It's been a wild ride so far...

To begin, let me give you a short summation of our travels yesterday. We boarded the plane in Milwaukee at around 5pm. And this was no ordinary plane, this was a tiny jet with two seats on either side, with hardly any leg room or shoulder room. With all this cramped space Amanda was so lucky to be squished against the window because of the obese woman sitting next to her. This woman not only took up the entire Row 7 seat C, but about a third of Amanda's row 7 seat D...thank goodness it was only a flight from Milwaukee to Chicago.

Once we switched flights in Chicago , we were headed to our destination of Knoxville. Upon landing, we went to gather our luggage. Everyone's luggage was claimed except for Ben's. Turns out it was still in Chicago and United said it would be coming on the 9pm flight and arriving around 11:30pm to our hotel, which it never did. (It was Rhode Island this morning). The coaches each have a rental car: Ben and Andrew with mini-vans/soccer mom cars/ grocery getters, while Beth was lucky to have the Kia Soul, or the hamster mobile (you know the commercial?).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-CDE_r_wg

Anyway we arrived at our hotel to check in, however things did not go accordingly. The hotel didn't have us arriving until the next day, and there was no way they could accommodate our 15 person group with only 2 open rooms. So they paid for us to stay at the Hilton for the night. Below is a little video to capture the moment. Enjoy!

Get Ready for some Tall Tales from Knoxville....

Welcome to the Lady Reds National Team's Blog for 2011. From left to right we have: Michelle Pelka, Jensena Paul, Kayla Orendorff, Amanda croix, Natalia Bialecka, Amy Mueller, and Ember McCoy.

Get ready for some fun!

Fall Swimming Lessons

There will be two sessions of swimming lessons this fall. Registration for both sessions will open at 9 am on Wednesday, September 1st. The dates for the first session are September 13th-30th, with the option of Mon/Wed or Tue/Thur lessons. All lessons are half hour sessions, running from 6-7:30 pm. The second session will run from Oct 4th-21st. If you have any questions, please email Beth at bdelarosby@carthage.edu

Master's Swimming

Master's swimming will resume at Carthage on Wednesday, September 15th. Practices will be held every Monday and Wednesday from 6:15-7:45 pm. If you are interested in joining please contact Stacey Kiefer at stacey@kiefer.com or 847-872-8866 x622

Boxing + Swimming= Boxmming....or a lot of laughs

This is not a reunion. It’s a swimming competition!

Bring on the storm....

Well it’s been a few months since the last blog, but We’ve come a long way since our fabulous trip to Fort Lauderdale. We had a great month of training in January and definitely benefited from the whole J-Term experience. With only taking one class everyday, the Lady Reds surely got their napping time in between homework and practices. But, not only did the Lady Reds enjoy the much-needed downtime during January, but they also started to really prepare and pump themselves up for the CCIW Championships.

After losing and coming in second by a small 17 points last year, the Lady Reds were determined to show how bad they wanted the title this year. The conference shirts said it all: “Bring on the storm”. Quite frankly the girls were ready to face anything! After the 3 days of prelims on finals, it was bittersweet ending. The Lady Reds came up short second place by a measly 3 points. Even though we didn’t win the Conference title, the ladies put together a bouquet of many victories and accomplishments. There were many personal bests, broken school, meet, and pool records; B cuts, A cuts, CCIW Swimmer of the Meet and Year Awards, and not to mention a Coach of the Year Award as well just to name a few.

With all these accomplishments we ended up qualifying two relays as well as two individuals for the NCCA Swimming Championships, which are in one week from today! Last year, the Lady Reds finished ninth overall in Division III! We hope to have repeated successful performances again this year. We will continue to keep you updated while in Minnesota. Look forward to the awesome blogs to come in the next week!

Fort Lauderdale!

A little something to sum up the trip.....

ENJOY!!!!

TYR 2009: Time of the Year for Ridiculous weather

The first weekend in December always brings along the usual weather for Kenosha's favorite season: snow. And lots of it. Although the first days of December graced us with sun and fall-like temperatures, bitter temperatures were creeping up on us by the fifth day of the month. Ironically enough, this first weekend is the same weekend we host our annual College Swimming / TYR Classic; inviting teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. This weekend is also reserved for the highly anticipated musical concert of the year: Christmas Festival.

This year, mother nature got a little too excited and dusted a small amount of snow before the weekend even started. Luckily, she was only teasing us, lightly coating the trees, streets and ground with a few inches that quickly melted before our coaches, swimmers and fans arrived.

Without the worry of the weather, we were able to fully concentrate on the meet. The Lady Reds picked up a handful of wins in addition to the first place finish of the four team meet. This two-day pre-lim/ final meet included Lake Forest College, St.Olaf College, and Ripon College.

