Magical weekend, amazing people

How to sum up our weekend…. Spectacular! We see a LOT of races and do a LOT of cheering through six sessions of a Conference Championship.

Claire got our night started off right with her Finals swim in the 1650. She undertook quite an unusual feat, breaking both our mile school record and our 1000 freestyle record on the same swim. She was six seconds under our 1000 record at that split and we knew she was on the way to a big swim. Later, Claire said she sensed things were going well during her race because one of her coaches was running along the side of the pool jumping up and down waving at her during the last few hundred yards. [Guilty as charged.] What a swim to begin the last night of Finals!

Josh followed-up with a lifetime best 1650 to keep our momentum going. And momentum is what we have as Cat jumped in for her 200 backstroke She made good on her top seed from the morning and absolutely ran away with the heat for the win!

We rolled along on the wings of these great swims right on to the end.

In the most highly contested placing of the meet, our women were holding a three-point lead over Whitman for 3rd going into the last relay. Describing the mood as electric as our relay team marched to the blocks would be an understatement. I very much had the sense everyone knew what was on the line. Our girls put together a phenomenal relay performance and locked in our team’s 3rd place finish in the Northwest Conference Championship.



After the meet, the men’s team serenaded Dave with a special rendition of “You’ve lost that loving feeling” a la Top Gun. Quite moving.


On the way home we swung by Dairy Queen to wave farewell to careful eating with the meet behind us. So many great ways to donate change to a good cause, and Josh and Rachel tried to find each one.

In a sly moment of inspiration, the team bought me an ice cream cake to celebrate as Women’s Coach of the Year. It was delicious. On the one hand it had worms on it, but on the other hand it was ice cream, so I don’t know if I should read into it. The writing was kind of a rush job and we enjoyed the “Congrates” the harried employee managed late on a Sunday night shift. Mostly I think it was a really nice gesture at the end of a long, long, fun-filled weekend. Also, I’ve eaten ice cream cake the last three nights after dinner. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Forward we boldly go

Night two and no signs of slowing our pace. Rachael held onto her top spot in the backstroke with a commanding win in an even faster NCAA “B” cut than this morning. Here she is with co-finalists Kaitlin and Kallie after a major backstroke podium event for us.

These guys are a portrait of calm intensity.

Our women’s 200 Medley Relay sprinted to a commanding bronze medal place and our men’s 800 Freestyle Relay came in a surprise 5th overall. Josh lead off with a new lifetime best in his 200 freestyle. And Kim does a little thing we like to call representin'.

School Record before brunch…

Caz gave us the most dominant swim of the day with her school record performance in the 100 backstroke and she’s the top seed going into tonight’s final in a couple hours. She’ll be joined by both Kallie and Kaitlin in the final heat, while Catherine is just behind in the consol. Our most impressive event so far for the women. Zach Hixson is our top-seeded guy at 4th in the 100 back. Steven Carreno made consols where he plans to move up, as well. Also earning second swims were Gail, Cat, Isaac, Noah, Susie, Walker and Steven Klutho.
We started our day with another round of the Marriott’s killer breakfast buffet before our trip to the pool. In our team meeting we celebrated the great swims we had yesterday and handed out the Pio Inspired Racer Award for each session. Rachel Levitsky for lighting up her 500 in the morning and Zac Hixson for his inspiring finals IM.
What’s great about recognizing an inspiring swim is that nearly every person might choose a different teammate as the one that inspired him or her. This is when you know you have a good thing going.

Hannah's 50 freestyle in consols

We put up oodles of good swims today, but I find I can only muster the patience this time of night to upload a nice, short race like the 50. Here’s Hannah climbing two spots from prelims in her consolation final!

Points on the board!

We had big races tonight in finals! Cat took silver in the 200 IM and was downright ecstatic about the results. I enjoyed her genuine delight over this first day of racing. Zac slashed another second off his lifetime best in the last 200 IM of his collegiate career. Josh and Sam posted new bests in their 500 swims. Hannah went one tenth faster, but bumped off two more competitors. Caz held onto her fourth place seed and is our second highest finisher so far.

Last night was Olive Garden so tonight we hit the Chipotle after finals. Chips and guacamole were on the house for our group. Who can turn down free chips? After dinner some of the team did some… window-dancing… while we waited for the bus to pull around. The fun never ends with this group.

I love to watch this team race!

What an amazing first session! I love starting a meet off well. Our team has shown once again we are habitual fast starters, beginning with great 500s, a slew of good 200 IMs and wrapping up the morning with strong 50 freestyle performances.

Positive energy was in large supply this morning. I had flashes of last year’s euphoria as I watched our team riding the wave of their teammates’ great swims and rushing around the deck to hug them after their races.

The best kind of morning is the one where you have a hard time highlighting great performances because of the sheer volume of good swimming going on. Rachel “Legitsky” Levitsky lopped about twenty seconds off her lifetime best in the 500 while Abbie Hebein and Claudia Ramirez cut approximately ten seconds apiece off their best 500s.

Kira McGieson took 1.5 seconds off her best 50 (how is this done???) and Hannah Frank dropped nearly a second to land solidly in the consolation heat tonight. Kaitlin Smith shaved a full second off her 50 time, as well, and now is looking forward to turning over and racing her 100 and 200 backstrokes the next couple days.

Our top seeds for tonight are Rachael Cazden in the 50 freestyle, Claire Jordan in the 500 and Cat Menkel-Lawrence in the 200 IM. As the top seed, Cat is busily choosing the music her final heat will march out to. To the prelims victor go the musical spoils.

Our men were no less impressive. We put five guys in the consol heat of the 200 IM. Two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and a freshman! Who to root for? Doesn’t matter as long as he’s a Pioneer.

Freshmen Josh Spegman and Sam Smith are each preparing for second swims after their great 500s this morning, too.

And with Finals come the relays. Tonight we blast into action with the 200 freestyle relay and wrap the night up with the 400 medley relay.

A season of great memories sees us off to the Championship

Yesterday before our last workout in Zehntbauer everyone signed the Memory Board, many with favorite quotes and memories from the season so far.

The team called on Abbie for her artistic prowess to start the board off with the requisite “LC 2009-1010”.

And then the fun begins…! Class by class, seniors to freshmen.

With the Memory Board signed and the shortest practice of the year in the books, there’s one thing on our collective mind. Fast racing starts Friday morning and we are ready.

Living the Dream: Pio Swimming goes to the Championship

This is it! Pioneer Swimming leaves Thursday afternoon for the Conference Championship. Our season has been full of energy and passion, hard work and so much love. Every year at this time I marvel at how distant last August seems when our freshmen arrived to campus and also how quickly time has passed.

We have gotten to this point with the help and hard work of so many people. Our athletes have challenged each other, honed in on their goals, and had a blast getting to this point. The coaches have spent long hours crafting line-ups and workouts, rooting for our swimmers, and trying to create every possible advantage for our team.

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Our athletic training staff helps keep our athletes healthy while our academic support folks give our kids the tools and support they need to succeed in their classes. We saw swimmers make the Dean’s List and others write their senior theses. Teammates studied abroad on two other continents and returned in time for Winter Training to see us through to the Championship meet. We caught rays, grew strong, swam fast and became so close.

Now we take this team we’ve built proudly forward. Check back this weekend because big things are ahead.

No groundhogs in sight, but it looks like spring on campus

Toward the end of morning practice a shaft of beautiful, golden sunlight shone through one of the pool doors and across the water. There was some splashing and rejoicing amongst the swimmers on their warm-down. It’s been a glorious day ever since!

What light by yonder swimming pool shines?