2011 Team Training Trip By: Eric Ross

Training Trip 2010-2011. Where do I start? Well, the beginning is as good a place as any. On the morning of Monday, December 27, my dad and I got up early for the two hour drive to O’hare International Airport. I was flying out of O’hare because all the flights from Indianapolis got in to Phoenix atrociously early, but that’s neither here nor there. So, I get to O’hare, and who should I meet in Check-in, but Carthage’s very own Tom Stowe! I already knew we were on the same flight, but we were apparently on more similar schedule’s than either of us knew. The flight passed without incident. Our seats were apart, and Tom sat with an old woman a few rows behind me while I was stuck with a young, pregnant couple. We got to Phoenix International Airport, looking much the way I had left it nearly a year ago. The other five members of our group were in a different section of the airport so we decided to meet them at the light rail station outside the airport. Once we had assembled: (Tom, Blake, Buck, Tyler, Steven, Scott, Conrad, and myself) we rode the light rail all the way through Tempe (past our hotel from last year) and to the edge of Mesa. Blake called Andrew to inform him of the progress of the final group of swimmers. Andrew told Blake that he and Ben would be waiting for us in Trucks. Trucks?! As in Pick-up Trucks? We all thought he had misspoken. However, sure enough there they were sitting in two rented Pick-ups. I couldn’t stop laughing. As it turned out, there was some kind of mix-up at the rental place and instead of vans we were left with four trucks (driven by Andrew, Ben, Isaac, and Mike) and a crossover (driven by Varner).

Practices were nigh unbearable. The Kino Aquatic Center claimed our blood, sweat, and tears. None were spared. The Weather was horrendous: sleet and snow, blowing every which way. Our cruel taskmasters forced us into the frozen tundra with the crack of the whip…On the bright side, we got to do long course…which is awesome. But seriously, though, training was tough. A lot of people accomplished things that they weren’t able to do before. We got stuff done. We did work.

Aside from that, Arizona was great: A lot of sleeping and eating (no trip to AZ would be complete without a trip to Pete’s Fish and Chips!). Cereal councils (courtesy of yours truly and Connor McCurrie), all-afternoon naps (with the best training trip room ever: Blake Bendix, Ryan Ortmann, Kyle Rasmussen, and me). We went to the Insight Bowl which had the benefit of being, not only, a better played but a better attended game this year thanks, in large part, to the crazy fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes. We spent New Year’s Eve at a place called, Golfland: Basically, a giant castle with Laser Tag, Mini-Golf, Go-Karts, and a Giant Arcade. Adam Glover and I beat Jurassic Park: the Lost World twice (on beginner and expert. Don’t act like you’re not impressed) while most of our teammates made their rounds on the Go-Kart track. Because of our lovable grad assistant’s alma mater, practice on New Year ’s Day was scheduled around the Rose Bowl so he (and the rest of us) could watch TCU beat the Badgers.

A family emergency would force me to leave training trip early this year, but not before experiencing one of the most difficult practices of the year. All five distance swimmers were stuck in one 25 yard lane. The pool we were in was maybe four feet deep, and the sun was right over our heads. We were all struggling against everything: the sun, the water, the practice, each other, and ourselves. The point is we made it through everything. We got it done. I couldn’t have picked a better practice to leave on. After that, I knew that the other Distance guys could handle the rest without me. They didn’t need me to holler after them anymore. We all grew up a little that day. When we left the pool, I remembered to take my equipment with me.

--Eric Ross--

Team Hike

Team Hike

We Stumbled on the Side of Three Misty Mountains

Mountain Photos

Yeah, I'm back...get over it.

First day of the New Year. The decade began for the Red Men with an 8:00 a.m. practice followed by a two hour drive North to Sedona, Arizona. Outside of Sedona we parked at the foot of a group of mountains and set off to climb. After nearly ten minutes, we reached the top of the supposedly rugged peak. After a lot of boasting, a lot of feats of manliness, and a team photo, we realized that we were on the wrong mountain. What we thought was Bear Mountain, turned out to actually be the much smaller, Doe Mountain (easy mistake). After coming down from Doe Mountain, we trekked across the road to the real Bear Mountain.

