Columbus natives Bill Weaver, left, and Erika (Bass) Braun, right, were part of the Masters world record-setting 400-meter medley relay team. They were joined on the relay by Sharon Taylor and Greg Sanchez.
Submitted photo
Back in the early 1980s, Erika (Bass) Braun and Bill Weaver were teammates with Donner Swim Club, and in the 1985-86 season, they were freshmen on the Columbus North girls and boys swim teams.
But after that freshman year, Braun moved with her family to Minnesota and would go on to swim at University of Georgia. Weaver went to Ohio State and became an All-American.
Fast forward more than a quarter-century, and Braun was in the midst of making waves as a Masters swimmer in North Carolina. Weaver moved to Cary, North Carolina in May and began swimming for the same Masters team, but the two did not recognize each other.
About two months later, Braun was chatting with Weaver’s wife, and the two got to talking about their roots. They found out that Braun and Weaver were on the same teams and had the same coaches before Braun moved away.
“It’s so funny because Bill and I were freshmen at Columbus North the same year,” Braun said. “We didn’t know each other, and he joined our local North Carolina masters team here. I was chatting with his wife Deb, and she said, ‘Where did you grow up?’ I just happened to start my swimming career in Columbus, Indiana. She said, ‘Bill is fromColumbus.’ I don’t remember swimming with Bill, but evidently, we swam for North and for Donner at the same time.”
At age 51, they’re both still fast — fast enough to set a world record of 4 minutes, 30.56 seconds in the 400-meter medley relay for combined ages 200-239 at last weekend’s Raleigh Area Masters Last Chance Meet at Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary.
“I love to compete in Masters swimming, and I love putting together relays and going for records,” Braun said. “It’s really fun when you’re trying to go for goals together as a team. Reconnecting with Bill and then setting the record was great.”
Braun actually won all nine of her events at the US Masters Swimming Long Course National Championships in Sarasota, Florida, and set a world record in the women’s 50-54 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:00.40. She also swam a record-setting 200 medley relay (1:57.86) for combined ages 200-239, 200 freestyle relay (1:54) teams for combined ages 200-219 and women’s 200 medley relay for combined ages 160-199.
Among Braun’s other wins were the women’s 50-54 100 breaststroke (1:22.47) and 100 butterfly (1:08.03).
Braun, who gave up swimming after her sophomore year at Georgia because she was “burned out,” was out of the water for about 11 years before coming back at age 31. She currently holds 49 US Masters Swimming records.
“I started swimming again because I thought I wanted to do a triathlon,” Braun said. “I just fell back in love with swimming. My times as a masters swimmer were actually faster than I was in college. A lot of masters swimmers just do it for fun and don’t go to meets, but I love the competition aspect.”
Braun, who swam the 50 freestyle in the Olympic Trials at age 16 in 1988, made it back to the Trials in the same event as at 40-year-old in 2012.
Weaver swam in the Olympic Trials in 1992 and 1996. He was a finalist at the Trials in the 100 butterfly in 1996 and was on the USA Swimming national team.
At North, Weaver went to state all four years and won state championships in the 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke and 400 freestyle relay as a senior. He went on to become Big Ten champion and an All-American in the 100 backstroke his final three years at Ohio State.
Weaver continued swimming competitively until 1999, but then took a 22-year hiatus until returning in 2021.
“I’ve only been back in the water a couple of years, but I’m back to enjoying it again,” Weaver said. “It’s been great. When I got back in, I didn’t really get back in with the intention of competing. It was more of a social thing. My initial intentions were just to train. Some friends encouraged me to compete in some meets. It was an eye opener. Having not competed in so long, you forget what it it like. I just kept going to swim meets, an here I am.”
Weaver has coached at Pittsburgh, Purdue and with some club teams. He had lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and in Cleveland before moving to Cary at the end of May and joining the Triangle Aquatic Titans.
“I got back in the water when I was in Cleveland,” Weaver said. “When I got down here, I looked at a few clubs. I just kind of sought it out because it’s a great opportunity to meet people and get connected with the community.”
One of those people he met was Braun. They discovered they had swam for the same coaches in Jim Sheridan and Joe Cabel with Donner and Cabel at North. Braun even recalled Weaver’s older brother Rob being one of her coaches with Donner.
“Getting the groundwork and the base, it was kind of a natural for me,” Braun said. “Donner was great, the support, the parents, the coaches.”
“They were both extremely talented, and we saw that right away when they were freshmen,” Cabel added. “It’s one thing to be really talented and good, and it’s another thing to be a hard worker, and that’s when things really magical happen. When you get to that level, it’s talent plus hard work. One is not a substitute for the other.”
As a freshman, Braun finished fourth in the 50 freestyle and sixth in 100 freestyle and swam on the winning 400 freestyle relay team. The Bull Frogs, who had won the team title the previous year, were runner-up that year to Carmel, which began a streak of 37 consecutive state titles that is still going.
Braun’s father worked for Cummins, and after that freshman year, he was relocated to Minnesota.
“I still kept in touch with Columbus people, but over time, it went way. I reconnected with some people on Facebook.”
Then this summer, she reconnected with Weaver as part of the Triangle Aquatic masters team.
“I do remember an Erika Bass by name,” Weaver said. “It was very cool. Definitely a small world. That was kind of neat.”
“I just noticed how fast he was as a swimmer,” Braun said. “I said, we need to get you on a relay. We were looking at putting together this relay. Bill is an amazing butterflier, but he has a really great backstroke, as well.”
Weaver swam the backstroke leg on the world record-setting 400 medley relay team. Now, he and Braun and their teammates are planning to go after more records.
“I love doing the relays because you’re going for the gold with four people,” Braun said. “Having four who show up at the same time is a challenge. It’s a collective team effort. It’s so much fun. It’s rewarding. You don’t want to let your teammates down.”
