After another successful weekend of swim meets, improving the team's record to 4-0, Whitman Swimming now embarks on an important week of training before heading into Thanksgiving break. With no meets to prepare for this weekend, practices will be challenging to say the least. Any good habits that fell by the wayside over the past two weeks will be re-solidified between now and our winter training trip in California.
Of course, with most of the team heading home this weekend for 7-8 days, a lot of the responsibility to maintain a high level of training lies with each individual athlete on the team. Fortunately, the team is extremely dedicated to working through the "break." The commitment that this year's team has to one another is truly inspiring. There is no doubt that each athlete on the team will take full advantage of next week's opportunity have some much needed down-time from class work and use that mental break as an opportunity to refocus on swimming.
Though we won't have any NWC dual meets until January, December 6-8 is the Husky Invitational at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, WA. Home to several US Open swim meets and NCAA DI Men's and Women's Championships, as well as the 2012 Olympic Trials for diving, the pool is truly world-class. The pool is also the location of the NWC Championships on February 14-16, 2014. The meet has the same order of events as our Conference Championships and is a great opportunity to post some fast swims with some great competition. At last year's Husky Invite, Karl Mering posted an "A" qualifying standard in the 100 butterfly, punching his ticket to Nationals and lighting a fire under the rest of the team to stay motivated and train hard through December and January. Similarly, last year, Claire Collins broke her own school record in the 200 breaststroke, posting an NCAA "B" time standard.
The meet is open to all club and college teams. Club teams from the San Francisco bay area, Portland, Seattle, Montana, and Idaho all attend the meet, many using it as a Winter Championship. On the college side, last year, Canadian powerhouses University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary came down and showed off some remarkable talent and depth. Other college teams present were DII Grand Canyon University, Simon Fraser University, University of San Diego, and University of Alaska Anchorage, DI Oregon State University and Seattle University, and 5 other teams from the NWC. Even though the top 32 qualifiers in each event make finals, with so many high-level club and collegiate teams present, making finals is no small feat. For last year's results, click here.
Between now and the Husky Invite, keep checking the Facebook page and Twitter for updates and other fun stuff!
