Saturday, May 7, 2011

Swimmers for the CURE!!!

Alli, Marissa, and Sarah at Relay!!


On April 30th, 2011 a small group of us headed over to the University of St. Thomas to participate in the Relay for Life event put on by the American Cancer Society and the school clubs from both St. Thomas and St. Kate’s: Colleges Against Cancer.

We signed up and asked for donations from our family and friends for this great cause! It was our third year participating in the event and was, again, a WONDERFUL experience. For 12 hours, from 7pm Saturday night through 7am Sunday morning we walked around the track – walking for all those we know who have had or who have cancer. The relay signifies the battle with cancer that those who have it or are affected by it face. It emphasizes the struggle, and the fatigue but also the power and dedication to overcome the dreadful disease of cancer so that one day the sun rises again and hope is found. The money all goes towards research for cancer so some day no one will have to hear the words: “You have cancer.”

We heard a speech from a leader on cancer research from the University of Minnesota as well as a personal story of the battle against cancer from a UST student.

The luminaria ceremony was then held – remembering and honoring those we’ve lost, but also celebrating the one’s who have been saved. The lights were turned off and hundreds of bags with names of loved ones who have been affected were lit up around the track. It’s a very powerful experience and again, our team came together and supported one another to get through it.

Our team raised about $280 dollars – for only four of us on the team it was a great amount and we know that any and all of it helps! Total, between the two schools, almost $29,000 was raised!! How great is that?!?!!

We want to thank any and all who supported our team in donations, and hope that this has helped to bring us yet another step closer to that cure for cancer.


Season Wrap-up!!


April 3rd we wrapped up our season with a team banquet held on campus – with of course GREAT food!!


Family and friends joined us in the celebration of our AMAZING season. We looked at our goals we had made at the beginning and found that with hard work we could reach them! A big goal being that we placed another spot up in the MIAC!! 5th – beating St. Ben’s and growing closer to those top four teams!! This accomplishment showed the strength of our team – leaving much to be anticipated for next season!!


Here were some other highlights from the season and the awards given:

  • Both Sarah Moody and Stephanie Jurusik provisionally qualified for the NCAA national meet.

  • Our coaches were both named MIAC Swimming & Diving Female Coaches of the Year!

  • We lost two seniors this year, Kelley and Marissa, who will be greatly missed!! Thanks for a great four years ladies!

  • [Let it also be noted]…every year after the conference meet one of the medley relays races a group of master’s swimmers (old men) who come in and swim every morning at St. Kate’s in a 200 medley relay. Each year we usually lose – till now!! This year we beat the “Morning Manglers” (as they’re called) and even have the splits, as we used touch pads to prove it!! [The fact that we wore the old – and somewhat illegal - LZR suits isn’t important!]

  • The MOST VALUBLE SWIMMER and DIVER for their exceptional performances throughout the year and at the MIAC conference meet: Stephanie Jurusik and Sarah Moody

  • The MOST DEDICATED for her commitment to the team (morning practices 4 of the 5 days a week), and love of the sport (swimming and doing P90X last summer): Mary Walters

  • The MOST IMPROVED for dropping so much time in her events and making it back to finals for the first time: Reba Bisciglia

  • The MOST INSPIRATIONAL for her outstanding swims at the conference meet and for always having that pump-up music during practice: Alli Witt

Thank you to all who supported us this season!! We wouldn’t be who we are without you and hope you’ll be with us again next year!!


The captains leading us into the new season are:

Sophomore Lauren Kraing

Junior Melanie Maas

Seniors Mary Walters and Sarah Vrudny

Monday, March 7, 2011

Baby You're a Firework!

Taper the swimmers favorite word and a coaches nightmare. With practices decreasing in yards our wildcats got a little antsy in anticipation for the one thing we have been working towards.....CONFERENCE!!!


And baby we were fireworks! Everyone wildcat on this team made this meet one to remember. From the career bests to the high places this team presented a strong front that took down st. bens our rival school. This would have not possible without every team member being the best they could be. Our Wildcats broke several school records on this road, our coaches even won even won Women's Coaches of the year. We even had an added bonus of no suit drama. We also had the best fans Thanks to Shana's parents and everyone else that came to cheer on our Wildcats! Our Wildcats are so very excited to eat JUNK FOOD!!!



This was truly a meet to remeber, ending the season on such a high note has kept everyone so very excited for next season. We can't wait for what we can do next year.






Wednesday, February 9, 2011

MIAC Championships 2011!














The team is tapering, fine-tuning and getting excited for next 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 order of events:

Thursday, Feb. 17th
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. 17th
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. 18th
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. 18th
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. 19th
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. 19th
Finals 6:30pm
Men's 3-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

Single Session Tickets:
$3 (students)
$7 (adults)

All-Sessions Ticket:
$15 (students)
$35 (adults)

For more meet information, visit the official MIAC website.