Although we didn't rest very much for this meet, we did put in very impressive times for the weekend. Winning four events, Junior Amanda Croix broke pool, meet, and school records in the 50, 200 and 500 respectively. Setting a pool record in pre-lims in the 100 free, Croix also turned in fast enough times to be recognized as NCAA cuts, one of which places her at the top of DIII nationally. This native of Bradley, Illinois wasn't the only to impress the crowd. Junior Michelle Pelka also won four events: 100 and 200 butterfly and the 200 and 400 Individual Medleys. Pelka's winning time in the 400 IM (4:36.66) broke the meet record. It also gave her a NCAA cut. Junior Lisa Tiltges (St. Charles, Ill.) also performed outstandingly, turning in two first place finishes in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin awarded Michelle Pelka as Swimmer of the Week last week (Dec. 8th). Congrats!

After eleven weeks of training, this FINAL week of FINALS has everyone anxious for the end of the semester, Christmas break and a week long swim-cation in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. What more could one want than no more classes, holiday gatherings, Christmas cookies, gift-wrapping, eggnog, warm weather and swimming!?

What are Flying Dutch anyway?

Halloween was this past Saturday. While festive dressed children were out collecting candy from neighboring houses, the Lady Reds dressed up in spiffy Nike Red Polyester and hosted the Flying Dutch in the first dual meet of the season. Keeping the score neck and neck throughout the meet, the Lady Reds collectively put up a significant number of impressive times for the first meet of the season. With the amount of illness and injury we have already faced thus far as a team, we swam considerably well. Junior Lisa Tiltges finished first in the 100 breaststroke as did Michelle Pelka in both the 100 butterfly an 200 individual medley. Our 200 medley relay team of Jensena “Jippy” Paul, Lisa Tiltges, Pelka and Amanda Croix also finished first.

Keeping close to Hope College, Carthage wasnʼt able to capture as many top-finishing times as desired, but the Lady Reds did capture a few rather close second place finishes. These included Pelka in the 200 butterfly, freshman Maggie Knowles in the 200 breaststroke and Tiltges in the 500 freestyle. Our 400 free relay made of Tiltges, Sammy Jo Mahler, Lisa Rauschert and Alyssa Messina also finished second.

Earning three NCAA B cuts, Amanda Croix swept the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle events. Almost breaking her own pool record in the 50, this junior from Bradley, Illinois helped keep the score close with Hope. Croixʼs outstanding performance was recognized by www.collegeswimming.com honoring her as the NCAA Division III National Swimmer of the Week.

Although itʼs only our first meet, our confidence is strong as is our team. We look forward to building our strength throughout the season and next weekend as we face our first CCIW opponent, Illinois Wesleyan on November 14th.

Stayed tuned for more news with Lady Reds Swimming.

Indian Summer?

Indian Summer? Yes!

Here in Kenosha, WI we like to believe that there are only two seasons out of the year: warm and cold. When the weather is above 55, it's warm. Anything below that is considered to be cold. And when it snows, Kenosha turns into tundra and Carthage College becomes a snow globe rather than a campus. Before I get too caught up in the cold weather, I'm happy to report that there is no snow...yet. In fact we have abundant sunshine and warm weather right now! Tom Skilling, who is usually right about anything weather related, predicted an Indian Summer. Thank you, Tom Skilling! Because of you we are enjoying the warm weather and looking forward to playing outside. Maybe Beth will let us play speed ball for practice one day this week--since it is supposed to be around 70! :)

This past weekend we had an inter-squad/ alumni meet.

It gave us a chance to take a break from practice and get into a racing mind set before our first meet in two weeks against Hope College. Before the meet, the Lady Reds, Red Men and alumni gathered below a red curtain draped on the wall. Behind it displayed the school records and pool records of Carthage College. After a short speech and much anticipation, the curtain dropped and the applause reverberated throughout the pool. We swam a short meet which included two relays and 100 of each stroke. The alumni

got lucky and swam only 50's ... probably because they haven't been training...AS HARD AS US!! :) It was a great weekend catching up with old alum and

watching them race each other.

And so another season begins....

And so another swim season has finally taken off! The Lady Reds have been waiting for this week all summer long...cough cough. Anyway, before the official season began the Lady Reds teamed up with Red men for the annual and awful Biathlon. For all of you who don’t know what the Biathlon entails, it is an ancient torture method which dates back to the middle ages. During the Medieval time, servants would be forced by their owners to carry packages as fast as possible across town by running down long dirt roads and swimming across piranha infested trenches. “It was always sunny with an 87% chance of death.” Needless to say the Lady Reds took their chances and faced death on September 12th. It included a swim in the rather chilly Lake Michigan, then a 3+ mile run back to campus for a mile swim in the pool, before getting out and running a mile on the track. This mandatory fun is basically a test to see how out of shape we really are. Surprisingly, all the women finished without puking or passing out, only because our annual barfer (Sarah R.) graduated last year. After everything was over it was announced there would be a team BBQ

Kelsey, Hannah, and Bri had the team over to their apartment for the cookout. There was a lot of burgers, brats, and country time lemonade. We played some games and told some embarrassing stories, all in all it was great time.

