Day one is some great fun and fast swimming for WSY

Day 1 (Tuesday) was the first day of the competition for the 2008 YMCA Nationals. It started early. Remember there is only one pool here, so every swimmer (1,300 strong) wants to get "prime bleacher location" for their team. So, I get up at 4am each day, and am at the pool by 4:20am to stand at the Door, so WSY is the first team to get in the natatorium....problem today was there were 4 teams in front of me. Yes, several teams arrive at 4am, even though the doors do not open until 5:45am. Well....this was reason enough for me to have a few extra cups of Starbucks (remember at Trials hen Coach Verge from Shippensburg University got my coffee for me every day), well Coach Scott says no way......so I brew my own in the room. Today, I ran into a small problem with the hotel coffee machine....I filled it with too much coffee grounds, so I had coffee all over the floor. I had to get to the pool, SO Coach Scott to the rescue, he cleaned everything up, and I did not even hear him snore last night. On that note......our room is still not very cold, however I am dealing with it, but I do appreciate the emails sending me pictures of snowmen.

On to the meet: We had a great time today with 3 girls (Carly, Adri, and Claire) making an evening swim in the 400 free, with some very hot times (results). Kevin was Top 8 in the 100 back (results). Leah (broke the Y National Record by 2 seconds), and Steph had great 200 Im's (results). Ali and Justin got up and raced some nice 50 breastrokes in the evening. Steph swam a very nice 100 back (results), and Leah attempted (and yes I admit swam very well....even though she says otherwise in this interview) her 50 free tonight, where she and Emily (from SPY swimming) both went under the existing National Record in the 50 free (Leah's time was 26.36). Both the guy's (results) and girls (results) 200 medley's mad the Top 8 at finals tonight. At the end of the day the girls were in 2nd place, the guys in 10th place, and we are 3rd as a team. (scores).

At our team meeting today, Alie, Kevin, Enya and Jess Trgovic handed out pieces of paper with each team members name. The assignment was to take the name of the person you got and write something positive to tell that person. It was a great team building activity, and again it was something that brought this group together as a team.

The meet ended this evening about 8:45pm, and then it was 9:30pm until be had dinner and back on the floor. We had a great email today from Jess Feldish who is not with us on this trip, but she reminded each of the team members about taking naps during the day, and staying hydrated. Most of the WSY team members will be up at 5am on Wednesday for Day #2 of the 2008 Long Course Nationals, so I am going to sign off for the evening until tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Mike