Our First SOTW

FYI, SOTW = Swimmer of the Week for the ODAC. How many acronyms can I cram into this post?

Congratulations to our very own R-MC freshman Cat Ware (VA Beach / ODAC), who picked up the first conference swimmer of the week award for the 2009-10 season based on her performances against NCAA D1 Radford last weekend. Cat won all 4 events (100 fly, 200 fly, 400 MR, 400 FR...see previous post for more details)against RU, in what was her first collegiate dual meet.




In case you were keeping track, 11 is the magic number of acronyms. In order, they are: SOTW, FYI, ODAC (Old Dominion Athletic Conference), R-MC, VA, ODAC (Old Dominion Aquatic Club), NCAA, D1, MR (Medley Relay), FR (Freestyle Relay), RU. If I knew how to, I would have typed the answers upside down as on a cereal box.

Radford Meet Recap

Last Friday night we took a smaller group of Macon swimmers out to Radford to go up against their D1 program in our first meet of the year. The flu knocked several of our women out of action for the week, and so we had just 13 swimmers in the lineup for the meet. The key to winning any dual meet is placing first in more individual events than the other team (it's not rocket science), as scoring is 9-4-3-2-1 for individual events. Obviously, when you have fewer swimmers to snatch up those 2nd-5th spots, it is especially crucial.

So the team knew what they had to do, and they went out and did it. R-MC won 137-121 by taking both relays and 7 out of 12 individual events. Freshman Cat Ware led the way for us with 4 wins in 4 events. Individually, Cat took both butterflies (1:02.44 and 2:20.53). She was also a part of the winning 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays. Fellow freshman Rebecca Stevenson did her part by going 3 for 3 on the night, taking wins in the tough 1000/500 combo. Rebecca was also on the 400 freestyle relay team. Joining Rebecca and Cat on the 400 freestyle relay were Lizzy Buckley and Sarah Almond. The 400 medley relay consisted of Caitlin Proctor, Kellianne Mullin, Cat, and Sarah. The other 3 individual winners for R-MC were Sarah in the 50 free, Lizzy in the 200 free, and Kellianne in the 200 breast.

In addition to the W, the team also gained valuable racing experience in the same pool where they'll be finishing the season in February, as Radford will once again host the ODAC Championships for 2010. It was a good meet for the team and a good way to start off the competitive phase of the season.

And We're Off

The season has officially started, with the first day of practice now in the books. The swimmers gathered early yesterday morning for the first of many pre-dawn lifting sessions in the Brock, and then came back for an [easy] swimming workout in the afternoon. Well, I suppose easy is a relative term. It was easy for those who maintained some off-season fitness. It was easy for me to walk around on the pool deck and do some writing on the dry erase board. It was maybe not as easy for those whose only recent aquatic experiences up until yesterday involved the occasional shower.

I'm pleased to report that no swimmers were harmed during the production of the first day of the 2009-10 season.

More Academic Honors

Congratulations to Shafer Busch '09 on being named to the Virginia Sports Information Directors Association Academic All-State team. This is the most recent academic honor for Shafer, who in February was named the ODAC Scholar Athlete of the Year for swimming. Congrats Shafer!

Here's the link to the press release.

Summer Update

It's been quite a while since my last post here...an almost 2 month R-MC Swimming blogging dry spell. So, here's a quick recap of what has gone on in the world of R-MC Swimming in the last couple months:

1) The academic year came to a close, and our swimmers qualified for the CSCAA Academic All-American Team award by compiling a team gpa of 3.01 (just squeaked in above the 3.0 cutoff).
2) We said "so long for now" to 3 graduating seniors (Laura Belch, Shafer Busch, and Meredith Walters), first at the Champions Dinner and then at graduation. Congratulations seniors and best of luck in your postgrad years!
3) Just two weeks after graduating, one of the aforementioned seniors (Meredith) got married. Congratulations Meredith!
4) We just finished up a week of camp here at R-MC. The inaugural Randolph-Macon Competitive Swim Camp took place last week, and offered swimmers between 8-17 years old the chance to learn a few new things in the water. It was a fun week, and temperatures remained low, which kept the air in the pool area bearable (it can get HOT in there during the summer).

More from GMA

Here is a link to the R-MC news article covering Good Morning America's visit to Ashland on Tuesday.

I'm glad that our swimmers are getting official recognition for waking up at 4 am to be the first on site.

R-MC Swimmers on Good Morning America!

ABC's Good Morning America has started an "At Your House" series, where the anchors go to selected homes in America and broadcast the show from that location, while doing pieces specific to that locale. This morning, GMA came to Ashland for part of their show, shooting at a home basically adjacent to campus. R-MC swimmers got up very early to take in the spectacle (swimmers are used to getting up in the morning), and were rewarded for their efforts as they were prominently featured (outfitted in R-MC gear and sporting some R-MC Swimming signs) behind the two hosts during one of the segments. Way to represent, ladies!

YouTube Videos

I recently added a link to our R-MC Swimming home at YouTube, where we have over 50 race videos from the season (thankfully, a certain donut eating contest is not one of them). The link is on the right hand tab of the page. Check it out to take in some of the action from the 08-09 season.

By The Numbers

Since swimming is a numbers oriented sport, here is a look at some key stats from the 2008-09 R-MC swimming season:

113 - Lifetime best swims (pretty awesome)
11 - Dual meet wins - sets a single season record for R-MC Swimming
8 - All-ODAC swimmers on our team
8 - Pool record holders on our roster
7 - New Estes Aquatic Center pool records (in 6 different events)
6 - New school records (in 5 different events)
6 - School record holders on our roster
4 - ODAC Swimmers of the Week
1 - ODAC Scholar Athlete of the Year - Shafer Busch

The numbers don't lie. 8 out of 18 swimmers on our team own an Estes Aquatic Center pool record and were named to either the ALL-ODAC 1st or 2nd team, and 6 out of 18 have a school record. In other words, if you are an R-MC swimmer, there is a 44.44% chance that you have a pool record and/or were named to the ALL-ODAC squad, and a 33.33% chance that you own a school record. Those are pretty good odds.

St. Mary's Last Chance Meet

The ODAC Championships was not the end of the line for everyone on our team. This past Saturday, St. Mary's College of Maryland hosted the Seahawk Invitational, a last chance meet for NCAA qualification. We took 3 swimmers to the meet in effort to improve some times - Corinne, Brianna, and Sarah. It was a pretty successful trip. Sarah swam the 50, while Corinne and Brianna went to get another crack at a 2fly. Sarah finished 2nd in the 50, with a 25.15 (with a bit of a slip off the blocks).

The 2fly was great. 6 days prior, in finals at ODACs, Corinne finished 2nd in 2:17.98. The event was won in 2:16.13, and she was understandably upset. On Saturday, Corinne went after it and ended up with a new best time of 2:11.69. That crushes her own school record which had been 2:14.15, and was certainly a little redemption from the previous weekend. Brianna also put up a really good swim in the 2fly, and dropped her best time from a 2:22.63 to a 2:21.54.

And with that, the season is officially over for R-MC swimming.