Monday, February 23, 2009

Shine On SMC Swimming

Hi again everyone!

So this weekend was the Women's NEISDA Swimming and Diving Championships (aka New Englands, or Champs) down at UMass Dartmouth. We left for the meet on Thursday afternoon and it started on Friday with our warm up bright and early at 7:30. The meet was prelims/finals, so everyone swam their events in the morning and the top 18 finishers came back at night to swim again to determine final scores. Diving took place between these sessions.

It was an AMAZING time, so say the least. Everyone had at least one best time, and some girls swam all personal or season bests. We had a ton of fun with bus ride dance parties and wearing silly tights, and at the final session last night we got our "team song," Shine On, to play on the loud speaker and we danced and sang for the entire thing (a full 8 minutes).

We ended up finishing 3rd at the meet, which is HUGE for us! Honestly there's no words to describe how amazing it felt or how excited we were. We topped the 4th place team by only 2 points, so every race mattered and we are so proud of everyone. In addition, we won the meet award for team sportsmanship, which is reallya great thing for us, coach, and the program.

We spent the entire weekend swimming fast, dancing crazy, and cheering hard, and it definitely paid off. The season's over now and it's very bittersweet. I love swimming, even when it gets crazy and hard, so I always miss it in the off season. I'm especially sad since I won't be around for the first half next year when I go abroad, but I already can't wait to be back to having fun with the team, my mini family. However, it is really nice to have a break now. We got in at 2:30 this morning from the meet, so I took a huge nap after classes, and it's nice to have the time to do that and still be able to get my work done. We're very thankful for the break.

Men's Champs is this weekend coming up, so that's where I'll be, cheering them on. We'll see if they can do as well as the women did, and I hope they do. I'll try to get you some pictures from our meet when my friends get them out online, so check back for those.

In other news, today was an Accepted Student Day, and I helped out with that. This afternoon I picked up one of the accepted students visiting and he, his mom, and I ate lunch with a few of my friends while talking about how great SMC is and answering any questions they had. I also took them around campus to buildings they didn't get to see much of on their tour. I had a good time (and I hope they did too). I think it's great that students are able to meet with accepted students and connect with them the way we can, so that we're not just statistics on paper or impressive credentials. The blogs and virtual open houses help with that tremendously and it's awesome, but of course nothing beats a visit to campus and a meeting with an actual student. I DEFINITELY suggest coming to campus whether it's for a recruiting trip with a team or a day visit with admissions. To arrange it, go to http://www.smcvt.edu/admission/. You can get put with a random student or if you know someone you can request to spend the day with them if they're available (I'd LOVE to meet with anyone that comes and wants to know more about SMC from my perspective)

Anyway I think that's all for now. I'm definitely on a high from the energy of this weekend, so I've got to go make use of it by cleaning my room or something else constructive. Keep checking back and, as always, emails and comments are welcome and appreciated.

Shine On,
Christine

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