Bear Mountain is more than twice the size of Doe Mountain (2.4 miles vs. .7) and a much higher difficulty rating: so needless to say, the team galloped up the mountain with much vigor. Led by Blake Bendix's Alpha Squad, the competition was fierce. Unfortunately, the time we wasted on Doe mountain prevented us from going any farther than about two-thirds of the way up before the sun went down. Coming in First were Adam Van Huis and Bob Pellican in 20 minutes (child's play) followed closely by the rest of Alpha Squad: Ben Coder, Blake Bendix, Ryan Ortmann, and Myself in 25 minutes. We took some photos and challenged each other to more feats of manliness. Nearly everyone made it to the top (*cough* Isaac *cough*), even Greg.

Bear Mountain was easily the highest thing I've ever climbed, and to be totally honest: It was an INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE, and I would take it over the beach any day. The view from that mountain was simply breathtaking, an almost spiritual experience.

Just a few more days remain in the Arizona experiment. Room 213 is hanging out watching the Twilight Zone Marathon on Syfy (don't judge)....Starting off 2010 the right way. Shout out to the #4 ranked Purdue Boilermakers Basketball team (13-0) and the 6-0 Harrison High School boys swimming team.

The Carthage Red Men have climbed three mountains in three days. Three (3) mountains in Three (3) days. We climbed Bear Mountain, we can do anything. 2010 is going to be the year of the Red Men

Happy New Year!
-E. Ross

No Sleep 'Till Tempe

Wrong Turn

Pretty much a perfect day.  Great workout this afternoon capped by a 200 in 14 breaths (right in front of the Sun Devils).  Then a day trip that I confess I was a little skeptical about.  I'd planned on a team hike and could have easily seen a lesser group not buy into the challenge of climbing up Bear Mountain.

Problem is, we went up the WRONG MOUNTAIN.  After scampering up the trail, I checked the GPS and our elevation only to realize that we were on Doe Mountain.  Bear Mountain loomed across the valley, twice as high and four times as far from the trailhead.  Unexpectedly, I began hearing the pleadings of, "Can we go up Bear Mountain?"  Heck, I think I even heard a please.  And so off they went and the effort was well worth it.  Most of the guys summitted with just enough time to make it down before dark and were rewarded with some spectacular views.

Day 6: New Year's Eve

Day 6 gave us the latest start that we have had thus far with practice not starting until 9:30. I took advantage of this and visited the continental breakfast for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually pretty decent. So then it was off to the pool.
We only had one workout today because we had tickets to the Insight Bowl, but it was a long one. We were at the pool until around 1:00. This was the only time we have swum in the middle of the afternoon and really allowed me to finally get a pretty decent base tan. I’m hopeful I will be able to develop it a little further so as to not look too pasty next to the Lady Reds next week who are really beaching it up in Ft. Lauderdale.

Anyways, practice began with a pretty standard warm up and we then split into different stroke groups. I usually get pretty bitter on these days as I feel the fly practices are surely more demanding than any of the other strokes and I feel as though I can somewhat understand how the distance guys feel on a daily basis, as they are pretty much always very bitter.

Our main set was 4x50 drill, 4x100 descend (25 fly, 25 free, 50 fly), 4x50 drill, 4x200 descend (50 free/ 50 fly), 4x50 drill, 4x300 descend (loco free/fly).
However Greg lets us know after the 3^rd 300 that #4 would be stroke for time. I will not post my time, but I will say I felt good enough about myself just finishing it without completely breaking down.

After that we got into some 50s that were descend to FAST. We were supposed to have 4 rounds of the set, but thanks to Pat Inness’s sandbagging efforts it was reduced to 3 rounds. Of course any time saved by having to swim less was again lost while we waited for him to get out of the locker room. However, at this point of the trip, we’ll take any reduction of practice that we can get. We then did our dryland routine that left my arms at the point of failure. Then it was back to the hotel where we got some much needed food and prepared to make our way over to the stadium for the Insight Bowl between Iowa State and Minnesota.

We are lucky enough to have several Iowa State fans also staying at this fine establishment. Greg was actually born in Iowa, and he told me that someone used to tell him Iowa stood for Idiots Out Walking Around. After the encounters we have had with our friends from Iowa this week that may actually be a pretty solid assessment.

Nevertheless, they have provided us with some colorful entertainment. The game was actually pretty exciting all the way through with the final score ending up 14-13 Iowa State. Though our seats were just about at the very top of the stadium, they were actually great seats as they allowed us to have great view of the entire field. This was especially key when the marching bands came out, where we decided Iowa State was also superior. A few of us also really got into the noise making sticks they were handing out; a little too into them. After the game we weaved in and out of people making a quick getaway from the stadium onto the packed metro and back to the hotel as we were all pretty hungry. After getting some food we have all just been sitting around relaxing and enjoying each other’s company, for the most part. So, it’s a pretty low key new year’s eve.

