Ritzville lads shattered swimming records in 1960/61

Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in the series of 11 articles. We published installment No. 7 instead of this one last time. Next week we will publish article 8.

Part Eight: The Summers of 1960 and 1961

By the summer of 1960, the Ritzville Swim Club was beginning its ninth season. Since 1952, the team that Benner Cummings had nurtured with such care and precision, had set, broken and re-established an estimated 300 men’s swimming records.

These marks included pool records in a dozen Inland Empire pools plus swim meet, association, AAU and state records in over 50 competitions during those year...