Cupcake Challenge!

Last weekend, we took advantage of our weekend off of competition by competing in the annual Cupcake Challenge, a series of feats of strength, skill, and strategy.  The man and woman who wins each challenge earns him or herself a cupcake which Jenn provided--consumed after practice, of course.

Events contested this year included the classics: most push-ups in one minute, most sit-ups in one minute, most pull-ups, and wall-sits.  As usual, we set a cap on the wall-sit at 8 minutes.  Two men and two women made it all the way.  We also added in a two minute burpee challenge this year.  Taking place after the push-up challenge, it was a very, very long two minutes.

Wall-sits in the upstairs hallway at the fitness center

After the dryland portion of the workout concluded, one cupcake each was awarded to the first man and woman in the pool.  As usual, there was a lot of wrestling, jockeying for position, and generally overly-competitive behavior that made all the coaches nervous.  Once in the pool, we did the dive and glide for distance off the blocks.  No kicking or propulsion of any kind is allowed: just dive and glide in a streamline.  Kevin Dyer ('13) was well-known as the ruler of the event.  He was routinely the only person to complete the entire 25 yards.  Without Kevin in the water, the competition was a little more balanced and Teylor Greff took home the cupcake after gliding just short of a whole 25.  After the dive and glide, the team grabbed their boards and put things in gear for king of the mountain: everyone leaves the wall at the same time for a 25 kick, with the last person (or two people) to the wall each 25 getting eliminated until only one remains. It came down to a battle of the butterfliers and in the end it was Melanie Notari who took down Karl Mering in the final 25 yards of kick.

The weekend of fun in the weight room and pool was welcomed after an exhausting training trip, two swim meets, and the end of the first week of second semester.  This week, we're back on the grind.

We head north to Spokane to face Whitworth University for our final NWC dual meet of the season this Saturday, February 1st, at 1pm.  Going into the meet, our Men are tied with Whitworth for 1st place with an untarnished 6-0 record.  If they win, it will be the second year in a row that the Whitman Men finish an NWC dual meet season without a loss.  Our Women will arrive in Spokane with a 5-1 record, tied for 2nd with Pacific Lutheran.  If our Women win, it will be their best NWC dual meet record ever and a sure tie or outright takeover of 2nd place in the NWC standings.  It is going to be a very exciting weekend up in Spokane!  We would love to see you up there wearing your blue and yellow!

The End of the Training Trip, Seniors, and Looking Ahead

After swimming 10,000+ yards last Thursday morning, getting on an airplane that afternoon, and then getting on a bus to Walla Walla that didn't arrive until 2am on Friday morning, the Whitman swim teams had a very busy few days last week.  After a wake-up swim late morning on Friday, the teams re-gathered at the pool on Friday afternoon for one of its biggest dual meets of the season against Pacific Lutheran University.  The men emerged from the meet victorious, the women fell.  Despite the dramatic Women's team scores, the meet was exceptionally close!  Getting out-touched in both relays, caused a dramatic 22-8 point spread for our women's team--amazing what .03 and .04 can do to make close dual meet seem like a blowout.  Despite the loss and the demands of the prior 24 hours, both the Women's team and the Men's team swam some outstanding mid-season times and rallied to make the meet the most electrifying of the season.  You can read more about the it here.

Saturday was senior day for our quartet of Swimmin' Women seniors: Claire Collins, Ellen Banks, Mel Notari, and Keller Hawkins.  The meet went Whitman's way with some great 1-2 finishes in several events for the Men and Women.  A full recap of the meet can be seen here.  It was great for our senior Women to walk away from their final home Whitman swim meet with a victory.  For the first season in years, Whitman will not be losing any men to graduation.

From Left to right, Ellen Banks, Melanie Notari, Claire Collins and Keller Hawkins

Saturday's win was especially sweet for Claire Collins, an English major from Burlingame, CA, who left our training trip three days early to get back to campus in time to complete the four days of written examinations required for graduation by the English department.  Claire plans on pursuing a Masters degree in education with the goal of becoming a high school English teacher.
Melanie Notari, a Politics major from Bellevue, WA, plans on pursuing a career in law or education after graduation--but not before spending some time traveling first.  Ellen Banks, an Anthropology major from Pasadena, CA, is looking to get involved in the NGO or non-profit world.  Finally, Keller Hawkins, a Religion major from Nashville, TN, is applying to divinity school and plans on becoming a pastor in United Methodist church.

Overall, the last 10 days were a whirlwind for us.  By the end of our training trip, our swimmers racked up over 82,000 yards in the pool, over 46 miles of swimming.  Add to that two sessions in the weight room and three sessions of dryland, plus a meet against the University of Redlands, and those numbers are even more impressive.  Capped off with two big NWC dual meets, it goes without saying that having yesterday off was welcomed by everyone (including the coaches).

We were back at it this morning with a 2 hour swim from 9-11 and we'll hit the water again this afternoon from 3-5.  Second semester classes begin tomorrow, as does our normal training schedule.

