Trinity's diving team traveled to Terra Haute, Indiana on the weekend of December 3 - 4 to compete with six colleges and universities in an invitational diving meet at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. They left sunny San Antonio Friday morning and were treated to 3 inches of snow in the shilly northern plain of Indiana. They did not, however, get cold feet - the team competed well and represented Trinity in fine fashion with some "hot" diving.
The Lady Tigers opened Friday's 3 - meter session with a 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 9 finish, with defending NCAA 3 - meter champion Hayley Emericak leading the way 510.5 points. Hot on her trail were Katie Sheldon (436.6) and Ruth Hahn (427.85).
We traveled to the DFW metroplex this past Friday morning in order to attend the TU Southwestern Shootout Invitational, an event we invented a bunch of years ago to give us a good competitive meet just before Thanksgiving. This year, we hosted eleven schools representing six different states at the Carroll ISD Natatorium in Southlake, TX. Coach Bill Christensen (North Texas Nadadores) served as meet director, and again did an outstanding job coordinating all facets of the meet.
We swam pretty well. Not great, but a pretty solid collection of performances after several weeks of hard training. Our women took top team honors, outscoring Mesa State, Grand Canyon University, and Centenary by a 814.5 - 740.5 - 673.5 - 601.5 margin. Mesa State took the men's meet, by outgunning Centenary, Trinity, and Grand Canyon to the tune of 827 - 796 - 582 - 572.5.
No swim team is complete without a little team bonding, and no team bonding experience is complete without a little pasta. Or in this case, a lot of pasta! Senior swimmers Leigh-Anne Ladymon, Mary West, Kristen Zinser, and Sara Griffis hosted a pasta dinner for the women's swim team the night before leaving for the Trinity University Southwestern Shootout. -Assistant Coach Leta
Seniors Kristen Zinser and Leigh-Anne Ladymon display some of the eats!
Morgan Briggs, Mary Price, and Ana Price as they await the call to dinner.
FYs Marisa Olmo, Melanie Gustafson, and Meghan Varner.
Mary Price digs into the yummy lasagna that Leigh-Anne and Mary made for the first time ever.
Who wants a cookie? Rachel Berude, Marisa, and Melanie do!
Lisa Tucci using her muscles to get a little dessert.
Saturday was a good day. We put in a tough, challenging week of training and then finished that off with a dual meet against McMurry of Abilene. Everyone was up early for a 90 minute practice, enjoyed a good breakfast, and then caught some rest prior to the meet’s 1:30 pm start time. Admissions had a “Trinity-In-Focus” session for prospective students going all morning and up through mid-afternoon, so we had several recruits from both Texas and around the country here visiting. That was cool!
We moved some swimmers around a little bit and got to see some close races, with a number of our entries counting as exhibition swims rather than maxing out the point tally. Final score for the women’s meet was 129 to 90, while our men tallied a 144 to 62 point win.
Event winners for our women’s team included Morgan Briggs, Mary Price, Rachel Berude, Marisa Olmo, Leslie Butts, Lisa Tucci, Melanie Gustafson, Leigh-Anne Ladymon and Ana Price. Sophomore Madison Kahler captured wins in both diving events, her first collegiate “double” as a Tiger.
Our men scored a number of wins as well. Andrew Battles, Sean Fronczak, Drew Cauthorn, Michael Patton, Lucas Belury, Aaron shaver, Alex Miranda, CJ Robison, Mike Brew, Matt Wey, and Zach Dielmann al earned first place finishes in one or more races. Miranda’s 9:54.35 time in the 1000 freestyle may have been the best men’s swim of the day, with Battle’s conference leading 100 backstroke (54.32), and Fronczak’s 200 IM (2:02.83) as well as his two fast relay legs right there contending. Senior Andrew Snead led the diving field on both the 1-meter and the 3-meter boards.
This next weekend we travel to Dallas to attend an invitational meet we “invented” several years ago. Hosted by Carroll ISD in Southlake (TX), the 2010 Trinity Southwest Shootout will include 11 colleges and universities from, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The three session affair will be both fun and fast!!
