Fun in the sun...part IV

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 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.

Fun in the sun...part III

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 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 third entry comes from senior Nathan Rahe:

"FINNA QUAD RUNNERS!!" This is the war cry that is shouted by the five members of the group of guys that always warm-up together before breaking up into the separate groups.

To begin this rough day of training, the men's team began with an hour of football field suicides, sprints, and abs. The intensity that was brought out during these dreadful 100-yard dashes pushed everyone to the max, gaining the most effort toward the workout from everyone. At the conclusion of dryland, we quickly changed into our ratty, tight speedos and hopped into the pool for another hour-long “fun activity.” This set began with a few hundred yards of warm-up, then quickly turned into our main set that was a total of 2,250 yards long and max effort. It consisted of a 500 swim, 250 kick, 400 swim, 200 kick, 300 swim, 150 kick, 200 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim, and a 50 kick. It took the majority of us about 26-27 minutes to finish. Even though it was a long, hard, straight swim, we all put forth our best effort to swim as quickly as we could to get our best times.

After a rough morning practice, the team went to the beach to bask in the lovely Florida rays, swim in the ocean and have fun on the beach. Others….were too tired to come to the beach and just wanted to rest before the infamous “Pain Train” set we had to come later that evening.

This set is Coach Kyle’s favorite set to give us during training trip. This was the last time I was going to have to swim this distance IM set (THANK GOODNESS!). 5x 400IM’s + 100 Fly was the challenge of the night to complete on various intervals. Many of the sprinters were given the option to do the set short course instead of long course, and many stepped up to the challenge. This was the first time we did this set in a two hour practice, which many of us seemed to like better than lifting before hand. The team all successfully completed Kyle’s mental challenge and all the seniors cheered to it being the last time we ever had to do that set. It was indeed a great day to be a Panther.

Lastly, from Mike Brady’s infamous words of wisdom, Finna Quad Runners went above and beyond for today's rough day of training.

Fun in the sun...part II

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 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 second entry post comes from sophomore Brianna Huth:

The Panthers swim team started out day three of the training trip looking strong at the duel meet against the Tigers. The men held strong leads in all of their events and finished 1-2-3 consecutively, while the women swam outstanding relays and really brought it home in all their individual events.

Day three also brought along some excitement, starting with a break in of one of the team vans in the Jamba Juice parking lot, which lead to a search for the van members' belongings that had been taken...which were later located by the local police in near by trash cans...guess they weren't happy with the swim bag contents of wet towels, practice suits, caps and goggles, SORRY.

Later, after a lounge by the beach in the beautiful 70 degree Florida weather, a group walked off to Burger Fi, a new "high-tech" burger joint with touch screen soda dispensers where you could add any flavor you wanted to your sodas! Very, very exciting. On the walk home we passed the team's old hotel for training trip, Lauderdale By The Sea, and were shocked to see "KEEP AWAY, HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS" signs located all over the exterior of the building. Way to go coaches on finding our new hotel, Ocean Manor.

Starting to bring the day to a close, fire alarms directed the team out of the hotel and then informed them of the false alarm, which was followed by a show off down on the beach between Jordan Diel and Mike Schalla in a 200IM ocean swim which brought a crowd. Panthers then brought it on during their second practice of the day swimming through a tough practice and weight session.

Three days down and much more excitement to come on the Panthers Training Trip 2012, stay tuned!

Fun in the sun...part I

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 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 first blog entry comes from senior Jordan Diel.

Day 2 of training trip (day one was travel day):

The day started at 7:15 in the morning with the always exciting trip to the pool, where very little is said and much is implied. Day two was a couple degrees warmer than the previous day, which is encouraging mentally when having to jump into a pool in the 40 degree weather. The set for the morning was a kick set that started at an 800 and then decreased in half until we finished with 25. As you swam through the set you had to beat the previous time divided by two. The set went by rather quickly, which is rare for swim practices. We ended up getting out about 10 minutes early, which always puts everyone in a good mood.

