Athletes Take a Cyber Swim

On 30 January, Hawaii hosted the first e-meet in college swimming history, possibly in the history of collegiate sports. The mastermind of the event is S. Freas, head of swimming programs at the University of Hawaii (UH), author of nine books, and president of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is also a coach with a history of turning struggling swim teams into Olympic material. In his first year at UH, the men_s team (1-7 last season) and women_s team (previously 0-8 ) are 12-0 this season. Finding competition has been Freas_ biggest challenge. Getting teams to and from UH -- about 3,000 miles from the mainland - is expensive. So Freas pitched the idea of holding an online meet between their teams to his colleague and longtime friend, North Carolina State_s S. Hammond. "I originally planned to hook up cameras, do a simulcast across the Web," Freas said in a phone interview. "But I couldn_t get any technical help.... So we decided to use email." Hammond_s team, competing against Clemson, booted up the poolside computer and emailed NC State_s scores to Hawaii. Because of the time difference, Hawaii swam later. NC State sent 11 emails to Hawaii, one for each event. When the scores reached Freas_ inbox at the UH pool, the referee opened and read the email, printed it out, then handed the scores to an announcer. Since NC State included the line-up in its emails, Hawaii_s announcer introduced the NC State swimmers as if they were there in person. The progress of each swimmer was called out, as though the teams were competing simultaneously. UH assistant coach S. Hardman said every other lane was left open to simulate a standard dual meet. Despite the lopsided score, Hammond said he and his team had a lot of fun.