Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Live The Dream

This has been the season's theme, its de facto motto, and, with the conclusion of our Conference Championship, its reality. The saying came into the year with Elspeth, a senior, and made its way onto a banner, the back of our T-shirts, and our team persona.

By the end of Finals on Sunday, we were looking at what may have been the best meet in team history and what was definitely the most exciting meet I’ve coached. Our swimmers saw dozens of lifetime best times and our women broke 11 school records—8 individual records spread between 6 women, plus both 200 and 400 medley relays and the 800 freestyle relay.

Our men’s team came together like I’ve never seen before. Team huddles, themed shirts, and a real passion for fast swimming that was stunning. We moved up in our seeding by sheer will as the guys crushed their old marks and climbed in the standings. Guys made Finals for the first time and lopped gobs of time off their swims.

Noah... AKA: Banner Boy #1

Lindsay's 200 IM victory


We have three women with provisional qualifying times for NCAA Nationals—Lindsay in both IMs, Koy in the 200 Free and Annie in the 100 Back. So, there’s a waiting game for them, but most of the squad now moves into the off-season. Everyone is excited and happy.

It’s hard to believe this part of our year is over, but I’m so proud of what our team accomplished and the way they carried themselves through this meet. Yesterday people flooded by my office and the pool to visit because it’s the most natural thing to do after class and before going back to the dorms or off to dinner. Quite a few took a dip in the pool to loosen up. For a coach, there is nothing better than seeing your team happy and motivated to keep moving forward and looking to next season. The fires are stoked and the fun continues.

Seniors and Coach:


Once more, just the ladies:

3 comments:

Unknown said...

As a proud parent who got to watch the team at the NWC break record after record of the Pio Wall of Fame I can only say " Coach Fantz, tear down that Wall!"
Great Meet. Great job to the team and the coaches. Wow.

Alan H.

Annie Hay said...

I would like to add that our team has another very unique and fantastic way of warming down post-meet: dance parties to "What is Love" while driving down I-5 as our patriotic bus driver flashes the cabin lights to really bring out the disco fever.

Blake Kuhn said...

We loved your post, and had to let you know who we are. We are Live the Dream http://www.golivethedream.com.

We would love for you to see the latest video we posted about a young olympic athlete named Jake Deitchler who shares the same vision in sport as you guys!

Keep up the awesome work!