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By GEORGE E. VAN
Close to 2,000 entries are expected for the annual two-day Holiday age-group
swimming carnival today and Monday at Patton Pool. Clubs from throughout
the Midwest and as far east as Connecticut will be represented in the huge
field.
Tommy Sullivan, director of the two-day aquatic competition, explains
why the meet has become so popular.
"The meet is geared to the most grueling distances available in age-group
swimming," he said. "We purposely make the events difficult. The
swimmers like it that way because that's what they have trained themselves
to do. This is the main reason why we have attracted the strongest entrants
from all over the country."
Sullivan, coach of the Patton Aquatic Boosters Club team, picked up
a program.
"The only 50-yard races are for the kids who are 10 years of age and
under," he said. "All of the other events in back, breast, freestyle strokes
and the medleys are from a 100 yards to 400 yards.
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"The youngsters are eager to go all out. They're ready to take
it. This why our country is doing so well in Olympic swim- ming.
All of our top swimmers started in the age-groups." Sullivan says
national records and many state AAU marks can be expected in the various
age- groups brackets.
"Not only have we got a heavy entry but the caliber of the swimmers
is higher because of the difficult events," he said.
Outstanding swimmers entered included Cathy DeVore and Bill Murtag
of Columbus; Vicky Riebling of Kokomo, Ind., Claudia Mazur, of Osborn,
S.C., and Patton's Gary Gottschling and Laura Novak. Other clubs
entered are Toronto, Hamilton, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Chicago, Lake Forest,
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron and from outstate Michigan.
The pool is open at 8 a.m. and 30 events are scheduled each day, with
preliminaries starting at 9 a.m. Finals, with the six top qualifiers in
each event, will start around 5 p.m. The meet is con- ducted with the cooperation
of the Detroit Parks and Recreation Dept.
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