In March, four of the Martha’s Vineyard masters swim team made the journey to Harvard’s Blodgett pool for two weekends of competition at the New England Short Course Yards Championships. More than 770 swimmers from every New England state and as far away as California competed; 48 New England and three National records were set.

First Leslie Craven and Liz Fox swam the 1,000-yard freestyle. Liz covered the distance in 16:37.39, finishing seventh in the women’s 55-59 age group. Leslie took first place in the 50-54 age group with a time of 12:50.38, five seconds faster than her previous best time in the group.

In the main meet on the weekend of March 22-24, Jonathan Chatinover swam the 100-yard freestyle in 59.99 seconds, placing 25th in the men’s 50-54 age group. Jon joined Alex Goethals as only the second MV Masters swimmer to cover 100 yards in less than a minute. Jon also swam the 500-yard free and took 14th place with a time of 6:18.18. In the 100-yard individual medley he took 11th place with a time of 1:09.33) and placed 11th in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:32.32.

Leslie Craven returned to swim the 500-yard freestyle and took fourth place (6:18.12). Leslie placed 18th in the 50-yard breast stroke (44.41) and 19th in the 100-yard individual medley (1:28.48).

Rainy Goodale, swimming in the women’s 40-44 age group, was faster than her seed time in every event she entered. She placed first in all three breast stroke events (50 yards, 33.75; 100 yards, 1:14.54; and 200 yards, 2:40.71). She also placed first in the 50-yard backstroke (33.31), second in the 50-yard butterfly (30.62), second in the 100-yard individual medley (1:07.76) and seventh in the 50-yard freestyle (28.23).

Also of interest to Vineyard swimming aficionados was the performance of summer resident Sue Jensen of Cambridge and Aquinnah. Sue swam in 14 events and amassed an 129 individual points to rank as the second most prolific point scorer in the women’s 50-54 year age group.

Rainy, Leslie and Sue are actively preparing to compete in the 2013 National Masters Short Course Yards Championship which will be held in Indianapolis, May 9 to 12.