Swimmers excited following tough break

Winter break is a sort of tunnel for competitive swimmers. Whether the swimmers are age group athletes, club swimmers, high school swimmers, or collegiate competitors, winter break is always a rough stretch. School work gets put aside, but an athlete's overall workload seems to stay the same. For swimmers, winter break is dominated by their sport; controlled by their commitment. While most students might enjoy sleeping in and spending entire days in pajamas, for swimmers, the "break" is hardly such. Ripon College's swim teams are no exception.

"I think that the past two weeks have been very productive. Coach Davis has challenged each and every one of us with the sets she gave us," said junior Megan Rice.

A month without classes might seem heavenly to most students, but for members of Head Coach Jennifer Davis' squads, it also means a month of extra difficult workouts. The Ripon swimmers were asked to return to school early for training after New Years.

A couple of weeks on campus without classes could be a lot of fun, but when you're a Red Hawk swimmer, that also means a couple of weeks of trekking to the pool in the harsh winter weather of central Wisconsin twice a day. Things could have only gotten tougher if a freak accident were to occur, forcing the swim teams away from their home pool and relegating them to the confines of the Ripon High School facility. That happened too.

"With any athlete, having to relocate and use someone else's facility is very frustrating," said Davis. "It was not fun, but those are the sacrifices you may have to go through."

The lone senior on the men's team, Muskego, Wis. native Bruce Kukowski, agreed with his coach's assessment of the unfortunate situation. "Swimming at the high school pool for the last three weeks has been quite an obstacle. However, a pool is a pool, and we worked with what we had."

Still, Davis' squad has emerged from the cavernous tunnel that is winter break with high hopes of a successful conclusion to the 2009-10 season. Having now established a solid training base, the Red Hawks will soon begin to taper, a process designed to reduce workout sessions and training intensity in the days or weeks leading up to a specific competition in order to produce optimal results.

"Now that the base is taken care of, there is only one thing to trust: the taper and the coach," said Kukowski.

The Red Hawks' broken down bodies seemed to contribute to a relatively lackluster performance Jan. 23 at the Lawrence Quadrangular. For Ripon, the meet was highlighted by a few quality races.

Sophomore Brandon Taylor recorded the only finish in the top three for the Red Hawk men. Taylor swam the 100 yard butterfly in 58.51, earning second place. Unfortunately for Ripon, Taylor's success was far from enough, as they fell to Carroll 136-67, Lake Forest 157-47, and Lawrence 129-65.

The Ripon women managed to have more individual success; however, higher finishes failed to translate into noticeably better team scores. The Lady Hawks were also defeated by the three schools by large margins. Still, Rice and senior Jenni Schalla provided quality finishes and healthy amounts of points for their team. Rice continued to excel in the sprints, finishing second in the 50 yard freestyle and third in the 100 with times of 26.36 and 57.97 seconds respectively. Schalla finished third in the 100 yard breaststroke and fourth in the 200 yard IM.

Despite results that may appear disappointing on paper, Coach Davis has every reason to be optimistic regarding her team's chances as the end of her maiden campaign approaches.

"I am definitely excited to see what they can accomplish in the next couple of weeks from all they have learned," remarked Davis.

Davis' positive attitude has rubbed off on her athletes.

"I am very excited to see how all my hard work this year will pay off at Conference," said Rice. "This year has been a very fun, yet productive year, and I can't wait to see how everyone does at Conference."

The teams have done the work, now it's time to reap the benefits.