Lake Oswego swimmers break national relay record

By Matthew Sherman

The Lake Oswego Review, Jan 31, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

From left, Cassidy Robinson, Grace Carlson, Celia Keany and Brenda Cha recently broke the national record in the 200 -yard freestyle relay.

They say that records are meant to be broken but, quite frankly, national swim records aren’t broken that often and they certainly aren’t broken often in the state of Oregon.

But, on Jan. 13, four Lake Oswego Swim Club members, Grace Carlson, Cassidy Robinson, Brenda Cha and Celia Keany, broke the national record in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

At the Cat Invitational, held in Corvallis, the team swam an astounding 1:40.25 in the event, besting the record by 0.18 seconds. Ironically, the record had been set just a month previously in Colorado but prior to that, it had not been broken since 1996.

“The national records are ridiculously fast. On average they get broken about once every 10 years,” LOSC coach Coley Stickels said.

Two weeks earlier, the girls broke the state record in the event and realized that the national mark was within their grasp.

“They were close. At that point they were within six or seven tenths of a second. The girls hadn’t swum that relay for most of the year. It’s actually kind of a new event for them,” Stickels said.

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