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2020 Short Course Yards Season Preview

a swim race

Welcome back!  It’s been a few months since our last Pacific Masters pool meet, so we’re excited to give you a quick preview of our upcoming 2020 Pacific Masters Short Course Yards swim season.  We have an excellent lineup of meets this year, with opportunities for swimmers of all ability levels.

Our 2020 season kicks off early in January with the Santa Rosa Resolution Meet on January 11th.  This meet offers 50’s and 200’s of each stroke, as well as well as the 100 and 200 IM.  Held in a nice indoor pool, this meet offers a great opportunity to measure your fitness level after the holidays and to get some early times to compare against over the course of the season.

For those looking for some longer distance racing to start the year, the Olympic Club is hosting their annual TOC 1500m race the following weekend on January 18th.  If you missed last year’s short course meters season, or if you want to get a head start on earning SCM points for the 2020 Swimmer of the Year rankings, this is an excellent opportunity to race the 1500.  Take note that this is a very popular event and is limited to 120 swimmers, so sign up now if you’re interested!

Next up is the Albany Armada Aquatic Masters' Splash & Dash Sprint Pentathlon on February 22nd.  Offering a 50 yard race of each stroke and a 100 yard IM, this is a well-liked meet for swimmers looking to fine tune their sprinting skills.  To wrap things up, this event concludes with the 200 Free Mixed and 200 Medley Mixed relays. This is a doable first-time meet for anyone.  It's also a great way to start a new season of sprint racing.

After Albany’s short and fast events, the distance swimmers get another shot the next day at the San Francisco City Mile on February 23rd.  Held at the City College of San Francisco, this meet offers the season’s first opportunity to swim the 1650y freestyle race.  Entries are limited to 96 swimmers, so interested swimmers should make sure they sign up early.

February wraps up with the USF Leap Meet on February 29th at the University of San Francisco Koret Center.  Formerly known as the Valentine’s Day meet, it will offer 50’s and 100’s of each stroke and the 100 and 200 IMs.  This is the same celebrated meet as past years, just a new name to reflect the once every four years fun of a leap year.  Don’t miss this rare chance to race on February 29!

As we move into March, the well-known meet at the Rinconada pool returns on March 14th as the Palo Alto Masters Spring Meet, hosted this year by Palo Alto Masters and Menlo Masters.  This meet provides a mix of sprint, middle-distance, and distance events and serves as the season’s first opportunity to pick up times in the 1000 freestyle or 400 IM.  The meet also concludes with its infamous 1650 butterfly race for those who want an extra challenge.

Next up is the CAL Aquatic Masters Spring Meet on March 22nd held at the UC Berkeley Spieker Aquatic Complex.  Come join us in the hallowed home pool of Matt Biondi, Natalie Coughlin, Dana Vollmer, and other swimming legends.  There are sure to be many fast times posted at this meet!  It’s also the final chance to fine tune your race strategies in a competition setting before we move into the short course yard championships.  The race lineup will include 50’s and 100’s of each stroke, the 100 and 200 IM, and the 200 and 500 freestyle events.

We’re pleased to announce that this year’s Pacific Masters Short Course Yards Championships are being hosted at the Dennis Kennedy Aquatics Center (16200 Condit Road) in Morgan Hill March 27-29.  The Morgan Hill facility has hosted many large age group swimming meets and is considered one of the fastest pools in the Pacific region, so we’re very excited to be able to hold a masters competition there.  The meet will run two 8-lane courses and the facility provides copious parking, large locker rooms, and plenty of deck seating space.  The pool is located just across the street from four hotels and is also close to downtown Morgan Hill, which provides several restaurants and sightseeing opportunities.  We’ll be posting a more in-depth article about the championship meet at Morgan Hill later this season, so stay tuned for more details.

Weekends too busy to travel to many meets this year?  No problem, we also have a couple ePostal events on our calendar this season.  First up is the TAM Miracle Mile Postal, which will run from January 1st - February 28th.  Grab a friend to time you, swim either 1650 yards or 1500 meters in your own pool, and submit your time online.  This race is held in honor of Jon Steiner, who was a long-time member of the Tamalpais Aquatic Masters team and passed away in 2006.  This race has no set fee (you decide how much you want to pay) and Tamalpais will donate 50% of the proceeds to the Go2 Foundation for Lung Cancer.

Tamalpais has also been selected as the host for the USMS 1-Hour ePostal this year.  This competition also runs from January 1st - February 29th and is considered a long distance national championship event.  Swim as far as you can in one hour and submit your total distance online to see how you compare against other swimmers in your age group from across the country.

Regardless of whether you’re an experienced veteran looking to break personal records and move up the national rankings, or a new swimmer hoping to participate in your first meet, we’ve got a lot of great competition opportunities this year.  We look forward to seeing you out there!

Links to information about these events will be posted on the Pacific Masters schedule.

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