Go Wildcats!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Goodbye J-Term



At last the day has come, no more J-Term. Our month long break of not having classes is over and we start back up again on Monday. It has been a lot of fun over the last few weeks just having practice and meets on the weekends. The swim team finished out our break with another trip to Feed My Starving Children here in the cities. The Track and Field team joined us this time too. We made over 12,300 meals... that's enough meals to feed 34 children for a whole year. We learned that our food would be making the journey to Haiti next week. It was another great experience for our team to help out those in need while having fun too.


This weekend is our last dual against UM Morris and the St. Kates Invite on Saturday will wrap up a busy weekend. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Kelley

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Greetings from the Sunshine State!!

Hello Minnesota! I hope you are not completely frozen yet. We have been in Florida for a week now and have been enjoying our time here. We have been working very hard in the pool with two-a-days and enjoying the sunshine between practices. Trust me, its been rough with days in the lower 70's and upper 60's. Shana and Nicole have been very in tune with our training adjusting workouts to help us in the best way possible.

On Thursday (Happy Birthday Bridget!) we ventured to Key West to go para-sailing. It was so much fun to take the day off and enjoy the beautiful ocean from way up in the air. Below is a picture of what it looked like from the boat.




We have a few days left here on our training trip and I am certain we will make the best of them. We come back to frozen Minnesota on Tuesday and then we are off again to St. Thomas that weekend.

More pictures to come soon!

Kelley

Thursday, December 23, 2010

It's Christmas Time!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! I can’t believe it’s that time of year already! This swimming season has just flown by and it’s been awhile since we’ve been on here – so I’ll try to catch everyone up on all that’s been happening! The semester has been done now for about a week and the girls are all home for Christmas break; and believe me, after finals, it’s a well deserved break! We’ve all worked hard both in and out of the pool and so some rest, relaxation, and family time will hopefully refresh the girls so they can come back ready for the new year! Just after the new year we’ll hit our training at it’s peak, as we head down to Islamorada, Florida for our annual training trip. There we’ll get in some major yards as we swim two-a-days in a long course meter pool! It’s outside and we’re hoping for great weather! We’ll tell you more about it when we return in January. For now though, the girls are expected to swim on their own over break to stay in shape – otherwise this trip could be a little rough! ;)


Our hard work in the water has certainly paid off in the meets that we’ve swam in. Our first meet, the Augsburg Pentathalon went really well as did the Tommie Relay meet at the end of October. Our team really showed the strength we had at both meets. Right before the Relay meet we had our annual Halloween practice where everyone showed up in costume and then swam a length of the pool! We had some great costumes this year: winning first place were a pair of oompa loompas – complete with the song; we also had a mad scientist and egor, crayons, and many other creative costumes! As well...our sister sport Cross Country had their MIAC championship over the halloween weekend, so we headed over to Como Park after the Relay meet and cheered on the runners!!

The first part of November we headed up to Moorhead to race Concordia. We won 12 of the 16 events with Bridget Perkins and Steffanie Jurusik each winning three! Our relays did well as did our divers! Sarah Moody won both the 6 and 11 dive events off the 1 meter board.


That next week we headed to Macalester for the fifth annual Hour of Power event. We teamed up with Hamline, Augsburg, and Macalester to swim relay-style for an hour in honor of Ted Mullin, a Carleton College student-athlete who passed away from sarcoma in 2006. It was a great experience and we got to know some more of the swimmers from the other teams. At the end of the week we hosted a meet racing Hamline, Augsburg, Macalester, and Gustavus. Again we had strong swims by all the girls and our divers did very well too leading to a second place finish to Gustavus! Right before Thanksgiving we headed over to the Macalester invite where we again placed second - to St. Thomas. Steffanie set two meet records and Sarah Moody won the 3 meter and was second in the 1 meter diving events.

At Thanksgiving we got a little break, but with the anticipation of our last meet our coaches kept us working hard. Our last meet we swam at the St. Thomas invite where we saw many great swims! Many of the girls got their conference cuts, and Lena Anderson had season best times! We finished third to LaCrosse and St. Thomas.

That ended our competition until after our training trip in January when we’ll be dualing St. Thomas a few days after we return from Florida!


We've also been doing some fundraising - thanks to Marissa's mom at a Byerly's gift basket shop. We help out making baskets and other odd jobs in the store! We appreciate the support and have had a lot of fun helping out!

So…that’s our season in a little wrap up for now! We wish you a Merry Christmas and Blessings in the new year!!