Swim teams keep working over long break

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Sean Hastings, Staff Reporter

The men and women’s swim teams have not competed in an event since the House of Champions meet back on November 21st through the 23rd.

With having so many days in between meets, the teams were given two weeks off by first-year coach Jacqueline Michalski.

Even with the time off, most of the swimmers continued to work on their own during winter break.

While the swimmers were at home a lot of them went back to swim with their club teams, their high school teams or did training on their own.

“Going back home to your club coach usually has different practices so it helps to keep things fresh,” Michalski said.

Sophomore Austin Parrish is one of the swimmers that did swimming on his own.

“Austin had an insanely large I.M. set, he was in the pool for three hours,” Michalski said.

Another swimmer who trained on her own was senior captain Katie Vanhootegem.

While she was home she trained with her father, who was her coach when she was younger.

Michalski added that some of the swimmers did things other than being in the pool.

A lot of the swimmers took some classes that were cardio based. A lot spent time running or weightlifting to make sure they stay in shape.

Michalski said being off for some time could have both a positive and negative effect on the team.

“By the end of the semester everyone is at each other’s throats, just like you are when you have brothers and sisters, they push your buttons, and you’re like ‘I need some time away’.” Michalski said.

She added the two weeks off is really good for everyone to re-center and come back with a fresh look.

It also allows their body to get a little more life in them because they are not so broken down all the time.

A negative effect, Michalski said, would be getting back into the swing of swimming because even though most of the swimmers swam on break, they didn’t swim as much as they would have here at Eastern.

“Overall the break was needed mentally and physically,” Michalski said.

Once the team came back to school, Michalski told them it was a new year and a chance for a new and fresh start.

While most students were still enjoying that final week off, the teams were back here practicing again.

When they got back, they swam in an intersquad mock meet to get back into the race mentality.

The Panthers’ long break is over and they are ready for the rest of their season.

Eastern’s next meet will be on Friday Jan. 16 and Saturday Jan. 17 at Western Illinois University.

Sean Hastings can be reached at [email protected] or 581-2812.