Champion swimmers part of Benner’s legacy

The coming weeks will be devoted to one of this city’s sport’s heroes, coaching legend Benner T. Cummings. Here is the second installation. — M. M. Athey & The Ritzville Swim Club­

Part Two: The Summer of 1953

The Ritzville Swim Team competed in the Inland Empire AAU Swimming Championships in Spokane on Aug. 3 and 4. The event attracted 350 competitors including six former Olympians. The Ritzville Swim Team was short-handed for this meet with only Dan Schwisow, Gordon Gering, Vern Kiehn and Benner Cummings able to compete. However, this small team managed to garner a number of third and fourth place finishes.

Kiehn broke the pool record for the junior boys 50-yard breaststroke by more than five seconds but only managed to place third. Dan Schwisow captured third place out of 17 junior divers and fourth place in the junior boys 50-yard freestyle.

“Considering these boys have only been training this summer for seven weeks their showing in this huge field was exceptional,” Cummings said in a radio and newspaper interview after the meet.

On August 21st and 22nd, only Dan Schwisow and Vern Kiehn represented Ritzville in the AAU Invitational Swimming Championships at The Dalles, Oregon. Kiehn set a new Oregon state and pool record in the 100-meter breaststroke and placed fourth in the junior boys 100-meter freestyle. Schwisow missed placing in the diving championship bracket by 1/10th of a point even though one of his dives was the highest score of the meet.

The local support of Benner T. Cumming’s swim team began to grow in 1953 as witnessed by the sponsorships backing the trip to The Dalles for Schwisow and Kiehn. The impressive list of merchants included Rogel Motor Company, Benzel Ford Sales, Safeway Stores, R & H Market, Pfann’s Pharmacy, Rummer’s Style Center, Hoefel Insurance Agency, Pastime Sports Center and Ritzville State Bank.

The Summer Of 1954

The first swim meet of 1954 was the AAU Regional Swimming Meet at the Pasco Water Follies on July 21-22.

Surprising everyone, the Ritzville Swim Team captured second place behind the much larger and more experienced Spokane team. The third place team was the Multnomah Athletic Club of Portland followed by the Washington Athletic Club of Seattle, the Tri-Cities Lions, Seattle YMCA and The Dalles Oregon Elks. Our team included Tim Kiehn, Arnie Moeller, Grayson Hand, Gordon Gering, Vern Kiehn and Sonny Allert.

On Sunday, July 25, 1954, the Ritzville Swim Team took first place in the junior meet in Spokane’s Comstock pool. They bested teams from Spokane and Tri-Cities. Spokane officials were greatly surprised at Ritzville’s amazing performance and complimented, “you have presented a very well-trained team.”

August 16-18, 1954, saw the Ritzville Swim Club compete against 300 swimmers from California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Scotland in the International AAU Outdoor Swimming and Diving Championships at Comstock pool in Spokane. In preparation for this big test, Tim Kiehn, Vern Kiehn, Dan Schwisow and Grayson Hand began two-a-day workouts at the pool, each averaging 2 ½ miles per day. Arnie Moeller, Gordon Gering and Sonny Allert were in the middle of harvest but managed to get to town for every 9 p.m. evening workout.

In one of the most remarkable performances of any Ritzville athletic team ever, our boys placed fourth among 19 teams in the junior swim team division. First place went to the Empire Games team of Canada comprised of All Stars from across Canada and second to the Aero Club of Portland. Third place went to the Santa Clara California Swim Club, fourth to the Ritzville Swim Club, fifth to the Spokane Swim Club and sixth to the Berkeley California Swim Club.

I offer this note regarding the talent participating in this swim meet. It is estimated that as many as a dozen of the junior swimmers we competed against later became All-American, All-Canadian and International Olympics contestants. The Santa Clara California Swim Club alone produced over a dozen All-Americans and six Olympians during the ten years from 1955 to 1965.

In spite of the slow start to the swim season in 1954, the Ritzville Swim Club managed to compete in four swim meets. The Yakima Valley Junior Boys Championships capped off the season for Ritzville. The seven man team from the small town in eastern Washington won the title by 37 points over teams from Yakima, Ellensburg, Zillah, Tri-Cities, Wenatchee, Sunnyside and Oaksdale.

Grayson Hand, Gordon Gering, Vern Kiehn, Tim Kiehn, Arnie Moeller, Sonny Allert and Dan Schwisow set the swim standard for all future Ritzville Swim Team members at a very high level. But, as you will read in future articles, the upcoming swim athletes of the Ritzville Swim Club would, remarkably, move the standard even higher.

Gordon Gering remembers, “Benner was demanding and firm, but kind in his tutelage. We started from nowhere but steadily improved, traveling far and wide competing and enjoying considerable success. My folks’ station wagon was used for transportation, even on occasion when I did not go. We stayed in YMCAs or other low-cost accommodations. There was great camaraderie.”

Gordon continues, “Benner Cummings was a gifted gentleman. He captained the WSC swim team and went on to great success as a coach garnering many honors. Benner had a good sense of humor and was always upbeat. He seemed to truly care about his young charges and was very supportive. He was principled and set a good example. Benner T. Cummings was more than a coach to me and I am grateful for all that he did. It is my great pleasure to have known him and I wish him all the best.”