Big Swim Meets this Weekend

The Whitman Swim Teams remain undefeated in NWC dual meets.  With three NWC Dual meets left, Whitman's Men and Women face their toughest competition yet this weekend in Tacoma.  With PLU on Friday at 6pm, and UPS at 1pm on Saturday, the weekend is sure to be well-matched and very tough for our men and women.  
PLU is also undefeated in NWC dual meets this season, as are the UPS men.  The UPS women's only loss came against Pacific University where they were upset in an amazingly close final score of 102.33 to 102.66.  Historically, meets between UPS  and Whitman, and PLU and Whitman have been very close.  Last year, due to poor weather, Whitman's meets against both teams were cancelled.  The rivalry is back this year and the meets will certainly be some of the closest and most exciting NWC dual meets of the season!  This weekend is also the first NWC dual meet of the year for three of our swimmers.  We're pleased to welcome back Keller Hawkins from a semester abroad in Bali and Ellen Banks from a semester abroad in Grenada, Spain.  Finally, we are thrilled to welcome sophomore transfer, Dane Kawamoto, to our Men's team.  We can't wait to see them all in the pool this weekend!
We hope to see you this weekend wearing your blue and yellow!

Aaaaaaand ... Wait for it ...

The last practice in California is nothing to be messed with. It may seem like we're nearly there, until warm-up is over and you still have 9,000 yards left. The day was as perfect as any with light puffy clouds, a little breeze, and Cable Airshow airplanes zipping around to entertain those of us not staring at the bottom of a pool. If there ever was a day to chew through 10,000 yards in one go, this was it. 

After sweating, squinting, kicking, pulling, flipper-ing and IMing for three hours, the team managed to haul their iced and aching bodies onto the bus for one last ride back to our beloved Sheraton. And when it was announced that there would be a stop at In-N-Out before hitting the airport, it was probably the best-received news since Helen found out there was a fro-yo place in Walla Walla. 

So long, California, and thanks for all the fun!

Total trip tallies:*

73,800 yards

1 crashed wedding photo

2 epic ferris wheel rides

110 tortillas

26 minutes arm circles

37 goggle tans

1 freak hailstorm 

200 packs fruit snacks

400 grapes

15 frozen Balboa bananas

498 photos

*Numbers approximate. 

Some snapshots from the last day:

Heading into the pool one last time.

Galen, sneaking one more goon-jump into the water.

Pre-practice briefing.

Tazi, still smiling!

Karl takes on some fly work.

Kevin Wallin. Solid muscle.

The sprinters play with bungees.

Allie takes it all in stride.

Erin, practicing her mad levitation skills.

Just a couple of senior girls after their last day of California training. 

Done! Elise, Ashley, Claire, Tazi and Tyler.

The sprinters, after finishing up.

Nick Wechter and Will, on deck, post-practice.

Me and Rachael, all smiles.

Claire and Ellen relax on the bus.

Til next year, Claremont!

We were in a wedding!

On one of our first days in California, we had the distinct privilege to play "enthusiastic kids on a bus" in the background of a cute couple's wedding photos. Needless to say, it was awesome. I think one of the ladies on the team even declared that Leah's dress was "oh my god, exactly what I want!!" Here is the photo.

Us on the bus (with Leah and Rene in the foreground). Photo cred: Jacob Galleries.