A spirit of camaraderie filled the rafters of McCoy Natatorium Sunday for the 24th Annual Penn State Pool Slalom.

Even though this was a competitive race, the enjoyment of seeing others do well made the race that much more special for the participants.

"We want to perform up to our ability and we want to see the younger people do better, " John Sweet said.

The racing classes, which were originally scheduled to be novice through expert, were broken into novice and advanced classes due to a shortage of participants. That meant the older paddlers had to go up against the younger paddlers.

Sweet said that with the demands of establishing a new business, he has given little time to the sport in the past year. In fact, in the last year Sweet has paddled sparingly, but still managed to take first place in the advanced one-person canoe with a time of 101.8 seconds.

Dave Kurtz agreed, saying that with the demands of a job it is hard to paddle as much as he likes.

"Against the younger guys you have to rely on experience," Sweet said.

Finishing behind Sweet were Ed Little in second and Kevin Todd in third.

The race was a little closer than Sweet expected, as he won by a one-second margin over Little.

"It was closer because I had to go into the pool cold after not having paddled in over a year," Sweet said.

In the women's one-person kayak race, Barb McKee placed first (122.0), D.J. Medeiros was second (125.0) and Rebecca Stevenson was third (165.2).

"I am in good aerobic condition but in a race like this you have to rely on experience," McKee said.

This race also gave McKee a chance to race against her old U.S. Women's Kayak Team teammate Elizabeth Draper. McKee said it was just like the old rivalry but it was less competitive.

"I used to be ticked off when I lost to Elizabeth but now it is different," McKee said.

In the one-man kayak race Brad Nelson, U.S. Olympic candidate, finished first (87.3) expectedly over Kevin Todd (91.2) and his father, Jon Nelson (96.5). Brad Nelson said the race was close because he had been training outdoors in Maryland and he just came back Saturday evening.

"Outside you have to read the currents and use them to your advantage, indoors it is more upper body strength," Nelson said.

Nelson also said that if the race was run outdoors he probably would have won by 20 to 30 seconds.

In the one-person novice canoe, Larry Brannaka (121.3) was first, Bob Rathbone was second (224.6) and Dave Fielder was third (262.2). Also in novice, competing for the first time, was Mark Schultz, age 12, the youngest competitor and son of Frank Schultz, formerly ranked first in the nation.

Finally the combined two-person canoe race, Brian Zimmerman/Ed Little took first (116.0), Barb McKee/John Sweet took second (125.9) and Kevin Todd/Dave Schenberger were third (126.8).

Barb McKee was the only woman competing in the race and she said she was used to it.

"Because of the lack of people it usually happens," McKee said.