Message from our LMSC Chair, Byron Shefchik
Fellow swimmers,
Our organization’s mission is “To promote health, wellness, fitness and competition for adults through swimming.” Given that practically every pool in our state is closed, and our lakes are still quite cold, we all feel frustrated with our inability to enjoy all the benefits swimming brings us. During this time without access to water, we’ll have to find other ways to do what swimming normally does for us.
Please allow me to provide a few suggestions:
1) Health and Fitness: Swimming elevates your heart rate without significant stress from impact. It builds endurance and muscular strength. During this time of social distancing, we can replace swimming with hiking, biking, or following any of the hundreds of free workouts on YouTube.
2) Wellness: Swimming can be a relaxing way to alleviate stress and is a great environment for friendships. During social distancing, we can replace swimming with yoga, meditation, or breathing exercises. Check in with your friends and find out what they are doing without swimming in their lives. You never know how much a friendly chat could mean to someone.
3) Competition: Some of us have been fortunate enough to have lane-mates to race with during every practice. And many of us enjoy the thrill of racing in a big meet. Now that meets are cancelled for the foreseeable future, replace swimming with games which you can do with your family or from a distance. My wife and I have been playing games on the phone with her family who lives in California. It’s more fun than I thought it would be!
I think we can all agree that this situation is really terrible. Let’s do our part to ensure COVID-19 fizzles away and is nothing more than a memory in the near future by limiting our close social interactions. With a little imagination, we can make our swim-less lives bearable until we can once again meet on the pool deck for the best sport in the world – SWIMMING!
Let me hear from you,
Byron Shefchik byronshefchik@yahoo.com
Swimmer Spotlight
This month we are pleased to highlight Anne Stevens, a swimmer from Fayetteville, and former Mizzou swimmer. Read all about Anne here!
Records Fall at The Block Party Meet
Megan Cameron’s club, the MC Soakers, hosted another Short Course Meters meet on February 23, with 50 swimmers from 6 states in attendance! Because we don’t host many Short Course Meters meets in our LMSC any more (Hot Springs used to host such a meet), this was a great opportunity for swimmers to enter their names into the record book for Arkansas Masters. Here’s a summary of ARKM swimmers/events/records set (S = State record, C = Citizen record):
Bonnie Adams: 50 Fly and 100 Back (S), 50 Back, 100 Free, and 200 Back (S&C)
Klista Bacon: 100 IM and 50 Fly (C), 50 Breast (S&C)
Jake Balmas: 100 Free (S)
Jacob Barnes: 100 Back (S&C)
Cameron Biggs: 800 Free (S&C)
Elizabeth Brandecker: 50 Breast (S)
Jake Clark: 100 Fly (S&C), 200 IM (S)
Ronnie Hopper: 400 Free (S)
Jessica Houdyshell: 400 Free (S&C)
Lisa Miller: 200 Free (C)
Carie O’Banion: 100 IM (C), 50 Fly, 100 Fly, 200 IM and 200 Free (S&C)
Lauren Peterson: 50 Back (C), 50 Free and 1500 Free (S&C)
Ali Stauffer: 100 IM (S), 50 Fly and 50 Free (S&C)
Kate Stauffer: 50 Free and 100 IM (S &C)
Anne Stevens: 100 IM, 100 Free and 50 Free (S&C)
Kyla Templeton: 50 Breast (S&C), 50 Fly (S)
Carrie Wallace: 50 Breast (S&C)
Cody Wilkins: 1500 Free (S)
For a full listing of records, click here. Please note that there are tabs at the bottom to toggle between Men/Women
Upcoming Events
Many meets are being cancelled or postponed, so be sure to check with the meet director for more details:
May 2, 2020, April Pools Meet, Jenks, OK, SCY
July 24-26, 2020, South Central Zones Championship (Long Course), San Antonio, TX
July 25, 2020, Oklahoma Memorial Meet, Jenks, OK, LCM
Aug. 12, 2020, USMS Summer Nationals (Long Course), Richmond, VA
Click here for a full listing of events around the country.
Arkansas Masters Swimming 