WH2O'ers Hitting The Pool

Some of our members have gone and posted video's on them swimming on YouTube. Check out this one of Adam Davis, Gregg Ogorzelec, Grady Harmon, Chris Smith swimming back in November at the UCLA SCM swim meet.


Mens Masters 200 Free Relay:

Our Newest Member

Team member Alexia Nalewaik sent me this video of a swimmer she met on a recent open water swim. After much conversation, she managed to talk the swimmer into joining WH2O! Welcome aboard! The board unanimously voted to waive this new swimmer's SPMA and Admin Fees because, well, they're in the ocean and probably won't make it to the West Hollywood pool anytime soon.

Check out the next entry to find out more about Alexia's accomplishment in swimming to Catalina. Thanks, Alexia and Congrats!

Your Loving Secretary

WH2O team member Alexia Nalewaik tackles Catalina yet again!

The Mermaids joined with three “mermen” to swim across the 22-mile Catalina Channel from Cabrillo Beach (San Pedro, California) to Long Point (Catalina, California) on January 15, 2008. The distance was swum in 12 hours, 0 minutes, 40 seconds.












The six-person team for the mixed 3/3 relay included Alexia Nalewaik (Pasadena, California), Diana Corbin (Beltsville, Maryland), Don VanCleve (Culver City, California), Davina Walker (San Diego, California), David Palomino (La Jolla, California), and Greg Farrier (San Clemente, California).












Although Catalina crossings are typically swum between the months of July and September, when the water is significantly warmer, this team was well prepared for water temperatures that varied from 53 to 55.6 degrees. In accordance with CCSF rules, each team member wore only a swimsuit, cap, goggles and earplugs. With very little wind and a nice sunny day, conditions were ideal for the crossing. The team was accompanied at times by marine life during the swim, including dolphins, sea lions, and large purple-striped jellyfish. However, the highlight of the day was a pod of fin whales that surfaced alongside the swimmers and circled the boat for approximately two hours.












The relay commemorates the first successful Catalina Channel swim, 81 years ago. William Wrigley, Jr. sponsored a competition on January 15, 1927, with a $25,000 purse to the winner. Of the 102 swimmers who entered the race, only one entrant (George Young) completed the crossing. The 1927 Wrigley Ocean Marathon swim began a long history of Channel swimming in the United States.












The Mermaids is a squad of eleven female swimmers from across the United States who excel at long-distance swimming, co-captained by Alexia Nalewaik and Claudia Rose. Their intent is to find interesting stretches of water to cross, some of which have never before been swum. Other events scheduled for the Mermaids this year include a relay from Coronado to La Jolla Cove in April, a relay from bridge to bridge in San Francisco in May, and a relay at Pennock Island, Alaska in August.

Female WH2O members are encouraged to contact Alexia at alexia.nalewaik@mossadams.com or (213) 399-1373 to participate in future ocean swims.

Water Polo ala Paris

With IGLA a little over 6 months away, I thought it would be fun to revisit last year in Paris. This covers all of water polo for Paris 2007, but a big portion of it is our final game with QUAC. Watch it, learn, and get fired up to take back the championship in DC.

IGLA TIP 2007 Clip Waterpolo
Uploaded by ParisAquatique

Holiday Party Pictures

New Year's bells have rung; it's time to settle in for 2008. But let's savor the holidays one last time...



Thanks to Boyd for hosting an awesome Holiday Party. Now get back to work.

WH2O at Regionals

A group of WH20'ers travelled to the SPMA regionals Nov 30-Dec 2 where they swam oceanside at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. The Belmont pool, which was originally built in 1968 to host the Olympic trials, hosted the WH20 contingent including Dan Adams, Luis Bahamon, Stephen Benjamin, Amy Dantzler, Adam Davis, Scott Genkinger, Errol Graham, Grady Harmon, Paulo Figueiredo, Jon Kaufmann, Chuck Larson, Brad Lengyel, Joel McKenna, Gregg Ogorzelec, Brian Olver, Chris Smith, Matt Schmidt, Jessica Seaton, Doug Wilson, Tom Wilson and Tamara Draper. Tamara D, who was red-shirted due to injury, led the cheering section which included Bryan Libit, Jonathon Price, Rocky DeAngelis as well as team significant others Susan (Grady) and Mike (Matt). Our coach for the weekend was Kiley Ames-Klein.

