Long Beach Grunions Swim Team

Friday was another outstanding day for the Grunions at IGLA 2011. When the competition started, it was all about the 400-meter freestyle, with two Grunion women and seven men scoring points for the team. The 200-meter breast also attracted a school of Grunions, with three women scoring points (gold medals for Carol Baillie and Anita Cole; silver medal for Robyn Utu), and nine Grunions men giving it their all. Kudos to Taka Kaguma for his first 200-meter breaststroke (and some nice points for the team).

The 200-meter backstroke also saw Monica Turner and Susan Duquesnel winning gold medals, while Ann "The Leaf" Oakleaf scored us some silver. The men didn't disappoint either, with Steve Kovary winning gold, Brian Kremers silver, and our team captain Bart Parnes scoring us some bronze!

The Friday ended with four(!!!) Grunion relay teams swimming the 800-meter freestyle relay (that's a lot of combined "yardage" right there!). As I mentioned earlier, those relays really got the team spirit going, with everyone by the side of the pool cheering each other on.

But it was not all about swimming on Friday either. While a group of us took a catamaran cruise along the Waikiki coast, another group of courageous Grunions (ten total) rented mopeds and went out "scootering" all over Honolulu. Dana Trujillo took the first prize for "least likely ever to become a professional scooter driver"! However, everyone had fun and came out unscathed :)

Not to rub it in or anything, but below you can see a little bit of the Waikiki view we've had to "put up with" this past week...