When it comes to swim families, the range of parental involvement is wide: there’s everything from Caeleb Dressel‘s parents, who generally don’t talk about swimming with him, to Michael Andrew, who is coached by his dad, to Gary Hall Sr. and Jr., who were the first father and son pair to each make three Olympics.
Somewhere on that spectrum lies the Monahan family, who competed as a medley relay team at the 2018 US Masters Nationals in May.
The foursome – siblings Megan and Sean with parents Becky and Jim – converged on IUPUI Natatorium at different stages in their swimming career.
Sean, who swam for Ohio State and graduated in 2015, is in the early years of his masters career while pursing his PhD. Megan swam for Columbia College and graduated in 2017. Jim and Becky are relatively new to masters swimming, though Becky has coached swimming for much longer.
The idea for the relay came when about Becky and Jim visited Sean and his masters team, Swim Fort Lauderdale, and attended a practice led by coach Marty Hendricks. Becky broached the idea of a family relay, and Marty said he’d make it happen.
Fast forward to May, and the family stood behind the blocks together in matching caps reading “Monahan” at IUPUI Natatorium, set to swim the 200 medley relay.
Megan swam backstroke, leading off in 31.90; Sean followed with a 31.42 breast split, then came Jim with a 32.17 50 fly, and Becky anchored with a 42.41 50 free. In all, they finished in 2:17.90.
In addition to swimming the relay, Sean won the 25-29 1650 in 16:52.11, Jim placed top-10 in the 200 back (2:30.16), and Megan and Becky competed in the 100 back, where Becky reached her goal time (1:56.7).
Becky told SwimSwam: “All in all we swam our best, tried our hardest and met some of the most amazing people around the globe!”
Thanks for articles like these. Staying up on the best/fastest is always interesting/exciting – but swimming is about healthy lives/fun. Articles like this help keep that perspective.
There were 6 Birnbriches at Masters Nats, from their ages I would guess 2 brothers and their kids. Some of the kids names sounded familiar… Ohio State rings a bell, maybe?
Anyway, that was sure a fun meet. Lots of cool little moments like this too.