Kat Barker, 22, is a senior at Colorado College in Colorado Springs where she is majoring in International Political Economy with influence in French. A former barrel racer, Kat’s been riding since she was 4. She’s been training in pentathlon for the last year and attended our Christmas camp in Palm Springs.

Nathan and Lucas Schrimsher

Nathan, 17, qualified for the Youth Olympics in Argentina last December and placed third in the 2009 World Youth A Championships relay event. He won gold in Youth A at the 2009 USA Nationals and silver at the NORCECA Youth A Championships.

Lucas, 16, won silver in Youth A at the 2009 USA Nationals (beaten only by older brother, Nathan) and placed fourth in the NORCECA Youth A Championships. And at the recent Valentine's Day Open, he placed first, just edging out brother Nathan by 4 points. 

This year, the brothers have added riding to their repertoire and have been enjoying considerable success competing as juniors and seniors. Lucas placed third and Nathan placed fifth in their first seniors event against such elite athletes as Eli Bremer, Dennis Bowsher, Sam Sacksen, and Will Brady. Great start!

Rendy Lynn Opdycke, 25, hails from San Diego. Rendy got her bachelors from UCSD and her master’s from USC. where she was a 2002 USA All American Academic Athlete.

Since graduation, she has focused on marathon swimming. Currently she holds the world’s record (for men and women) in the Triple Crown of marathon swimming, which involves swimming around Manhattan Island (where she set a record), swimming the English Channel, and the Catalina Channel. She had the fastest swim time for completing the three (26 hours, 50 minutes) in the shortest calendar time (34 days).

Since Rendy started the sport in January, she has already competed in two competitions: the San Antonio Qualifier and the Valentine’s Day Qualifier. She is currently training with Marina Nikiforova in fencing and with Michael Cintas for riding.

That means she also is becoming a marathon driver, zigzagging from San Diego to Rancho Mirage to UCLA to train. Welcome, Rendy!

Lynette Lim, 17, from Palm Springs, has turned out to be a natural pentathlete. In her very first event—the January 2 Qualifier—Lynette won first place in Youth A. And she had never fenced or shot a pistol before that week! And she gave veteran pentathlete, Anna Olesinski, a run for her money at the Valentine’s Day Open, finishing just 250 points behind to take a strong second place.

Lynette is no stranger to success, having swam in the 2008 Olympics for Singapore, a country where she holds dual citizenship. Lynette will go to USC next year to swim on its swim team with her sister, Elaine (another budding pentathlete).

Dues

We still have a couple of members who have not paid their 2010 dues. The deadline is March 1. After March 1, the dues will be $100, not $50. Please support the club that supports you.

Plans for the rest of the year

Next stop for the pentathletes is a training camp at the Olympic Training Center, followed by a Youth/Junior qualifier from March 31 through April 3. The entry forms are posted on USApentathlon.org. Send them in right away. The deadline is March 5.

The final Youth/Junior qualifier will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, April 29-May 1. Then we roll into our summer competition season. Click on the Calendar tab for the latest.

Feedback

Now that we have the qualifiers off our plates, we’d like your feedback on what you’d like the club to do the rest of the year. The summer looks pretty jam-packed but we’d love to hear from you about ways the club might be able to help our pentathletes.

Also, we’d love you to send the latest news for us to post in the newsletters as well as on westcoastpentathlon.com. And we desperately need photos—especially of our newbies!

Face Time

A big thank you to Lisa Jayne who created a Facebook page for us. Please take time to become a fan of  West Coast Pentathlon on Facebook.

 NEWSLETTER - January 17, 2010

You had to be there. Really.

It was like the good old days when we all first discovered modern pentathlon. Enthusiastic campers who just couldn’t get enough training. Pentathletes of all ages fencing, running, shooting, swimming, and riding together. Camaraderie. Support. Friendship.

You had to be there. And—thankfully—we were.

West Coast Pentathlon kicked off the New Year in a grand old fashion with a six-day camp from December 27 through January 1, and a qualifying competition January 2.

The campers included the Old Guard: Marisa Berger, John Gibbons, Andrew Jayne, and Nathan and Lucas Schrimsher. But there was a host of newbies in attendance as well, who really spiced up the action: Matt Wyble, 24, of Chicago; Kat Barker, 21, of Colorado Springs; Wayne Miller, 16, of Washington; Ashley Ridge, 27, of San Diego; and Chris West, 15, of Fresno. There were also our old friends, Emily and Russell Caine from Canada. And, of course, there was the sleeper: Lynette Lim, a 17-year-old swimmer who had represented Singapore in the Beijing Olympics.