Today we had our very own Sammy Jo lead us in a “kick

your butt and sweat profusely” dryland workout. It was a lot of fun, however Michelle M. thought the Carmen Electra striptease workout would have sufficed and would’ve had the same results. However, Beth didn’t fully agree with that.

Anyway that’s what the Lady Reds have been up to thus far. We will continue to keep you updated on our events, adventures, and other exciting news. Stay tuned!

Summer Update....

It’s been a little over a month since the last post, but a lot has happened with the Lady Reds since then. Below you’ll find a small summary of the of the events and what we've been up to......

On June 12th many of the Lady Reds made the trip to Racine/ Kenosha WI to see our very own Lauren Zimmerman, now Lauren Bischel, say the big “I DO”. It was a fantastic time! Her reception was held at UW Parkside in a beautifully decorated ballroom. She looked absolutely gorgeous (see pictures). Lauren tossed her bouquet to a song that is very well know by the Lady Reds…”Single Ladies” by Beyonce….ring a bell?... Coincidentally, the song was replayed later that night and there was no second guessing that Hannah “Ms. Vagine” Vatch would be performing her rendition of the dance. Many people were in awe of her talent for copying the dance. Most people on the dance floor literally stopped to watch the show. The only thing missing from this was a pair of gold spandex. It was very compelling, and I’m sure Lauren enjoyed the free entertainment.

June 14th-25th Michelle, Bri, and Amanda coached at the Total Performance Swim Camp, which was more of a 24-7 babysitting job. Anyway, one of their many duties is to make sure the kids’ lights are out at 10 o’clock. Long story short, instead of yelling lights out, the girls wrote a bedtime rap. It was pretty awesome. Picture of the coaches and campers below…

July 27th Only a slim number of our Lady Reds could make it to the Open Water Challenge. Nicole Cleveland, Lisa Raushert, and Jenny Hill all took the plunge. Nicole swam the 3 mile in 1:11:27, Lisa finished her 3 miles in 1:18, and Jenny swam the 1mile in 33.40…did I mention Jenny did the whole mile fly? I bet her arms were sore. Pictures from the evern are courtesy of Nicole..................

Many more updates to come. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation!

Something new...

Hello to all our fans,

First of all I’d like to take a brief moment to thank you for all of your support these past couple of seasons. As you know this blog was started to help keep you up to date on our voyages to NCAA Championships, but now we are changing it up a bit. Instead of being able to just creep and stalk us during the month of March, we decided it would beneficial for you to stalk us year round J haha. SO with that said we will now fill you in on the last couple weeks of school, as well as some of the events taking place over the summer. And I understand you have better things to do everyday like: swim, tan, work etc…..but on those rainy days when your stuck inside feel free to creep on the Lady Reds :)

So, the last week of school, the girls got together in the Denhart Courtyard for a little cookout. Nicole thought it would be a good idea to get all the girls together one last time before we headed home for the summer. It was a great break from all the hardcore studying we were all doing for finals :). Jenny and Nicole were cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs and we were surprised that:

a. we didn’t get sick from the meat being undercooked
b.they didn’t burn any dogs or patties
c.that they didn’t spit in anyone’s food (hahah they would never do that, but we still have our suspicions)
d.and the Fire Department didn’t have to be called

We were going to play sand volleyball after feasting, but 5 not so athletic guys were hogging the court and we didn’t see why they didn’t just give up and give us the court. Every two minutes they would either hit the ball by us or somewhere where they had to keep chasing it down. Anyway, the burgers and hot dogs were delicious, but there was one problem; we didn’t finish all the food. Now, have you ever heard of swimmers not eating a lot of food? I guess they all felt like they had to watch their weight since season was over. After everything was cleaned up, the girls went back and studied, and by study we mean probably took a nap on a full tummy.

UPCOMING EVENTS
June 12
Our very own Lauren Zimmerman will be getting married. Get excited for pictures to come.

June 14-25 TPSC
Next on the list of things for some of the girls this summer is the Total Performance Swim Camp (TPSC). Michelle (Shoe Shop), Bri (Brizzle) and Amanda ($8 holla) will all be helping out at this year’s camp held at our very own pool!. They will help instruct and be part-time babysitters for campers of ages 10-18. There will be pictures to come. And maybe some funny stories and tales from camp.