The meet began with the dreaded 1500 freestyle. Chuck L. showed off both his swim prowess and brain power by entering the first heat with a fake time - so he could go back to the office –but only after placing second in his age group! The rest of the distance swimmers could only wait glumly for their heats to be called on Friday but once they swam they proved that WH20 can go the distance as all who entered placed. The 1500 was followed by the 400 IM where Paulo placed 3rd and Luis placed 8th. The day ended with the 800 free with an amazing swim by Gregg, Brad and a breathless just-off-the-plane Tom Wilson.

Saturday saw the day open with Amy Dantzler dazzling her team mates with her 2nd place (swimming against former Olympian Susan von der Lippe) win in the 200 free thus setting the precedent for a day full of great WH20 swims. Not to be outdone, the men entered the 200 free in droves with fantastic swims by Brian O (1st), Jon (5th), Gregg (5th), Dan (6th), Adam (7th), Joel (8th), Luis, Brad and
Scott all swimming this event.

Next up - 50 fly swum WH20 Englishman Stephen Benjamin (2nd), Grady (5th), Adam (8th) Errol and Paulo (2nd). Jolly good swims! As the meet progressed, we then saw Brian O (1st), Jon K (3rd) and Luis in 100 back; Matt (1st), Grady (4th) and Dan (8th) in the 100 breast. In the 200 fly Amy (1st) dazzled again, as did Joel (3rd). Chris (1st) showed up on Sunday to swim the 50 free, as did Stephen (5th), Grady (8th), Adam (7th), and Brad.

The 200 IM follows the 50 free and Chris was anxious to make up for lost time. So he entered this event as well and placed first, setting a precedent of great swims by Brian O and Matt. Luis and Paulo (2nd) also swam the IM.

We swam on to the 400 free where the women – Amy (1st) and Jessica (4th) - showed the men how it's done. The men's response was to continue with the meet tradition of commandeering the distance events as Brian O (1st), Gregg (3rd), Jay (3rd), Chuck (1st), Brad (8th), Dan (7th), Luis (8th), Paulo (5th) and Doug (8th) all contributed to the WH20 sweep of this event.

On to the 100 fly, where there was a strong showing by Chuck (6th), Errol (8th) and Paulo (3rd). In other short axis events we had a similar strong showing with Matt (1st), Chris (1st), Grady (5th), Brad (3rd) and Jay (6th) in the 100 breast.

The short axis swimmers then had a break as they cheered their long axis teammates on with Brian O (1st) and Chuck (6th) in the 200 back, while Coach Kiley put together a 400 IM relay of Brad (back), Brian O (breast), Adam (fly) and Chris (free).

Stephen (2nd) swam the 100 free as did Adam (5th), Brad, Gregg (5th), Doug and Errol. Matt (1st) and Brian O (1st) both swam the 200 breast – soon they'll be in the same age group and one of them will have to come in second. Dan (5th) – displaying his newfound swim camp skills on his turns - and Jay (5th) swam this event as well. Errol (6th) swam the 50 back, warming up the pool for Stephen (1st), Grady (3rd), Adam (3rd), Matt (2nd) and Luis who finished up the swim meet with the 100 IM.

With so many great swims, West Hollywood had a ninth place finish.

The 25th Anniversary Video

USMS Top 10 Rankings 2007

Congratulations to the following WH2O swimmers for making USMS Top Ten for 2007

Short Course Yards:

Men 18-24
Christopher Smith   
3rd 50 free         
5th 100 free        
7th 100 breast 
9th 50 breast  
         
Jonathan Russell 
1st 200 free
1st 500 free
2nd 50 back
2nd 100 back
3rd 100 free

Men 25-29
Brian Olver      
2nd 500 free
2nd 1000 free
3rd 200 back
3rd 400 IM
5th 200 fly
5th 200 IM
6th 200 breast

Justin Brannock
1st 500 free
5th 200 free
7th 100 free

Wadley    
3rd 1650 free
4th 1000 free  
4th 500 free

Matt Schmidt
6th 50 breast
7th 100 breast
8th 200 breast

Men 30-34
Brian Wright
8th 200 back

Men 50-54
Tom Reudy
4th 200 IM
4th 200 breast
6th 100 IM

Men 60-64
Paulo Figueiredo
8th 200 fly

Women 40-44
Amy Dantzler
3rd 1650 free
3rd 1000 free
6th 500 free
8th 200 free

Women 50-54
Morri Kleine Spang
9th 50 free

Relays

Men 18+
1st 800 free relay    
Justin Brannock 
Matt Schmidt  
Brian Olver  
Jonathan Russell