Greg mentioned to us this morning that only 6 weeks remain until the CCIW Championships commence in our pool. That begs the question: If not now, when? It’s time to really key in and pay attention to every detail. There’s no more time to waste, no time to say you’ll start working on that tomorrow. We really have to make it count. We have big goals this year, and we are on the cusp of exceeding the expectations that many people probably have for us. But it’s not going to happen automatically. We have to show how much we want it. So may 2010 be a little kinder to the Red Men than the past few have been. May it bring another conference championship, but also several national qualifiers that are ready to show the rest of the country that Carthage swimming is the real deal.


Doug Schranck

Out for a little jog

Funny what a team can do with a close and immediate goal. This morning we challenged them to run from the hotel to the top of 'A' mountain. For every guy under 20:00, we'd shave 100 yards off this evening's 6,300-6,900 yard recovery practice. For every guy under 18:00, we'd take off 150 (I was 19:00). The guys welcomed the possible respite, but didn't have exceedingly high hopes that they'd take too much off the workout (in their defense, I told them they had to walk the first 3:00 and walk another 1:00 about 1/2 through, plus the mountain does look much farther than the 1.75 miles it is from the hotel and much higher than the 280' of elevation climb).

Then we added another incentive - if EVERYONE made it up in under 18:00, we'd turn around, load up the vans and come right back to the hotel. Hmmmmm, immediate incentive, immediate response and the guys wound up slicing 3600 (24 guys x 150 yards) off of this afternoon with the last guy reaching the summit in 17:56.

Oh, and one final thing that was kind of cool - as we were going up, the club team here was headed back down.  They must have had a good workout and trip because when one of their girls was yakking on the side of the trail I hear a coach yell, "How many is that? We'll have to check the log book to see how many pukes we've had..."

No puking for us, here's the route.

Training Trip 09-10: By the Time I get to Arizona

Q: How do you want to be remembered?

Greg has asked us that question more times than I can count. With conference around the corner this is the time of year that makes or breaks a season. Eight days in the Valley of the Sun, eight days of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. Eight days to train, eight days to set the tone for the rest of the year. Eight days with nothing but "Eat, Sleep, & Swim" on the agenda.

Two days ago, each of us arrived on separate flights. After our own personal odysseys, we arrived in Tempe ready to go. Break was great and much needed, but now it is back to business. It's a little colder than we might have liked (but hey, at least there's no snow), and our hotel might not be as nice as the one we had in Venice, but it will take more than that to slow the Red Men. After five practices we are starting to come into form. Coach has been drilling us on the little things, every day we are getting better. Every practice, you can feel the team start to focus on the challenges ahead. Every practice, you can see the team starting to come together. We are becoming a team, and that is what Training Trip is all about. That's why Training Trip is my favorite part of the season. Eight days of hard work, no school to worry about. Just eight days of hanging out with teammates and becoming a team. Becoming a NEW team.

The team is different, but our mission hasn't changed. We want to defend our CCIW title and send swimmers to NCAAs. This team believes in themselves. We know we can accomplish both goals. We've got the strut and the swagger. So, heads up CCIW: There is a new dynasty in town, because the Red Men are here to stay.

A: Winners

Cheers!
-E. Ross

No Sleep 'Till Tempe

Sue & Snow

Had a chance to head home to Omaha for a couple of days before heading out for training trip.  Treat #1 was learning that for a measly $3.25 you can take a bus from campus straight to the Milwaukee airport.

Treat #2 was getting a chance to catch up with former Carthage coach Sue Nutty.  Sue's doing a little teaching, but spends most of her time gearing up for the summer kayaking season.

Treat #14 - as in 14" of snow wasn't a treat at all.

24 hours until we arrive in the Valley of the Sun.

A Parent's Perspective

Having some business this past week in Central Florida, I thought I'd take a trip south to Venice to watch the Carthage and Cincinnati biathlon on the beach. What I didn't realize was that this was not going to be just another ordinary day at the beach.

