Classification) and the 50 breaststroke (37.83/S-8 Classification).
Loyola Blakefield Aquatic won the meet with a total team score of 3,796.5 points. Snow Swimming (2,693) and York Swim Club (2,570.5) came in second and third place.
Potomac Valley Swimming’s next event is scheduled for Jan. 2-3, 2010. The PVS January Distance Meet will be held at the Lee District Recreation Center.
Why are these men swimming in age group meets… Why didn’t they swim at the Tom Dolan meet where the swimming was much faster in the open age group?
Not sure what your point is or why you have a problem with then swimming in this meet. Cassels meet is a winter championship meet much as Dolan is although you are correct in saying it is not as fast . These swimmers are attached to a team that choose to go to the Cassel meet, not Dolan and that is why they swam there.
As far as them being older, that is nothing but a positive thing and certainly not new. I also thought it was great when their was a 26 year old, a 38 year old and a couple in between men (attached to cubu, york and tac I believe) that swam at Dolan a few years ago. What a great experience , to have them compete at what is considered an age group meet. And everything being relative, how wonderful for Phelps to compete at an age group meet (see article on RTW homepage) or Lochte or a host of other older men.
It is great that younger swimmers see that swimming is a life long sport and a commitment and that the they desire to set goals and be better can last past 18.
How does he go sub-21 in the 50 and only 51 mid in the 100?
Are you sure about that 20.99 in the 50 back? That is probably the 50 Free which is still seriously fast/
Matt and Paul, thanks for the heads up—corrected his 50 back time.
No comments about the 11/12 age group??
Both the male and female winners were from York Swim Club with 6 1st place finishes each and 1 2nd place each to round out their meet results. Both also set multiple meet records.
Should be recognized without a doubt..It seems YORK is on the comeback trail with more swimmers making finals at Dolan and Cassels and doing well at the mid season meets then they have in several years.
You gotta love it when kids do well that are not on swimming treadmill clubs.
I am a little disappointed that Anna Johannes’ FOUR American records is mentioned as almost an after thought in this article. I think it’s great that SNOW’s senior relay is made up of guys trying to make the 2012 Trials (insert Springsteen’s “Glory Days” here), but what about someone who is already representing the USA internationally?
Any thoughts?
Not that it really matters, but the time he went in the 100 back on the relay (50.83) is the actual meet record in the 100 back.
Glory Days indeed. It’s great that these guys are still swimming and setting goals for themselves.
However, I find it funny that they chose to highlight the ex-college guys… they already had their time in college to get recognized. What about the 17 year olds that beat them? Where are they going to college? That would have been nice to include in the article.
uhm the 17 year olds didn’t beat Blohm he finished first with fast times. can you swim faster? or are you just jealous.