2nd 200 free relay
Christopher Smith
Jonathan Russell
Brian Olver
Justin Brannock

Mixed 18+
8th 200 medley relay  
Kiley Ames-Klein 
Matt Schmidt  
Sherry West  
Christopher Smith 

10th 200 free relay
Brian Olver
Kiley Ames-Klein
Amy Dantzler
Christopher Smith

Long Course Meters

Amy Dantzler (40-44)
6th - 200 free
3rd - 400 free
2nd - 800 free
1st - 1500 free

Slava Agafonoff (18-24)
7th - 50 breast
6th - 100 breast
10th - 200 IM

A Note About the Holiday Party...

November's half over; the holiday season arrives, and calendars are filling fast. Here's a date to put down:

WH2O's Annual Holiday Extravaganza.
Saturday, December 15th, 2007.

Details to follow, but mark it in your calendar.

Your Loving Secretary

UCLA Swim Meet

by Christopher Smith

On Saturday, November 3, a small group of swimmers stole away to the Land of the Bruins and represented our team at the UCLA Bruin Masters Short Course Meters meet. What I expected to be a cold, somewhat stressful, and lonely competition turned out to be quite a bright, relaxed, and sociable one.

The weather was beautiful as I entered the familiar swimming complex at the Student Activities Center (formerly the Men's Gym). I set up shop in the back corner after figuring out what should be a healthy balance between solitude, shade, and warm rays which I anticipated would last through the day. Expecting to be alone for the day, I came equipped with my iPod which I instantly turned on for warm-up motivation. Within 10 minutes, I found WH2O teammates Gregg Ogorzelec, Adam Davis, Tamara Draper, and Grady Harmon. No need for that iPod! We quickly formed a 200 Meter Freestyle Relay and ended up winning our 120-159 age group.

The meet was casual and comfortable. In gearing up for Regionals, most of us agreed we were essentially attending to gauge our mid-season progress. And to have a good time, of course. Gregg and Adam spent the morning warming up,
swimming, and recovering from what I (a devout sprinter) consider the most
grueling event, the 800M Freestyle. Grady, Tamara, and I swam the ever-popular
sprint freestyle events. Grady topped his day off with a nice 200M Free, while
Tamara dabbled in a 50M Butterfly and I attempted the 100M and 200M IM's. After all, we had to try out our new techniques after all of that stroke work these past weeks!

Though our team was small, the camaraderie echoed that which I experienced at Nationals in Washington this past May. The Bruin Meet ended up confirming not only that even L.A. weather is unpredictable, but more so my belief that our team consists of unique and supportive individuals who share a real passion for the water. Congrats to everyone who made it out!

Santa Clarita Swim Meet

by Seymour Liao

After quite a long hiatus from the blocks and some inkling of going to IGLA in Washington DC next year, I decided to take the plunge and sign up for a meet. Given that it’s now short course meters season, the likely venue for IGLA, it seemed like a good opportunity to get a notion of what reasonable entry times would be. The last meet I swam in was IGLA Paris (2000!), and the only thing that I really remember about my swimming was that fishnet stockings provide much more drag--in the water that is--than one might think. So I picked a handful of events (50 fly, 100 breast, 200 free and 200 IM), drove up to Santa Clarita on Saturday, October 20th and deck entered what I hoped would be times that I could easily beat. That way I could worry about more realistic challenges such as not disqualifying myself after seven years of practicing illegal turns, keeping my goggles on as I entered the water and not false starting.

Upon walking onto the pool deck whom did I see finishing the 1500? None other than Dan Adams, who said that he swam well but unfortunately his time wasn’t as fast as he hoped. No worries Dan. You made up for it on the 100 breast when you swam almost the entire race with your goggles around your neck and were only a tenth of a second off your best time. (Hmmmm…. don't know why I was worried about that.) Dan finished off the day with a 50 fly, but requested that I not divulge the results of that race. It should be sufficient to know that my time was faster--I mean come on Dan, really.


