Winter?

As Virginia and much of the rest of the east coast was getting pummeled by one of the biggest winter storms in recent memory over the weekend, our team enjoyed beautiful weather in south Florida all of last week. Here's the view from the short course pool at the Deerfield Beach high school just as the sun sets:

A practice setting I could get used to.

Training Trip Day One

Day one of our trip is in the books. We're actually not down in Florida yet though. It's a two-let trip from Ashland to Deerfield Beach, and the first leg brought us to Savannah, Georgia tonight. We got into our hotel just outside of Savannah earlier than expected, and so we decided to drive into downtown Savannah to find a place to eat. This turned into quite an adventure. First, I'll say that downtown Savannah looks very charming, with a really cool restaurant/shopping district, narrow cobbled streets, and some picturesque homes within walking distance of the waterfront.

I'll also say that finding downtown parking for two 12-passenger vans on a Saturday night is an almost impossible task. On street parking wasn't going to happen for us, and the narrow cobbled streets were pretty much off limits. We did find two parking garages...with a maximum clearance of just over 7 feet. Unfortunately, our van (with a bike rack on top) clears 7 feet easily. We found this out the hard way, twice, backing up traffic as we backed out of the cavernous garages that did not want to house our oversized vehicles. We didn't make too many friends in doing this. I'm pretty sure our team is no longer welcome in downtown Savannah. In the end, we were forced to retreat to a more suburban Applebee's for a late dinner. It was quite an ordeal, but I'm glad we were able to venture into town during our brief stay here in Savannah.

Hitting the tarmac again at 7 am. Next stop: Deerfield Beach, Fl.

Meet Recap - YJ Invitational

Our swimmers competed in the 8th annual Yellow Jacket Invitational over the weekend, held right here at R-MC. Six women's teams competed, plus two men's teams. Our Yellow Jacket swimmers came out on top on the women's side, with a 94 point margin of victory over second place Mount Saint Mary's University. This meet comes at a busy time of year for our swimmers, falling on the weekend in between the last week of classes and final exam week. To say that student-athletes are under stress at this time of the semester is an understatement. Nevertheless, we did have several highlights from the weekend:
- Rebecca Stevenson claimed Co-Individual High Point Award honors by winning all 3 of her individual events. Rebecca took the 500 free and 200 free on Friday, then dominated the 1650 on Saturday.
- Tracy Spurrier had 3 solid swims in the 500 free, 200 back, 1650 free combo. The 200 back on Saturday was a lifetime best.
- Sarah Almond anchored the 200 free relay with a 24.19 split on Friday, while playing safe on the relay start. Might have been sub-24 with a quicker relay exchange.

Race videos will be posted shortly. Complete results of the meet can be found here.

I'm looking forward to getting our women some quality yardage in Florida next week. The 10-day forecast is looking good for Deerfield Beach!

Time is Flying by at the Pool

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like this season is really flying by. It's almost hard to believe that our Yellow Jacket Invitational is this coming weekend, but here we are at the symbolic (and almost literal) midpoint of the season. Our swimmers are working hard as the semester comes to a close, with classes ending this week and final exams next week. Before they know it we'll be heading down to Florida, which will hopefully be sunny and warm (it was when I was down there just a few weeks ago).

For now, I'm looking forward to some good competition and fast times at the invitational. The women have put in some quality yardage this fall, and it'll be exciting to see how they can swim.

Big Weekend

Last weekend was a busy one for your Randolph-Macon swimmers. Friday was an away dual meet against St. Mary's of Maryland, and Saturday was a home meet against Washington and Lee. The team came away with two losses on the weekend, but it was a huge success for two reasons: the team learned some valuable lessons about what it means to compete on Friday, then showed some serious heart in putting those lessons to practice on Saturday.

In Saturday's meet, our swimmers competed in every race and ended up taking 8 out of 14 against W&L, including both relays. This marked the second straight year R-MC has taken both relays in this meet. Our 400 free relay team of Lizzy Buckley, Rebecca Stevenson, Cat Ware, and Sarah Almond also broke a pool record en route to their win.

