Chocolate Fest

Tonight was our annual chocolate holiday fest! Everything is made of chocolate! (I stole this idea from some USOC friends who have an annual Chocolate Festival in Chicago during the winter. They have guests travel from all over the nation and a guest list well over 100. The number of different chocolate desserts is in the 200-300 range! I have not experienced the event, but it sounds amazing.

Along with our chocolate we pick a number and then those numbers are drawn out of the bin to see who gets to pick a present first. There are a variety of gifts of all sizes and shapes to choose. I included a few choice items from my trip to China and then of course a few small items and a few larger ones. A festive night to begin the week before our break.

Wooster Invite Clips

The 3rd day prelim warm up began with the tradition of playing duck, duck goose, a whirlpool and some reaction drills in the pool as a whole team.

Drew having fun pretending to beach himself on the divider wall? Not sure, but I think that one hurt.....

The orange team won the play-doh challenge!

Cold baths in Coaches room for recovery is always more fun with a group.

Our last stop of the meet before heading home to Ada, was at Coldstone!

The meet was a great experience to put together the first half of our season and take away details to put into the second half of our season.

3 Day Meet, here we come!

Tomorrow morning at 7am, we depart for a 3 day championship style meet, the Wooster Invite.

It has become a meet we call dress rehearsal. It gives us a chance to swim all the conference events, experience prelim/finals, and post some in-season best times. It clearly helps define the path we need to take for the second half of our season.

Traditionally the men like to have a little shave for this meet, so the poor PE locker, also known as the ONU Swimming locker room goes through a bit of a transformation into a shaving room. Boys will be Boys!

Hour of Power!

Today marked our 4th year of supporting the Hour of Power Relay event in honor of Ted Mullin, a Carleton College swimmer who died in the fall of 2006 from sarcoma. What an amazing event this has become. Over 6200 athletes in the pool racing to bring awareness to cancer research. It's an honor for us to participate in such a nation wide effort. Our team donation will help support the effort for research into causes and treament of sarcoma in young people.

Humans vs Zombies!

JC Schroeder in all his gear!

Last week across the nation, but more specifically on the ONU campus, we had about 16 swimmers participating in this game. I understand the swimmers were the victorious group with all their survival skills involving problem solving, dividing and conquering and the art of skillful deception. I have been recruited to join the spring venture....more to that later.

Monster Kick Set and Ice Bath

Kicking Shoes drying in the Sauna

One of our fun kick sets involves kicking with shoes! Being resourceful bears

we put the sauna to work!

Team enjoying the ICE bath after their Monster Kick Test Set

Tuesday's our are test set days, and this Tuesday's was the "monster kick" set. The swimmers kick an 800, 400, 200, 100, 50, and then a 25. So in order to recover quicker, the team used the Ice bath which was at a comfortable 59 - 60 degrees. The team is gearing up for two meets this weekend against fellow OAC school, Wilmington College, and The College of Wooster as they look to continue their successful season thus far. The Ohio Northern Swim Team will travel to Wilmington on Friday and will host The College of Wooster on Saturday.

2009-2010 Regular Season Competition Began with WINS for both Men & Women

The team hanging out watching diving; our fans during diving.

Halloween brought a slice of bread to the meet!
Divers in their warm tank of water, while a couple of swimmers found their warmth in the sauna!

Today we opened our competitive season taking on JCU for a double win for the men & women. Off to a great start! Although, we hit our toughest week of training, we were able to come away from the meet victorious and set the stage for more to come as we dig deeper to seek better things by the end of the season.

Since we have such a large roster, getting everyone 3 swims was a challenge. We managed to do it, with many exhibition heats. Freshman got a taste for collegiate swimming and found the stands full of supporters making lots of noise. As has become the tradition, our awesome parents provide a great meal for the team following a long day of swimming.