Sunday, January 12, 2014

Fun In The Sun: Part III - Women's Team

With the UWM swimming team down in Florida on their annual training trip, we thought it would be fun to have a member of the team share their thoughts each day on the UWM Blog.

The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pine Crest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against IUPUI on Jan. 17.

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The third women's entry comes from senior Chloe Lewis:

The morning of January 10th began with the pleasant surprise that instead of the previously forecasted rain, it was going to be a beautiful sunny day.  The panthers proceeded to practice excited that the sun was finally shining.  The lady panthers started out with dryland while the manthers warmed up the pool for us.  In Kyle’s classic dryland we did a combination of sprints, push-ups, leg lifts, burpees and the dreaded four corners running set.  With the sun beating down on us for the first time since we arrived, the lady panthers sweated through dryland and were looking forward to hopping in the pool.  With the manthers completing their set, the lady panthers swooped in to start their practice of one of our timeless kick sets - animal kicks.  With our legs and hip flexors burning from dryland, we pushed through the animal kicks encouraging each other along the way.  We concluded practice tired, but excited to finally be able to enjoy the sunshine state!
        After being dropped back off at the hotel, a large group went over to dunkin donuts where breakfast sandwiches, coffee and of course donuts were enjoyed.  Immediately after finishing breakfast I went and changed into my swim suit ready to finally lay in the sun.  Arriving down by the pool, many panthers had already set themselves up next to the pool and on the beach enjoying the sunshine. It was a little overcast at first, but every once and a while the sun peaked through.  Avoiding jellyfish, Collin and I ventured down the beach picking up seashells and the biggest piece of coral I have ever found before.  Unfortunately some swimmers were not so lucky at avoiding the jellyfish when they were in the water.  
        Exhausted from laying and playing in the sun, I later went inside to rest up and work on my winterim class, Child Psychology.  In my classtoday I worked on raising my virtual child, Olivia and found out that I would be having another child to raise.  Some other swimmers who have already taken the class informed me later that in the virtual child program I would also end of getting divorced and have to raise my children, so I have my work cut out for me. After spending a good amount of time on homework I went back upstairs to join my roommates in more nap time, before getting ready for night practice.  
        Night practice was set up to be a dual meet, Coach Kyle versus Coach Dave.  All of the panthers were split up into teams by Kyle and Dave and we competed against each other in an all relays meet.  Kyle put a lot of time into writing his lineup and putting people in events, whereas Dave was thrown for a loop at the last second and had to rearrange his lineup completely.  In Dave’s new lineup some people were not in their normals events which was interesting and different to race.  Battling neck and neck Kyle’s boys team came out victorious while there was a tie on the womens side.  It all came down to a 4X100 IM relay.  Both teams put up their strongest relay, but Dave’s girl’s team brought home the gold.  Overall the day was eventful and it was nice to finally spend some much needed time in the sun.