MIAC Championships 2010

The team is tapering, fine-tuning and getting excited for this week's MIAC Championship meet at the University of Minnesota! The meet is three days long, and runs Thursday through Saturday with prelims in the morning and finals in the evening.

Here is the event order:
Thursday, Feb. 18th
Prelims 10:30am
Women's 3-Meter/Men's 1-Meter Diving (concurrently with swimming events)
Women's/Men's 500 Free
Women's/Men's 200 IM
Women's/Men's 50 Free

Thursday, Feb. 18th
Finals 6:30pm
Men's 1-Meter Diving
Women's/Men's 200 Free Relay
Women's/Men's 500 Free
Women's/Men's 200 IM
Women's/Men's 50 Free
20-minute break
Women's/Men's 400 Medley Relay

Friday, Feb. 19th
Prelims 10:30am
Women's 3-Meter Diving (concurrently with swimming events)
Women's/Men's 400 IM
Women's/Men's 100 Fly
Women's/Men's 200 Free
Women's/Men's 100 Breast
Women's/Men's 100 Back

Friday, Feb. 19th
Finals 6:30pm
Women's 3-Meter Diving
Women's/Men's 200 Medley Relay
Women's/Men's 400 IM
Women's/Men's 100 Fly
Women's/Men's 200 Free
Women's/Men's 100 Breast
Women's/Men's 100 Back
20-minute break
Women's/Men's 800 Free Relay

Saturday, Feb. 20th
Prelims 10:30am
Women's 1-Meter/Men's 3-Meter Diving (concurrently with swimming events)
Women's/Men's 200 Back
Women's/Men's 100 Free
Women's/Men's 200 Breast
Women's/Men's 200 Fly
Women's 1-Meter/Men's 3-Meter Diving (will begin at 3:45pm)
Women's/Men's 1650 Free (beginning in the afternoon, and completed by 5:30pm)

Saturday, Feb. 20th
Finals 6:30pm
Women's 1-Meter Diving (concurrently with first two heats of 1650 Free)
Women's/Men's 1650 Free (final heat only)
Women's/Men's 200 Back
Women's/Men's 100 Free
Women's/Men's 200 Breast
Women's/Men's 200 Fly
Women's 1-Meter Diving
Women's/Men's 400 Free Relay

For more meet information, including ticket sales, visit the official MIAC website.

Go Wildcats!

Costa Rica

The team traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica this year for our annual training trip. The trip was amazing and everyone had a great time. Amidst lots of training (9,000-10,000 meters a day) the girls had time to lay out by the hotel pool, walk to the nearby bakery and McDonalds for treats, nap on the rainy days, and become a closer team.

The girls also got to choose an excursion for their day off while we were there. The majority chose to go into the rain forest on a canopy tour, which consisted of ziplining from platform to platform through the rain forest. The rest of the team went white water rafting for an extra workout. Both groups had an amazing time and enjoyed a break from the pool!

Another highlight of the trip was meeting so many wonderful Costa Rican swimmers, coaches, and parents. They were so honored to have us training at their pools and wanted to learn as much as they could from us while we are there. Following our meet with Ursinus College from Pennsylvania both myself and Ursinus's head coach stayed to do a coaching clinic with the swimmers and coaches from the Guadaloupe team. The clinic consisted of them asking us lots of questions about our training methods. Everyone was so nice and it was really hard to say goodbye to them on our last day there.

View from the airplane flying in to Costa Rica

Jumbo Burgers from Soda Tapia, definitely a team favorite!

Captain Kelley Holmes learning how to pick coffee beans

Canopy Group about to head off into the rain forest

First run on the canopy tour

Costa Rican swimmers and coaches from our Guadaloupe Pool

Our team with the Guadaloupe morning swimmers

Morning practice pool ~ indoors and 25 meters long

Evening practice pool ~ outdoors and 50 meters long

Our team bus with our driver and Juan

On our last night of practice the team is allowed to pick their own activities to make up the workout. Above is a video of them playing Birdie on a Perch. Luckily it didn't get too violent!

Costa Rica-Bound!

This morning at 4:30am, the team left campus to board a plane headed for San Jose, Costa Rica. They'll be there swimming two-a-days, taking in some sites, doing some excursions and getting tan until next Tuesday when they fly back to Minnesota. Happy training trip!

Jurusik Sets Two New Records!

On Saturday, Steffanie Jurusik broke her second school record and also established a new meet record at the Roger Ahlman (Macalester) Invite. Her time of 2:14.89 is one of the best in the MIAC this season. Congrats, Steff!

New School Record in the 100 Back!

Congratulations to Steffanie Jurusik (aka Batman) for setting a new team record in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:01.95!

Hour of Power

The St. Kate's swimming team participated in the fourth-annual Ted Mullin "Hour of Power" Relay. This year we decided to join efforts with all the metro teams which ended up combining 5 teams and over 140 athletes.

The event is used to raise money and awareness for cancer research, and is named after Carleton College student-athlete Ted Mullin, who passed away from sarcoma in 2006. The event, which started in the MIAC, is a one-hour all out pool practice. It occurs simultaneous across the country with 127 teams and over 6,200 swimmers participating in the event.

Rick Mullen, Ted's dad, talks to the swimmers about the cause.

Melanie & Steffanie enjoying their relay!

Group shot after leaving it in the pool!

For more information on the Hour of Power please visit Carleton's website.

Happy Halloween!

Fall Break at St. Kate's means Halloween Practice for the swimmers and divers. This is a fun event with the only rules being that you have to come in costume and be able to swim 25 yards or do a dive in the costume. Once again we were provided with lots of laughs as our team used their imaginations to create some outstanding costumes.

Team Halloween Picture

Winning costumes ~ Beach Balls!

Mary Walters and Sarah Vrudny

Winning costumes after diving in for 25 yard swim!

After the costume contest the girls split into teams for a Jeopardy Practice. The pink team (pictured below) of Kaitlyn McClay, Sarah Moody, Bridget Perkins, Alli Witt, Kylah Hitchcock, and Reba Bisciglia came from behind to win the practice. They secured their win with the last team challenge of bobbing for apples in the pool. Good job ladies!

Following such a fun Friday the team headed to Northfield on Saturday to compete in a relay meet with 8 other teams. There were no team scores kept at this meet but Shana and I were still impressed with our team's swims and are excited to begin our regular meets this coming week. Stay tuned for more updates on our season!