With the day starting to heat up, most of the team hit the beach. Since most of the team is from northern states, with the exception of a couple people, the amount of sun that has seen people’s bodies has been very limited over the last five months, which makes for some interesting tan lines and tones of red (Mike Brady, Brian Vernik, and Liz Bishop). While at the beach soaking up the rays, Sky Boggio found a new calling in life that was drastically different from his plan of going to law school. A school of manatees swam by so Sky swam out to frolic with the gentle mammals. As he grunted and squeaked with them and felt their hairy backs he connected with them in such a way that he felt as if they were peering into his very soul.

After spending some quality time on the beach and darkening our complexion, we hit the pool again. The sprinters were rewarded with an awesome practice of chutes and starts, which made the sprinters giddy like school girls. This completed day two of the last training before the end of the world.

Postgame Report - Green Bay at Milwaukee

Game #17 – Milwaukee 64, Green Bay 63

Full Recap and Stats

Player Of The Game: It is a tough choice as the Panthers got a variety of contributions. Kaylon Williams hit the game-winning shot and also had seven assists, plus Ryan Allen had a double-double. But where would the Panthers have been without Paris Gulley Saturday night? He scored just enough in the first half to keep the Panthers in it and then came through at the foul line late to give Milwaukee a chance. He also got the assist on the Williams game-winner.

Key Stat: 32.3 – that’s what Green Bay shot in the second half after shooting 56.7 percent in the first 20 minutes.

News and Notes: UWM has now won 12 of its last 14 meetings with Green Bay in Milwaukee … the Panthers have now won 13 of their last 14 regular season league games … Milwaukee is now 7-1 at home this season and has won 81 of its last 100 regular season home league games … UWM is now 5-1 this season in games decided by 5 points or less … the Kaylon Williams three at the buzzer to win the game is the first buzzer-beater for Milwaukee since Deion James beat UIC with a 3 in 2009 … Tone Boyle did hit a jumper with a little over two seconds left to beat Northern Iowa last season … Williams also had a three at the horn that sent the game at Detroit to overtime last season … Ryan Allen collected his second double-double of the season … Paris Gulley led the Panthers in scoring for the second-straight game … this was the eighth time this season Kaylon Williams has had at least seven assists in a game … Milwaukee’s 14 three-point attempts are the fewest the Panthers have had since a win over IUPUI in November … the win has Milwaukee in a three-way tie with Cleveland State and Youngstown State atop the Horizon League. Butler and Valparaiso can both move into that tie with road wins Sunday.

Up Next: UWM stays home for two more league games. The Panthers host Wright State Thursday and Green Bay Saturday.

"Sandy Botham Show" Set To Air This Week

It's about that time of the season for the premier of the "Sandy Botham Show" on Time Warner Cable Sports 32. The initial episode for the 2011-12 season was taped this week and is set to air on the following dates.

Thursday, January 5
5 p.m.
10:30 p.m.

Friday, January 6
7:30 a.m.
8:30 a.m.

Be sure to check in and catch all of the action!

Postgame Report - Milwaukee at Western Michigan

Game #16 – Western Michigan 72, Milwaukee 61

Full Recap and Stats

Player Of The Game: Kaylon Williams and Paris Gulley both put up strong performances. Williams had a season-high 12 assists, while Gulley scored 16 points.

Key Stat: The game was won at the foul line. Western Michigan had 37 free throw attempts to Milwaukee nine, with the Broncos outscoring the Panthers, 30-3.

News and Notes: Milwaukee gave up more than 70 points for just the second time this season … Kaylon Williams’ 12 assists marked a season-high and are tied for the fourth-most in a game in UWM’s Division I history … it is also the second-highest tally of Williams’ career, as he had 14 at UIC last season … Williams played 37 minutes, the first time in three games where he did not play all 40 minutes … UWM’s 36 three-point attempts were a season-high and are the most since the Panthers tried 37 in a win at Detroit last season … the 36 attempts are also tied for the seventh-most in Division I history … the Panthers have just one regular season non-conference game remaining. It will be against an opponent to be determined in the annual BracketBusters contest.

Up Next: UWM is headed home and back into league play, starting with a Saturday night game against Green Bay.