The Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics took top honors at last weekend’s Far Western 2008 Short Course Championship, a record-setting swim meet that boosted the national standing and reputation of the Pleasanton Seahawks swim club and the city that hosted the four-day event.
A total of 160 teams from Canada, western states and clubs as far east as Virginia and Louisiana participated in the event, with 1,178 swimmers competing. All day Saturday and Sunday, with early morning and late afternoon temperatures dipping into the 60s, swimmers stood in their dripping wet suits for the start horn to sound or to look at the massive electronic scoreboard for results once they had finished their event.
Special praises were voiced by visiting teams to the Seahawks, the city of Pleasanton and the Dolores Bengtson Aquatic Center and its complex of an Olympic-size pool where the competition was held and adjoining pools used for practice, warm ups and cool downs.
“We came down a week ago to this invitational meet, and really for two reasons,” said Chris Nelson, head coach of Edmonton’s Olympian Swim Club. “In Canada, we compete in meters, so it’s good for our swimmers to learn how to qualify in yards so that they’re prepared for competition in the States. Also, even though competitive swimming is growing at a rate of 7 percent a year in Canada, there’s more depth in the competition here and our 11- to 18-year-old swimmers needed to experience that.”
When the final scores were tallied after the meet, Nelson’s Olympians finished eighth with 187 total accumulated points, far below Palo Alto’s 741. That high score was nearly 300 points ahead of the second place winner, the Crow Canyon Sharks, who scored 475 points.
Other teams finishing in the top 10 included De Anza Cupertino Aquatics, third with 354 points; Santa Clara Swim Club, fourth with 301; Nova (Virginia) Swim Club, fifth, 217.5; Mission San Jose Aquatics, sixth, 207; Westside (Arizona) Silver Finds, seventh, 197; Olympian, eighth; North Coast Aquatics, ninth, 166, and the Colorado Stars, 10th, with 142 points.
The Seahawks finished 11th with 129 points, one of the club’s best showings ever.
In addition, its star performer, 12-year-old Nick Silverthorn, dominated much of the meet, setting a new Pacific swimming record in the 200-yeard freestyle and setting five Western records in multiple events, including the 200-yard backstroke and 500 freestyle.
“Nick is just an amazing guy,” said Head Age Coach Todd Tucker. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Nick since he joined the Seahawks when he was 8 and he keeps getting better all the time. He doesn’t turn 13 until next December, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of Nick at Seahawks and other swim competitions for a long time to come.”
Many records were broken at the long weekend meet, which began last Thursday, according to Alex Dourov, meet director. These included 53 new qualifying times in the Far Western record book, 358 times reported to the Pacific Swimming league that includes the Seahawks, and 93 new national reportable times.
For the several thousand swimmers, their parents and fans who were at the aquatic center events over the four days, it was not always about swimming. The Seahawks arranged special Far Western rates at seven local hotels with those and others mostly filled much of the past week. Local restaurants and many stores also reported brisk business, although some coaches said their groups relied on take-out and hotel room delivery service after a hard day of swimming.
Teams such as Nelson’s Olympian squad spent the week in Pleasanton, arriving March 30 to take advantage of the sights to see here as well as spring break in Edmonton schools.
“Like some of the other teams, we took in the sights in the Bay Area, spending time at Fisherman’s Wharf and touring Alcatraz, but also dining locally and staying at the newly-named Marriott Hotel (on Dublin Canyon Road),” Nelson said.
Diane Casey, coach of the Nova (Va.) Swim Club, which is located on the west side of Richmond, said her group especially enjoyed swimming in the Far Western meet and at the Pleasanton aquatic center.
“This was the biggest meet we’ve been to number-wise and it’s a little bit different coming to the West Coast,” she said. “You do things differently here and, of course, swimming outside in the sun is great. We do all indoor swimming, even in the summer. Your facilities are better out here. We don’t have very many 50-meter pools. Plus, you have lots of space for the kids.”
Casey and other coaches from distant cities also said their swimmers liked the experience of traveling without their parents.
“We travel as a team, with just me and another coach as chaperones,” said Todd Schmitz, head age coach of the Colorado Stars from Aurora, near Denver. “Most of these kids probably aren’t going to remember any times they set in the pool, but they’re going to remember the experiences they had on this trip and the things we did.”
Pleasanton’s weather is one of those “things.” Schmitz said it was 39 degrees and snowing in Denver when they came to balmy Pleasanton early last week, although swimming outdoors in temperatures that fluctuated during the day was also a new experience for swimmers.
“It was good for our kids to learn to swim with diversity and varying temperatures,” he explained. “We don’t swim outside except for about three months a year in the summer.”
Kathy Narum, this year’s president of the Pleasanton Seahawks, said both the Seahawks and Pleasanton benefitted from the Far Western meet. Besides hotels being filled, she heard compliments from many coaches on the aquatic center, the nearby park where teams could pitch tents and where swimmers could take a break, and the close proximity to where parents also could spend some time when their children weren’t competing. There was also a steady stream of pedestrian traffic to Noah’s Bagels, Starbucks and the Safeway supermarket just north of the aquatic center.
Narum said that as the host club, the Seahawks spent $6,000 for trophies and $1,000 for gift baskets from GourMade Cookery, and printed a program of events at the meet that included, along with the names of visiting teams and their swimmers, several pages of advertising from sponsors that helped pay the costs of the event.
The Far Western also contributed to the Seahawks funding needs. Swimmers paid $4.50 for each event they swam in plus a $5 general “splash” fee, with part of those fees going to the Pacific Swimming conference, but most of it to the Seahawks. The funds will help the Seahawks with travel expenses when its swimmers travel to other competitions.
“We have sectional meets for the whole team twice a year, usually in Southern California,” Narum said. “Then the best swimmers, based on qualifying times, are eligible to compete in national swim meets held in different parts of the country.”
Recent trips have taken Seahawks swimmers to the U.S. Open and Senior Nationals on Long Island, Indianapolis, Ohio State University in Columbus, Texas, Stanford University and Seattle.
Head Coach Steve Morsilli and Tucker accompany swimmers when they travel to other meets as well as work with them in daily practice sessions at the aquatic center. Other coaches include Heather Morsilli, Joe Loftus, Melanie Ward, Jon Pallesen and Sherrie Gilliam. Coaches work with specific age groups, including a novice group, with each group developing swimming technique that allow them to compete in events geared for their age group and skills.
Tucker, for example, has a full-time job at United Airlines, but devotes most of his free time in Pleasanton to coach the head-age group that swims in major competitions.
Morsilli, the Seahawks’ full-time coach, has been with the organization since it was formed in 1982. From three swimmers ranked in the Nor Cal Top 10 in the first year of competitive swimming, to seven team members qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Trials, the 20-plus members of the Seahawks have consistently sent swimmers to nationals, sectionals, Western zones as we as the Far Western and Junior Olympic meets.
Morsilli is certified by the American Swim Coaches Association as a Level 5 coach, the highest possible, which ranks him in the top 2 percent in the nation.
For more information about the Seahawks and applications to join the club, send an email to Tucker at toddtucker@comcast.net or sign on to the club’s Web site at www.pleasantonseahawks.org.
