Swim Meet and Pie :)

OVERVIEW:
---Swim Meet
*800 free relay
*200 free
*200 Breast
*200 IM
*Twinkie Challenge
*Coaches in Pool
*Article
---Fireside
---Danielle's Birthday
---GSA

---Swim Meet

*800 free relay
We started the meet off with the 800 freestyle relay, which means that each person (4 total) has to swim a 200 free. I've never done this relay before, and wasn't too fond today after I realized I'd be swimming 4 200's. Coach told me I had to take one for the team. :/

We won, and beat the pool record, which means I get my name up on the recordboard! WAAAHHOOOOOOOO! :D:D:D:D:D:D
we did 8:00.63

*200 free
I was exhausted after the 800 free relay, and I had no idea how I was going to survive the 3 remaining swims. So on the 200 free, after the first fifty against the two River Falls kids, I decided preserving energy was important if I was going to survive. So I just glided as fast and as technically as I could until the last 25, where I beat them both really bad. I got a 2:03.09, which isn't my best, but hey I was tired!

*200 Breast
In the breast, my goal was the same, conserving energy till the end. Coach put me in this event and told me I had to "take one for the team." I raced the last 25 against 2 more River Falls kids again, and won again. Everyone was super excited. Its interesting that, when you win, more people will cheer you on in your next race. hahaha My time was 2:32.64, which I don't think is my best, but I could be wrong

*200 IM
The 200 IM was my favorite. I was up against 3 River Falls guys, one of them super cute :). They were all super nice and would shake ur hand before and after a race. *Sigh* lol *falls into a romantic wishful heap* hahaha

Someone told me I did really well in the butterfly, but in the backstroke I began to lose, and one of the guys was a full two body lengths in front of me. I swam as fast as I could for Breast, and in freestyle I put my head down and charged for all I knew! I took a breath, and I saw coach (on the last 25 near the finish) jumping up and down with his hands raised, cheering me on. It made me laugh so much to see him get so excited, and I won that one too! I got a 2:12.43, which isn't the best but oh well. There's always MIAC!

*Twinkie Challenge
The twinkie challenge is a tradition at the end of the last home meet every year. Its the freshmen cardinals against the returning cardinals. Each person has to swim a 25, get out, open a twinkie wrapper and eat it as fast as they can, jump back into the pool and touch back so the next person can dive in.

I can tell you that I have had only one twinkie before this one, and thought it was disgusting. We were losing, and I swam across, and decided to eat it by taking small quick bites. It was an ok strategy. Near the end, with divers on our team and everything (they cant swim to save their lives!) we were winning! Paul actually swallowed his twinkie whole!

Andrew the Diver had a whole person in front to swim and eat his twinkie. By the time he finished and jumped in, Steve was just starting his Twinkie. Andrew was almost to the wall when Steve jumped in, and was swimming full force, but we were victorious! Until Eric jumped in and stopped him from reaching the wall! Some other upperclassman jumped in to help stop Andrew, and in rebellion I jumped in to stop Steve, who was now at the same distance from the wall as andrew was.

I did stop Steve, but he had goggles on and was so much stronger than I that he dunked me and I couldn't see. Steve touched the wall first, but we all know that we won instead! Coach called it a tie hahaha.

Then after that we threw the coaches in!:

*Coaches in Pool
Someone tossed Brian Joyce in, and I was at the other side of the pool. I saw Lindquist make a run for it; he ran out of the pool and down the hallway, but Steve and Andrew were close on his tail. I laughed because I thought there was no way they could drag him all the way back to the pool. JJ (the diving coach) Ran and tried to enclose himself in the pool's office, but we got in and I helped dump him into the water.

Right after that, Steve and Andrew came back, Steve holding his arms, and Andrew his feet. They dumped him in, and it was beyond awesome. My two favorite parts of this meet were coach jumping up and down over my swim, and him being dragged back to the pool by Steve and Andrew. :D

*Article
Here was the article that they put up about the meet! The link is:

http://www.saintmaryssports.com/news/2009/1/31/MSWIM_0131094208.aspx?path=mswim


WINONA, Minn. — It was the last home meet of the season — and Saint Mary’s University swimming and diving coach Eric Linquist was hoping his Cardinals had saved their best for last.

They did.

The Cardinal men, fueled by the efforts of Neil Heacox (San Diego, Calif.), closed out their regular-season schedule on a winning note, collecting a 138-122 dual-meet victory over UW-River Falls Saturday at the Jul Gernes Pool.

Despite stellar showings from several individuals, the SMU women weren’t as fortunate, as they dropped their regular-season finale, 130-111.

“This was a great finish to our regular season,” said Lindquist, whose team is now off until the MIAC Championships on Feb. 19-21. “We got so many great swims — it was exactly what I was hoping for in a season finale.”

Heacox certainly saved his best for last, as the SMU freshman picked up three individual first-place finishes, while also swimming a leg on the Cardinals’ 800 freestyle relay, which set a Jul Gernes Pool record with a winning time of 8:00.63.

Along with Heacox’s three first-place efforts — a 2:03.09 showing in the 200 freestyle, a 2:32.64 effort in the 200 breaststroke and a 2:12.43 performance in the 200 IM — SMU also got a pair of firsts from Tim Tysk (St. Paul, Minn.) in the 50 freestyle (23.48) and the 100 freestyle (51.19), while John Fox (Winona, Minn. / 100 breaststroke, 1:02.53), Matt Ramey (Centennial, Colo. / 500 freestyle, 5:18.45) and Eric Hills (Lake Elmo, Minn. / 100 butterfly, 1:00.51) all recorded first-place finishes.

Jennifer Salzman (Hilo, Hawaii), led the charge for the SMU women, winning both the 100 freestyle (58.93) and the 500 freestyle (5:54.64), with Rachel Steinkamp (Lakeville, Minn. / one-meter diving, 180.35), Linda Tierney (Cloquet, Minn. / 100 butterfly, 1:09.95) and Liz Flynn (Mahtomedi, Minn. / three-meter diving, 200.55) also chipping in first-place efforts.

“This was a great final tune-up (for the MIAC championships),” said Lindquist. “We had a lot of very good swims, but I think we have a lot of even better swims in us.”

---Fireside
Fireside was an amazing musical done by the fraternity at our school (the girls' one) Sigma Alpha Iota. They had people sing songs of their own, or famous ones. They were all creative and amazing! And a lot of my friends were in it too! It was so much fun to see this kind of talent. Since I am singing a lot now, I am more able to appreciate the music that people create. Live music is so much more beautiful that recorded music. I also discovered another part of this school that I didn't know existed! It's a whole nother theatre that sits in the third floor of St. Mary's! I love this school because of all the different types of architecture that have accumulated over the years! Its so cool to see and try and guess what ages they were created in.

We also got pie with our show! It was French Silk (chocolate) and was sooooo good. I had three pieces!

---Danielle's Birthday
It was Danielle's birthday that night too, and she loves to cook, so she made her own birthday cake, but in reality it was apple pie. It was so good. She is such a great cook, and such a cool friend. I really want to get to know her more, and spend more time with her.

---GSA
The GSA is going okay. Its difficult to contact people, since two out of the four leaders (I am one of them. Isn't it deliciously like the four creators of Hogwarts?) don't have cell phones. But we have the first meeting tomorrow at noonish. I made posters, but we are not posting them around the school yet out of safety and confidentiality reasons. Tomorrows another day!


Love,
Neil