Barbara Eisele heads list of area swimmers in US top-10 age rankings

Barbara Eisele amassed 22 individual top-10 rankings in her age group, topping the chart in two events, and fellow Lowcountry Masters swimmer Pete Palmer racked up 17 as U.S. Masters Swimming recently unveiled its final rankings for the 2016 competition season.

Eisele finished the year ranked No. 1 among all women 85-89 division in both the 100-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley. Both were recorded on long-course pools, measuring 50 meters as seen in the Olympic Games.

Eisele also was ranked No. 2 in the 800 freestyle and third in three others, including two short-course (25-meter pool) events. Her name also appeared in a pair of top-10 relay rankings for Lowcountry Masters.

Palmer was No. 2 nationally in the men’s 80-84 division in the 1,500 freestyle, as well as third in the short-course 1,650 freestyle.

Sun City Hilton Head’s Joanne Stewart earned six individual top-10s for women 75-79, placing in all three events in both the backstroke and breaststroke. Teammate Barbara Coughlin added three short-course top-10s.

Other Lowcountry Masters swimmers with multiple top-10s individually were Bob Colyer (4), David Painter (3), D.J. Murray (3) and Yorlliry Moreno (2). Nana Whalen recorded one more top 10 for Sun City Hilton Head (short course 1,650 freestyle) before moving away last summer.

This story was originally published January 15, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Barbara Eisele heads list of area swimmers in US top-10 age rankings."