Posted by Bob Wenzlau, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Jun 19, 2011 at 7:35 am
Bob Wenzlau is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

We are looking at the times and smiling with pride at how well our local swimmers have competed at a national level. This event, and the later nationals at Stanford show how strong these local swim programs have built tremendous athletes - as well as students. For many of these swimmers it is a chance to compete against the swimmers that might have been the poster on their bedroom wall. Our own daughter found herself doing a warmup in the same lane as Michael Phelps.

Again, programs like swimming are great as they weave competition, discipline, athletics and friendship together. In our own backyard we hosted swimmers from Georgia who consumed some backyard Mexican, then launched to the pool great swims. All in all a great institution that starts when they are youngsters, and carry them through to college.

In my case - thank you Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, and Palo Alto High swimming (as well the Weekly for telling the story).