This past weekend was a tough one. We've been training hard, most of the team is pretty tired, and almost everyone has been dealing with tests/exams/papers/etc. Such is college life. Weeks like this are unavoidable. How swimmers handle them is important. Managing one's time well and staying on task is critical to having a good season (September to February or March). Sometimes it's no picnic - but it is important to keep trying to do things RIGHT, no matter what.
Yesterday, we swam at 9am (4,300 yds) and then met at the University of the Incarnate Word Natatorium at 1:30 pm for an afternoon double dual meet with the UIW Cardinals and the University of Texas at Permian Basin. Both of our opponents are NCAA Division II programs, and the host's men are going to have a shot at an NCAA team title this year. We knew we would see some fast swimming. Our women outscored UTPB 153 to 109, while coming up on the short end of the scoring with UIW (96 to 179). UTPB clipped our guys 146 to 120 and UIW did likewise to the tune of 200 to 76. We had a couple of conference champions absent from our men's line-up (Andrew Battles and Spencer Bard), but it was still a pretty good shellacking.
We had some good racing and some noteable performances. Melanie Gustafson had three good races (200 fly, 500 free, and the 400 IM) and is proving herself to be a tough cookie, both in practices and meets. Morgan Briggs, Jennifer Ince, Rachel Berude, Kristen Zinser, and Lisa Tucci have been working hard and raced well on Saturday, contributing to our win over UTPB. Leigh-Anne Ladymon, who has been struggling with injury this fall, is rehabilitating well and getting stronger week by week. She recorded a 1:01.59 in the 100 butterfly yesterday, which is exciting to see. She and Mary West are going to be crtitical pieces in our conference meet line-up this coming February. Meghan Varner's times didn't reflect the training speed we've seen in practice, and her timing was off on a couple of her finishes, but we are confident she's going to help us big time at season's end. Ditto Leslie Butts, who has been down with illness, but who has been working hard in practice. Our divers, of course, did their thing and did it pretty well. First-year Kathryn Sheldon beat senior All-American Hayley Emerick and sophomore Ruth Hahn on the 1-meter board, leading TU to a 1 - 2 - 3 finish. Hayley then snagged the 3-meter win, with a solid 285.85 point performance. We went 1 - 2 - 3 there as well, with Ruth and Katie trailing Trinity's defending NCAA champion on her best board.
Lucas Belury was the top Trinity performer in the men's meet yesterday - hitting a 10:01.67 in the 1000 freestyle and recording a 4:50.10 in the 500 freestyle. Both are conference-best performances to date. Too bad Andrew Battles wasn't here to race him, although UIW men were plenty fast in both events. With the exception of Matt Wey's 100 breaststroke and Alex Miranda's 200 butterfly (1:57.42), we were pretty uninspiring with our racing going into the meet's first diving break. On the bright side, Aaron Shaver, CJ Robison, Michael Patton, Eric Bassett, and company have been training well. They're tired, but we still need to see them step up and RACE on game day. Aaron and CJ came back in the 100 and did just that, which was good to see. Sean Fronczak's 200 backstroke (2:02.46) was a better race than his 100, and Arthur Daigh chased him home to record a 2:05.77. Alex followed his solid 200 fly with good performances in both the 200 back and the 400 IM (4:18.18). Matt hit a season PR in the 200 breaststroke, and both Zach and Drew Cauthorn popped good 100 fly swims. We got better as the evening progressed. Andrew Snead and Matt Hawley led our divers, with Andrew twice taking runner-up honors to UIW's All-American Justin McDonald.
Next meet up is McMurry University on Saturday the 13th. Our admissions office is conducting a Trinity-in-Focus session that day, so we will be hosting several prospective student-athletes who have elected to visit our campus and spend time getting to know our team and the whole Trinity scene. The weather has been beautiful lately. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be blessed with another glorious weekend. GO TIGERS!
Last night our men and women competed in a dual meet with the University of New Orleans, an NCAA Division I program that is currently "transitioning" to Division III. Our men outscored the Pirates 135 to 75, and our women's team topped our visitors 128 to 66.
We put in a very solid week of training after last weekend’s Florida travel trip, so we were plenty tired going into this meet. Despite that, many of our swims were faster than our Rollins/Tampa ventures.
