The starting tone echoed through a sparsely populated Lewellen Aquatic Center as six swimmers released the starting blocks. A few observers on the deck pointed to lane one and noticed that David Costill was swimming in an unconventional manner. Instead of alternating arms during the backstroke, Costill uses both arms moving simultaneously to propel himself through the water. The rest of the undivided attention was quickly focused on the lane as co-coach Bob Thomas announced that Costill is one of the "fastest double-backstroke swimmers in the world."
Every observer watched as Costill finished the event. The slightly fatigued and trim-figured Costill emerged from the pool as a round of applause filled the atmosphere. He glanced up at the scoreboard to see his time and finished getting out of the pool.
Costill was not overly concerned with the time, unlike most competitive swimmers.
Instead, at 71 years of age, swimming is his exercise of choice, and he does it to stay healthy.
"I've just stayed active over the years," Costill said. "I've always allocated time to exercise and staying fit. If someone wanted to schedule a meeting with me at noon I would tell them that I couldn't do it because I had to exercise."
Costill swam in college but took a break for 17 years to start running marathons. When his knees started to go bad, he returned to the pool. He said he had been swimming as a member of the United States Masters Swimming (USMS) organization on and off for 24 years in Indiana.
"I decided to get back into swimming when, at 50, I was swimming better than I did in college," he said. "I get real serious about swimming about every five years when I age up."
Serious would be an understatement.
According to the 2006 statistics on the USMS Web site, Costill currently ranks fourth or better nationally in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events for his age group. He also holds first place nationally in the 100-yard individual medley for swimmers aged 70-74 with a time of 1:11.35, which is almost a full second faster than second place Cav Cavanaugh of Florida.
Prior to coming to Ball State University, Costill coached swimming and cross county in upstate New York.
"While I was up there I had to decide if I wanted to coach or do research," he said. "I decided to come to Ball State to do research because they had nothing at the time. I started from scratch and built the lab."
It was in 1966 that he started the Human Performance Lab, now called the School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science. The original building no longer stands as it was - Worthen Arena is now located there.
Costill said that the original offices were modular units that were built from grant money the university received from 1966 to 1972 and were expanded many times. When the time came for the arena to be built, the university contacted him and built the new HP Lab in it's current location on campus.
Some of the projects that Costill and his members of the HP Lab worked on included research with the swimming and diving team, research for the National Institute of Health dealing with heart-related problems and work with NASA and the space program about muscle loss with astronauts that stayed in the space station for long periods of time.
"He has been very instrumental in my development as a coach, and the way I train my athletes," said Ball State's co-coach Thomas. "He was also very instrumental with his research with the swim team and the way they swam after seeing his research. He's a great friend and I feel privileged to know him outside of Ball State as a friend."
Costill retired from Ball State in 1998 and is still a Professor Emeritus of Exercise Science, Coordinator Emeritus of Human Bio Programs and Director Emeritus of the Human Performance Lab for Ball State.
Sunday's meet was the first meet back in the pool for Costill after having shoulder surgery. Thomas has known, swam and worked alongside Costill since coming to Ball State and noted that Costill swam well after having the surgery.
"I thought he did great in his events," Thomas said. "I don't think you're ever 100 percent after surgery. But you do the best that you can and that's what he's good at. He does everything 110 percent and it shows."
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