The real star of the day, fashion footwear expert and third WH20 swimmer in attendance was Gregg Orgorzelec, who swam the 100, 200 and 400 free. Our newly ordained Most Improved Swimmer of the Year dropped his 400 free time by two seconds from just two weeks prior at Mission Viejo with an impressive 4:37.32. Gregg’s 50 split times demonstrated his great pacing! Way to go Gregg! And you looked fabulous in those red pumps (well, Crocks) you were wearing on the deck. Gregg also turned in an impressive 2:08.79 for the 200 free. (Sorry Gregg, I missed your 100 time.)

As for me, I can say that I did indeed beat all the times I entered, although the 200 IM by only 2 seconds (d’oh) and didn’t DQ (yeah). One nice thing about small meets is they go by fast. I have to admit I felt like I swam a workout more than a meet given how fast the events came up. So for all of you thinking about IGLA there are two more meets in this short course meters season – Woodland Hills Turkey Shoot on Sunday, November 18th and Regional Championships hosted by Long Beach Grunions (“Two words. fa boo” – Marc St. James) November 30th through December 2nd.

The Anniversary Video

Okay, wh2o.org is going multi-media. I'm in the process of converting the video yearbook that screened at the banquet into a clip that can be posted on our blog. Watch for it in the next two weeks.

Your Loving Secretary

WH2O Celebrates 25 Years

by Seth Harrington

The San Antonio Winery lies just north of Chinatown right across the Los Angeles River, and near the intersection of three major train lines. It is one of the most unlikely places to find a winery, you could think of. But, like so many hidden gems in Los Angeles, you turn a corner and there it is, a classy winery that could be right out of Napa Valley.

Our guests began arriving at 3pm sharp, and by quarter after, there were over seventy people in the room. There was an initial ice-breaker, that had people collecting signatures from members who joined the same year an event happened. For example, a box on the paper said “When Ellen came out,” and then you had to find someone who had joined in 1997 and get them to sign.

Then, as the music of Erasure pumped out of the sound system, the fashion show began! 15 members, each wearing a different WH2O t-shirt from a different year, strode down the catwalk and threw some attitude. Neal Wiener took to the podium and narrated the history behind each one. Tom Reudy gave us a special show, when he stripped off his shirt and tossed it over his head. Had she been there, I’m sure Towelette Moist might have dryly remarked “nothing we haven’t seen before.”

As the fashion show wound to a close, the meal was served. Amazingly out of a group of 86 people, there were only two vegetarians. The rest feasted on a full-course meal with Chicken Marsala as it’s main course.

Then it was awards time! First, Seth Harrington, the outgoing VPsocial read a long list of volunteers, thanking them for their help during the year, then President Bryan Libit presented the Volunteer of the Year award. It went to Paul Abraham. Brian Olver collected the Spirit Award, after an amazing year of serving double duty as both coach and board member.

Ben Carillo and Joy Mendenhall won the two Water Polo awards; MVP and Most Improved, respectively. Most Improved Swimmer went to Gregg Orgozelc. Among the many people he thanked was his boyfriend for “allowing him to swim every morning with all these beautiful men in their speedos.”







Amy Dantzler collected the Swimmer of the Year.








And finally Dan Adams shared with us all the story of Dave Nelson missing the train to Bordeaux. Dave won the double whammy.






We closed out the banquet with by far the most popular segment of our program. We presented our audio-visual Yearbook! To the tunes of “Chariots of Fire” and “We are the Champions” the pictures of wh2o-ers in their pool attire and the year that they joined flickered on a large screen. It was a great treat for many of the newer members to see pictures of our veteran members from the years when they joined. It also allowed for a quick way for everyone to grasp the history of the team. Thank you to everyone who sent in their picture. Specials thanks to Jim Cude, the Secretary for putting together the Yearbook and doing such a nice job on it.

Then the lights came up, people socialized, pledged to see each other again at practice and filtered out towards their cars.

Our New Board

Congratulations to the 2007-2008 WH2O Board of Directors.

Top row (left to right): Brad Lengyel (Swim Rep), Dan Adams (Treasurer), Mike Wallace (Development), Boyd Quinnell (VP Social), James Cude (Secretary), Fritz Hemker (Water Polo Rep). Bottom Row: Bryan Libit (President), Joel McKenna (VP Admin.) Not pictured: Brian Olver (Facilities).

Thanks to all these individuals for stepping up and serving the team. Good luck!