June 27th Open Water Swim
What: Kenosha Barracuda Swim Team Pleasant Springs Open Water Challenge
When: Saturday June 27th @ 8am
Where: Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin, Lake Andrea (by the outlet malls)
Who: YOU and some Lady Reds and probably some wannabe triathletes
Why: To meet some new teammates and have fun
Description: It’s an event that members of the Lady Reds Swim Team participate in if possible. Some current swimmers and soon to be freshman swim and then hang out and we’ll have a little picnic afterward. It’s a lot of fun and a great opportunity to have some bonding time with teammates. “In and out of the pool is where we’ll build friendships that last a lifetime”

Competition Day 1

video blog...enojy!!

Squirrel Sniper

Today wake up call was at 8am so we could have a fancy breakfast in room 444. Actually Sarah and Alyssa showed up at 7:54 waking up Amanda and Michelle by knocking ever so quietly with their key card. Michelle and Amanda were not pleased, so Amanda sent the girls back to their room for the next 5 minutes. Breakfast included a fine selection of plain bagels complete with cream cheese, apple juice in fancy boxes that came with straws, and to top it off a bag of Magic Stars cereal that we had to eat out of plastic hotel bathroom cups. We were definitely living the high life.

During our fancy breakfast, we received some outstanding news! Beth, now obviously in a better mood (Jake had payed her a visit), told us that we were only going to have to swim once today at precisely 11:00 am. The problem arose when we were about to leave for the pool, and Beth's twin sister informed us that the pool CLOSED at precisely 11:00 am. Beth freaked out for a few seconds. And then we sat there and tried to figure out what to do. While we were sitting there guess who we run into? Dani Korman /Dan-Dizzle of all people. Our first words to her were, "Aww Dani you are so small still!" I guess once you graduate college you don't grow much...who would have thought. Anyway after a short chat with Dani we decided to go to lunch at Noodles and Company, where Alyssa ordered, SURPRISE, plain buttered noodles. Beth continued to yell at Amanda for eating poor little Michelle's leftover food. Beth thinks Amanda is FAT and WORTHLESS. When departing Noodles, Amanda, the child that she is, tried to cross the road in front of a semi-truck. Michelle, obviously unaware of her size, tried to hold Amanda back, but instead was just dragged along. They survived. Nuff Said.

We then left for the pool at 1:00 pm. Swimming this afternoon was a lot less crowded than yesterday. Today we had our own lane! It was fantastic...but tomorrow it's going to be like 300 people trying to swim in a 2 inch puddle! So some quotable quotes were said during our swim. Alyssa says "Amanda, I feel like this is one big playground for you!" It's true Amanda was doing more underwater dives and hanging on the wall then she was swimming. Michelle joined her in looking through the underwater window, while Sarah and Alyssa watched. Michelle also came up with a list of things Amanda would get kicked out of. They are as followed:

a. A D-1 swimming program

b. Any school other than Camp Carthage

c. The ball pit in any playplace, including McDonalds

d. Anything or any place that doesn't allow goofing around

e.all of the above

We finished swimming and were somehow persuaded into taking a team picture on the podium. We were all for it, considering are team picture turned out absolutely beautiful last year. And by beautiful we mean: 3 out of 5 of us had our eyes closed, someone wasn't smiling, much less looking at the camera, and one of us had somewhat of a normal smile. We figured any picture could beat last year's by far. So with our hair wet and goggle marks still around our eyes we posed and smiled for the paparazzi. Before we climbed onto the podium the photographer asked if our coach was going to join us in the picture....the funny thing is that Beth was standing with us and she's like "I'm the coach...I know I sorta look like them." It was pretty amusing. After showing off our pearly whites we headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we hung out for awhile before getting all fancy (yes that seems to be the theme of the day, fancy breakfast, fancy us, fancy everything! haha) for our dinner with all the other teams. It was buffet style, just the way we like it. This way we can get all the food we want and Amanda should have no reason for eating any one's leftovers. Still, however, Alyssa did not take enough food to even feed a toddler. Anyway, we had some of Beth's ex-swimmers from Springfield, MA sitting at our table. This guy named Greg told us about how he got suspended from school for 2 months for killing squirrels with a gun from his window. So the squirrel sniper apparently had killed quite a few...we didn't catch the number, we assume somewhere close to 100 to get him 2 months suspension. Also, another member of the Springfield team is apparently in the Circus and can make any balloon animal and can juggle. No wonder Beth is so cultured (its part of her upbringing). Anyway they put cookies on the table for us to eat. There was a large variety including M&M, chocolate chip, as well as snikerdoodle (according to Steven). Beth, however, could not find the type of cookie she desired on our huge plate so she had squirrel killer steal the plate off the table next to us. Thinking she was in the clear, Beth enjoyed the cookie she wanted with a big smile on her face. That is until the less than fluent english speaking Asian waiter came over and scolded her, confiscating the cookie plate, and leaving Beth embarassed and flushed.

