Pickering Master Splashers fielded six swimmers for the annual North York Gator’s Pentathlon meet on Sunday, December 12th. Each swimmer is required to swim 50 metres of each stroke in Individual Medley order (fly, back, breast, free), followed by the 100 I.M. Rankings are based on the cumulative time for all five events. It is one of the fastest paced events as the entire meet, including 200 m free and medley relays at the end, is held between 9 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.

Gerhard Wolfel ranked first in the Men’s 70-74 in a field of three. His cumulative time of 5:00 was 14 seconds faster than the next competitor. Daughter Ursula pointed out her father’s unique clenched fist technique when diving off the starting blocks. We all need to try this aerodynamic approach!

Glen Hanna, in his first ever swim meet, placed third out of six in the 35-39 division. Glen’s combined time of 3:33 was the best showing of the PMS team. Everyone was impressed by Ursula Wolfel’s performance in the pool as she averages only one workout per week but still managed a fourth place finish (45-49). In the same age group, Kevin Gilbert placed eighth out of 12 finishers. In the Men’s 50-54, Paul Gemmink and Andy Manahan finished 12th and 5th respectively out of 15.

We were all pleased that coach Karin was able to attend for the latter part of the Gator’s meet to provide encouragement. As placement in heats is self-selecting, Glen, Kevin and Andy decided to swim in the same heat for the 50 free and 100 I.M. This, of course, made timing for Karin more difficult.

PMS would not have been able to enter the relay teams because two male and two female swimmers are required on each team. Thankfully, two female swimmers from the Richmond Hill Masters Swim Club enabled us to enter both the free and medley races. The relays were fun but tiring as this was the sixth race in a short span of about four hours.

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Below are the cumulative time as well as the individual times for fly, back, breast, free and I.M.:

3 Glen Hanna 3:33.66 31.06 35.69 40.44 28.91 1:17.56
4 Ursula Wolfel 4:09.41 40.04 42.50 46.12 33.50 1:27.25
8 Kevin Gilbert 3:46.69 32.69 40.38 42.69 30.31 1:20.62
5 Andy Manahan 3:49.43 32.44 43.62 43.50 30.25 1:19.62
12 Paul Gemmink 4:14.01 39.38 45.50 44.19 33.88 1:31.06
1 Gerhard Wolfel 5:00.07 53.19 51.44 50.44 39.12 1:45.88