Grace Gifford competes at Paralympic National Championship

Grace is competing this week at the US Paralympic Swimming Championship. She is racking up lifetime bests including tonight's 50 Freestyle and 400 Freestyle. Incidentally, a month ago at our Northwest Conference Championship, Grace crushed by ten seconds her own American record in the 200 Breaststroke for her classification.

Western Region Sectional Championship

I spent the end of last week in Washington for the Sectional meet. Great swims by quite a few of our senior recruits and I got the chance to watch a lot of juniors, as well. Like meets across the rest of the country right now, an abundance of fast swimming.

It's always nice to talk with coaches about their swimmers, particularly those who are academically minded who will be a great fit for both our team and the vibrant learning environment at Lewis & Clark.

I also got to spend about 45-minutes talking physiology with a coach friend. Specifically anaerobic threshold training and the ramifications of training just above or just below this level. It's great to bounce ideas off of someone else and find out how they do things.

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:

Be my Pioneer Valentine

Zac surprised our women with roses for yesterday's session. In his defense, so did Matt Yelin (later that night) and Matt got one for his head coach, too...



The end approaches and the Pioneers show no signs of letting up. This morning the team crafted a new cheer to the tune of classic pep band song "Go Fight Win." Simply stunning.

Our men put up the third best 200 Medley Relay swim in school history and climbed the podium at the beginning of finals last night.



When you're in need of a little pick-me-up, let your teammates carry you through the tough times!


Our women's 800 Free Relay team and their proud, proud coach.

This shot catches a fraction of the excitement over the girls' recrod-smashing finish in the 800 Free Relay.

Nine school records... (and counting)

Just when one might expect momentum to slow, the cascade of lifetime best swims and school records continues unabated. Starting the night for the men , our 200 Medley Relay squad posted the third fastest relay performance in school history, less than a second off a mark set in 1991. Later tonight, Zac finished 5th overall in the 100 Back with a spectacular effort wire-to-wire.

On the women's side, the tumult of records has increased. Today alone, two relay and three individual school records have fallen by the wayside. Also, Koy, Lindsay, and Annie (who each set a school record in her respective event) notched NCAA provisional qualifying times.

When it rains, it pours. And we look forward to more success pouring down on the Pios tomorrow on the final day of competition.

Greatest Session in Pio Swimming History

I get to call it that because I update the blog... But, I don't think I'm wrong. I have truly never seen a team get off to such a strong start. This morning saw lifetime bests in ¾ of our swims and one school record. Tough to top… until we got to the finals.

Four school records and huge time drops nearly across the board.

Lindsay Nixon lowered her previous mark from the morning in winning the title in the 200 IM. This swim earned her a provisional NCAA qualifying time.

Claire Jordan finished 5th overall in the 500 Freestyle and dropped three seconds, breaking the Lewis & Clark school record, as well.

The final women’s race of the night was spectacular. In the 400 Medley Relay, Annie Hay lead off the relay with a school record in the 100 Backstroke. Hay combined with Susie Trexler, Lindsay Nixon, and Koy Collier to smash the former school record by more than four seconds. For the men, the finals proved sweet for Zac Hixson who lopped more than three seconds off his lifetime best time to move up to 10th place in the 200 IM. Sam Palmer broke the 22-second barrier to finish in 21.88 seconds in the 50 Freestyle.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow is only Day II, but I welcome the chance to see our team race again. We’ve had great cheers and numerous bus speeches in just the first day of competition. As Sam said, we’re still building to the crescendo. It’s going to be a great weekend!

Record-breaking morning!

Our swimmers put up one of the best first-morning performances I’ve ever seen by a team. Prelims began at 10:00am and by Noon we had seen one school record, over a dozen lifetime bests and excellent positioning for Finals tonight.

Senior Lindsay Nixon smashed the school record in the 200 Individual Medley and is the top seed for tonight's final. She touched in 2:10.81, downing the old mark of 2:11.92 by just over a second. Four more Pioneer women qualified for the consolation final heat of the IM: Koy Collier, Susie Trexler, Cat Menkel-Lawrence, and Mandy Hamilton. Claire Jordan swam to a lifetime best swim in the 500 Freestyle and is seeded fifth going into tonight's final. Senior Annie Hay qualified 8th to swim in the Finals heat of the 50 Freestyle. With this swim, she moved into 7th all-time for the Pios in that race.

In men's competition, co-team captain Sam Palmer swam to a best time in the 50 Freestyle and seeded himself 10th for tonight's final. Palmer moved into 5th place in Pioneer Swimming history for the 50 Freestyle. Co-captain Zac Hixson is coming back ranked 11th tonight in the 200 IM.