Andrew Battles won three freestyle races (1:48.43 in the 200, 4:53.90 in the 500, and 10:04.03 in the 1000) to lead the way for our home boys. Alex Miranda captured a win in the 200IM (2:02.74) and swam a good “exhibition” time in the 1000 (10:08.86). Team co-captain Matt Wey posted an excellent early season time in the 200 freestyle (1:50.20) and won the 100 breaststroke (1:03.91). Sean Fronczak took the 100 backstroke (56.01), as Trinity won the majority of the individual events contested. Lucas Belury, Aaron Shaver, CJ Robinson, Zach Dielmann, and rookie Michael Patton all swam well while contributing to Trinity‘s win. In addition, Andrew Snead and Matt Hawley showed good form on both boards in a diving match-up with the University of Incarnate word.
On the women’s side, freshman Melanie Gustafson had another weekend of good racing. Her wins were in the 200 free (2:03.82) and the 1000 free (11:09.53) we all but expected after completing a week of impressive training sessions. Morgan Briggs was a double event winner, taking the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. Jennifer Ince has been showing more speed in practice (good news after knee surgery in May) and did well in her 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke races. Ana Price’s 55.77 in the 100 freestyle was faster than any of her early season swims in the fall of 2009, so she’s off to a great start for our current campaign. Kristen Zinser, Mary Price, Marisa Olmo, Leslie Butts, and Meghan Varner all followed a hard week of training with good competitive swims against the ladies from UNO. NCAA 3-Meter diving champion Hayley Emerick topped the field in the 1-Meter event, while sophomore Ruth Hahn showed she has plenty of talent by outscoring TU’s All-American on the 3-Meter board (231.55 to 226.70). Coach Stan Randall’s diving team is deep and talented, as proven by the performances delivered by Gabriella Caglieris, Rebecca Parrish, and Kristin Nordstrom.
We had four women out of our Friday night line-up for one reason or another, so we anticipate putting a stronger team in the water two weeks from now when we go at it with the University of Texas at Permian Basin here in San Antonio.
Wow! We just finished a very busy weekend of traveling and competing in central Florida. Our Tiger team flew over to Orlando on the 14th, a day before TU's Friday "Fall Break" holiday. We got an afternoon training session in at Rollins College, and had a relaxing evening hanging out at a Courtyard by Marriot. The next day and a half was anything but relaxing!
Friday morning we swam a long warm-up session at the Lake Highland Prep's beautiful long course outdoor pool. We followed that with a late afternoon meet with Rollins, posting plenty of good performances on the way to two team wins (TU's men outscored Rollins 120 to 84 and the Tiger women took their meet by a score of 115 to 89).
After getting nipped in a tight 200 medley relay race to open the meet, Trinity ran off a string of six straight wins to take control of the meet early. Melanie Gustafson (1000 freestyle 11:00.76), Meghan Varner (200 freestyle 2:01.99), Ana Price (50 freestyle 25.48), Morgan Briggs (200 IM 2:18.31), and Leslie Butts (100 butterfly 1:00.72) combined to win enough races to assure the Tigers of a win in Orlando. While Rollins then won the 100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle, Morgan Briggs came back to win the 100 breaststroke and the TU 200 freestyle relay stepped up to win a tight race in the meet's final event. It was a good evening for Trinity's women, who will be seeking an 8th consecutive SCAC team title in Houston this coming February.
Our men opened the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay (Sean Fronczak, Matt Wey, Zach Dielmann, and Spencer Bard taking honors), giving TU a lead we would never surrender over the course of the evening. Andrew Battles and Lucas Belury then posted solid times while finishing 1 - 2 in the 1000 (10:03.27 and 10:08.73), reinforcing the winning tradition that Trinity has established in the men's distance swimming. While Rollins won the 200, TU then reeled off 3 straight wins to pretty much put the meet away. Aaron Shaver took the 50 with a 22.54, Alex Miranda won the 200 IM clocking a 2:02.61, and Spencer Bard captured the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.83. Miranda and Belury later went 1 - 2 in the 500 (4:52.96 and 4:56.25) and Matt Wey captured the 100 breaststroke (1:03.67) to put the frosting on the cake for the Tigers. A win on the road is always nice!