Next up for the team is our own Yellow Jacket Invitational on December 4th and 5th.

Most of the races from Saturday are now posted on YouTube. Check out our channel on YouTube to see them.

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.

ODAC Recap

OK, so the ODAC Championships finished last Sunday and I have yet to write about it. My bad. Here's a recap of how the meet went down for R-MC:

The ladies on the team swam very well and finished firmly in 2nd place as a team, 169 points clear of 3rd place Sweet Briar. As a team we put up 30 new lifetime bests during the weekend. While we didn't win any events, we did have 10 2nd place finishes. Leading the way was the 200 medley relay team of Hallie, Kellianne, Shafer, and Sarah, who shattered their own school record - as well as the previous conference record - in a time of 1:50.95. Sarah's split on the end of that relay was the fastest of the meet at 23.82. She also put up the best 100 free split of the meet in anchoring our 400 free relay in 53.09...all that while swimming in a suit held together with duct tape and nail polish! I'm already excited about what our relays are going to look like next season.

The biggest time drop of the weekend for R-MC came from Tracy Spurrier, who has just made some enormous improvements as a distance freestyler this year. Tracy's previous best in the 1650 was the 20:56.43 she put up at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in November. Last Sunday Tracy slashed nearly a minute and 5 seconds from that PR, finishing in 6th place overall in a time of 19:51.65.

The R-MC highlights weren't just contained to the pool during the weekend, however. On Sunday night, Shafer Busch became just the 2nd swimmer in R-MC history to grab top honors as the ODAC Scholar Athlete of the Year. Shafer beat out all other juniors and seniors in the conference for this award, which recognizes both academic and athletic accomplishments. It was a great way for Shafer to end her career as a swimmer.

All in all, it was a good championship meet for our team. The meet as a whole was much improved from last year, and our team was definitely a lot stronger than we were a year ago. We're making progress, and will continue to move forward next season.

Inspiration Anyone?

ODAC Championships start tomorrow. Time for a little inspiration...the Billy Mills story. The American underdog who become an unlikely Olympic Champion in the men's 10K in 1964. He chopped nearly 2 minutes off his best time and overcame obstacles during the race to pull off an amazing victory. I'll stop typing now, just watch this video.

ODAC Swimmer of the Week - Shafer Busch

Shafer Busch has been named the ODAC swimmer of the week following her performances last weekend against Mary Washington/Hood on Friday and Randolph/Guilford on Saturday. On Friday, Shafer broke a school record as part of the 200 medley relay team that finished in a time of 1:52.63. Shafer's fly split was 26.37. She also placed second in the 100 fly in 1:01.57, which is the top time in the conference so far this year. On Saturday, Shafer won the 50m freestyle and was a part of the winning 200 freestyle relay.

Congrats Shafer!
http://www.odaconline.com/09pow_0202.htm

Dual Meet Season Recap

Our team picked up wins against Guilford and Randolph today to close out the dual meet season. Only championship swim meets remain in the 08-09 season. The two wins push our record to 11-3. 11 wins is a new standard for most wins in a season for the Lady Yellow Jacket swimmers. In addition, our swimmers won the Yellow Jacket Invitational against Division I and II competition, have posted 4 new school records, 7 Estes Aquatic Center pool records, and nearly 70 lifetime best times already this year...all untapered (and for the last few weeks unshaved as well). Really looking forward to ODACs in 12 days.

Meet Results are posted on the website.

Another One Bites the Dust

Another school record, that is. Earlier tonight against Mary Washington and Hood, our 200 medley relay team of Hallie Stewart, Kellianne Mullin, Shafer Busch, and Sarah Almond set a new school record in a time of 1:52.63. Shafer had a 26.37 fly split on that, and Sarah brought it home in 24.26! Not too shabby for 2 weeks out from Championships....and we know that relay can go faster.

