Bissell the Missle - Going the Distance

Jordan Bissell '04, the man, the myth the legend. He's a philosopher, a sprinter, a man among men and now, he's a triathlete.

Opting to ditch this year's biathlon, the Missle, in his first-ever tri, placed 18th out of 341 entrants. He averaged 1:23's per 100, 21.1 mph on the bike and 6:32 miles, not bad for a guy who, at the end of a 50 would tighten up faster than a socket wrench. The race report, from the Missle himself:

"I did pretty good. I made the mistake of hanging out with Adam the night before and Red Bull the morning of the race; I was extremely dehydrated: defintiely affected my performance. And I sprinted the 1st 50 of the 500, and died pretty quickly. But, all in all, considering it was my first race, I did pretty good: 18th/300+ (I was 5 minutes off first place). I think had I been hydrated I could have shaved off quite a bit of time off the run. But it was exhilirating, and I'm encouraged to train and compete more.If you wade through the swimming photos you can find some pretty silly shots of me."

A New Biathalon Champion

Saturday marked the 6th-annual Captain's Biathalon and this year a new champion was crowned. Bryce Davis outdueled Bryan Pelka in the final 100 yards to take the title. Bryce covered the 400 yard lake swim, 3 mile lakeside run, 800 yard pool swim and 1 mile run on the track in 44 minutes and 40 seconds. Pelka was five seconds back to place second (again). Alex Van Huis led all freshmen in 48:28, just ahead of three-time champ and 2006 Alum Roberto Jorda-Cid.

It was a great day for the race - the lake was warmest its ever been and the weather was perfect. We also had our widest range of competitors as well - alums, women's team members, and masters swimmers (including Mark who did the Wisconsin Ironman last week). It's the way we kick off the season and often a rude-awakening for those who didn't train over the summer. Season begins officially on Monday morning with a "long"-course workout. Here are the results:

Bryce Davis          44:39
Bryan Pelka          44:44
Stephen Schranck     45:39
Chapman/Olesak Relay 44:56 - Alum Relay
Stacey Kiefer        45:50 - Alum 2000
Ivan Manolov         47:18
Alex Van Huis        48:28
Robert Jorda-Cid     48:40 - Alum 2006
Nathan Ripley        50:46
Chris Trella         51:13
Zach Jole            51:18
Andy Bax             52:14
Carly McAdams        52:27
Caroline Kochmit     52:44
David Falink         53:11
Scott Kaseska        53:29
Nathan Fisher        53:50
Robin Kiefer         54:02 - Master's Swimmer
Edgar Vargas         55:11
Mark Ellerbroek      56:07
Camden Harrison    1:01.16
Jeremy Brandt      1:03.15
Paul Bustion       1:07.58

Popped Zit or Paintball - You Decide

Here's Chris Steenrod - the latest of the swimming Steenrods to pass through Carthage - on the recent team retreat. We asked him for a quick rundown of the weekend and in typical Steenrod fashion, he didn't waste words:

"Well, the Red Men held their annual team retreat; a weekend for guys to be guys. The entire retreat focused on team building, getting to know your team mates, and understanding what Carthage swimming is all about!

We kicked off the weekend, as we always seem to do, with a game of Ultimate Frisbee and brats on the grill. The rest of the night we spent around the campfire roasting marshmallows, telling jokes nad lies. On Saturday morning we went on a follow-the-leader run that included a swim in the lake. That afternoon the guys, and coach, played paintball-a great experience if you’ve never played-and we ended the day with dinner at the main camp and more time hanging around the campfire. On Sunday we were up for an early morning run and then, mission accomplished headed back to campus ready to head into the new season. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend!.

Matt Goes to Sea

Some guys can drive a ski boat, then there's Matt Kolodica, '02. Matt was here when I first arrived and like many-a-new coaches with inherited swimmers, we didn't always see eye-to-eye. Actually, that might be sugarcoating it, but in time Matt grew into one of the best teammates a coach could ask for. Somehow along the way we managed to drop his lifetime bests by two seconds in the 100 and seven seconds in the 200 breaststrokes. Most importantly, Matt's developed into a great friend, to me and to the program.

So what's Matt up to? Well, he commands a the USCGC Maui, a 110-foot Coast Guard Cutter. They're taking a break from intercepting drug runners, smugglers and the like by patrolling the Persian Gulf. In the above shot, he's navigating the Maui towards an Iraqi tug to conduct a security sweep before it's permitted to approach the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal. Here's a great article about him.