That same night we aimed our bus toward Florida's west coast and made the drive to Tampa. Late to bed and early to rise makes the team healthy, wealthy, and tired. We weren't truly ready for a meet with one of the NCAA's best Division II programs. Our swimmers were positive about the challenge, but we were weary and our performances reflected that fact. Melanie Gustafson's 2:12.57 was the winning time in the 200 butterfly and was Trinity's best swim of the day. Melanie recorded a win in the 500 freestyle, as well, but she was just about as fast on her way to the 1000 against Rollins the previous night. Mary Price (100 butterfly) and Lisa Tucci (400 IM) also posted wins, and Jennifer Ince finished runner-up in both backstrokes.
Our men fared a little better against the Spartan men than our women did versus their counterparts. Alex Miranda won the 200 butterfly (1:59.68) and the 400 IM (4:21.55), both good early season times. Andrew Battles took the 500 (4:59.86) and led TU to a 1 - 2 - 3 finish in the 1000 (10:21.78) - just edging first-year Arthur Daigh's 10:23.93 (JJ Lubinski was third overall). Sean Fronczak competed well in the backstrokes, winning the 200 with a 2:02.27, and both Matt Wey and Aaron Shaver showed they are preparing for a good season by virtue of their competitiveness on a day when most of their team-mates were looking tired. Two meets within a 20 hour stretch with a long bus ride will do that to you. Builds character, right??
We'll need a little of that (character), as well as speed and toughness if we are going to be ready to swim fast at the end of the season. We have a meet next weekend at home (University of New Orleans), and then three in a row come November. Hopefully, we'll post some good times in Dallas on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Time flies, so we'll get to that point in the season quicker than you might think. Go Tigers!!!
-Coach Ryan
Images:
#1 SR Sara Griffis warming up at Lake Highland Prep
#2 JR Andrew Battles after the meet with Rollins
#3 FYs Morgan Briggs, Meghan Varner, Marisa Olmo, Melanie Gustafson, & Megan O'Rell from l to r #4 Members of TMSD
Trinity seniors Mary West, Sara Griffis, Kristen Zinser, and Leigh-Anne Ladymon are back on campus today after spending a long weekend in St. Croix, where they each competed yesterday in one of two spectacular open water races held annually to in order to fundraise for The Nature Conservancy’s program to protect the coral reefs of the Virgin Islands.
The TU women traveled to St. Croix with assistant coach Leta Gatton. The day before the races, our travel party enjoyed a snorkeling venture at Buck Island’s National Coral Reef Underwater Park – a truly unique experience that they’ll all remember as one of the highlights to their Trinity swimming experience.
Mary and Sara competed in the Coral Reef5-mile Open Water Race. Mary was the first swimmer out of the ocean at the Buccaneer Hotel’s Mermaid Beach, but lost a short dash to the finish line to Meredith Jones of Pennsylvania. Mary recorded a time of 2:15.11. Sara finished 9th overall with a time of 2:28.28. In the Coral Reef 2-Mile Open Water Race, Kristen Zinser finished 2nd overall with a time of 58:17 and Leigh-Anne Ladymon placed 4th overall with a time of 1:03.02.
-Coach Ryan
Images:
#1 Celebrating some great TU finishes with Misty Hyman. From l to r: Kristen Zinser, Sara Griffis, Misty Hyman, Leigh-Anne Ladymon, Leta Gatton, and Mary West
#2 Just before snorkeling off Buck Island.
#3 Buck Island, the only underwater national park in the US. Definitely a must see.
#4 Sara Griffis and Mary West, representing TU in the 5 mile race.
For more information on the race visit: www.swimrace.com
Today we took the team up to Lake Travis, just a bit to the west of Austin, to compete in the ASA Collegiate National 5K Open Water Championships. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, and the water was relatively calm and not cold (as it was in November of 2009). Perfect conditions for an open water competition!
Our women finished 3rd overall, behind Texas A&M and Rice. Rita Medrano of Texas A&M was the event winner. Leading the way for our Tiger team was Melanie Gustafson, posting a time of 1:09:36.47. Trinity’s next four fastest women were Meghan Varner, Morgan Briggs, Marisa Olmo, and Lisa Tucci. All were happy to finish and relieved to have had no encounters with any of the unusual Lake Travis ‘critters’ such as piranhas, barracudas, water moccasins, etc. (Just kidding)
The men’s race was a cake-walk, as Trinity was the only men’s team signed up for the 5K venture. Alex Miranda captured the men’s win, clocking 1:06:12.93. He was followed by Arthur Daigh and Sean Fronczak.
