Team Bonding

The first Friday of the season, we participated in our favorite volunteering event, Feed My Starving Children. As usual, the team had a blast assembling food packets for those in need in Haiti. This 6 hour team bonding affair also included team pictures, apparel ordering, an exciting nutrition talk by the always entertaining Mark Blegen, and, my personal favorite, consumption of pepperoni pizza and crazy bread!!

Augsburg Pentathlon

After only two weeks of practice, our first meet of the 2011 season, the Augsburg Pentathlon, was met with much success on Saturday October 20th. Demonstrating our versatility and endurance, each of us raced the 100 butterfly, 100 back, 100 IM, 100 breaststroke, and 100 freestyle over the course of an hour. All said and done, we dominated the top team score with 2085 points and the top six individual finishes. The top scorer was Steffanie Jurusik with 199, right ahead of me (191) and fellow captain Sarah Vrudny (189). Steff had the top time in every event except the 100 breast, where Vrudny posted the fastest time. After such a great meet, I would say that we are on track to post some great times in the heart of competitive season.

The Pentathlon was also our parents meet, and we showed our appreciation for our biggest fans through a small reception after the meet.

Colors Workshop

What else would we do on our 1 day mid-term break, but some more team bonding. The colors work shop was a personality characterization seminar hosted by the 2011 Minnesota teacher of the Katy Smith. Katy Smith was an excellent MC with her fun and exciting orange personality. The work shop was quite enjoyable as we mingled with other St. Kate’s winter athletes and coaches, made posters, commented on accuracy of the color personalities of some team members, and of course ate delicious food. We not only found out what color represents our personalities, but how to communicate and work together with each unique color personality. It came as little surprise to me, and to anyone who has read the past two blog posts, that I have an analytical green personality. Though we had representatives of all four colors (green, blue, orange, and gold), the majority of our team consisted of the compassionate and friendly blue personalities.

St. Thomas Relay Meet

Next weekend, we took on seven MIAC teams in the St. Thomas relay meet in some unconventional events. We stacked up well in most races, posting top finishes in the 300y breastroke (4^th), 300y backstroke (4^th), and 1100y animal relay (3^rd). The grueling animal relay, consisting of a 200 Fly, 400 IM, and 500 Free, was dominated by Bridget Perkins, Steff Jurusik, and Alli Witt. Though each of the events in that relay were tough and met with resistance by some, the trio could be consoled by amazing splits and an “all-conference” finish according to coach Nicole. The whole team is looking good and should continue to perform well at the Northfield Quad next weekend.