The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pinecrest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 15th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against Carthage College on Jan. 14.
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The fourth entry post comes from junior Maggi Beck:Today is Sunday, so we have been in Florida for six days now. Everyone was sore and tired going into the morning practice but our hopes were high because we had the afternoon off. The whole team was together for the first hour of practice and we did a quick kick/sprint set. It was a good set to get our heart rates high in the little amount of time that we had. After an hour, the lucky people that lift weights three times a week, which is over three-fourths of the team, got out and went to the weight room. I am not sure what they did in there, but I heard it was hot and packed with people. The distance and IM swimmers continued to swim in the pool for an hour. We did Melvins, which is a stand-up set that a guy named Melvin used to do and he did really well once so we copy him. The set was pretty hard but because the sun was shining it did not seem as bad.
After practice, we had so much time so I got my suit on and headed toward the beach. There were a lot of activities to choose from during the day. One group of twelve people and coach Dave Joyce went deep-sea fishing and were lead by a crazy captain. Another group went shopping at the mall; Chloe bought a really nice Nike jacket that was worth the trip. Some people had relatives living in the area so they went and visited them. The last group went with Coach Kyle to a place called Pramanti Brothers. I went along with this group but I did not get their number-two seller, which is a burger with coleslaw and french fries on it.
Then Brady, Evan, CJ and I played hearts by the pool for a while. The game was intense, but Evan won and Brady lost by quite a bit. It was time to go to our team dinners. The boys went to Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. and the girls went to Aruba for our second year in a row. It was nice to get dressed up with all of the girls. The food was really good and so were the conversations.
After supper, Brady and I were trying to get into some trouble. We searched for a good hour for some, but we ended up just chatting with some friends at the cabana by the pool. I went back to bed and got locked in the bathroom because the door is off its hinges and Randee had to save me. Overall, it was a very successful day for the Panthers in Ft. Lauderdale.