A swimming race in the Gulf of Mexico, followed by a running race on sand, back to a series of intensive four station dryland workouts - I can only describe as something I would expect to see at a boot camp for the Marines. The intensity put forth by these Carthage men and women was truly something to behold (and marvel at, by this parent). In fact, as I was photographing the day's activities, people on the beach approached me and asked what was going on as the sight of four groups of students working feverishly to accomplish the task at hand was just something one does not see everyday. And every reply, to my explanation, was one of encouragement and awe at the effort being put forth. A four ring circus with Coaches Greg and Beth as the ringmasters and your sons and daughters as the performers was truly a sight to behold. In fact, as I looked around I noticed that there were more people congregating on the beach where the dryland activities were happening than elsewhere.

After three hours of working out they broke for lunch. Isaac and I went out for lunch during which I remember asking "This was pretty much an incredible workout, you must be exhausted". His reply? "This was the easiest day we had so far". All I know is that after just watching, I needed a nap.

The 12th Day of Christmas Training

Days 9 and 10 shared a different feeling than days before it for many reasons. First of all, the temperature for morning practice was 55 degrees.
Monday had the benefit of a warm pool. This was a relief when jumping in but later into the practice it felt like we were swimming in a pot of boiling water. Monday morning’s workout was a long 7500 meters for the long mid-distance and distance swimmers. Everyone felt a little sluggish after being in the sun the day before. The practice consisted of a lot of pink, but it was more like red.

At the end of practice Greg told us that Monday night’s practice would be our typical Monday set. That set is 9X 300 or 400 or 500 depending on the cycle. The first three are free, the second three are IM, and the third three are kick. He said that Monday night’s practice would be the 400s. It seemed like we all knew what was coming that night. Let’s just say none of us saw what was coming.Greg is known for changing his mind about a lot of things: what time we’re practicing, when we’re leaving, and what practice will be. Well I guess Greg had a hard time leaving the 500s and 300s out of the workout for that night. Instead of doing 9 X 400s, we did something a little longer. 3 X 500 free, 3 X 500 IM, 3 X 400 free, 3 X 400 IM, 3 X 300 free, and finally 3 X 300 IM. With a little warm up and cool down, the total for that practice was 8300 yards. A nice finish to an already long day

After a hard Monday, we all feared Tuesday would be just as hard or even harder. It was just as cold that morning, except this time the water temperature was a lot colder. The practice Tuesday morning was not easy but not really hard. Our bodies were still recovering from Monday. After practice, the hot tub offered even more recovery both physically and mentally. The distance and long mid-distance watched the sprinters lifting weights; it was nice to finish working before them. As we were relaxing in the hot tub, an “interesting” Santa made us a visit. He gave his speech and then we took some pictures with us. Meanwhile, the sprinters had totally stopped lifting weights and were making sad faces through the window.

Tuesday night was our final practice of Training Trip 2008. We had heard we would be singing the Twelve Days of Christmas at that practice. It sounds harmless, but Greg can make even the most enjoyable caroling a workout. To top it all off, Greg was dressed up as Santa. Our Twelve Days of Christmas went like this:

On the ______ day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

• Day 1: A 25 underwater kick
• Day 2: A 50 fast
• Day 3: 2 x 50 kick
• Day 4: A hundred drill stroke
• Day 5: 30 seconds rest!
• Day 6 : A 100 build
• Day 7: A 150 Pull
• Day 8: A 200 IM
• Day 9: 30 seconds rest!
• Day 10: 3 variable sprints
• Day 11: 11 dolphin dives
• Day 12: A 400 IM

We started with the 25 underwater kick. Then on the next round we did the 50 fast followed by the 25 underwater kick. The third round was 2 50s kick, a 50 fast, and the 25 underwater kick. The nine other rounds followed the same patterns. We soon realized that this was going to get really long. We finished, and everyone was thrilled to be done with Training Trip 2008.

We went back to the hotel to eat pizza, perform our freshmen skits, and present the Training Trip Awards. The pizza was awesome. However, the skits were even better. Greg even said “These skits were better than the seniors’ skits from their freshmen year. Apparently that’s a huge honor. Two skits were performed. A big group consisting of Eric, Boyer, Glover, Coder, Kyle, Ryan, Clinton, Mike and myself. We sang another version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. This version had no swimming, just laughs. The lyrics:

On the _____ day of Christmas, Greg Earhart gave to me...

