It’s been an amazing start to a season filled with promise. This team has really hit the water at “race pace,” and is working very hard — consistently hard, in our first 12 days of practice.
The work isn’t just hammering some early-season quality sets, it’s swimmers (and our divers, too) working hard on stroke technique, breaking old bad habits and developing the most efficient mechanics we can to carry through our training and racing. In our first three morning practices this week, the underwater camera and TIVO have sure gotten a workout, and it shows.
There have been some workout highlights, to be sure. At the end of practice late last week, we had the team do a quality 100 (at time-trial intensity, but from a push-off, and in circles). Pete Mullee clocked at 52.6 in the 100 backstroke, only seven tenths off Dave Linn’s school record. Sydney Kuramoto was also very fast in the 100 back, using her amazing dolphin kick for 12+ yards every length. We’re also seeing the results of the morning-practice strokework, as people are much faster in sets than in previous years…and we’re only three weeks into the season.
This Saturday, we have the Augburg Pentathlon, which will be fun (and an adventure for some who will swim their first butterfly race ever!!). Then, next weekend, it’s the Carleton and St. Olaf Relay Meet, followed by our traditional Welcoming Party. It’s already an amazing season, and we’ve really just begun.