Right before we were ready to leave, Michelle felt a light grazing on her head. Confused, she turned around to find a completly random middle aged woman with salt and pepper hair, stroking/ petting her locks. This woman was flabergasted at how soft and silky Michelle's hair was, being a swimmer and all. We forgot to mention that Sarah and Alyssa, being the twins they are, ate a very small portion of food but yet devoured they're snickerdoodle cookie in sync with each other. It took us a good twenty minutes to walk out of the dining room, having to take pictures with small and stelth Dan-Dizzle as well as stopping frequently to talk to random coaches. Beth supposidly is best friends with all of them.

After diner, Amanda and Michelle utalized the long walk from the elevator to their rooms as their own peronal runway. Being the sexy beasts that they are, they tore it up. This is proven below in the low budget film we made, produced by Alyssa.

Ps. We forgot to mention we have sleep number beds!! Fancy eh?! Whats your number? our is 35!

Pss. Actually ours varies from 35-100...Amanda, in her devilsh/childish ways, has developed a new prank. This afternoon she Sleep Numbered Michelle. This new prank involves increasing rapidly someone's sleep number on their sleep number bed until it feels like they are laying on the Grand Canyon (which is now located acorss from the Quiznos in the Wisconsin Dells...ask about later).

Psss. Thanks to all of our fans so far. We will be here all week!

PSSSS Happy Birthday to Mama Croix and Happy St. Patty's day...no green beer or intoxicated students this time. (if confused see posts from last year)

Signing off your favorite fancy people:

Spaz, Awkward, Shoe Shop, and eighdolla holla

"Chocolate People Are Happy People"

And we're back! We know you all missed our enlightening and entertaining tales of the NCAA voyage from last year, so we decided to keep up with the blogging tradition again for this year.

So unlike last year, today we actually left on time at 9am. Before we got into our 11 passenger van we had a slight dilemma...Our van was already stuffed full and we still had to pick up Ripley on the way. With 3 boys in the van and 4 girls, intimidating 90 pound Michelle decided to take charge and tell the boys where to sit.....in the back! Stephen falls asleep for a good 20 minutes and all of a sudden something retched began to fill the air. Stephen unconsciously passed, no, exploded, some gas. It was so awful that we immediately opened all the windows before we choked on the toxic fumes.

After we picked Ripley up at some random gas station, we would soon be on our long awaited journey to Minneapolis, but we had to wait for the Schranck brothers to get out the bathroom (this would not be the last time). So on the road we head..again.

Stephen told us about the time he killed his hamster Jasmo by spinning its hamster-wheel way too fast. The hamster had a heart attack and died. It's still a touchy subject for him. He also decided to tell us about how he doesn't wear deodorant, because apparently he never smells...Too bad it didn't hold true for when he farted. ha

Beth was pretty grumpy; We were ordered that we weren't allowed to criticize her driving or make any noise because we are supposedly annoying. After that, we thought for sure her next order would be "no breathing". haha I mean come on, what else are we supposed to on what was supposed to be a 6 hour van ride that turned into a 7 and half hour trip. We sure couldn't sleep much because there is no room to move even an arm or leg without hitting someone or something. Michelle however, as tiny as she is, found room to comfortably curl up on the bench and catch plenty of Z's. Amanda is bitter about the whole sleeping thing because she was too big to fit comfortably anywhere. So, we thought maybe giving Beth some chocolate would make her a little less tense, but that is the last time we decide to give her free chocolate. As Sue would say "Chocolate people are happy people." I guess Beth needed to be hooked up to chocolate intravenously in order for her to enjoy what seemed to be the never ending van ride.

We stopped at the Dells for some lunch. Quiznos was our eating grounds. And of course Alyssa got just turkey and bread while Sarah got a bread bowl because she hates sandwiches. We hopped back into the van and had to wait for Doug...again! The Schrancks may be fast in water, but holy cow are they like sloths on land.

Back on the road with our stomachs full we continued to head Northwest to the big MN. It wasn't long until Amanda and Sarah noticed that we were almost out of gas. Greg was driving this time. He ignored the gas levels for awhile, but couldn't for much longer because the "low fuel" light came on. It was on for a good 12 minutes before we even started to consider looking for gas station. We got off somewhere in Eau Claire and Greg spotted a Sonic. (for all of you that don't know Greg loves Sonic, so we had to stop.) No wonder our trip ended up being so long, we stopped a lot and Greg drove a little on the not so fast side. And Greg "Driving slow doesn't necessarily mean it's safe."