• Day 1: a kayak through the mangrove trees (a team trip we took)
• Day 2: two boys in love (Isaac and Blake)
• Day 3: three burly men (Greg, Tom, and Guy)
• Day 4: Dan and Ryan flirting (with girls that is)
• Day 5: (Boyer added some rips on Isaac and Blake)
• Day 6: Blake and Isaac (playing)
• Day 7: Carthage swimmers swimming
• Day 8: Crazy driver driving (Guy!!!!!!)
• Day 9: Tom Carroll prancing (with a great impersonation from Eric)
• Day 10: Manny’s monstrous snoring (LOUD)
• Day 11: lots of toilets clogging
• Day 12: WE WENT HOME

Doug and Dan took on the roles of Isaac and Blake in their skit. They acted out the daily lives of the two of them. Most of what they do in a the day isn’t appropriate to write. Maybe the video will get posted and you can see for yourselves. Either way it was hilarious.

After the skits, Steenrod and Bax presented the Training Trip Awards for 2008. Everyone received an award. The awards were comical. Each of them was a personal jab. Greg wrapped up the night with a little speech. I think we all know that we’re going home much stronger than when we came here. CCIW Conference and Nationals… Here we come!

Day 8: A Day at the Beach

Day 8 was a day that left many Red Men swimmers just that. It was our latest start to a day that we have had thus far. Waking up after 8 AM was a nice treat. After a late wake up call we headed down to the lobby for breakfast. When I opened the breakfast surprise holder and saw the french toast sticks, I knew it was a good day. After breakfast we boarded the vans and headed for the beach, not sure what to expect. It was another rough ride with Guy at the wheel, but we arrived at the beach in one piece. This was the day that would validate our trip to Florida with our "competition" with the University of Cincinnati.

We knew we would be doing a biathlon consisting of a swim in the Gulf and a run along shore, but it ended up being shorter than expected. After completing the swim of about 800 yards and running back to our stuff, we prepared for dryland. The dryland was made even more difficult by the fact that Cincinnati was playing frisbee and volleyball and building sand castles.

We were told by Greg to be prepared to "get sand in places we didn't know we had places." Our dryland consisted of 4 stations. One was led by Tom where he took us through a rendition of Cats and monkey dance. Another station was led by Greg where we were forced to crawl through the sand and do med ball exercises in the Gulf. The other two stations were med ball ultimate with Beth accompanied with abs on the side. My team was beyond exceptional, led by the powerful duo of Blake and Ortmann.

After surviving the dryland we were free to enjoy a day at the beach. The Siesta Beach was much nicer than the beach we had previously visited on multiple occasions. This beach had some really choice sand. I was excited to be able to spend the day with a friend of mine from Cincinnati. Other highlights from the day included Clinton's sand sculpture of a mermaid and the friendship mound.

We stayed at the beach forever, perhaps a little too long, we got copious amounts of sun and some neglected to apply proper amounts of sunscreen. Some left the beach at 2:00, while a few of us stayed until 4:00. I chose to stay until 4:00 which was a decision I began to regret around 3:00. We returned to the hotel just as the women's team was leaving for the pool, which only enhanced the great feeling of our day off. Back at the hotel we lounged around for the rest of the day and applied great amounts of aloe. There were multiple visits to the Splash store, where many steals were made on some great Venice attire. Much to our dismay, we missed the complementary cookies for the first night since we have been here. It really took away from the day that had so far been really great. After Stephen prepared another wonderful dinner for the two of us, we then proceeded with our nightly routine of whooping up on Alex Van Huis and Steenrod in some Euchre. As we look ahead at the 2 days that separate us from being at home celebrating Christmas with our families and friends we anticipate that it will be extremely difficult, but after the challenges we have sustained thus far, we know that it is nothing we cannot handle.

Sprint Workout

Most middle distance and distance guys had the night off. Not the sprinters though, they came back for a short workout, including a little time working on starts & turns. The best time - 6.39 seconds for Nathan Ripley.

Today? Well it's the first day of winter. Think of us as we're working hard on the beach.

Day 4: Alex Boyer & Pat Alfes

The Carthage Red Men Swimming Team had a successful day one of the first ever NCAA Division III Long Course championships! 500 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, 200 Medely Relay, We swept it all, getting first, second and third (as well as all other places) in all of the events. We were even able to swim the relays with one person instead of four!

