The meet that won’t sink: Camas Alumni swim meet raises $4,500 for program

The Camas Alumni swim meet made its returns for a second year, and you could say it made another big splash.

Well, several actually. The event included a couple of cannonball dive competitions.

There was also a plunge competition, in which competitors dive into the pool and see who could go farther without taking a breath, a stroke or a kick.

And there was one relay event in which every competitor entered the pool with a cannonball dive then swam the length of the pool and back only using a corkscrew stroke — an odd combination of a forward crawl stroke into a backstroke and back again.

“I don’t remember doing that stroke when I was in high school,” said alumni swimmer Austin Ailing from the Camas High School class of 2012. “I remember them doing it last year and thinking ‘What are we doing?’ It was hard, but it was fun.”

And that was the theme of the night.

“We had so many obstacles going into this,” Camas coach Kelly Dean said. “Anything that could go wrong did. But in the end, you would not have known it because everyone had a great time. It was fun.”

The event was on the Friday of the Fourth of July weekend because of conflicts with other summer swim meets, and that may have held down the number of participants.

“It’s hard to find a time that will work for everyone,” Dean said.

But Dean said the momentum from last year’s events helped keep things going.

For a second straight year, Kayla Barlow and Emily Aufenkamp, both class of 2011, were the most senior alumni swimmers. Barlow was very pregnant, and Aufenkamp was cheered on by her three young children.

“I love that we have babies out here,” Dean said. “And I think it’s fun for the kids who are on the team now to see that there are people who still want to be a part of the program.”

Dean handed out a variety of awards on the night. Barlow and Aufenkamp got the “Future Papermaker” awards. Ailing got the award for most enthusiastic alumni, awarded because Dean said he was the first to ask when the date alumni meet was and how could he help.

“It just takes me back to my roots,” Ailing said. “I swam for three years in high school … and it’s just a chance to see people I haven’t seen since high school and do it in a fun atmosphere.”

The event also served another purpose as a big fundraiser for the program.

Dean likes to take both the girls and boys swim teams on the road to compete in big meets during the season.

But the cost can be an issue. Last season, the Camas girls team had about 80 swimmers and the boys had about 50.

“Swimming is a no-cut sport, and we’ll take anyone who wants to swim,” Dean said. “We’ve got experience competitive swimmers to swimmers who are trying to master new strokes to kids who are still trying to learn how to swim.”

Dean said Friday’s event raised more than $4,500 for the program.

The event finished with a T-shirt relay, in which the current Camas High swimmers competed against the alumni swimmers. Each swimmer swam a length on the pool with a T-shirt around their necks before handing it off to the next teammate.

Every swimmer who participated in Friday’s meet took part in the T-shirt relay.

“I think they were all pretty much done by then,” Dean said. “But then they all rallied for that last relay. … The whole entire everyone who was here swam in that last race. It was fun. It was great to see.”