Thankfully, we have a weekend off of competition.  Our final NWC dual meet of the season takes place on February 1st at Whitworth University.  Heading into the meet, our Men's team is tied for first with Whitworth at 6-0 in NWC dual meets.  Our Women's team is tied for second with Pacific Lutheran at 5-1. If our men defeat Whitworth, it will be two undefeated seasons in a row.  Northwest Conference Championships (hosted by Whitman!) takes place two weeks later, February 14-16.

Run-Swim-Run

The last two days brought lots more fast swimming and sunny weather.  Today, we did one of our favorite sets! Not only did we swim 7300-7900 yards, depending on the stroke group, but we also ran on the CMS track that is adjacent to the pool.  The mid-distance and sprinters did 1200 meters of running, the distance swimmers, 3200 meters.  After nearly 3 hours, we wrapped up an awesome day of swimming and running.

Swim-Run transition

Yesterday and Sunday we also knocked out double-workouts, including another stint in the weight room yesterday morning.  On Sunday evening, we had the privilege of being hosting by Senior, Ellen Banks' aunt and uncle for dinner at their home in Pasadena.  Much thanks to them for hosting all of us!

Tonight, we wrap up our day with another swim workout, this time not led by us, but rather by our Captains.  As per usual, the captains will put their teammates through the ringer.  Historically, the captains have come up with toughest swim workout of the week.  This year is sure to equally intense!

Tomorrow we head to the University of Redlands for a dual meet scrimmage in the evening.  We'll be competing only in short events (100's of each stroke, 200 IM, and 200 yard relays) but after the long week of work, even the short events are sure to be challenging.  Redlands is home to Defending National Champions in both the Men's 200 IM and Women's 100 freestyle.  Those races are set to be extremely exciting for our sprinters and IMers!

After dinner at Ellen's aunt and uncle's house

Dane and Keller compare tans

Sunset at the pool on Monday night

Beach Day!

We spent the morning at Newport Beach and, as always, we had an awesome time.  Even if the weather had been cold and rainy, the team would have had a blast.  Fortunately, it was sunny and warm and we hit the beach as vigorously as we hit the pool!  Great thanks to our Senior, captain Ellen Banks for letting us use her family's beach house as home base for the day.

This evening, we backed off on the intensity a little and gave everyone some recovery while we ramp up for a big double workout tomorrow.  Just 4 days into the week and everything is going great!

Here are a couple photos from the beach today

Day 3!

Another day in the books and those goggle tan lines are really starting to take shape!  Our distance swimmers reached a season high 13,400 yards today between their two workouts, sprinters and mid-distance, a measly 11,700.  Add in 30 minutes of weights before this morning's workout and we really cranked out some high caliber work.  Adding together the last three days of workouts, and we have already stacked up over 30,000 yards (that's over 17 miles) of swimming, plus one dryland workout and one weight workout.  Despite the intensity of the practices, spirits--and caloric intake--remain high!

Tomorrow morning we hit the road for Balboa Island and the beach!  Though it won't exactly be a day off, with energy being spent running around the beach rather than swimming, it will no doubt be the mental break that the team needs to ensure the work we do in the pool stays focused and high quality.  The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and highs near 70.  Just right!

Here are a few pictures from today's workouts

Shoulder warm-up before evening practice

Dane and Karl after warm-up at morning practice

Josie, Ellen, Keller, and Robby this morning

California Day 2!

Day two of the training trip and we got more fun and nice weather!  Between today's two workouts, we tallied up over 12,000 yards (6.8 miles), plus 15 minutes of dryland before the evening workout.  A well-earned dinner at Chipotle finished the evening for us.  We'll be back in the pool for two more workouts tomorrow before we get a morning off on Saturday and we head for the beach!

Here are a couple photos from today but there are several more on the Facebook page

California!

This morning we met up in sunny and warm Southern California for the annual training trip.  For several of our swimmers who traveled in from the mid-west and Northeast, 68 degrees and sunny was 80-90 degrees than where they were coming from.  Needless to say, we're enjoying the weather.  But the energy and fun that this group of student-athletes has when they get together would keep anyone happy.
After we got settled into the hotel and got some grocery shopping done, we headed to our first practice of 2014 at the Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps pool, our home for the next 8 days.  It was great to see the whole team back in one place again after a long and well deserved break from classes!
We'll swim 15 times in the next 8 days, including a meet on Wednesday, January 15th at 4:30pm, against the University of Redlands at their home pool.  Then, after arriving back in Walla Walla on the 16th, we face our two toughest home dual meets of the season against Pacific Lutheran and University of Puget Sound.  All in all, it will be a productive and exciting next 10 days!  I'll be posting photos and updates from the trip every day so be sure to keep in touch with the Facebook page and check back here frequently.

Inconspicuous?  No.  But it wouldn't be the training trip without the old-school busses!

The CMS pool, our home for the next 8 days