Okay, I am only kidding. This was our warm up bright (or dark) and early this morning. After a wonderful afternoon off for a kayak adventure, we hit the pool again this morning, and boy was this practice a doozie... We began with the meet warm up, then the distance/mid-distance swimmers got hit with a pretty difficult main set (it began with 6x 350's mixed free and IM, then 8x 250's pull, and eventually concluded with 6 or 8x 150's fast free) then split off into our seperate groups for some specialty work. Pat and I did some sprint 75's and 50's, but others did some distance work, and some finished with some lifting in the workout room. Now, I do have to say something serious. As a freshman on the team, I am always impressed with the way this team handles a difficult practice, and today was a perfect example. No one ever resents anyone else's success, and everyone supports each other when the going gets tough. I cannot count the number of times I saw someone cheering someone else on, or got urged on myself. There were so many high fives in the pool this morning that I think even Borat would be impressed. This morning, our team was incredibly supportive, and I think our performance in the pool was a result of that.
Anyways, back to the events of the day. Since we were lucky enough to wake up at 5:30 this morning, we were able to come back to the hotel and grab a quick breakfast as the rest of the hotel was just waking up. Some of us then set off to Venice Beach for some fun in the sun.

After I(Pat) got a quick bite to eat, I glanced at the clock and noticed that I could snag a quick hour of sleep before, as Alex put it, some well deserved fun in the sun. We all gather up, smelling of sun screen and tanning oil, and hop into the busses to take the 5 min drive to Venice Beach. Once we get there, we all mark our territory with our beach towels and bags. Right away, Bax pulls out the frisbee and we start running around like chicken with our heads caught off diving for catches. Soon the frisbee throwing made its way to the water and it brought everyone in with it. Sneaking up behind and dunking each other, jumping on each other's backs, and making our way out to points where even Ryan Ortmann could not touch ensued. About 45 min later, we all take a break and decide to bury Chris Varner and make him have the body of his dreams on the sand. As the seagulls gathered around, we tried (Ortmann, Isaac, Varner, and I) to have a seagull grab a pretzel or a cheeze-it out of our fingers. The only sucessfull one was Varner who had a seagull nab a french fry out of his fingers. As it came time to leave, we had one last laugh when Ben Coder was, well lets just that a seagull picked his spot and aimed well. The busses came, we packed up and cleaned off all of the sand or as much as we could.

Alex- We got back just in time to, guess what...GO BACK TO THE POOL. Now we here on the team are pretty careful when throwing around the term "recovery practice" but this afternoon was pretty close. We began with a warm up snake, where we swam up and down each of the lanes, and then diagonally back (underwater) from the end of lane 5 to where we started in lane 1. Then someone decided to let Issac lead us in follow the leader. Such power should not be put be put into his hands... After following Issac aimlessly for a few minutes, we began our main sets with a focused skull/overkick set, then a fun 25's stroke/ 100's free set, followed by some much appriciated free floating time.

Pat- As we arrived back to the hotel, some of us went back out for some much needed grocery shopping. I needed some more skim milk of course and other random comfort foods, i.e E.L.Fudge cookies (made by my 2nd cousins as some like to believe). I came back to some much needed food intake in the form of bacon and pinapple pizza. I settled down for the night with a few games of instructional euchure with a couple of the freshman and made a few calls home. Now as I sit here with Alex writing this entry, a world of memories and ideas rush through my head. Remembering how we all got behind each other when we had our "get in" swim to try and beat the NCAA "A" Cuts. How this morning we were making Borat jealous with all of the high fives we were handing out to each other. How much of a team we are becoming in and out of the water. It just gives me chills on how great of a team we are becoming. This is THE deepest team I have ever been with, not only on skill and ability, but also personalities that just mesh with each other naturally. The potential we have as a team seems endless. The next couple of days and soon to be last half of the season will be one for the books. I have a feeling that when it comes to conference time, other teams will be fratically clicking refresh on the results to see if they got into Big Meet.

Alrighty everyone its time to hit the hay. We have another early morning tomorrow so it is time to get some sleep. Have a great morning, noon, and night!! Night everyone and take it easy!

Alex "Jayhawk For Life" Boyer and Patrick "Has to jump to reach Ryan Ortmann's head" Alfes

Day 3: Adam Glover and Dan Jones

Day 3 started early with no wake up call, luckily my roommates and I have internal clocks so we where able to get up in time. We boarded the vans and headed to the pool only to find that the pool had a thin blanket of fog over it. Fortunately we had a well needed recovery practice this morning which was followed by a "trivia game". The game involved Coach asking us questions while we kicked, the sooner we got a question right the sooner we'd be able to kick easy. After our 2o minute "game" we again boarded the vans in time to eat breakfast... again. It was at this second breakfast that we learned that we had a planned activity for the day. Our roommate Stephen Schranck returned after breakfast to tell us that we'd be "alligator wrestling" that afternoon. Not knowing what to make of this us freshmen questioned their claims, at least most of us anyhow. Some of us were more gullible than others ahem... Boyer and Jones, for example, were very enthusiastic about wrestling gators however to their disappointment we went kayaking instead.

