Monday, November 16, 2009

Trinity University vs. Southwestern

This past weekend was highlighted by Trinity's first dual meet of the year. All in all, things went well - although many of our kids were a little tired from our training sessions, the usual rigors of academia, and the occasional "bugs" that put college students on their tail ends for a day or two (dorm life and/or lack of sleep).

Our women outscored Southwestern 167 - 81, and our men tallied a 181 - 57 win in a meet that witnessed some of the SCAC's leading performances of the season. We didn't score diving, but All-Americans Hayley Emerick and Lindsay Martin both tallied NCAA "reportable" entry scores.
Swimmers achieving top-of-conference times (for the fall of 2009 to date) included sophomore Alex Miranda (1:59.20 in the 200 butterfly), sophomore Andrew Battles (4:49.14 in the 500 freestyle), FY Sean Fronczak (55.87 in the 100 backstroke), and FY Lisa Tucci (5:21.43 in the 500 freestyle and 2:13.53 in the 200 butterfly).

Other event winners for Trinity's women were junior Mary West (1000 freestyle), FY Rachel Berude (200 freestyle), FY Leslie Butts (200 IM), junior Kristin Zinser (100 backstroke), junior Leigh-Anne Ladymon (100 butterfly), and FY Ana Price (50 and 100 freestyle). Men winning races for the Tigers included senior Graham Mullings (50 freestyle), FY CJ Robison (100 freestyle), FY Spencer Bard (100 butterfly), and FY Audel Mehrinfar (100 and 200 breaststroke). In addition to their aforementioned wins, Andrew Battles also won the 200 freestyle, Sean Fronczak took the 200 backstroke, and Alex Miranda captured the 200 IM.

This coming weekend, we will travel to the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex to compete in an eight team invitational meet at the Carroll ISD Natatorium in Southlake. The three session meet always offers up terrific competition for our athletes, so we are looking forward to some exciting racing. We'll warm up at home on Friday morning and then bus north on I-35 so that we are ready for the meet's opening session at 7:00. We'll be staying at the Marriott-Solana in Westlake.

Aside from swimming and diving, we want to offer a hearty congratulations to Trinity's volleyball team for accomplishing two upset victories (defending NCAA champion Emory and 2009 SCAC Champions Southwestern) on their way to the NCAA Regional title this past weekend. The Tigers are practicing and competing as a team. By working together, they are accomplishing great things. Way to go Tigers!!!

-Coach Ryan

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

ASA Collegiate 5K 2009

Last Saturday, November 7th, our swimmers arrived at Hixon Natatorium at 7:30 AM, swam a one hour warm-up, made a fast stop at Mabee Dining Hall, and then boarded a 55 passenger Star Shuttle Bus for a leisurely drive up I-35 to Lake Travis (northwest of Austin).

That was the prelude to our 11:00 AM starting horn for the ASA Collegiate 5-Kilometer Open Water Championships. The weather was mild, the lake was mostly calm, and the water a bit cool - awesome conditions for open water racing. Andrew Battles successfully defended his 2008 men's crown, winning the 2009 title over what proved to be a slightly longer course (3.6 miles) with a time of 1:00.23. Runner-up honors went to JJ Lubinski (1:04.59), with Sean Fronczak (1:05.15) finishing in the number three spot. The winner of the women's race was Mary West, who crossed the finish line with a time of 1:05.55. She was followed by Lisa Tucci (1:06.21) and Vanessa Scaringi of UT (1:06.23). Leslie Butts finished fourth with a time of 1:10.44.

This marks Trinity's second appearance at this event, which will likely be moved to early October next fall. That will hopefully encourage more college coaches to consider bringing some or all of their teams to this "out of the box" event. Trinity's swimmers had a fun and memorable experience, and we didn't experience any shark or barracuda attacks during the event (although 2 or 3 swimmers swam a little off course during the first half of the race). A good meal courtesy of Chik-Fil-A and a fast ride home (back in San Antonio at 4:30PM) made a good trip even better. Next up is a dual meet on the 14th with Southwestern University!

-Coach Ryan

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Month of November...

Our teams have been training hard and are ready to jump in the pool and compete. This weekend (November 7) we’ll be at Lake Travis, (northwest of Austin) for the ASA collegiate 5 kilometer Open Water Swim. The forecast is for sunny weather and our swimmers are going to be challenged by the fact that there are no lane lines on the bottom of the lake. We then host Southwestern on November 14th, followed by a weekend invitational on November 20th – 21st in Southlake, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth). There will be 8 or 9 schools attending that meet, so our swimmers and divers will both see lots of good competition. This is going to be a busy month!

-Coach Ryan