Invite over, calm returns to our pool

Just in time for a well-earned, much-sought-after Thanksgiving break, the Northwest Invitational is behind us. Strong swimming and so much competition has left us both fired-up for the rest of our season and a little drained. There is nothing like a national holiday to put the pep back into your step.

Here you see Josh Spegman after his 7th place finals swim in the 200 Freestyle. Take my word for it, he is way more excited about his lifetime best swim than he lets on in this priceless candid. And in Rachael’s top five best things about championship swim meets has to be medals with centers that spin.

We’re two weeks from our last dual meet of the term, but first our thoughts turn to family or friends for the holiday this week.

Record-breaking night of finals!

Our team’s swim, nay, the swim of the night, came with Rachael’s victory in the 100 yard freestyle. She lopped more time off her top-seeded swim from prelims and notched her first Lewis & Clark school record in the process. This coach believes she’s only scratched the surface of what she can accomplish in our sport.

Rachael continued the women’s team’s recent record-setting trend as she edged ahead of alumni Nikoya Collier’s mark set last season at the Conference Championship.

A solid night of racing all around. Great relay splits tonight and strong swims. Cat’s powerful 200 Backstroke earned her 2nd place overall and she now owns the second best time in the Northwest Conference this season.

Freshmen Josh and Sam both made second swims in their 500s and showed us the future of Pioneer distance swimming is bright.

Kira rightly described our team’s spirit as, “The cheering-est!” Let’s do it again tomorrow!

Day One prelims, in the book

We return to the pool for Finals in less than two hours. This morning saw strong races, LOUD cheering, and one top seed going into our first night of finals. Below are a few pictures of last night’s preparation and how the team got ready for today.

Hosting the biggest meet of Fall semester!

A short twelve hours from now nineteen collegiate swimming programs (nine men’s and ten women’s) descend on Zehntbauer Swimming Pavilion for the Northwest Invitational. Teams from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California will soon grace our pool and fast swimming is in our future.

Our new spectator seating may well reach capacity and the pool that lays quiet now will erupt with cheers, applause, and the thunderous swims of 262 student-athletes. Join us in person or in spirit from wherever you are with a rousing, “Go Pios!”

Turkeys crash swim workout, mayhem ensues

Thanksgiving-fever (if there is such a thing) has certainly hit the swim team. Teammates Hannah Frank and Rachel Wolf spent a goodly part of their Sunday last weekend making cookie-candy turkeys for Monday swim practice.

Said Hannah, “It was really fun in the beginning, putting them together, but by the time you get to number twenty….”

First Travel Meet!

Our first away meet of the season is always a great adventure. I have to say, I was excited to see there was so much positive energy and chatter on the charter bus that no one even wanted to put a movie on for the trip.

The first night saw us take on the rest of the Northwest Conference in the annual 8th Sprint Pentathlon. Swimmers compete in a 100 IM followed by 50s of each stroke, for a total combined time. Certainly a format that lends itself well to the prototypical sprinter, but I’ve long held the belief that every single athlete can benefit from focusing on the fine points of each swim, supporting his or her teammates, and reveling in the racing environment. And this is what I saw last weekend!

Times are kept by event and by cumulative overall time. Freshman Rachael Cazden, from Boulder, won the 50 Freestyle in a field of about 120 women. She finished the meet our highest placing swimmer at 5th overall. Way to go! Rachael also moonlights as a hair stylist to her teammates and other notable celebrities as seen below.

Freshman breaststroke/sprinter Shuichi Matsumoto (pictured below as a breaststroker and also farther down as The Fly) lapped up the sprint opportunities and found himself our highest placing male at 12th over the whole slate of events.

We saw motivating swims from so many kids and great enthusiasm across the board. It’s impossible not to feel like we are headed in a great direction.

As it was, the direction we headed after the Pentathlon at PLU was across town to UPS for the Relay meet. Another “non-standard” format—this one with unusual relays and a lot of excitement.

Among many awesome swims, our most spectacular race came in the Mixed 200 Free Relay. Rachael, Gail, Shuichi, and Noah blazed through the sprint co-ed relay to a 2nd place overall finish.

Let’s be honest, these meets sometimes stretch on and it’s good to have time for a laugh...

And so ends another week in Pioneer Swimming.