This brings us to our kayaking experience which proved to be longer than previously conceived. We got on our gear and headed out to the open Gulf paddles in hand. We had 2 hours to venture the waters before we had to return. Our team came across several forks we could take into the mangrove ridden forests infested with "hundreds of thousands of crabs". I made the mistake of following Dan Jones along with the rest of the upperclassmen into one path that led nowhere. However, our adventure was not without surprises as teammates fought for the front, Ryan Ortman and Bryan Pelka, and Patrick Alfes shrieked as he had come down with a case of the "crabs", one crab to be exact. Realizing that our team leader, Dan Jones, had led us to a dead end we turned around to make the long journey back. Behind me Coach popped a "Heart of Darkness" joke which proved to heighten my mood. Finally after the long trek back we returned our gear and returned to the hotel. When arriving back at the hotel we smelled something burning in our hallway and realized that one of the lovely ladies had burned their food attempting to cook. Might we suggest culinary classes??? Amongst the chaos of the fire alarms and fire truck we waited for dinner.

To no surprise coach had one more trick up his sleeve as he made us walk to the restaurant. Upon arriving to our destination we were grouped according to our room assignments. Coach had us compliment our teammates on what we felt that had succeeded in thus far this week. Dan Jones thanked Patrick Alfes for helping him get his wings while I thanked Eric Ross and Byran Pelka for putting up for my less than enthusiastic mood and pushing me in the pool. After dinner we shared some laughs as we categorized our roommates into four categories: worst nutrition, worst snoring, best cuddlier, and most hair/face products. Dan Jones won for worse snore/deep breathing while Stephen Schranck won for best cuddlier with Issac the other categories were nameless. Our meal payed by the graces of the alumni, thanks, we headed back to the hotel our stomachs full. I'm sure tomorrow will bring more surprises and good times.

From room 252 peace out

-Adam Glover & Dan Jones

FIRE !

Won't say who, but just after our return someone's cooking prompted the arrival of this vehicle.

...I'm told that Patti and Heather's room won't be doing any more cooking.

Photo Album is Up

Check the Photo Gallery as the Carthage Cam makes its way around practice.

Day 2: Eric Ross

BREAKING NEWS: Carthage men's swimming qualifies two relays for the NCAA Division III Championship meet. The Red Men placed both the 800 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay under the NCAA automatic qualifying time.

At this point you are probably wondering to yourself, what?! how did this happen?! the Red Men are in Florida on training trip, they don't have any meets this week, and why isn't Coach Greg telling me about this? why am I getting this news from some punk freshman?

Well, in order to understand what happened, lets go back to the beginning of the day, Day 2. The day started out normally, wake up call at 6:00 am. Continental Breakfast in the lobby, and then it was off to the pool. Here is where things get interesting: part of the way there, all four vans pulled over and the team was instructed to run the remaining two miles to practice. Upon arrival the team split into groups for a tough hour plus dryland session. For the water portion of practice we split into stroke groups. Pelka, Glover, and I swam the distance workout. It was a typical distance set: 5400 total yards, 2200 of it red, all sandwiched between Tom trying to do math, gripes about the sprinters, negotiations with the girls on how to best split our lane of seven people, and more swimming. For once, the distance swimmers got out first, but we were told we had to wait till everyone else was done because we were taking a team picture. Let me say that again, the DISTANCE SWIMMERS GOT DONE FIRST. The picture was pretty crazy, everyone was trying to tread water in close quarters, and let's just say things got a little out of control.

In between practices a few people headed to the beach, but most of us stayed at the hotel and slept and rested. In my room, everyone got in a nap of at least two hours. Good times. However, all good things must pass, and before we knew it, it was time again for swim practice. After warm up, Greg got us out of the pool. We were to swim a "Get in" swim. We had to come up with two relays that had to be swum under the NCAA "A" cut by whatever means necessary. We chose to swim the 800 free relay and the 400 free relay and divide them by 50s instead of 200s or 100s. The catch was to be "prepared for the unexpected" as Greg explained. The unexpected consisted of Varner having to take his fins off, and the Van Huis brothers having to swim 75s instead of 50s. Despite the added complications both relays swam well under the NCAA time. We may not have actual qualified those relays, but it was a lot of fun seeing the whole team cheer Glover as he swam the last 50 of the 800 relay. The team seems very determined to qualify relays this year. The rest of practice was tough as well, but the distance group once again fought through and finished first....AGAIN. It is days like today that prove how well the team is coming together. Helping each other and encouraging each other through the most difficult day of training trip so far. After what the team did at TYR and the progress we are making over training trip, I'm really excited to see just how far we can go with the team this season. The rest of training trip promises to be a challenge, but not one that we can't handle. For now, though, I'm going to eat the rest of my dinner before bed.