So after that most of us fell asleep. We made it to our hotel at about 4:30pm....keep in mind we left Kenosha at 9:00am...what a long trip, but we finally made it! Before we could settle into our rooms we had to unload our over packed van. Beth told us she would get us a cart to put all our luggage on, but big surprise she lied to us again. Michelle and Amanda had to go find a cart, figure out how to steer it (they got some help from the bellhop boys...thank goodness), and then we were ordered to put Greg and Beth's luggage on there and bring it up to their rooms. (and we thought slavery had been abolished.) Michelle and Amanda are still a little bitter about it. haha

We got some free stuff: A blanket, pillow, water bottle, and a reversible winter cap. Which are all shown below and modeled by Michelle herself.

We went to the pool and got some laps in, then we had dinner at Applebees. Now we are all tired and ready to hit up the pool again tomorrow one last time before the big meet starts on Wednesday! We have our dinner tomorrow night. This time we'll make sure that Dani, being so small and stealth, doesn't cut in the food line!

Signing off,

National team 2009

Spaz, Awkward, Shoe Shop, and eighdolla holla

PS C-Rizz we miss you!

PSS More pictures to come!

PSSS Bax here's one shout out!

Want Me to Nancy Kerrigan Her For You?!

Today was our last day of Nationals!!!

We started prelims off with Amanda swimming the 100 freestyle in 52.08 seeding her at 9th for the night, just barely missing finals. Michelle swam the 200 fly in 2:09.63 leaving her in 17th place. She missed the consolation heat by 2 tenths of a second. Michelle was bummed about her race and Carolyn came over to comfort her. She asked Michelle, "would you like me to Nancy Kerrigan a girl for you?" Michelle thought this was the best idea ever, so they looked through the heat sheet for Carolyn's victim. (Sadly, Sue convinced them to keep their hands to themselves)Our 400 free relay of Sarah, Michelle, Carolyn, and Amanda made it back to the consols heat even after adding 3.5 seconds to their seeded time. Michelle was so excited to stand on the podium tonight that she pulled a Carolyn and cried about it. Something really funny happened this morning, we promise, we just can't think of it. So if you think if something, go with that...it probably happened.

We went to a bagel deli for lunch that had millions, and I mean millions of different kinds of sandwiches to order. Ironically, one of them was the Tonya Harding. We considered ordering it, but then it sounded gross, so we didn't. Dani, once again, saw someone that she knew and went running out of the deli to say hi. As she ran out into the street at full speed, we all pictured the scene at the end of the movie "Mean Girls" where the girls humorously get hit by a school bus. We thought that she was going to get hit by something because she didn't look both ways before she crossed.....and we were right! She didn't get hit by a car or a bus, or a pedestrian on a bike, but get this....A parade of wild African elephants came stampeding down the street the moment she stepped foot on it. Okay, so we lied again, Dani made it across the street safely. After we were done getting our food, Dani and Sue went to talk to these people that Dani had just said hi to, and the 5 of us just stood outside in the rain very awkwardly and watched a squirrel play with a beer bottle in a hole of a tree, while we ate our warm bagel sandwiches. Then we headed back to Camp Sycamore for some naps.

And finally, the LAST session of NCAA's. The night started off with the senior recognition ceremony. Carolyn cried, of course, because she is now officially a swammer and all the Carthage parents joined in on her crying. Amanda swam her last individual race of the weekend, the 100 free breaking the 52 second mark with a 51.63 finishing her in 9th and putting her at the top of the podium! The 400 free relay held in there till the end, placing them in 16th. For the 3 minutes we spent standing on the podium, 2 of those 3 minutes were spent waving at Carlos, trying to get his attention, in hopes he would wave back. It wasn't until 30 seconds before we were getting ready to walk off the podium, that he finally noticed a blob of red waving at him....he did eventually wave back! At the same time this is all happening, our parents were throwing their coats on and grabbing all their bags to run out of the meet to get dinner. We think they were getting sick of sitting in the stands, that or they were just REALLY hungry! So hungry that they could have been like Sarah, and be a depressed obese women who likes to eat her feelings.

After we stood on the podium, we were on our way back to our team area, when suddenly we smelled alcohol on the pool deck. We're wondering if some of the girls started to party a little too early. Then we went to the locker room to change and Michelle ran into a girl that was covering her mouth, as she sprinted for the john. She thinks vomit face may have been throwing up in the bathroom stall. Her reinactment of the 'pukey girl's' facial expressions were priceless. But, if you ever want to see this great impression, just ask her to see it, and I'm sure she would be thrilled to show you!!

