Final Day

The last day of the trip is always bittersweet. It’s been such a nice time away, but it’s always nice to be back home as well. The most memorable competition took place between practices, as I mentioned yesterday, the team skits.

It’s impossible for me to reenact them in words, but they were all hysterical and really well done by all the teams. They were, as they are every year, targeted to poke fun at people on the team and most importantly the coaches. Sean, especially, took a lot of heat in the skits this year and he definitely didn’t seem to mind due to the fact that they were so entertaining. Team X-blade member, freshman Matt Meserole did a great Sean impression while freshman Jake Stephens rivaled that with an impressive impression of Coach John Ponce. Their efforts were rewarded and team X-blade won the skit competition boosting them up in the ranks.

Our last practice of the trip was from 8-10 pm. The training groups all split up again and did different sets. Distance group had the pleasant surprise of seniors Myles Poster and Stephanie Parker writing their workout for the night. Sprint group did a kick set of 15 x 100s, and mid-distance did a set of 150s to finish up the night.

Overall everyone seemed to have a great time away and we got everything accomplished that we hoped to as we approach our championship season.

Thanks for staying updated on our trip. I hope it gave you some insight into the daily activities of our team and what we are all about here at Maryland!

Below I’ve included a clip of our head coach Sean Schimmel discussing the training and trip as a whole as it came to a close.

Get to know our captains: Annie Fittin

Senior, captain Annie Fittin gave me her impressions of the trip as we finished up our last day of training.

Get to know our captains: Jessalyn Crawford

Senior, captain Jessalyn Crawford talked to me about the highlights of the trip and the training we've done so far this week.

Get to know our captains: Mitch Challacombe

Senior, captain Mitch Challacombe talked to me the second day of the trip about training and what the team is looking forward to in the days to come.

Day 4

Today was probably the best day we’ve had so far. Although some were a bit apprehensive about the ocean swim it went off without a hitch (minus a couple of jelly stings.) The Terps dominated the ocean and the other swimmers taking the majority of the top finishes. The weather couldn’t have been better and more than one came out of the day with a pretty painful looking sunburn (if Holly’s parents are reading this your daughter will most definitely need some aloe.)

The ocean mile was over by 10:30 and we proceeded to get into teams and prepare for the sand castle building contest to be judged by the coaches later that afternoon.

Victorious Secret came out on top as they recreated a portion of Michel Angelo’s Sistine Chapel (very ambitious.) Other creations included a shark and two castles. Others on the beach were all crowding around to see our masterpieces and we definitely made an impression in Delray, although it may not be very long lasting, as our castles will be washed away by morning.

We were thankful to have the perfect weather on a day where we could be out on the beach all afternoon and that is exactly what everyone did until we left for night practice.

I can’t say they took it easy on us tonight. Each group did their own version of a high lactate set, aka high effort, fast swimming. Distance and sprint groups went off the blocks again while mid-distance pushed through a set of 200’s. It was good to see everyone pushing each other and “inspiring each other” as Sean likes to say. Before sprint group started its main set Sean talked to us about the importance of inspiring one another. He stressed that to get to that next level and to be the best athletes we can be starts with having passion. Having this passion and intensity is what we can use to make each other better and something we can all thrive on. He also used an analogy he uses often about water hitting its boiling point at 212 degrees. That one extra degree can make all the difference, just like pushing each other and inspiring each other to get to a higher level every day in practice can make all the difference. (I’ve attached the 212 degrees video we have watched as a team numerous times, and it has become one of our team mottos.)

After practice we were on our own until curfew. Many took this time to meet with their teams to discuss the skit competition to take place tomorrow. This is a tradition that is most looked forward to on training trip year after year.

The trip is flying by. It’s amazing we only have 2 practices left here, but it’s obvious, after hearing about everyone’s sore muscles, that we have made the most out of our trip as far as training while still managing to have a lot of fun.

Ocean Swim

The ocean swim was a success! I won't write too much about it here, but here are some pictures from the day.

The top Terp finishes were as follows:

Sophomore Alex Spina placed first overall (20 minutes 29 seconds)

Freshman Brooks Gabel placed second

Freshman Victoria Cassidy was the first of the girl's team in at 5th place

Sophomore Katie Hughes in 11th place

Everyone did great! Go Terps!

(Girls before the race)

(Senior, captain Annie Fittin)

(Boy's team before the race)
(First place finisher Alex Spina)

Day 3

This morning we really got the competitive juices flowing as we continued our team competition with our annual trivia challenge.

Before we left for Florida we were split up into 4 teams to go up against each other in numerous competitions to take place during our trip. The first challenge was to create a team name and cheer. The 4 teams (as I will refer to them throughout this blog) are as follows: “Splash Mob” (senior captains: Myles Poster and Blair Cross,) “Victorious Secret” (Mitchell Challacombe & Stephanie Parker,) “Shark Bate” (Annie Fittin and Matt Gruszecki) and “X-blade” (Rodger Dent and Jessalyn Crawford.)

So, the trivia challenge gave us all an extra boost of energy as we tried to get the most points for our respective teams while swimming in between. Here is an example question just so you can get a feel of the game: “What do these three things have in common… A handsome man, a beautiful woman and a banana?” The answer- They all have A-PEEL (aka- appeal.) Coach John Ponce did a great job of finding these questions and really making us rack our brains for the answers.

Unfortunately after practice the skies were a combination of sunny and cloudy all afternoon so not many made it out to the beach; however, I think it was a good excuse for people to stay in a take a nap or watch some bowl games, which may not have been the most exciting afternoon activity for any Michigan State fans on the team. The hotel we’re staying in also has a nice pool where I saw a lot of the team lounging in the hot tub.

Night practice was different for each training group, sprint group got to swim out a little and do some recovery work, while mid-distance worked on pace, and distance did an intense kick set, but the training in the pool may not prepare everyone for tomorrow morning….

Everyone has been talking about the mile long, ocean swim we are competing in tomorrow. The swim takes place at Delray Beach and there will be a fair amount of people entered in it besides our team. It will be a unique experience because we have a wide range of ocean swimming expertise from Annie and Pete Fittin who are beach life guards in the summer to one of our typical sprinters like Blair Cross who isn’t too keen on the long distance racing. Regardless it will be an experience for us all, and I doubt anyone will be holding back due to the points earned for your personal team with a high placing finish.

The night came to a close pretty early for everyone after grabbing dinner, many settling in to watch the Capital’s great performance against the Penguins in the Winter Classic. It’s obvious everyone is a little tired, but the morning off from practice tomorrow will be a good change for the team.

On that note, stay tuned for the results of Terps vs. ocean tomorrow. :)