The sky is the limit for Las Vegas Masters swimmer

It was April 24 at the Nationwide U.S. Masters national swimming championships in San Antonio. Glenn Counts, 37, of the Las Vegas Masters team eyed the swimmer in the next lane and thought he looked familiar.

He had swam against him before, but where? Was it at Southern Cal, or California maybe? And how long had it been?

It was at USC, or at least against USC.

It had been awhile.

It was Tamas Kerekjarto, then of Hungary, now of the Houston Cougar Masters. Kerekjarto was an eight-time All-American at USC; he had represented his country in three Olympics. Now he swam the 100 butterfly in 49.8 seconds, which was fast for a man his age. Very fast.

Glenn Counts, who had been the top swimming recruit in the country out of high school in Texas before signing with Stanford, didn’t think he could swim that fast. Not now. He said 49.8 wasn’t on his radar.

But when he jumped into the pool to warm up, it felt good. He felt fast. Counts said it’s like when a pitcher warms up in the bullpen and immediately knows he has good stuff.

He knew right away he had good stuff at the Short Course Yards at the Northside Aquatic Complex.

“I felt this could be good,” Counts said.

Did it feel good enough to beat the guy from USC? No, not that good. But he thought he could stay with him for a while.

Tamas Kerekjarto swam fast. Another 49.8.

Glenn Counts swam faster. Glenn Counts swam like Aquaman.

He had stayed with the guy from USC over the first 50 meters, then when he went for it during the third 25, to “see if it was there,” it was there.

When Counts touched the wall to end the men’s 100-meter butterfly, the clock read 49.12.

Not only had he won, he also had set a national record.

There was a big smile, then a handshake from Tamas Kerekjarto.

Good job. Nice swim.

It was just like 15 years ago, or 17, or however long it had been since they had seen each other last, and where had the time gone?

Glenn Counts thought about that last question as we sat at a picnic table out back of the municipal swimming pool downtown. The Las Vegas Masters swim at the Desert Breeze Aquatic Center, but the pool there was closed for repairs, so we met downtown. The muni pool was empty, except for a couple of synchronized swimmers.

It all looked familiar to Glenn Counts.

After helping Stanford win the 1998 national championship, he had sort of lost touch with competitive swimming after getting on with his life. He had majored in science, technology and society at Stanford, but then the dot.com boom went dot.com bust.

He lived in South Africa. He lived in San Francisco, in Newark, N.J., in Manhattan. He became a stock trader. He sold electrical equipment — circuit breakers and transformers. He flew airplanes.

The first two jobs were somebody else’s ideas for making money. Flying airplanes was his idea, something he enjoyed, as he once had enjoyed competitive swimming.

Counts’ father, Rick, soon will retire as a Southwest Airlines captain. Glenn’s brother, Chris, who swam at Arizona, also flies 737s for Southwest. Glenn flies Embraer 145s — 50-passenger jobs — for ExpressJet, a commuter airline based in Atlanta. He commutes himself, from Las Vegas to Dallas-Fort Worth, and mostly flies friendly skies around Corpus Christi, Brownsville and Waco, Texas, and Shreveport, La.

Sometimes the skies above the Gulf Coast and other places Glenn Counts flies aren’t so friendly.

He once landed a plane during a tropical depression that had been Hurricane Ernesto. That’ll give you a rush, he said. Like swimming against Auburn or Texas in the NCAAs.

Counts played water polo to stay in shape out of the cockpit. He swam at a lot of municipal pools like the one in downtown Las Vegas; he swam at a public park when he lived in Elizabeth, N.J. Swimming isn’t real big in Elizabeth. You want to get wet in Elizabeth, you ask the fireman to open the hydrant.

And yet, while swimming at municipal pools, he swam himself back into competitive shape. He even made the Olympic Trials in 2008, which was gratifying. Not many swimmers make the trials when they are 30.

Since moving to Las Vegas, Counts and his wife, Jodi, have swam with the Las Vegas Masters and coach Victor Hecker, UNLV’s first swimming coach. “We swim for Vic” it says on the back of Counts’ black T-shirt.

The Masters finished 13th among 269 teams in the national championships in Texas. Counts won four events. So did Billy Gaines. They swam like Aquaman.

You don’t have to swim like Aquaman to swim with Vic, Counts said. You needn’t have a Stanford pedigree. You just have to be willing to have fun, and to meet people, and to get up early to use the pool.

Glenn Counts said he had absolutely no intention of becoming a competitive swimmer again. He had fun, he met people, he got up early to use the pool.

Now he’s a national record holder, in the men’s 35-39 100 butterfly.

Good job. Nice swim.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.