Cheers!
-Eric Ross

Day 2: Chris Steenblog

Captain's Log:
We've just finished our second full day of training (I think there are only 9 days left)! Even though sets have steadily become more challenging over the past few practices everyone is putting their all into each and every set. Throwing yourself into sets is not that hard though when you have people to impress and I'm not talking about the lifeguards either; this year we have the Lady Reds joining us. This is the first time in my four years of being a Carthage swimmer that two swim teams have traveled together for training purposes and I think it's safe to say that everyone welcomes the change!

This morning we started practice off with a brisk 2.0 mile run to the pool after being dropped off in what seemed to be the middle of no where. Unfortunately, there were no crocodile sightings, but we remain optimistic. At the pool we split in distance, sprint and stroke specific groups. From here I can only fill you in on the great times the breaststroke lane had this morning. After the warm up and some kicking we got down to business with our main set: 4x50's kick on 1:00 and then 3x100's descend on the 2:00 three times through. Even though our lane was packed with about 12 men and women swimmers we still managed to "Do Work" and descend the 100's to Vo2 max pace.

This afternoon we ventured to the pool around 5:00 p.m. After a quick 500 warm up we attempted a "Get In" swim off of the blocks. We put a 400 and an 800 freestyle relay on the blocks with each swimmer sprinting a single 50 in hopes of going under the NCAA "A" cut-victory was ours! We then split into a mid and distance group and a sprint group. The distance type swimmers started the main portion of our practice with 12x150 focusing on perfect streamlines and getting distance off each wall. After that came two sets of 4x 150's with the first 100 held right at 1:00 and the last 50 going full throttle with some pull and kick in between each round.

With practices four and five under our belts it's time to head back to the hotel for our normal dinner of pasta, sandwiches or order out. As a senior I can honestly say that having to make my own dinner after practice makes me miss the Carthage cafe.

Captain's Log -

Over and Out

Chris Steenrod

Day 1: Bryan Pelka

The first day and everyone seems to be an even mix of excitement and trepidation. Excitement to finally get training trip started in earnest, trepidation at some of the challenges to come. We know that there are going to be days where we are faced with sets we aren’t sure if we can finish. We know that there are going to be days where even just getting into the water is a small triumph in and of itself. It’s what we signed up for and the key is going to be taking the trepidation and turning into excitement in and off itself. There are few things that feel as good as doing what you believed to be impossible or pulling something out of nowhere to perform that last practice when everything seems to point at not being able to. The unofficial team motto seems to be holding true already. We know what we’re here for, to “Do Work”.

Practice-wise this morning’s main set for distance consisted of a set of 3 x 400 descend, 4 x 300 IM/Free and 8 x 200 Pull Descend. It was great to see people going at it, the group as a whole seems to be buying into what we’re here to accomplish and I’ve barely heard a word of complaint as of yet. We went back a little early this afternoon at 3:15 to relieve some pool crowding issues we would have otherwise had. The highlight for distance was 8 x 100, 8 x 150, and 6 x 100 all Red split up by some 50’s kick. Once again I was struck by not only the good attitude at the sudden change in schedule but also how willing the team was to bounce back from the morning and not let any fatigue or soreness hold us back from doing the work we needed to tonight. Overall a good start to what promises to be an awesome week.

Off the pool deck we find ourselves crammed into even closer quarters than we’re already used to being together for hours each day. Six people per room, having to share food, space, bathrooms, everything. You either let it get to you and turn your week into a frustrating experience or you embrace it and have some fun with the situation. Movies, dodging around each other to make food, waiting around arguing over what to watch when one person decides to make food for the room, sleeping, playing cards, meandering between the rooms, whatever one must do to fill in the time between practices. It will be a test of how close our team has become over the last few months and, along with a bit of patience, I think that we have the chemistry and the team personality to have a great time over trip while absolutely destroying our previous notions of what we’re capable of.