We had a great time swimming a mile at Walden Pond in Concord this morning. The water was warm, the sky blue and sunny. The WAMmies group looked like a pod of porpoises. Then, Mark, Gail, Mary, Erica, Miye, Alford, Brittney and Nancy all headed into town to eat a delicious breakfast at Helen’s restaurant. Next up is Comet Pond swim at 7 a.m. Monday, July 4. Join us! We’ll meet at the beach on Route 68 in Hubbardston.

On the beach at Walden Pond before the swim.

Alford waiting for his pancakes at Helen’s

Gail is ecstatic she ordered homefries with her breakfast..

Tiffany, Nancy Gail, Alford and Miye are super hungry at this point.

We deserve to eat all this food after swimming Walden. Nancy’s watched showed we swam 1,764 yards, almost exactly 1 mile (1.002273)

Nancy, Mary and Tiffany are stuffed.

WAM is again partnering with the family of Michelle Farnsworth to host 1/2 mile and 1 mile open water swims. More…

It’s a busy time for WAM!

Having just celebrated our 5th WAMmivesary we have a new board and new coach, as Adam and Blake have moved on into the real world of post-graduate careers.

I’ll post a separate update on the board but wanted to get the information below out ASAP.

Notes from Paul Bennett, WPI Head Men’s & Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach and Aquatics Director, our current coach:

Moving forward I think it will be easier to have the masters swimmers come in via the door near the track in the mornings and for Sunday morning workouts.

This week (Memorial Day Weekend, May 29, 30 2016) – practices Sunday and Monday are canceled.

I would like to move our Sunday morning practice to 8:00 from now through the end of July.  It may need to move back once classes resume in the fall.

For those of you who didn’t hear my explanation of the workouts on Sunday Morning, I will be writing two workouts a night – Distance and Sprint.  Athletes have the ability each day to choose what they can/will do.  Once I have a better feel for the team and who will be at each workout I will put forward a more definitive training outline and we will begin to incorporate more stroke and technical instruction.   My plan is to put all the workouts in a log book on the deck for athletes to look over and have an idea of what we have done and what they have missed if that is the case.  I hope to have this in place by Tuesday, May 31.

FINA has released the Top 10 Short Course Meters (SCM) swims for 2015.  Four Wammies join their fellow NEM swimmers in swimming their way onto this listing.

• Men 65-69 | 200 Free | Dave Oates | 2:23.22 | 8th
• Men 240-279 | 400 Free Relay | Ted McGahie, Dave Oates, Tim Allen, Mike McCombs | 4:18.06 | 3rd
• Men 240-279 | 400 Medley Relay | Mike McCombs, Ted McGahie, Tim Allen, Dave Oates  | 5:03.29 | 7th
• Men 240-279 | 800 Free Relay | Ted McGahie, Dave Oates, Tim Allen, Mike McCombs | 9:55.41 | 3rd

These 4 and the other Wammies can next be seen in action at the 2016 NE-LMSC SCY Champs at Harvard.

• Individual – 24
• Relay – 10

Twenty-two Wammies have completed the USMS 1-Hr ePostal Swim. As a team, they completed a whopping 78,860 yards! This is sure to go a far way in helping parent club New England Masters (NEM) retain the title for the 5th straight year!

Click for more information.

For the past 4 years, WAM and the other teams that form the New England Masters swim club have come together to win the title of the USMS 1-Hr ePostal National Championship. In this event, swimmers aim to complete as many yards as possible within an hour. The yards swum by the swimmers from the same club are summed to give the total yards swum by that club.

WAM will be conducting its 1-hr swim on Sunday, January 17 at 10 am.