Coach Julie Competes at Master's Championships

Coach Julie Schoenlank joined 12 other members of the Yonkers Masters team at the Masters National Championships in Austin, Texas last May.

Here is a journal she kept during her trip, about the experience.

(Photo: Julie with Olympian Aaron Peirsol)

Immediately following last year’s performance at Nationals in Seattle, I decided on two things in preparation for Austin, 2008:

1. Train harder and sooner (stop making excuses)

2. Try some new distance events.

I knew that that Texas was known for extraordinary swimmers, and the competition would only be stronger in Austin. That was certainly the case. Over a dozen records were broken at The University of Texas at Austin during the Masters National Championships May 1-4, 2008. The Texas Swim Center (TSC) has one of the fastest pools in the world. The swim center is considered home to over 30 Olympic medalists. Eighteen NCAA Championship teams have come from their swim program. Numerous American and World Records have been set in this pool since it’s opening in 1977.

The 1,000 yd free was the very first event, and I was ready to go with my brand new fastskin, goggles, and Yonkers Masters cap. This was an event that I had never done in competition, and had only begun training about a month prior to the race. The event was seeded by time and I had an outside lane for my heat.

Originally I had entered 13:24, as that was my initial time in early April. Since then I had gone a 13:04, so I knew breaking the 13 minute mark would be possible. As I hit the wall on lap 40, I saw that not only did I break 13 but I recorded a 12:41 for the race! After four years of competing at Nationals, I finally earned an individual medal with a 7th place finish in my age group! It was certainly the year to do it since the medals were really cool with the Longhorn logo on them. Needless to say, I was quite pleased. (heres her results sheet for the 1000 yard freestyle.)

The next day, I continued my success in lane one with a 2:34 in the 200 back. The winner of each heat was to meet Aaron Piersol (2004 double gold medalist 100/200 backstroke) and receive a signed copy of his DVD. Although I did really well for an event I normally do not swim, I did not win my heat, but I decided that I was going to meet the Olympic Champion anyway. It was quite amazing meeting such an incredible athlete. I was so excited and was able to take a photo with him.

A few hours later, I did the 50 free, which is an event that I have struggled with since college. I had not hit a 26 since 2006. I was determined to give it my best and not hold back. I was excited to see a 26.85 next to my name on the scoreboard. This event was one of the reasons that I moved towards the distance events because it’s easy to make up time while you have 20 or 40 laps to do; the 50 is just a dive and a turn that has to be perfect.
Day three was my last day of competition, but was incredibly long.

I had the 500 at 8am, 200 at 3pm, and then two relays at 8pm. I survived all day on food in bar form: powerbars, cliff bars, nutragrain bars, chewy bars, and drinks ending in “ade”. I felt strong in the 500; for once I was in the middle of the pool other than my usual lane one. I went a 6:01.35, which was my fastest time as a master’s swimmer. I had some energy left over after, so I knew I could have pushed myself harder, but nonetheless, I was pleased with my time.

By the time I did the 200, my body was exhausted from doing 2,000 fast from the previous events. I went a 2:14, which I guess I had to be happy with since I was really tired.

We had two relays as well: 200 mixed medley and women’s 200 free. Twelve hours later, I was ready to see an environment other than the pool and eat “real” food!

Besides Piersol, I saw two other Olympic medalists swim that week: Josh Davis and Whitney Hedgepeth. Josh Davis was a gold medalist in the 200 freestyle and relay events in 2000. We saw him swim a 200 free with what seemed without any effort. It looked as if he took 7 strokes per lap. He broke the master’s record in that event by 2 seconds with a 1:36!! Whitney Hedgepeth was a gold/silver medalist in 1996 in the 100/200 backstroke events. She did a relay right next to us, which was pretty awesome. She is the master’s

coach for the Longhorn Aquatics Team.

(Photo: The Pool in Austin, with Andrea's Time in the 200 Fly)

Overall, this year was pretty exciting for me. I was glad that I found more time than last year to train, which is completely necessary for distance events. I was also glad that I tried some events out of the usual 50 and 100 free. It was exciting traveling to a state so huge on the sport, which is also a state that I had never been to before. Next year will be in Fresno, and you can be sure I’ll be back in the water for those 40 laps, or possibly move on to the 1650….

(From Frank: Here is a video of Andrea in the 100 fly - she is in lane 3.

There are a lot more videos here, but I couldn't find Julie!)