The overall final score was not important in the meet, and was not reflective of our efforts, so I'm not gonna post it here. The more important part was that we stepped up and raced against a very strong and deep Mary Washington team. I wanted to see our swimmers COMPETE, and in that respect, I was pleased. Unfortunately for us, many of the close races went in favor of them. We'll have to keep working on that.

We picked up 2 individual wins on the day. Lara O'Brien in the 1000 (11:05.19) and Sarah Almond in the 50 (25.19).

Other highlights were Brianna Lovell getting a new best time in the 2IM (2:23.77), Hallie going the fastest 200 free of her college career (2:03.65), Victoria Cooper closing in on the 30.00 barrier in the 50 (30.57), Shafer going her fastest 100 fly in 2 years (1:01.57), Sarah almost tracking down a probable NCAA competitor in the final yards of the 100 free (55.34), and Corinne Campbell going out hard and taking 6 seconds off her best 500 (5:28.75).

We're back in Ashland now for a short layover (I'm writing this at almost 3 am) before hitting the road for Guilford College in Greensboro in the morning. Back to back meets. Good preparation for that 6-sessions-in-3-days meet we have coming up VERY soon...

Sweet Briar Recap

Our team may be a little battered and bruised right now, but that hasn't kept the swimmers in the water from continuing to let the good times roll. We headed over to Sweet Briar yesterday afternoon and came home with a 165-95 win. Though the meet was in short course meters, we still had a lot of impressive swims, and the converted times indicate that the ladies put up 6 lifetime bests. Leading the way in that department, as she has done on several occasions, was Tracy Spurrier, who (through her converted times) posted 3 lifetimes bests in the 800 free, 100 back, and 400 free.

Here were the event winners on the day:

200 Medley Relay: Marlene Graf, Kellianne Mullin, Shafer Busch, Sarah Almond - 2:10.77
800 Free: Lara O'Brien - 9:47.25
100 Back: Marlene Graf - 1:12.02
100 Breast: Kellianne Mullin - 1:20.64
200 Fly: Corinne Campbell - 2:32.05
50 Free: Sarah Almond - 28.68
100 Free: Sarah Almond - 1:02.09
200 Back: Marlene Graf - 2:33.37
200 Breast: Kellianne Mullin - 2:54.54
400 Free: Lara O'Brien - 4:46.77
100 Fly: Corinne Campbell - 1:11.44
400 IM: Lara O'Brien - 5:20.85 (just missed pool record held by R-MC's Erin Ewalt)
200 Free Relay: Shafer, Marlene, Corinne, Sarah - 1:57.05

Next weekend is the final weekend for meets before we head into championship season. Friday night, we'll be up the road in Fredericksburg to take on Mary Washington and Hood. I'm looking forward to some great races against a strong Mary Washington team. The next morning, we'll hit the road again to go swim Guilford and Randolph in North Carolina.

We're down to 19 days until the ODAC Championships begin...

Senior Day Surprise

It was Senior Day at the Brock today. I'll be honest, I thought our team would put up a decent showing, but was totally blown away by some of the time drops our swimmers put up. That's awesome....nothing better than that. Four weeks out from championships, they're still putting in a lot of hard, intense work. We entered this meet pretty beat up, which just makes the fast swims that much better. It shows that the hard work is paying off.

Let's go over some of the stats from the meet:
-R-MC had 25 total individual swims. 11 of those were lifetime bests. Out of those 25 swims, only 4 WEREN'T season best times!
-2 pool and school records were also set, Lara O'Brien in the 1000 free (10:56.50, taking down Erin Ewalt's old record of 10:58.13) and Kellianne Mullin in the 200 breast (2:29.54, erasing Katie Duff's previous best of 2:32.01).
-Tracy Spurrier took 25.41 seconds off her lifetime best in the 1000, swimming 11:50.99.
-Meredith Walters saved the best for last, swimming a best time in the 1000 in her last race at home. She took 5 seconds off her best, hitting in 11:52.41.
-Lara O'Brien took 9 seconds off her best 1000, and set a new school and pool record in the process, finishing in 10:56.55.
-Victoria Cooper took 7 seconds off her best time in the 200 Free (2:31.62) and 3 seconds off her best time in the 100 Free (1:06.96).
-Kellianne dropped 3.30 seconds off her best 200 breaststroke in setting the new record of 2:29.54.

