| |
« December 2006 |
Main
| February 2007 »
January 27, 2007
Coach's Corner
U Indy 179 - Wabash 119
The conclusion of the dual meet season was highly anticipated. We were 6-0 going into the meet - and the team was definitely dreaming about joining those illustrious undefeated teams of years past. But alas, against a Top 10 Division II scholarship team, we came up a bit short. Make no mistake about it, we swam tough and tried our best, so we can walk away proud. To their credit, this team has maintained the ability to always look forward - and has never taken it's eye off the real prize - the NCAC Conference Meet.
So yes, we swam like we should right smack in the middle of a taper. Peaks and valleys are part of taper and it was evident today. Some guys swam fast while others tried their hardest to put up a decent time. All in all, we are right were we need to be in terms of swimming fast at Conferences. A little more time, and a little more focus, and our best races of the year will be there... when they matter the most.
"Tip of the Goggles"
1) Weaver and Caldwell - amazing races swam with passion and heart. Both swam there fastest ever in-season and look to be in great position to have an amazing conference meet.
2) 200 Free relay won! It was a race that was never more than a few tenths apart between exchanges, and Jordon Blackwell and Robert Fozkos had an amazing last two legs with Fozkos ultimately touching out the other team on the last stroke!
3) Once again our divers scored us some major points - and helped us stay close. The cool thing is†they all know they are going to be better too!
4) Finally, you all need to know that this team has trained hard - and trained well. They have had the right attitude every step of the way. They have made sacrifices and done things right all year long. Each and everyone has the ability to swim and dive their best in 13 days... so stay tuned, and keep hitting "refresh" that second week in February. It will be fun to follow!
-Casares
January 17, 2007
Ten Things You Need to Know..
About Free Time During Taper...
10. Learn how to make amazing origami animals so you can show up Rutz.
9. Actually read those 150 pages of work assigned daily.
8. Listen to Coach give a 30 minute speech everyday that starts with the line: “Guys, this will only take a minute…”
7. Use your college math skills to calculate how much alcohol you missed out on during dry season.
6. Waste your time watching horribly unrealistic new episodes of 24 when you could be learning history from old Chuck Norris movies.
5. Search for where Dunaway is hiding his pot of leprechaun gold.
4. Force Colts fans to admit that 80 percent of the Earth is covered by water and the other 20 percent is covered by the Bears’ defense.
3. Sleep more than four hours straight without waking up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare about a purple set.
2a. Go tanning so you can look pretty like Weaver.
2b. Spend more time fixing your hair so you can be pretty like Blackwell.
1. Rest up for the greatest performance at conference in the history of Wabash Swimming and Diving.
by Spolarich '08
January 14, 2007
Coach's Corner
25 Days...
Yup, you guessed it... that's how many days until our conference meet. It always amazes me how quickly things need to happen once we arrive back from Florida - and this year is no different. However, today I am feeling the need to reflect for a moment on what this team has accomplished over the last 4 1/2 months. Reflection has always been a huge part of my program... not only to gain confidence from past successes, but more importantly because it has always played a huge role in my planning for future success. These are the things that pop into my head immediately.
• At the NCAC Relay meet (1st meet of the year) the team broke 4 College Relay Records (the 500 Crescendo, 3 x 500 Free, 4 x 50 Fly, and 4 x 50 back).
• By the end of the semester the team was 6 and 0 in Dual Meets - including three wins over Top 20 teams.
• The team won the Wabash Invitational.
• There were 47 Lifetime Bests at our December Invites
• Both Medley Relays are currently ranked Top 10 in the country
• The team currently has a Dual Meet Ranking of 4th in the country by Collegeswimming.com (thank you divers!)
What really impresses me with this group is that they are succeeding in the pool without sacrificing their academics goals. They have become the definition of student-athlete. For example...
• Last Semester Team GPA - 3.23
• Team Cumulative GPA of 3.18
• 22 out of 30 athletes were at a 3.0 or above
• 11 athletes were above 3.5
• 6 athletes were above 3.8
Wabash provides an environment that allows young men to work hard, take risks, and dream big... to act responsibly and to take complete ownership of their successes. When you've found a place where your peers are doing that both in the classroom and on the field, well, to be perfectly honest, you have struck gold.
25 more days to soak up it up and strive for perfection.
I like it.
January 10, 2007
Diving Camp
Howard Bailey ’04 – Diving Coach
 While the swimmers were training in Florida, the divers decided to take a few extra days at home to prepare for a hard winter training camp at Wabash. Starting Friday, January 5 we started our daily routine of about 6 hours of working out and diving, - needless to say it was a great diving camp!
The team shared some intense training time on the boards but also experienced some tough workouts outside of the pool. During the mornings, we got off the board countless times, and practiced our synchronized diving technique to strengthen concentration. Afterwards, we headed out to Subway, “to eat fresh” For the afternoon portion of practices, the team ventured out into the fieldhouse where we practiced dives on the mats, ran around the track, played a few rounds of racquetball, and did some weight training.
