What's happening with the HOGS this week?

The Home Stretch

It feels like we are just getting started and already the dual meet season has come to and end! We ended our Fall semester with the Texas A&M Invite and were thrilled with the results. Across the board, all of our swimmers had season and lifetimes bests and we ended up with 3 NCAA “B”cuts. Whitney Lynn’s time of 16:28.53 in the 1,650 gave her a national rank of 11th that still holds this week. This was her fastest in-season swim ever and is 5 seconds faster than the time needed to qualify for the 2004 NCAA meet. We are very proud of her and all of her teammates for their Aggie Invite meet.

Following that meet, we had a few weeks of training and studying for final exams before we left for Christmas break. Like most breaks, this one too flew by and we were all soon back in Fayetteville getting ready for our training trip. We flew to Hawaii on Dec 31st and got there that afternoon. After getting slightly lost in downtown Honolulu, we eventually arrived at the condos near Waikiki beach. That night we were treated to a full city firework display as it seemed that every Honolulu resident began setting them off at dusk. Those of us who could handle the four hour time difference and made it until midnight, went up to the roof of the hotel and watched an amazing firework display from a barge off of the beach. It was great way to kick off 2005!

The rest of the week was filled with a mixture of lots of sun and quick rain showers. The team survived some rigorous training and even still had energy for sight seeing. During the week we saw, Waikiki beach, Hanauma Bay, Pearl Habor, the North Shore and Diamond Head crater. We took surfing lessons, did lots of shopping and lay on the beach. Before we knew it, the week was over and we returned home.

During the week before classes started we continued our training schedule that we established in Hawaii. However, even in Fayetteville, it wasn’t all work and no play. We were fortunate enough to return to the Little Rock Children’s Hospital to visit with some of the patients. It was both amazing and difficult at the same time. All of the children were so pleased to see the team while at the same time exhibiting amazing bravery and fortitude during their time in the hospital. This is something that we will always look forward to every year.

Our final three meets of the season were Tennessee, Kentucky with Louisville and Kansas. Each week the team showed dramatic improvements as we recovered from the training trip and we are really pleased about where we are now as a team.

This past weekend against Kansas, we honored our five seniors and that was bittersweet as always.

We are fully into our taper as we leave for Gainesville two weeks from today.

Things are exciting her for us and we look forward to the upcoming conference meet!

Personal Notes:

Check back next week to see what’s happening with the H2OGS!