Video of the races are now up on our YouTube page. Check them out at www.youtube.com/user/rmcswimming.

ODAC Swimmer of the Week - Lara O'Brien

Congrats to Lara on being named the ODAC Swimmer of the Week, the third R-MC swimmer to receive the honor so far this season. Lara won the 200 IM, 400 free, and was part of the winning 400 free relay team last Saturday against Bridgewater. Here is the link to the ODAC site and the press release: http://www.odaconline.com/

Bridgewater Meet

This past Saturday the team went up to Bridgewater and came back with a 133-62 victory. Our swimmers won all 11 of 11 events en route to the W. We had a little fun with the line-up for the meet, swimming some girls in "off" events, while trying to create some close races between the A and B relays. And that's all the meet was about for us, getting up and competing while working on racing skills. I wasn't too concerned with times for two reasons: 1) Bridgewater's pool is a short course meters pool, and 2) Our team wasn't that fresh, having practiced in the morning prior to getting on the bus.

Event winners were:
400 Medley Relay: "B Team" - 4:55.54
800 Free: Meredith Walters - 10:30.92
200 Free: Sarah Almond - 2:21.53
50 Free: Marlene Graf - 29.93
200 IM: Lara O'Brien - 2:40.00
100 Fly: Laura Belch - 1:14.89 (was exhibition)
100 Free: Ellie Shea - 1:07.82 (was exhibition)
100 Back: Brianna Lovell - 1:18.75
400 Free: Lara O'Brien - 4:51.27
100 Breast: Kellianne Mullin - 1:23.47
400 Free Relay: "B Team" - 4:31.44

Yeah, the B relays shut out the A relays at the meet. The medley was close though, the B hit in 4:55.54 to the A's 4:55.65. It was a good, back and forth race. Next up for our team is Greensboro next weekend, which is also Senior Day at R-MC.

Special thanks to the movie committee for two great selections on the bus rides. A guy can only take so much of the "Step Up" franchise.

Florida Recap

Now that we've all had a few days to recover from the trip, I want to offer a little recap of what went on.

I was somewhat nervous going into the week because, while south Florida is on average sunny and beautiful this time of year, I've always seemed to be bad luck for training trips to Florida. Every trip to Florida that I've been a part of has always encountered unusually cold weather (by Florida standards), broken pool heaters, extreme wind, etc. Thankfully, we bucked that trend this year. The sun came out, the highs were in the mid to upper 70s all week long, and it never got any colder than lower 60s at night. Aside from a few sprinkles during our first long course practice, it didn't even rain while we were down there.

Enough about the weather. This week was a challenge for our swimmers. My goal was to push them in some way, shape, or form in every workout. They swam more than they've swum all year, they ran more than they've run all year, and they also encountered a few dryland/in-water circuit challenges. Props to Tracy and Shafer for winning the elbows & toes/front bridge/front plank (insert any other name you call it) competition by staying up for 5 minutes. Tracy, with a little help from a teammate, also won a pizza eating contest against one of her coaches, although the result is being disputed.

Our training trip competition took the form of a long course relay meet with the United States Merchant Marine Academy and Gustavus Adolphus College. The USMMA and Gustavus men went against each other, while our ladies went up against the Gustavus women. I don't think it needs to be said, but every swimmer in the water was racing tired that day. Nobody was really concerned with times, but it was a good opportunity to step up and race (everyone has to get up and race while tired during a 3 day championship meet too...). It was a close meet between us and Gustavus. They won several close races between the A's, and came out on top in 5 races to our 3. The battle of the B's was just the opposite, with R-MC taking 5 to Gustavus' 3. It was a fun, low-key meet.

