Normal masters meets are usually social, fun, fast affairs. But one of the most exciting forms of swim meets are college dual meets, and 70 LMSC members decided to try to recreate that format in a masters setting. So the First Annual Duel in the Pool was born!

Peluso Open Water Masters (POWM) is a fairly new kid on the block, but it has grown into one of the largest masters clubs in the state. Started just a couple years ago by Jay Peluso, many of the members came into swimming only as adults. Coach Jay issued a fun challenge to the smaller NOVA Masters workout group, most of whom swim for VMST: hold an (unsanctioned) dual meet and let the chips fall where they may!

Non-standard age groups were used so that each group might have a substantial number of participants:

• individual age groups of 18-39, 40-54, and 55+, men and women;
• meet age groups of 72-139, 140-199, and 200+ using cumulative ages for mixed relays (allowing any number of men and women, as long as both genders were represented;
• each swimmer could participate in up to three events and one relay;
• six places were scored for each age group.

The meet was a blast, and the results are in! Held in the awesome new pool in Richmond, VA, with some loud music and perhaps just a hint of good-natured trash talking in the air, the POWM roared out of the starting gates with impressive displays in the medley relays. The NOVA group slowly crawled back into contention and appeared to have won the day. But once the meet was scored using the age-group format, the results were in: an exact tie! Which seemed a fitting way to start what will hopefully be a recurring event.

Note: the men & women don’t add up to the total because the relays were included only in the “overall” point totals. The results are also shown in the following table, which can be searched. Great job, everyone!