A Swimming Life by Jim Leinonen(Updated: Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:26 AM PDT)
Pat Fruin’s first trip to the U.S. Masters Swimming Short Course National Championships was a success as she medaled in all four of the events in which she competed. The Manhattan Beach resident, who swims for the Manhattan Magnum Masters swim group, was the first person to represent the team at the short course nationals, which took place May 7 through 10 at Clovis North High School in Fresno. Fruin, 65, finished in second, third, fourth and fifth place in races spread over three days.
When she got back into town, she celebrated with her colleagues at the Manhattan Beach Country Club pool where they train (see Magnum Celebration Party item in section below on May 14th). In three of the four races, she set personal bests, but her first race did not go as smoothly as it could have. She was nervous and was competing in a race she rarely had done, the 1,650-yard freestyle, which is roughly one mile and 66 laps in the pool. “I almost thought I was sick with the flu before that 1,650 because I just felt terrible,” Fruin said. “As soon as I got in the water, it wasn’t a fun race, but I didn’t feel sick anymore.”
She completed the race in the 65-to-69 age group in second place. Her time of 26:53.78 beat her previous record of 27:05 and her second-place finish would be her best at the competition. “I’ve only done a 1,650 a few times,” said Fruin.She thought she would try it, though. Her final time could have been even better, she believes.“I didn’t really warm up properly. I think I probably could have done better than I did if I had warmed up. I basically just got in the water and swam.”
After that race, she bought a racing suit, which she believes helped her dramatically in lowering her times in the other races. Of all the races, Fruin believes the 500-freestyle is her best race. She finished third in a time of 7:40.53. “That’s a good distance (for me) I think. It’s very comfortable. You can have time to think about what you are doing and kind of get into the race and at the end put a little more effort into speed. I think it was a good solid race.” “I thought the 500 was her most impressive (race),” said her husband, Dick, who shot video of his wife while she competed.
The day Fruin swam in the 500-yard freestyle, she also competed in the 50-yard butterfly. In that race she finished fourth in a time of 44.03, which beat her previous mark of 46.26. She managed to take fifth in the 50-yard freestyle and again beat her best time. She finished in 34.90, which shattered her previous best of 37.31. “Everything went pretty well, but I have things that I’m going to work on so next time I hope to be faster,” said Fruin.
The top 10 swimmers get medals at the competition, which is broken up by age groups generally every five years. Masters includes swimmers from 18 years old to people in their 90s. The oldest woman swimmer was Rita Simonton, 90, and for the men it was Brud Cleaveland, 91. All the swimmers had to meet qualifying times and there were more than 1,500 swimmers at nationals. There were swimmers from all 50 states. When she was all finished, Fruin felt she had accomplished a lot. “It’s a real high when you are finished. It’s kind of fun to talk to everybody there. You’re talking about your race and their race, and you meet people from all over.” The reason Fruin competed was to show how she compared to others in her age group. “It was in California and I just thought I would test myself to see where I was on the national level.”
One other member of the Manhattan Magnum Masters group swam in the competition, but he competed with another group because he swam in the relays and the Manhattan Beach team did not have enough participants for him. Daniel Muth, who has swum with Fruin for the past seven years, was a part of the Southern California Aquatics team where he swam in nine events. He won a gold medal in the men’s 200 freestyle relay in the 35-to-39 age group. They won the race in a time of 1:27.75. The competition proved to be good for Fruin, who has improved since she began swimming competitively. “She has made a tremendous amount of progress,” said Chuck Milam, who helped complete the paperwork that made the swimming club official in 2006. “Swimming is a very dull, repetitive sport and going to the meet, you’re nervous.” He added, “Pat really had that extra spirit and for that reason she did very, very well.”
Her husband was proud of what she accomplished.Fruin, who swims four days a week to stay fit, and the other swimmers at the club made the group official in 2006 so they could compete at the FINA Masters World Championships that took place at Stanford University. More members would have competed in Fresno recently, but many of them hold down jobs and could not attend. The next big goal is for the team is to swim at the 2010 FINA World Championships in Sweden.For more information on Masters swimming, visit http://www.usms.org/
