News of the Peoria Journal Star Swim Meet

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SWIMMING

Expect broken swim records Central Illinois meet opens

By DAVE REYNOLDS of the Journal Star

This year, more than any year of the recent history of the 42nd annual Central Illinois Swim Meet, may seem like a broken record.

Fourteen records have been broken in each of the past two meets, but Peoria Area Water Wizards coach Mark Rauterkus envisions many more than that in this weekend's meet, co-sponsored by the Park District and the Journal Star.

“There could be 20 or 30 records broken," said Rauterkus. "Beth Veerman is seeded over 12 seconds faster than the record in the 13-14 girls 200 individual medley. And Kara Bauernfeind has a chance for three state records in the meet.

"To my knowledge, there's never been a state record set in this meet."

Bauernfeind, a 10-year-old from Pekin, recently established a state best in the 10-and-under age group for the 50-meter freestyle with a clocking of :30.48, beating a 5-yearold mark held by Bridgett Bowman of Joliet. It was only the second 10-and-under state record broken in the past five years.

Bauernfeind is seeded at better than two seconds faster than the meet record in three events the 50-yard freestyle, the 50-yard breastroke and the 100-yard individual medley. Her seed time is also withing a second of the state mark in each event.

Photo:

Kara Bauernfeind. 10, is gearing up for this weekend's Central Illinois Swim Meet at Central Park Pool. Bauernfeind, from Pekin, set a state record last week in the girls 10-and-under freestyle in a time of 30:48. She has a shot at three more state records this weekend.

Veerman, a 13-year-old from Pekin, already owns seven meet records and, by moving into a new age group, has a chance to add to that record total.

The meet's oldest record, Bob Markowski's 20-year-old :26.8 in the boys 11-12 50 freestyle, will be threatened by two swimmers -- Derek Amerman and Curt Herrin.

Approximately 450 swimmers, about the same as last year, will compete in the meet Saturday and Sunday at Central Park Pool. Two new age groups, six and under and seven and under, will break up the always huge 8-and-under classification.

"In the past we've had as many as 40 kids fighting for eight spots in the eight and unders," Rauterkus said. "this will give everyone a better chance and should be really cute."

One other difference from past years is that novice swimmers will only compete in the 9-10 bracket, thus causing the novice / consolation records to be retired.

The meet begins at 9 am Saturday. The morning session consists of preliminaries for all age groups 10 and under. Preliminaries fro the older swimmers continue Saturday afternoon.

Open and Masters swimmers compete Sunday morning, beginning at 9 am with the age group finals beginning Sunday at 1 pm. To qualify for Sunday's finals, swimmers must finish in the top eight of their event. Warm ups begin an hour earlier than each session.

This 8 panel brochure and entry form for the meet was printed in-house with Peoria Park District in blue ink.