Young swimmers evolve into top contenders

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

Part Five: The Summer of 1957

The summer of 1957 was when a younger group of Ritzville swimmers emerged as genuine contenders for future swimming championships. While the senior record-setters of Grayson Hand, Vern Kiehn, Tim Kiehn, Gordon Gering, Arnie Moeller, Dan Schwisow and Al Vermeeren were still with the team, coach Benner Cummings and assistant coach Bill DeMastus had an entirely new set of charges eager to demonstrate their thirst for swimming laurels.

“We will be swimming two workouts a day so that the younger members gain the maximum amount of endurance training possible,” Cummings said to local reporter Hank Green. “Don’t be surprised if by summer’s end you’ve witnessed the birth of a dynasty. Several of these youngsters have great potential,” Benner continued. “The really fun part is that right now…they have no idea of what they are about to become!”

Who were these young dynamos that coach Cummings was referring to? Do you remember the names of Baumann, Thomas, Jones, Tanner, Athey, Webb, Rogel, Derr, Christoff, D. Hand, Stanfield, F. Moeller, Hirning, Moore, W. Gering and Carter? Followed by Chase, Miller and Wood a few summers later?

Nearly 20 junior swimmers emerged by the summer of 1957, many to eventually become Ritzville Swim Club standouts who would not just break the club’s junior and senior swim records, but shatter them. There were many reasons why we worked so hard to swim faster each day under coach Cummings.

“Benner had many ways of saying, ‘you can do it and I’ll help you,’” said Doug Thiel.

“Benner modeled the adage: believe in yourself…give it your best shot and have fun,” recalled John Tanner.

“Benner always had time for everyone. He treated each swimmer equally. He made each of us feel special. ‘Train within yourself and if you put out the effort every day you will be rewarded,’” said Tom Thomas.

“With intensity and enthusiasm Benner would remind us, ‘there are no shortcuts in life so don’t ever give up,’” commented Tom Baumann

Ritzville was the host of the Washington State AAU Outdoor Swimming Championships on Aug. 17-18, the first since 1939 and the first ever held in Eastern Washington. All previous outdoor swimming championships had been held in Seattle. It was a great tribute to our community.

The meet was sanctioned by the AAU to hold a national men’s “noteworthy attempt” for the 50-yard backstroke record.

Two All-American interscholastic champions, Jeff Mattson of Olympia and Gary Chase of Aberdeen, raced against Isamu Kawabori of Spokane.

The race ended in what appeared to be a dead heat between Chase and Mattson. Chase was given the nod as the winner by less than one tenth of a second and his time was only two tenths of a second from the national record. Kawabori placed third just a half second slower than Mattson.

Sunday morning saw a grueling one-mile swim, 36 laps of the pool, between AAU record holder Eddie LaMar of Everett, Tom Rasmussen of Tacoma, Miles Athey of Ritzville and two others from Spokane.

This was my first competitive mile race. Benner’s wisdom of “pace yourself” kept me in the race, at least for the first half. At lap 19, I hit the “proverbial wall” and finished in fourth place over two hundred yards behind the winner LaMar.

Benner was very gracious after the race, “Good race, Miles. You set a new personal best by over two minutes. But I’m thinking that maybe the half mile is more within your grasp.”

I was grateful for his comment. From that point on, I never swam more than 800 yards in competition. The three individual pool records I set only lasted a short time. Each one was smashed by a teammate named Tom…Baumann, Thomas and Jones…before the summer had ended. My achievements went unheralded by everyone but me and Benner.

Among the seniors, Grayson Hand landed a first in the 50-yard freestyle and a second in the 100-yard freestyle. Placing third in the 50-yard freestyle was Del Chase of Aberdeen who joined the Ritzville Swim Club in 1958 specifically to be trained by Benner. His brother, Gary, joined us in 1959 for the same reason.

Ritzville’s younger swimmers placed well in all of the junior races, setting new team and pool records in nearly every race.

“Without exception, every junior swimmer did his best time for the events he swam,” coach DeMastus said after the meet.

The junior team’s 800-yard relay team of Tanner, Athey, Jones and D. Hand swam the preliminaries against the senior teams. Although they missed qualifying for the senior finals by one place, they established a new junior team mark of 10:46.4, breaking the old record by more than 34 seconds.

“Every 200-yard leg of that junior relay was completed in the fastest times we have ever recorded,” Cummings said. “What an accomplishment for these boys! This was the first swim meet for Tom Baumann, Tom Jones, Terry Carter and Fred Moeller. They opened a few eyes, didn’t they?”

The following week, John Tanner set a new Junior Olympics record in the 200-yard freestyle in Spokane. On Aug. 31 the Team traveled to Pasco to a second IEAAU Junior Olympics swim meet to compete against more than 300 swimmers. Those making the trip and breaking five team records were T. Carter, D. Hand, T. Jones, M. Athey, T. Baumann, R. Derr, J. Tanner, W. Gering, L. Stanfield, R. Moore, A. Christoff and T. Thomas.