So after the meet was over, we headed to this Mexican restaurant called El Burrito Loco. Amanda, once again, had an eating contest but this time it was with Carlos. When she didn't win, she tried to call it a tie. Carolyn replied, "you can't call things a tie every time you lose!" After a few minutes, Amanda decided to shove the rest of the refried beans into her mouth even though they had a gross texture, just to clear her plate before Carlos did. So now we are back at the hotel reminiscing on this past weekend, enjoying being done, and just relaxing. Unfortunately, there are now 3 500-lb people running around upstairs causing the walls in our room to shake. We are about to take a field trip to see what they are doing upstairs.

Well, hopefully you enjoyed our stories.

Signing off,
Team SMAAC

P.S. Thank you to our fans, Stephen, Lauren, Heather, Tito, and Greg

P.S.S. Thank you to our real #1 fan, Bryan Pelka, for coming to the meet

P.S.S.S. Greg, they hung our banner up behind the announcer's stand so you couldn't even see the whole thing, we were really bummed.

P.S.S.S.S. Sorry this one isn't so funny, we are disappointed in ourselves

P.S.S.S.S.S. The Luther Team likes to roll around on the pool deck

P.S.S.S.S.S.S. Tito, this one's for you :)

P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. Is that enough P.S.'s for you Tito?!

P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. The stampede of elephants that were chasing after Dani seemed to followed her to our hotel because there seems to be some rumbling in the hallways.

P.S. x 15. Our field trip resulted in, us coming to the conclusion that there are swimmers that live above us. However, we did not notice an 500-lb girls at the meet they must just stay in their rooms all day and pound on the floor.

When the moon hits your eye....more like your face, that's not amore!!!

Day Two of Nationals...

On the way to the pool, this morning Dani was a little concerned about Sue's driving as she screamed in horror for fear that she was going to lose her life, "Red light, Sue!" Sue, cool as a cucumber responds, "Dani, it's okay. I have a whole block to stop. I was just accelerating to get over the small hill made by the railroad tracks." After that, Sue no longer allows us to watch her park the van.

Then the laughs just continued in the locker room when we were all changing into our suits. Sarah, Carolyn, and Amanda were just chatting away when this old lady walks into our aisle dripping wet from the shower she had just taken, with a towel barely covering anything at all. She just so happened to have the locker directly in front of where Amanda was changing. At this point, Amanda was bending down to pull up the legs on her fastskin, meanwhile the elderly woman shimmied her way to her locker. Amanda still bent over at this time, the old lady finally reaches her locker. She removed the towel that was not covering much of anything, if you catch my drift, and bends over herself. It was not until Amanda, went to look up to talk to Carolyn when she saw a wrinkled version of the full moon. So basically, if you haven't followed along at all, an old lady put her naked, old, wrinkly butt in Amanda's face. Amanda turned to look at Carolyn and mouthed Oh jeez! and Carolyn started laughing right away causing the old lady to turn and look, so Carolyn had to just turn away and act like nothing had happened.

On to more serious business...
The Lady Reds started the meet off with the 200 Medley Relay of Sarah, Michelle, Carolyn, and Amanda. The officials were using the new touch pad system for deciding false starts for each relay, which if your reaction time off the block was faster that .09, you were automatically disqualified. This meant eight teams were disqualified including the top seeds. Our relay was one of the very few that did not get DQ'd and we were very excited to swim the race again at night. However, after much deliberation, the officials decided to call all the relays back and not DQ anyone because of touch pad malfunction, which put us in second to last place. Sadly, we did not get to swim that event again. Michelle swam her second fastest time in the 400 IM and gave it her all. The previous meet record for this event was broken four times today. Amanda swam the 200 free in a 1:54.35 which tied her for 14th, however, Dani thought she tied for 16th and was freaking out thinking Amanda was going to have to do a swim off for the consolation heat. But Amanda proved her wrong and was at a safe 14th.

Four of us got Quizno's for lunch and Sarah decided to be gross and get KFC instead and eat like a depressed, obese woman who eats her feelings away. She also called us ALL from the van to tell us Big Bertha had moved. And Alyssa expanded her horizons and ate a sandwich that had more than just bread and turkey on it and ate the whole thing.

We came back to the hotel and rested and hung out before heading back to finals.

On to finals. Amanda swam her 200 freestyle in her fastest time ever with a 1:54.10. Dani was freaking out the entire race because she took out the first 100 two seconds slower than this morning but managed to go an even faster time. She moved up two spots to 12th place!!! This meet is so fast that every record, except for the 100 breaststroke, has been broken so far not including relays.