Team Dinner

Countdown: 1.5 days to Conference. Tonight Annie had the team over to her house for dinner, with the aid of her mom and grandmother. They treated us to gargantuan trays of lasagna, bottomless salad bowls, garlic bread and Annie's homemade brownies.

The run-up to Conference has flown by and we leave early tomorrow afternoon. I know we're ready to swim fast and we'll see it first thing Friday morning. The training is behind us now. The path is laid for success and we begin our walk down the path. Poetically, as it were.

A couple shots of the team, one with a smashing close-up of Koy's right arm.

Four days out of the big meet

Departure for the Northwest Conference Championship: 4 Days.

The moment is almost here where the hard work culminates in fast swimming and the best team meet of the season. The competition where you are lifted up to great performances by your teammates and the team chemistry reaches its highest point of support and enthusiasm. Each race seems less contested by the individual and more by an entire team.

These next few days we spend honing the skills and capacities we built all season. This is an exciting time! It is a time of more sleep and an opportunity to finish up some school projects, take a deep breath, and prepare for a big weekend. Our workouts this week see great focus on the fundamentals with a little time to cut loose and practice such integral actions as relay exchanges, bubble rings and the goggle toss.

Senior Day! Last Home Meet

On this day we honored our seniors for all they've meant to our program and to their teammates. This year gifts were presented, tears flowed, and so did junior co-captain Zac Hixson on the rap he put to music for the presentation. After honoring each senior, we pumped Zac's song over the sound system and let the magic flow.

Dave is the split maestro!

Racing tired, racing fast

Our final two home meets of the swim season last Friday and Saturday. My wife and her friend Cheryl attended and Cheryl caught some great action shots with her new Canon telephoto lens.

___________Abbie____________________Rachel

_________________Zach

Bread & Butter, Anaerobic Capacity, and Patriotism

It's really been quite a week since our return from California. Last Friday we boarded the bus for our long eastern Washington double. Friday night at Whitman some of the guys agreed (were talked into) singing the national anthem. After some quick practice out of the way, they gave a rousing performance. You can almost tell that the woman behind them in the video has never heard anything more beautiful. Nor had I. (This photo will have to take the place of the video until I can convince Blogger to upload the 100+ MB video...)

A mere hour after that verbal performance Lee Taylor--pictured center in the snazzy shorts--swam to a lifetime best performance in the 100 Breaststroke and moved into Top-10 all-time for L&C, bumping off a gentleman from 26 years ago.

After some great winter training, team fitness is up, as well as team morale. On Wednesday we swam a great workout including several rounds of sprint 50s from a push on 1:30. I saw max effort, quality finishes, and fast swims. After our training, Susie and Kaitlin served homemade bread with an herbed butter and a cranberry butter (all delicious) as a presentation of their "talent" leading up to the annual talent show tomorrow.

Last two home meets this weekend and tomorrow is Senior Day!

What a week!

Today marks our last full day in Cali and I think we made the most of it. After sleeping in, we hit the pool deck. First, Zach got us stretched out with a short yoga session and we hit some great core exercises (I took a yoga class on campus with Zach last summer and he was the first one in class to pull off the headstand).

After loosening up, the team put in a solid couple hours in the pool to cap off an impressive week of training. We were focused and attentive, with people supporting each other all the way.

About two thirds of us went to see Gran Torino tonight in Claremont before dinner. We leave in the morning for the Cal Lutheran Relay Meet and our trip home.

Workout, beaches and roller coasters fill our Sunday

Our Knott’s Berry Farm crew, plus Lindsay behind the camera.

Lindsay, Kaitlin and Cat line dancing and what do bobsleds have to do with Knott's Berry Farm? I do not know. But, our team is not one to shy from a photo op.

We got in our first California double of winter training today. This morning I watched the sun creep over the trees outside the pool and cut a swath of sunlight across water. Susie was the first one in its path. She was at the far end, just about to take off on her sendoff, and the sun hit her back and she turned around in the water with the biggest grin pasted across her face.

After some great training, it’s true we made time for a little frolic.


As my high school cross country coach used to say, “Workin’ hard or hardly workin’?”

Our “Prom Style” photo after dinner at Lindsay Nixon’s family home. Thank you for all the great pasta! And the homemade ice cream sandwiches. And the brownies.

Glorious Winter Training!

We arrived in southern California this afternoon for our Winter Training Camp. What followed was a trip to the pool and a sunset swim. We're looking at about 75 degrees tomorrow and that's just fine by me.

Happy Holidays from Pioneer Swimming!!

Snow Day!

Yesterday school was snowed out. Roads are still pretty sketchy, but I braved the wider world to get in to campus this morning. These are a couple shots from my walk up to the Trail Room for lunch. I didn't do any sledding outside my office yet, but these kids did.

