FOLLOW THE BRYANT MEN'S AND WOMEN'S SWIM TEAMS AS THEY TRAVEL TO ST. THOMAS FOR WINTER TRAINING
Sophomore Steve Nguyen chronicles the Bryant University men's and women's swim teams winter training trip to the Sapphire Beach Resort on the island of St. Thomas. Follow the teams as Nguyen blogs about each day the team spends in Caribbean over the break.
Day 1: Wednesday, January 7
This year the men's swim team went to the Caribbean over
the winter break. It is a chance to take a break from the
cold and train in the nice warm weather of St. Thomas. We
arrived at St. Thomas on Wednesday January 7th, 2009 and
will stay and train until Tuesday, January 13th.
We are staying at the Sapphire Beach Resort and our suite is
absolutely amazing. It includes a full kitchen and a balcony
that over looks the ocean. Once we settled into our room we
took off for our first practice of the trip.
Day 2: Thursday, January 8
We started having our double practices today; one in the
morning and another in the evening. Between these two
practices we spent our time lounging on the beach, snorkeling and
enjoying the sun. While enjoying ourselves in the ocean
schools of fish came up and swam around us.
We have been training hard for two full days now and most of the
team is already very sore. Although practices here have been
tough we know that it will all pay off in February when we attend
our championship meet.
Day 4: Saturday, January 10
We had a great morning practice, all three training
groups, sprinters, mid distance and sprint distance (joke that
distance groups does a lot of yardage fast) did a fantastic
job. Because of this Coach Cameron gave us the afternoon
practice off so we could do a team activity. Out team
activity was to take a snorkeling trip followed by a team
dinner.
For our snorkeling trip we took a boat out with a crew that showed us great locations to see sea-life and coral fish. We saw so many different size, color and types of fish. We saw a few stingrays, many small fish, a large barracuda and even a sea turtle. Providence College also came down to St. Thomas with us and joined us on the snorkeling expedition. After the trip both the men and women's team went to dinner at Fungi Restaurant which was located at a neighboring resort. Here most of the team ordered cheeseburgers. Today has been a long and exciting day. A night of rest is needed as we will continue to do double practices for the next two days before we head home.
Day 5: Sunday, January 11
After our having Saturday afternoon off, we are back to doubles
practices again on Sunday. This afternoon the coaches tried
to get us excited by putting us in racing mode. The men's
team raced four laps of each stroke to see who was the fastest for
each one. Zach Bowen was the 100 fly winner, I won the 100
back and 100 free, and Sean Martell won the 100 breaststroke.
Everyone raced well during the set, and Coach Katie awarded the
team with a get out swim opportunity. This is when the coaches pick
a swimmer and tell him or her to beat a certain time. If they do,
the whole team gets out of practice early. Coach Aimee chose
sophomore Jill Squillante to do a 100 meters backstroke in under
1:18. She blew the time away, and we got out of practice 30
minutes early.
Day 6: Monday, January, 12
This morning we got the chance to swim with the Providence
College men's team. This gave us time to interact with
another group of men's swimmers. We had a great time working
hard with them. Not only was it refreshing to work out with
some new people but it was a different setting as well. Many
of us met up with swimming rivals and made new swimming friends.
Day 7: Tuesday, January 13
Our last practice was this morning. Coach Cameron
delivered one last hard set before we start travelling home.
Although everyone was extremely sore and tired; every Bulldog did a
fantastic job. It was the perfect way to end our training
trip. Now we have a few more hours on the beach to catch some
last minute rays and we are on our way back to Rhode Island.
After a long and exhausting week here in St. Thomas, we head home
for our home meet Saturday January 17th against Adelphi.
