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!