Courtesy: Mark Palace
St. Pete Masters (SPM) set a new U.S. Masters Swimming National Record in the SCM Mixed 240–279 800 Free Relay at the recent Rowdy Gaines 17th Annual Masters Classic, clocking 9:17.22 to erase the previous mark of 9:31.29 by 14 seconds.
The relay consisted of Erika Braun (54), Bill Fallon (63), Dewey Haviland (60), and Kelly Palace (65), combining for 242 years of age. Braun led off in 2:18.59. Fallon followed with 2:16.99. Haviland delivered the fastest split of the relay in 2:15.21. Palace anchored in 2:26.43 to secure the record.
The time remains short of the current world record of 9:10.92, held by an Italian Club, but ranks as the fastest performance ever by a U.S. Masters relay in the age group.
Bill Fallon, a regular at masters swim practices, has a training environment that includes a unique dynamic. His son, Matt Fallon, a member of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team, returns home periodically to St. Petersburg. During those visits, Matt occasionally joins Masters practices and trains alongside his father. The Senior Fallon says his highest swimming honor was making Junior Nationals, that swimming is a family affair and that Matt’s mother is also a swimmer.
St. Pete Masters has a new Head Coach as of January 2026, Kelly Palace. For the Rowdy Gaines meet, Palace quickly assembled a team of 46 swimmers and organized 63 relays, helping SPM capture the overall team title for the first time in years. Over the course of the meet, SPM swimmers produced 11 World Records, 15 National Records, and more than 30 Zone Records.
In a Coach/Swimmer role, Palace was busy at the meet. In addition to swimming on the Mixed national record-setting relay, Palace was part of the SPM Women’s 280+ SCM 800 Free Relay that set a World Record alongside Nancy Steadman Martin, Shirley Loftus-Charley, and Sharon Steinmann.
Palace also swam an individual World Record in the Women’s 65–69 SCM 800 Free with a time of 10:24.48, breaking the previous mark held by Laura Val by more than 10 seconds.
Learn more about St. Pete Masters at stpetemasters.org.
Do they do PED testing for masters?
No. UMMS hasn’t signed the WADA code. They have too many members who genuinely have a reason to take something that would disqualify them under doping rules.
TUE files for the 90-95 age group would require their own data centers.
The last man in purple is ripped!!
The cool thing about masters is there’s lots of opportunities to break records!