I was also glad to see our team coming together as group - and learning to always be there for each other. For example, as the team began devouring sandwiches at Subway, Tom Schiltz ’08 began choking. The guys sprung into action to save Tom – and he got through the situation just fine! According to Jacob Peerman ’09, they took care of their teammate, and "…did not let that slow us down.” Coach Casares tells me there is nothing like a life-saving moment to bring a group together! Later that  afternoon they proved just that by jumping right back on the boards - focused on improving diving techniques and increasing scores. Not only did they improve their techniques, but everyone learned a new dive or two. Rob Fenoglio ’09 learned a forward triple somersault on the 1 meter board. Tom learned a reverse 1.5 somersault with a .5 twist, and Jacob Peerman ’09 learned three new dives: back double somersault, reverse double somersault, and a forward 2.5 somersault! Winter training ended January 9, but the fun and crazy moments will be remembered forever. We are delighted to share the pool again with the swimmers. We've missed them!!! (Pictured above (top to bottom): Coach Bailey enjoys a refeshing cola beverage, Rob Fenoglio practices on the mats, and Tom Schiltz goes big on the leg press)
Peerman, Fenoglio, and Schiltz take to the treadmill in their suits!
Peerman and Fenoglio keep a close eye on Tom as he takes a bite of his sandwich!
January 06, 2007
Florida Training Camp
Day 7 - Brent Graham '09 and Matt Vest '08
A morning off and a final farewell
Today we had a first in Wabash Swimming Florida training trip history, WE HAD NO MORNING PRACTICE! The question we then had to ask ourselves was what do we do with ourselves? For a majority of us the answer was simple, catch up on sleep. For a select few however, the answer was to take in an early morning show that only Mother Nature can provide. We watched the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean and also got to see what goes on in the morning while we are swimming and most kids our age are sleeping. After a relaxing morning we resumed our daily activities of playing shuffleboard and volleyball. The relaxation was short lived when we returned to the pool in the afternoon for a quick practice. The evening then concluded with a pizza party to celebrate our last night in Florida. Fun was had by all. This part of the trip is one of our favorite and is made even better by the tradition of the top ten lists. This year we were given the...
Top 10 Impersonations of Wabash Swimmers and Coaches
Top 10 Reasons the Freshman Have No Luck with the Ladies
Top 10 Reasons Abby should come back to Florida with us next year
and The Top 10 ways for Seniors to Fail Comps.
We have had a great trip and have made many fun memories. Sadly this evening was the last for this year. Tomorrow we will complete another tradition our final challenge set and then return to the frigid 30∫ weather of Indiana. In the spirit of this final night we leave you with a top ten list of our own…Top 10 Reasons to be up at 6 AM.
10.Did you know there was a 6:00 AM?
9. It’s the perfect time of day for our pale friends to tan … by the light of the moon(And yes it’s still up!)
8. 6:00 AM is awesome … as long as we don’t have practice.
7. It’s the best time of day to search for shells. Nobody has gotten the good ones yet!
6. It’s a great way to work on your night vision.
5. It’s a great way to meet the older generations. Only the over 40 crowd is up that early!
4. Did you know people still ride bikes? Well they do, but it seems only before sun up… it’s still considered old fashioned.
3. It will give you a break from the deafening sounds of your roommates snoring.
2. It’s a great way to test a relationship. If a girl is willing to meet you at 6:00 AM before an 8:00 AM "hell set", you know you’re special.
1. Sunrise over the ocean is beautiful.
January 04, 2007
Florida Training Camp
Day 6 - Elijah Sanders ‘10
Just another day in paradise for the Wabash swim team! Actually, we had a rather eventful day … starting with morning practice and ending up stuck on a bus for three hours! As usual we woke up early and practiced but this afternoon we came back to the pool to compete in a relay meet against SUNY New Paltz and Davidson College. After getting beat up all week by Coach, I think we all did an awesome job. I could tell the guys were really tired, but we stuck with it until the end. Vetor had a tough 200 free, but still brought it back to have an excellent race in the 400 Free Relay. Blackwell had a good meet posting several 49s in the 100 free too. Most exciting though, for the first time in the history of Wabash Swimming we had a female swimmer compete - Coach Rokosch swam in the 200 fly relay and proved she could still swim with the big boys. Although the meet was somewhat relaxed we still swam hard and after winning the last relay ended up losing to Davidson (a Division I College) by only 8 points – a huge moral victory!!
 After the relay meet, the evening became even more eventful. We had our class dinners. The freshman and sophomores went to Fort Lauderdale and ate at Hooters and Cheeburger Cheeburger (respectively). The sophomores, all except for Rutz )our animal rights activist) took down the one-pound burger. The freshmen got a big disappointment when we found out Florida does not have all you can eat wings on Wednesdays. We were hoping to see how many wings Vetor could eat, but we made due giving him all of our leftovers (after a Tabasco clam chowder and a lot of wings, Vetor proved once again that he can out eat everyone). Zajac and Rockefeller made themselves miserable by eating about 40 wings, but proved no match for the “human garbage disposal.”
