Oregon Trail Invitational-Aug 2009

LGSC Parents/Swimmers:

Thanks to all of you who swam or helped out with the Oregon Trail meet here this weekend. Hosting a meet takes a lot of work from a lot of people and we had many step up this weekend to make the meet run smoothly.

Thanks especially to Karen Clay and Lynn Tovar for running the meet computer and dealing with things like cords being pulled out in the middle of an event, the computer shutting down because it was hot, etc.

Thank you to Rob McNeil and Tajah McDermott for running our great timing system. The timing system was purchased a few years ago with fundraising and a generous grant from the Grande Ronde Hospital foundation. It takes knowledge to set up and run the system properly, but the results of accurate timing and a great timing board for everyone to view makes the meet easier to follow.

Janet Hume-Schwartz served as our Chief Timer and kept all of the timers on task and the timing area very organized.

Nicki Ebel was outstanding at recruiting many helpers to make food for our hospitality room and keep the officials, workers and timers fed, watered and happy.

Darren Dutto did a nice job announcing when he wasn't swimming, showing the kids that an old guy can still swim too.

We have several certified officials who worked the meet, including Shalem O'Rourke, who coordinated all of our officials and training of officials.

Dave Felley and Nicki Ebel served as stoke and turn judges.

We also had several other parents on deck getting observation time toward their stroke and turn official certifications, including Karen Clay and Becky Mullarky.

Lia Spiegel (Abby and Dan Felley's mom) took over our snack shack, which is an important fundraiser for the team. She kept some popular items we have served in the past and added some new items to the menu, and worked hard to make it all come together. My kids enjoyed the finger jello.

Shalem O'Rourke put together our heat sheets and does a beautiful job with these.

Emily Insko did a lot of behind the scenes work (like make sure the heat sheets got copied and all of the teams paid us) as well as worked the heat sheet table.

Sandy Smith worked tirelessly to organize the awards and get them all organized and labeled. She came up with a great idea to have embroidered towels for the high point winners. They had beautiful embroidery of a covered wagon. It was a usefull and wonderful gift to give our high point winners ask one of our high point winners to show you sometime (Dhara Chai McDermott,

Garren Dutto, Bryce Ebel or Allie Godfrey).

Chrystine Brown organized the little ones in our bullpen. The 8 and under swimmers were shuttled to their correct lanes and those events went off without any problems. We have been to other meets where our younger swimmers missed events because the host team's bullpen was not run properly. Missed events can lead to much disappointment and tears with the little ones and Chrystine made sure they all had a good experience at our meet.

Finally, our coaching staff of Joe Andrews, Jan Gillies and Chris Tritchka did a wonderful job with all of the swimmers throughout the summer and at our meet this weekend.

We also had many other volunteers who served as pool marshalls, timers or just helped post results. Every person who helped is much appreciated and really helped us to run a very organized, smooth, fun meet. If I mentioned you (or did not because I am running on not enough sleep), please give yourself a pat on the back. If you are interested in helping at future meets, please let me know and I will help you to find a job that you enjoy.

We are planning on hosting some smaller dual meets beginning this fall. We will schedule one a quarter. These will be a great opportunity for kids and parents to keep up and practice doing a swim meet. It is also an opportunity for those who are hesitant about competing to swim in a low pressure meet without any travel involved. The first dual is scheduled tentatively for October 10th.

I hope to see you at the LGSC annual meeting Monday, August 17th.
Corrine Dutto
LGSC meet director