Our coaches included Michael Cintas, of Equestrian Centers International; Charlie Reed, of USA Shooting; Tim Hill, coach of the Piranha swim team; Leslie Taft, fencing; and Carmelo Felix, Olympian in Modern Pentathlon.

What a combination! What a week!

Days began at 6 a.m. with a brisk 90-minute swim. Then all were off to ECI for riding or shooting. After workouts and a run, campers boarded the van and returned to the hotel for a quick rest and dinner before three hours of bouting in the hotel ballroom. Then six to seven hours of well-deserved sleep before a 5:30 wakeup call started the cycle all over again the next morning.

Sound like fun? You bet!

Then it was time for the competition. Cindy West drove in from Colorado with Mckenzie West, Caitlyn Flathers, and newbie Jake Green from Idaho. Since this was a qualifier for the Seniors as well as Juniors and Youth A, elite athletes Eli Bremer, Dennis Bowsher, and Niul Manske also flew in for the show. Finally, Devon Cavaliere and Johannah Ragland represented Youth D.

For the competition, we had our camp trainers heading up the various disciplines. Marina Nikiforova, fencing coach for UCLA, was our TD and Janusz Peciak, representing USA Pentathlon, did the scorekeeping.

All went very smoothly. But that’s not to say there weren’t some surprises. The biggest shock was the winner of the girls’ Youth A division. Newbie Lynette Lim, who had never shot a gun or hoisted an epee, won first place, edging out Marisa (2^nd),  Mckenzie (3^rd), and Emily (4^th).

In the boys’ Youth A division, Nathan placed first, followed by Lucas and Andrew.

And then came the ride. We were rapidly losing light so we went into hyper speed. The biggest cheers of the day went to Lucas who lost his stirrups midway through the course and still had a perfect ride. Brother Nathan also got a well-deserved round of applause after his debut ride in modern pentathlon.

The results? Envelope, please.

Junior women

First: Marisa Berger

Second: Mckenzie West

Third: Lynette Lim

Junior men

First: Lucas Schrimsher

Second: John Gibbons

Third: Nathan Schrimsher

Fourth: Andrew Jayne

Senior women

First: Marisa Berger

Second: Mckenzie West

Third: Caitlin Flathers

Fourth: Ashley Ridge

Senior men

First: Dennis Bowsher

Second: Eli Bremer

Third: Lucas Schrimsher

Fourth: John Gibbons

Fifth: Nathan Schrimsher

Sixth: Niul Manske

Seventh: Andrew Jayne

Eighth: Matt Wyble

Ninth: Jake Green

Masters

Russell Caine

Thank you!!!!

We’d like to extend a very special thank you to Vic Reizman, who donated $2,000 to the club to help sponsor the camp and competition.

Gentle reminder

As they say in bad newspaper stories: It’s that time of year again!

Your membership dues are, well, due. You should have received a reminder letter. But if you did not, please send them in, anyway. The good news is that annual dues are only $50 this year. So send them in quickly so we can keep putting on fun events.

Coming Up Next!

It’s not over yet. If you missed the fun in January, you still have a chance to join in. We have another Youth A and Junior Qualifier coming up February 14 in Rancho Mirage at the Valentine’s Day Open. We’ll have a mini-clinic on February 12 and 13^th, and Michael Cintas will host a five-day riding clinic February 15-19.

If you want to get in on the fun, ask Pat for an entry form. Although the event is a qualifier for youth A and Juniors, all divisions can compete.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to WCP members Emily Andrews, John Gibbons, and Andrew Jayne who recently competed in the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires. Emily placed 4^th in Juniors and 10^th in Senior Women, and Andrew got 8^th in Juniors and 18^th in the Men’s, while John placed 13^th in Juniors and 24^th in Men’s.

And, congratulations to our well-rounded Pentathlete Jimmy Reizman.

·          Congratulations on one level for his appointment as Athlete Director on the WCP board.

·          And congratulations on another level for winning the California Junior Olympics in shooting with an unbelievable score of 523 (out of a possible 600), his best score by 10 points. He will compete in the National Junior Olympics this spring in Colorado Springs.

Congratulations also to Marisa Berger, who has been appointed co-captain of the Harvard-Westlake swim team.

And last – but certainly not least – congratulations to Nathalie Guion who was blessed with a future pentathlete – Marie Charlotte - on December 14. Way to go, Nathalie!