On the circumstances of the Oberlin Swimming and Diving Team

September – December 2009: Training Trip Months -4 - -1

In the almost a full year since I wrapped up my training trip blog for last year, the Oberlin Swimming and Diving Team, like everything at a college, has changed. Seniors have graduated, freshmen have arrived, and each class in-between has continued their march towards graduation (or at least towards super-senior status). Head Mark Fino remains in charge, having grown muttonchops loosing a bet to Laura Fries when she made her B-cut, then growing longer and shaggier hair, and finally cutting it into a look that Dimitri Macris considers reminiscent of Brendan Fraiser in The Mummy but what I think invokes Bayside High’s infamous demi-god Zach Morris. The loveable Elise Knoche has left the position of Assistant Coach, with local boy (born and raised in nearby Elyria) Alex de la Peña taking the position and inheriting the titles of sprint coach and Fino’s errand boy.

Our woman’s team has had a fantastic first half the season, with multiple upset finishes and an unprecedented 4th-place finish at the Wooster Invitational, our traditional “half-way” point. Multiple records have been broken as the woman’s team looks to continue their fantastic performance throughout the new year.

And the men’s team?

Well, that’s kind of a different story.

We’re far from being weak. We have plenty of strong swimmers that consistently perform in and around the top levels of each competition we enter. At Wooster, we placed 6th with only eleven swimmers.

Yeah, that’s right, eleven swimmers. Thanks to returning senior Jake Wishart, that’s up to twelve. With zero divers.

These are not good numbers. Our fellow conference team, Kenyon College, perhaps the best Division III program in the country, boasts 29 on their men's team. Perhaps it’s not fair to compare our team to the reigning national champion, but still… we could use some more guys. Our recruiting efforts have lead to five incoming freshman off of the fist early decision cycle, but as excited as I am for the team, as a graduating senior I still feel for the smaller numbers now.

But despite our small numbers, the men's team has had some impressive performances. And so, with Oberlin’s first semester finished and no pesky distractions like “classes” or “personal lives” to take time away from the most important thing in the world (swimming), we’re ready to enter January, the most swimming-intensive month of the year.

Or are we?

TO BE CONTINUED