 Now to the fun part, we got back on the bus - stuffed with food and ready to watch a little Seinfeld on the trip - all of a sudden we smelled burnt rubber. We stopped and I saw a small cloud of smoke roll in front of our bus, one of our brakes locked up. Three hours and two Seinfeld disks later, the mechanic showed up and we are able to finally take our trip back to the motel. Surprisingly, there was no complaining and everyone just joked around as usual during the 3-hour excursion. Yeah, we're enjoying the hard work and fun down here, but all of us are ready to go home and relax before classes begin. (Pictured above: The team at the meet, the Freshman at Hooters, and the Sophomores at Cheeburger Cheeburger)
Graham taking out the 100 IM
Vest, Trayton, O'Keefe, and Kasey at their class dinner.
January 03, 2007
Florida Training Camp
 Day 5 - Abby Rokosch ’02 (Kenyon College)
This is my third year as the Official Wabash Swimming Guest Coach, but my first attempt at a blog! For those of you that do not know me, I swam for Coach Casares at Kenyon for two years. When he asked me to join the Florida training trip again this year, I really could not pass up 9 days with 28 good looking guys in swim suits! After 5 days with these guys I am in love! ... that is, in love with the way they pull together in practice when Coach throws them a hard set - and the way someone is always joking around even when they are broken down.
The team did another double today and some practice highlights included: sophomore JordOn Blackwell showing his speed as he joined the strength group for the first time all trip, Freshman Phil Towne joining the endurance group and swimming some pretty quick broken 200’s, and Freshman Peter Hewitt clocking the fastest 100 split (53.3)... from a push and after 5600 yards! After the evening practice, we rushed the swimmers out of the water in order to make our reservation at Brazilian Tropicana for the annual senior dinner. Tony Caldwell (’07) is going to take over from here and give you the report on the evening’s activities. (Pictured Above: Coach Rokosch leading lane 3 through practice)
Tony Caldwell ‘07
As the name suggests, Brazilian Tropicana provided us with a variety of native Brazilian dishes with their “meat served on a sword” being the highlight of the meal. Kyle Weaver (‘07) and I were glad to be joined by the entire coaching staff, Allyson Casares as well as Coach Casares’ Uncle Albert, who has annually driven up from Miami to have dinner with the seniors. Although there were no dancing Brazilian showgirls that night, it proved to be a wonderful evening of good food and good conversation - especially about the 7 different types of meat that were continually being brought around to our table. My personal favorite was the “baby beef” cut, although many others enjoyed the pork loin and top sirloin. The night was topped off with the Brazilian band, which provided us all a chance to show off our dancing moves. I know Kyle and I certainly appreciated the evening and the chance to enjoy an evening together with our coaches. (Caldwell and Weaver digging into their "meat on a sword")
Tony and Abby dancing to some live Brazilian music
January 01, 2007
Florida Training Camp
Day 4 – John Kasey ‘08
Happy New Year!
So far I have spent two New Year’s Eve’s with the Wabash College Swim Team, neither of which has been very eventful... until this year. For the past two years I have celebrated my New Year’s Eve in Florida by staying up until the wee hour of 10 PM answering phone calls from friends who can’t understand why I am not partying hard like every other kid my age. I then hurry to bed in hopes that my pain and fatigue from training hard all week will somehow magically vanish overnight before I wake up and start what is traditionally one of the most difficult workouts of the trip at 7:30 AM the next morning. This year was a little different. This year the entire Wabash Swim Team managed to secure the Saint Mary’s Women’s Swim Team for a lively dinner at Buca di Beppo’s Italian Restaurant. This rendezvous was made possible through the extreme generosity of St. Mary’s Swim Coach Ryan Dombkowski ‘00 - who remembered his roots as a swimmer and not only provided this tired team with much appreciated female company, but also bought us all dinner! … a true Wabash Gentleman. We are very grateful to Coach Dombowski and  St. Mary’s for providing us with New Year’s entertainment and food. Of course I would like to think that with our combined good looks and winning personalities the Wabash Swim Team could have accomplished this feat on our own, but for some reason we have fallen a little short of feeding an army and providing them with New Year’s dates in the past…. Overall it was a very enjoyable New Year’s celebration which lasted well past 10pm. The New Year’s Day workout turned out to be just as challenging as ever, if not more. After 10,000 tough yards in practice Coach gave us the afternoon off. As I write this, Jim Leuck is sprawled on a bed behind me and has reached what I am sure are record decibel levels in his snoring. We may be resting this afternoon, but the respite is short lived. Tomorrow will be another day to see what we are really capable of doing in the water. This team is already experiencing exciting breakthroughs in training and I can’t wait to see the results in February. The Wabash Team is going to continue this New Year just like we ended the last. We are going to work hard, play hard, and embrace the pain and discipline that must come before accomplishing great things. (Top Right: John Kasey and Blaine Cooper-Surma running home from another tough workout. Inset: Both St. Mary and Wabash swimmers enjoying a meal together)
Coach Dombkowski on deck with his team
(the boys at buca)
(a rousing version of the fight song breaks out at meal's end!)
(Pat Laughlin celebrates his New Year's Eve Birthday in style!)
|
