THis year's Empire State Games Masters swimming competition was held July 27-29 in Westchester County at Pace University in a 25 yd format.  Because of the distance to the Games and the fact that the swim was not LCM or SCM format, only two RAMS swimmers competed.

Barry Symonds is a relatively new member of the team, joining us in December 2006.  Although he was an open water swim virgin at the Canandaigua Lake swim earlier this month, Barry is a seasoned pool competitor. Barry's specialties are breaststroke and IM and he earned 5 gold and 1 silver medals this weekend in the 50-54M group. Barry adds that after Lorie's instruction in the breaststroke and fly, he took 4 seconds off his best 100 Breaststroke time; 9 seconds off his 200 IM time and 15 seconds of his 400 IM time.  Coaching does help!
       100 IM  1:09.71  (silver)         50 Br      :34.63  (gold)
       200 IM   2:34.88 (gold)       100 Br   1:16.60   (gold)
       400 IM   5:43.19  (gold)      200 Fl   2:55.92    (gold)

Louise Murray, on the other hand, is one of two swimmers who has been with RAMS since the team was started over 26 years ago.  Louise is unbeatable at freestyle which she proved this weekend, winning gold medals in all 6 of her events in the 65-69F group.
    50 Fr       :40.45               500 Fr   8:21.88
   100 Fr   1:28.32               1000 Fr  17:32.29
    200 Fr   3:14.15               1650 Fr  28:59.05

Congratulations Barry and Louise!