So after the meet we hung out in the parking garage while we waited for Sue to FIND the van. Alyssa had the giggles and was laughing at absolutely everything and had to pee really bad. So Carolyn tried to make her laugh even harder while Amanda jabbed her in the bladder with her fist hoping she would leak a little......... Mission Accomplished! (*)

We got back to the hotel and ate dinner from the same place as the night before only this time, they were slightly faster. Then, Carolyn and Amanda had this great idea! We asked the front desk for the key to Fort Lagoon, which was the exercise room on a balcony overlooking the pool. We hid up there until Dani and Carlos finally came looking for us. Amanda thought it would be a good idea to go diving from the balcony into the pool, but right after she thought of doing this, she saw that there was a no diving sign attached to the balcony. Carlos told us we should do a cannonball instead giving us some good ideas for tomorrow night ;)

Signing off,
The National Team

P.S. Thank you Stephen for being our #1 fan

P.S.S. Thank you Stephen for being our ONLY fan

P.S.S.S. We hope this one is a little bit funnier

P.S.S.S.S. There is a 500-lb man that lives in the room above us and runs around at all hours of the day and night, we think it's so he can lose some of his extra baggage

P.S.S.S.S.S. Michelle has a handicapped room with get this.... two peepholes, one for when you are standing and one for when you are in the wheelchair

P.S.S.S.S.S.S. (*)Alyssa is begging me to tell you that she made it to the bathroom... we'll leave it up to you whether you believe it or not.

"But I haven't hit anything yet"

Today was our first day of Nationals!

We arrived at the pool where we claimed our seating in the corner by ourselves. All the swimmers stretched and then headed to the bathroom to spend 3 hours putting our fastskins on. Here is the conversation that occurred while we struggled to pull our suits on over our curvy figures:
Carolyn: Alyssa, how did you get your suit up your legs so fast?
Alyssa: Well, I just pull my suit up really fast over my legs and now I have to stand here for a minute because my legs hurt really bad.
Carolyn: See for me, it's getting it over my butt that's the struggle.
Alyssa: Look at Amanda's pointy hips, they just stick out.
Amanda: I can't help it I have good child-bearing hips!
(At this point Sarah hasn't said anything because she was too busy sucking the snot back up her nose and coughing up parts of her lungs!)

So Prelims-
The girls got in and splashed around for a bit for warm-ups. During warm-ups, a small brawl broke out. Scary, intimidating, 90-lb Michelle punched a girl as she was pushing off the wall for trying to pass her at the flags. Then it was time to start the meet. The 200 Free Relay of Sarah, Alyssa, Carolyn, and Amanda managed to swim a time fast enough to get them seeded at 14th for finals with a time of 1:38.08. This time was about 1.5 seconds slower than our seed time but we were excited to make it back at night. Michelle swam the 200 IM and added a few seconds to her time but we know that she will come back tomorrow and kick butt in the 400 IM. Next up, Amanda swam the 50 free in the fastest 8th place finish in NCAA history and made it as the only freshman in the finals heat. Amanda's time was a 23.98, getting her into finals by one-hundredth of a second. Lastly, our 400 Medley Relay of Sarah, Michelle (yes, she swam breaststroke), Carolyn, and Alyssa managed to finish the race. Alyssa got to experience "all eyes on her" as the anchor of this awesome relay (meaning we were the last one's to finish and she had a whole 25 to swim alone).

Funny story of the morning, a girl from California asked Dani where we were from. Dani replied, Wisconsin and the girl said, where's that in relation to Ohio? Dani explained that Indiana is next to Ohio and Illinois is next to Indiana and we are right above Illinois. The girl responds, that's in the midwest right? So apparently, people from California don't know their geography.

After some Jimmy Johns, napping, and a little bit of homework, it was back to the pool to swim finals. We got to the parking garage of the pool and Sue attempted to back Big Bertha into ONE spot. Not only did she manage to take up TWO spaces, but she almost plowed through the back wall of the garage. After Michelle told her she should probably stop backing up, Sue replied, "but I haven't hit anything yet."

We started the meet off with our 200 Free Relay, pulling our team up to 13th place. Amanda dropped her time in the 50 free to a 23.79 getting her 7th place and a plaque that Dani got to hand out. Dani was a little too short and stealth to hand out the awards, but she managed to just barely reach the 1st place finishers hand to shake.

We got back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby of the Sycamore Inn for about the longest hour of our lives, waiting for our food. It took our food so long to arrive because KENYON hogged the delivery service man. Now our tummys are full and we are finally happy. And it's way past our bedtime!!!!

Signing off,
The Nationals Team

P.S. This one sucks because today was too serious... nothing funny really happend.

P.S.S. We saw a lot of drunk parties happening on campus and lots of green shirts. You got 5 points if you hit one of the drunk students with your car and -5 points if they ran into you. We somehow managed to keep a steady score of .....get this.......0!!!

P.S.S.S. "Hot blooded check-it and see, I got a fever of 103"

P.S.S.S.S Pictures soon to come!!!