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!

24-Hour Swim Completed!!!

This weekend the team took on a 24-hour swim-a-thon and had amazing results. Not only did they raise a lot of money for team travel they also raised over $1,100 for ALS in memory of Patricia Walters.

The team was led in the pool by Sophomores Sarah Vrudny (10.94 miles), Mary Walters (10.8 miles), Bridget Perkins (10.48 miles), and First-Year Melanie Maas (10.41 miles). Each member of the team swam at least 8 miles and total they swam 170.44 miles or 5,624.5 laps! Amazing work for just being 2 weeks into the season.

The above numbers are impressive but more impressive was Sophomore Captain Reba Bisciglia who swam just over 9 miles with three of those being butterfly. She was determined to make the most of her pledges to earn money for ALS and the team. Below is a picture of her swimming fly.

Here are some pictures of the team hanging out:

And some pictures proving that they did get some sleep!

On Saturday morning some of our Alumnae joined us to pump up the energy on the deck and to push the current team to get in more yards. Thanks for joining us!!!

Why aren't these two more motivated before their last 20 minute swim?

Team Picture after the last lap was swum! Great Job Wildcats!!

24-Hour Fundraiser

We will be holding a 24-Hour Swimming & Diving Fundraiser starting Friday, October 16th at 4:00pm. During this time the swimmers will swim 20 minutes straight every 2 hours while our diver will attempt to do as many dives as possible in 1 hour.

Twenty-Five percent of the money raised will be donated to finding a cure for ALS in memory of Patricia Walters. Patricia's daughter is a member of our team and we are hoping that one day no family will have to lose a loved one to ALS.

We would love your support during the event and would appreciate fans stopping by to keep everyone motivated!

Alumnae: Please come in and help push our current team members to get in as many laps as possible. We would like for you to join us from 9:00-11:00am on Saturday, October 17th to push our current team members to get in as many laps as possible. Alums will take turns swimming as relays, only 50 yards at a time, to encourage the current athletes to keep going. Let Nicole know if you'll be able to join her for this event.

If you are interested in pledging a swimmer/diver contact Nicole Hempler at 651-690-8774 or by e-mail at nmhempler@stkate.edu.

Donations can be sent to:
St. Catherine University
Wildcat Swimming & Diving, F-18
2004 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105

Swim Season is just around the corner!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the last week of summer. I think it went by really fast and now it's almost time for school to start. Things are picking up on campus as we gear up for another swim season. There are a few things that are going on once school starts that are going to be very exciting.

- We have a team meeting on Wednesday September 9th were we will meet everyone and talk about the upcoming season.
- On Saturday September 12th, Reba has put together a car wash fundraiser! We will talk about this at the meeting too.
-Monday September 14th is the all athlete meeting. More details to come later.

Don't forget about getting suits and goggles too. =] If you go to pure blue, mention that you swim for St. Kates and we get a portion of the sale.

Enjoy the end of summer and I can't wait to see everyone on the 9th.
Kelley