ASA founder and race director Dr. Keith Bell is hopeful that more schools will discover this race and add it to their schedule. It’s a great way to start the "indoor" season and provides all participants with an opportunity to try something “out of the box” (make that “pool”). It’s cool!
-Coach Ryan
Images:
#1 The start of the 5K
#2 The Trinity Women's team before the start of the 5K
#3 The top 3 male finishers: Arthur Daigh (2nd), Alex Miranda (1st), and Sean Fronczak (3rd)
Marisa Olmo, Mary Price, and Lisa Tucci test out the waters before beginning the race.
The team, after finishing the 5K!
FY Morgan Briggs...The 5K didn't stand a chance. She looks like she could take on another!
FY Meghan Varner commenting about how she kept swimming, but the little orange buoy never got any closer!
The men's team, looking a little tired after the 5K.
FY Megan O'Rell and SO Michael Patton after completing their first open water swim.
Trinity men's swimming team: the first place team on the men's side!
Like to go tubing down a south central Texas river? Most of our swimmers and divers made the short trip up to Gruene, Texas, late yesterday morning so that they could go tubing together on the scenic Guadalupe River.
The weather was pleasant throughout the early part of the afternoon, and the ride was relatively quiet and quite enjoyable. A couple of stops along the way to swing on ropes hanging off some of the tall cypress trees that line the Guadalupe’s shore gave some of the team a chance to show their stuff. There were also several short stretches of rapids, which livened things up a bit as our swimmers and divers meandered their way towards New Braunfels. Things got even livelier near the end of the day, as a storm blew in and the team was treated to some torrential rain and some strong winds – an amazing experience!
After exiting the river at the Rockin’ R’s pick-up point, the team returned to Gruene and then headed for Rudy’s Bar-B-Que in New Braunfels to chub on grub before heading back to San Antonio. They were on the T.U. campus before 6:00 pm, which still left everyone with some play time Saturday night.
The time spent tubing was fun and the ‘team bonding’ made the experience even better.
Trinity’s men and women swimmers trekked up I-10 to Abilene on Saturday afternoon to compete in dual meets with McMurry University. The Tigers returned home twice winners (men 113 – 83 and women 112 – 56) after posting some good results despite being relatively wiped out following three weeks of intense post-holiday training.
Trinity opened the meet with wins in both the women’s 200 medley relay (Kristen Zinser, Sara Griffis, Leslie Butts, and Renee Ulrich) and the men’s 200 medley relay (Sean Fronczak, Audel Mehrinfar, Spencer Bard, and Sean Benton). T.U. jumped to a quick lead after the opening bell and never looked back. Event winners for the Tiger women included Lisa Tucci (200 freestyle), Kristen Zinser (100 backstroke), Kate O’Brien (500 freestyle), Sara Griffis (100 breaststroke), Ana Price (50 and 100 freestyle), and Renee Ulrich (200 IM and 100 freestyle).
T.U. had six men rack up 7 wins over the course of the afternoon meet. Alex Miranda (200 IM), Zach Dielmann (100 backstroke), Matt Wey (500 freestyle), Audel Mehrinfar (100 breaststroke), Andrew Battles (1000 freestyle), and Graham Mullings (100 and 200 freestyle) all captured races in Abilene.
On the diving boards, Trinity’s Ruth Hahn won the 1-meter competition with a score of 291.55 by outscoring team-mate Lynne Bettinger (285.15). They then reversed that finish in the 3-meter event, with Bettinger putting up a 311.20 point total against Hahn’s 291.20. Both hit the NCAA championship consideration score and both finished ahead of two NCAA All-Americans in the process (the Tigers own Lindsay Martin and Hailey Emerick). Andrew Snead led the T.U. men with solid performances on both boards.
Trinity's diving team traveled to Terra Haute, Indiana on the weekend of December 3 - 4 to compete with six colleges and universities in an invitational diving meet at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. They left sunny San Antonio Friday morning and were treated to 3 inches of snow in the shilly northern plain of Indiana. They did not, however, get cold feet - the team competed well and represented Trinity in fine fashion with some "hot" diving. 
