UIW Invitational

Sean Fronczak and Leslie Butts working on starts and sprints before competition.

This past weekend, our team traveled across town to Palo Alto Community College to participate in an invitational meet hosted by The University of The Incarnate Word. It was a good two days of racing in a terrific pool. Teams other than Trinity competing included UIW, University of Texas at Permian Basin. and Southwestern University.

We were pleased with the way we performed, both in the pool and on the boards. Our kids swam hard and recorded a bunch of season best times. Always cool! We also improved upon almost every 'same race' performance from this meet a year ago. We liked that!

Men's "A" 400 FR Relay (From left to right: Aaron Shaver,
Andrew Battles, Zach Dielmann, and CJ Robison.)

Alex Miranda's (SCAC Swimmer of the Week) 1650 freestyle time of 16:10 posted what was arguably our team's most impressive time of the weekend. We think it was the fastest unrested/unshaved SCAC 1650 time ever, and we know it was 20 seconds faster than his 2010 UIW Invite mile time. Other especially notable men's times were recorded by Lucas Belury (500 freestyle 4:43.07 / 200 butterfly 1:57.42) and Andrew Battles (200 freestyle 1:44.94 / 200 backstroke 1:56.79). Matt Wey, Aaron Shaver, Zach Dielmann, Drew Cauthorn, Arthur Daigh, and CJ Robinson all knocked out some fast swims as well.

Our women also swam especially well, with several of our first-year athletes stepping up and swimming fast. Meghan Varner and Melaine Gustafson both hit 2:12's in the 200 butterfly (good enough for 2nd and 3rd on the 2011 SCAC top times list). Marisa Olmo was just .02 off her PR in the 1650 (clocking 18:23.42), providing her with some confidence as we get closer to our Conference championship meet date. Both senior Kristen Zinser and sophomore Jennifer Ince had terrific backstroke swims in both distances, while sophomore Rachel Berude and Mary Price were quick in the sprints.

Sophomore twins Ana and Mary Price.

If we can get Ana Price back in the water (she's been out with a knee injury), our relays will be a little more competitive - always important! Lisa Tucci is back and smiling after having her thyroid removed in December. We love having her back on deck at Hixon, and are delighted that she's faring well with her radiation treatment. She keeps telling me she wants "to race a 50 or something, anything..," at Conference. What an amazing attitude! Who knows? Stranger things have happened. We are definitely going to miss her competitiveness in the 200 fly and 400 IM (she won the individual medley last winter). Hopefully, she'll be back in the hunt next year.

Back to the UIW Invitational and our divers. Hayley Emerick (SCAC Diver of the week) led a 1-2-3-4 Trinity finish in both the women's 1-meter and 3-meter competitions. Kevin Martin was our top dog in the men's 3-meter, while senior Andrew Snead (SCAC Diver of the week) slipped by Kevin for the first time ever on the low board. Coach Randall is pleased with how his divers look going into the last couple of weeks proceeding the SCAC Championships, We will be heading to Shenandoah, Texas to compete from February 16th-19th at the Conroe ISD Natatorium. We anticipate an exciting weekend of racing and diving!

-Coach John Ryan