MIAC Championships . . . Less than a week away!

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. Go Wildcats!

Here is the event order:
Thursday, Feb. 19th
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. 19th
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. 20th
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. 20th
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. 21st
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 5pm)

Saturday, Feb. 21st
Finals 6:30pm
Men'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.

St. Kate's Invite and Senior Night!

This was a great weekend for the St. Kate's Swimming and Diving team! Friday, St. Kate's hosted our senior night. People took turns speaking about each of the seniors. As a senior myself, I was really grateful for the kind words the girls spoke. We all went on to have really solid swims for the rest of the weekend. It was a long weekend but everyone was having so much fun. There were about 18 season bests and 4 career bests. We are now entering our last week of break before we start taper. Everyone is looking really good in the water and the attitudes are still great! I am looking forward to see what the rest of the season brings. This weekend we have the MAC Invite. Good luck ladies!!

Skating to pass the time!

Swimming is not the only thing us swimmers do at St. Kates! Occasionally we trade in our suits for some skates and hit the ice for some winter fun. A couple of the girls went on a little skating adventure at our local skating rink and had a blast. Now that the temperature is warm enough to be outside for more than five minutes, it was nice to get outside and enjoy the weather. There were no spills or falls so everyone had a great time. This is something, I think, we will do more often.

Training Trip-Florida 2009

Happy New Year!! The team just got back from our training trip to the Florida Keys. It was a blast. This was one of the best years for the training trip. We had great weather, the place we stayed at was great and the pool was amazing for training. It was a lot of work, but we mixed in a little fun in there. While we were down there we had the opportunity to go snorkeling which was very fun. Some girls saw sting rays and barracudas! There was a nice team dinner and we spent a lot of time at the pool and beach tanning which was wonderful. Also, some girls had the opportunity to go to the Everglades to an Alligator Farm. This was my personal favorite because we got to watch the alligators feed, go on a fan boat in the Everglades and we got to hold snakes! Overall it was a great trip. For the next month we will be training really hard back in the frozen tundra to get ready for the MIAC Championships. Thank you to all the girls for their great attitudes and work ethic!

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of the entire team I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Our 2008-2009 season has started with our largest team and one of our most competitive teams since I came to St. Kate's in 2002. We look forward to continuing our success in 2009 and hope to see all of you at our meets.

We will begin the New Year by going on our annual training trip. This year we will be training in Islamorada, Florida and are excited to escape the cold & snow and get in some great training! Be sure to check out our blog in January for updates from our trip.

Fun from 2008!

A BIG Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who attended our Noodles & Co. fundraiser on Monday! We appreciate you coming out and supporting the team by eating lots and lots of pasta!

Also, thanks to those of you who have purchased the Green Mill gift cards our athletes are selling. This has proven to be our most successful fundraiser.

And lastly, we'd like to thank Marissa's mom for providing a great opportunity for our swimmers and divers to work off their training trip cost. Go visit her at the Byerly's Culinary and Gift Basket shop in St. Louis Park and purchase a gift basket handmade by our athletes.

Hour of Power for Cancer Research

The girls pose after the finish of their Hour of Power relay on November 6th. This is the third year our team has taken part.

A couple of weeks ago, our team, amongst 90 other teams around the country and world did an Hour of Power, a relay in honor of former Carleton College swimmer, Ted Mullin who passed away in 2006 from a rare form of sarcoma.

You can read more and donate money to fund this type of research at the University of Chicago on Carleton College's website:
http://apps.carleton.edu/athletics/varsity_sports/mens_swimming_and_diving/hour_of_power_relay/