All in all, it was a great week. I like to occasionally remind our swimmers that training trip is a business trip first and a vacation second. Translation: it's OK to have fun on training trip, but you need to make sure you're not doing so at the expense of your swimming. The team did a great job at both. They worked hard and had a great time while doing it. I think staying a block away from the beach definitely helped with that this year. Something about hanging out with your toes in the sand surrounded by palm trees in the month of January helps to lift the spirits.

Some Florida Pics

A Day in the Life… of RMC TRAINING TRIP 2008/2009!!!

Well, it is now New Years Eve, and we’ve made it through eight practices with one to come tonight from 6-8 (prime training hours – obviously). The journey down south went smoothly, though I think my bladder almost exploded at one point because Ben REFUSED to pull over. Overall, mainly a good long nap in the van.

And then the true training trip began… From practice the night we arrived to doubles every day since, the trip has definitely been both a physical and a mental trial. Though the swimming has been tough, it has definitely brought the team together. We have never been so encouraging throughout practices, and with the current level of training, we need all the positive energy we can get! Especially since many of us, myself included, were a little surprised by the long course meter pool. Some of the freshman had never swum long course until now, so it was a great experience!

Yesterday we had our big meet of the trip (after morning practice of course). A tri-relay meet against a boys’ team and a girls’/boys’ team. Of course, distance swimmer Lara gets 5 events, one of which being the 200 in the crescendo – long course. Talk about a long 200… but that’s beside the point. It was actually really fun (and got us out of a practice ha!). Everyone was really motivated and cheering even though the events were a little unorthodox. Of course, Macon is never done after a meet – it was time for an hour of drylands with Ben the beast before we could make the traffic-filled trip to the annual Steak and Shake dinner. Absolutely DELICIOUS. Especially after that 5 minute plank hold – ohhh that hurt. All that ab work was immediately eliminated by the deliciousness of milkshakes and French fries – well worth it.

Which bring us to today’s New Year’s Eve training slash A-Mo’s 21st birthday BASH! Practice this morning was from 10 am to 12 pm, giving us such much needed extra sleep. Over in the D-Train we did a mind-numbing 60x100s (not a misprint – yes, 60). I suppose it could have been worse, but on about number 45 or 50 I started miscounting, not the number of 100s, but rather whether I’d done a 50 or a 100. Oh the delirium of distance swimming! (Note to future swimmers: get a REALLY good song stuck in your head before practices on training trip) Then, beach time all afternoon!! The beach has been BEAUTIFUL! Sunny and warm every day so far! Luckily, motivation for tonight’s practice will come from a swimmer’s number one love – FOOD! We’re going to The Cove, a restaurant off the water, for A-Mo’s birthday, which should be a GREAT way to spend the New Year! Everyone is extremely excited because there comes a point where PB&J just doesn’t cut it.

Some warnings for future training trip athletes:

1. The sun does indeed drain you for practice. Put on sunscreen and don’t tell Ben you were out literally all day!

2. You don’t need as many clothes as you think. Pretty sure I’ve worn the same t-shirt and shorts for 3 days…

3. Enjoy training trip in moderation

4. Norman deserves his own seat on the van. Try not to offend him.

5. Microwaves are OPTIMAL cooking appliances. Who needs stoves?

6. 5 people to a room gets a bit crowded – count to 10 and take deep breaths. Oh and get towels every time you’re in the lobby because the maid won’t actually clean your room. Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t touch that mess either!

As a quick recap, the trip has been GREAT! Definitely a lot of fun, though practices can get to be a bit much. Not a huge fan of the freezing cold short course pool, but nothing that the team can’t handle. We’re definitely going to be ready for ODACs after this extra work! I know I’m excited! Back to campus in a mere 3 days! Gotta get back to the beach!

LATER!
Lara O'Brien