Following are a trio of photos from freshman swimmer Erik Khazoyan during his expedition around campus Sunday when the snow was fresh (and still coming down).

Turkey with my favorite team

Thanksgiving has come and gone. So many things happening that blogging has fallen, oh so briefly, by the wayside. No longer!

Just before the team left town for Thanksgiving, they threw a holiday dinner in one of the on-campus apartments. Just like last year, I was pleased to see our team's classroom and swimming prowess extends to the kitchen, as well.

When my wife and I got there, we smelled the feast from the lobby downstairs. My wife brought a cauldron of her family-recipe punch and we all washed down delicious turkey, potatoes, stuffing, pies and several more things I know I consumed in the haze of eating. Oh right, Grace’s cookies (I had two and they tasted like fudge).

I love holidays with the team.

The sea of orange, team fun & team success

What a night! Capturing the intensity of finals in collegiate swimming is tough with just words and pictures. Lost is the deafening excitement and the hair-raising adrenaline. All this was in effect Saturday night at the Northwest Invite as our swimmers moved up places on nearly all their swims. Lee and Matt moved from 4th and 6th seeds in their consol final to finish 1-2. No more than fifteen minutes later Catherine and Kaitlin went 1-2 in their consol before watching Annie take second in the 100 Backstroke final.

The sea of orange was in action again on the pool deck as our kids cheered, danced, and hollered their teammates through big swim after big swim. Lindsay completed her sweep of the Medleys with her strong victory in the 400 IM. Watching our team cheering during races at the end of the pool, surrounding the block and spilling out behind other lanes took me back to my own college swimming days and the way a team can get you through the big races.

Catherine offered to get us home quickly by driving the tour bus. Her offer was declined, but she still got this nifty photo.

Finals tonight and a return trip to Portland

We've refueled after prelims and the team is veging out until we head back to the pool. Our 200 Medley Relays will set the evening in motion and the fun won’t stop until after the 400 Free Relay several hours later. We have loads of finals swims ahead of us and many great races already behind. Our swimmers have opportunities to move up and the chance to make small adjustments after our morning swims.

More than anything I’m impressed with how well our men and women are racing. We’re attacking swims without fear or misgivings. It is far better to give everything to a race in the face of possible discomfort and pain than to wait around hoping things will go smoothly and easily. This difference is the hard thing to teach and it is a blast to see our team lay everything on the line for great swims!

Road Trip!

The Pioneers took to the road this weekend for the Northwest Invitational in eastern Washington. Two-day meet with prelims and finals each day. In this format we cover the entire Conference Championship slate of events in only two days. The swim coach in (which pretty much takes over this time of year) loves the challenge of so many races packed tightly together. If our kids have the grit and gumption to succeed here, the big meet will prove restful and spread out by comparison.

In true Pioneer Swimming fashion we got out of the gates fast and put up great morning swims, logging seven big-final berths and many more consol and bonus consol slots. At lunch we hit the sandwich shop and returned to the hotel for quick R&R before boarding the bus for the pool. Finals were big, loud, exciting and fast. A sea of orange lined the pool for our team races and the women swam an impassioned 400 Medley Relay to finish second overall.

At the halfway point I go to sleep with a happy heart and a stomach full of pasta, salad, and garlic bread.

Albany Quad: Friday morning on campus

I walked to the Dovecote with Michael so he could get his morning hot chocolate. I've used the word "glorious" to describe the last two days on campus far too many times already. This probably won't stop me using it again.

Glorious.

Tuesday from the pool's front steps

The OTHER important election: Our own Matt Yelin wins coveted costume award

In what's been a real nail-biter, a sophomore swimmer wins the campus-wide Halloween costume contest. Check it out! http://www.lclark.edu/~infotech/HALLOWEEN/

Sprint Pentathlon, Relay Meet, and..... is that Michael Phelps on our team bus?

Friday night we competed in the annual Sprint Pentathlon. 50s of each stroke and a 100IM. You probably realize not all swimmers are suited to these events, but I told our team beforehand I believe everyone has something to gain by attacking these races, supporting their teammates, and having some fun. We did just that. There were solid swims and our returning swimmers crushed many of their times from last season.

Our women won the team competition with Lindsay Nixon taking first overall for the five-event combined time. We had 5 women in the top 13 places. Our men swam fast, the returners making great drops, and our freshmen showed us great range in their stroke events.

More to follow on our Halloween workout, but it's important to note that sophomore Matt Yelin was Michael Phelps for a day. All day!

Saturday we hosted the annual Northwest Conference Relay Meet in Zehntbauer. It's great to welcome so many teams to our home pool and the meet ran fast and smooth.