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Swimmers capture boatload of medals
By JON WILSON © St. Petersburg Times, published August 30, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- It was a shame they didn't keep score. If the organizers of the world masters swimming championships had compiled the points, St. Petersburg clubs likely would have finished at or near the top. The St. Petersburg Masters team won nine gold medals; the Florida Maverick Masters, also based in St. Petersburg, took seven. Each also snagged several second- and third-place finishes. But 6,000 to 7,000 swimmers competing 12 hours a day in a dozen men's and women's age groups created a tangled statistical scenario for recording team points. So team scores weren't logged, either officially or unofficially. It surprised the St. Petersburg Masters, who had trained hard to add a world championship to the national titles they have won in recent years. "It was a big disappointment to me, because I'd arranged my teams that way," said George Bole, St. Petersburg Masters coach. Bole said the club's 46 swimmers was the largest contingent at the meet, held in Munich, Germany, at the 1972 Olympics pool. The gold medals represented 16 individual world championships for St. Petersburg-based swimmers. "I think we did very well," said Charlotte Petersen, whom Bole named his club's outstanding performer after she won firsts in the 200 (2 minutes, 12.08 seconds), 400 (4:38.39) and 800 (9:58.31) freestyle events. Swimming in the 35- to 39-year-old age group, Petersen had the fastest women's 800 time of the meet. (Age groups for this meet began with the 25-29 division and progressed in five-year increments to 90-plus.) Paul Hutinger, who coaches the Maverick Masters, won four golds -- more than any other St. Petersburg swimmer. Hutinger won the 50 (39.55), 100 (1:30.49) and (3:23.02) 200 backstroke events and the 50 butterfly (39.82) in his 75-79 division.. And teammate Robert McDonald was first in the 100 fly (1:36.50), 200 breaststroke (3:38.02) and 200 individual medley (3:26.97) in the 70-74 group. With six swimmers, the Mavericks were among the smallest clubs entered. For the St. Petersburg Masters, Bill Specht won the 100 (59.35) and 200 (2:13.83) fly events in the 40-44 age group. Florence Carr won the 50 (39.78) and 100 (1:35.20) freestyle competition in the 75-79 division. Robert Beach won the 800 free (12:59.21) and the five-kilometer open water swim (1:17:26.48) in the 70-74 age group. Petersen, who swam the 400 for Denmark's Olympic team in 1980, had some doubts about how well she would do. "I had back surgery at the end of March. Four months to the day after that, I jumped into the first event (at Munich). I had no idea what I could or was capable of doing. It was a personal victory and I was very proud." Bole called Petersen's effort "incredible. "She likes to come from behind. She's got that incredible spirit." Petersen and Georgia swimmer Laureen Welting fought it out in the 200 before Petersen won by .05 of a second. In the 400, Petersen, Welting and Nuala Mjir-Cochrane of Great Britain swam shoulder-to-shoulder most of the way before Petersen's devastating finish won the event by 1.8 seconds. "Everyone in the place was standing and cheering," Bole said. Beach almost didn't get a chance to swim his 5K event. Water temperature in the venue, a manmade lake used for the 1972 Olympic kayaking event, had plunged into the lower to middle 60s. Meet organizers thought it was too cold. Beach, a retired circuit judge, argued to conduct the event anyway. "I told them we'd spent a lot of money to go over and it was my main swim," Beach said. "Open-water swimmers are used to adversity. We fight jellyfish, lightning. Cold water is part of the deal." Beach argued his point in front of the FINA, the world governing body for swimming, and won his point. About 400 swimmers went off as scheduled, and Beach won his division by more than eight minutes over a swimmer from New Zealand.
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