The Thrill of Competition

As I was sitting in the packed Amon G Carter stadium last Saturday night watching the #4 TCU football team roll over #16 Utah in front of an over-capacity crowd (50,307), I realized why we do what we do. For anyone in athletics, all of your work and effort is focused on experiencing that highest level of competition and reaching your peak. It is something that you put in hours of practice for, only to experience a few times a year. When you come upon these moments you must rely on your training because once the adrenaline starts flowing all you can do is enjoy the ride.

College swimming is a little different than club swimming in that it truly becomes a team sport. In a collegiate dual meet it is all about racing the person next to you. Your time becomes a little less important and the push for victory becomes a driving force. This an event where the crowd plays a big role, performances from your teammates can inspire you, and a 1-2-3 finish in an event is enough to shift the momentum at any point of the meet. In short, every single dual meet provides you that opportunity to experience the ultimate high of competition.

The Mountain West Conference provides a unique situation in which every school must compete against one another in a dual meet each year (home one year, away the next). They crown a regular season (dual meet) champion in addition to the end-of-year conference meet champion. This places the sport in line with other sports that may have a conference tournament or championship game. However, it also provides some interesting fodder for coaches and swimmers who have always been focused on end-of-year tapered performances. I would argue "Why can't you have both?!" Place your emphasis on racing hard in your dual meets because those competitions are what makes college swimming so great. If you are following your season's training plan, your taper and end-of-year performances will still be great! Enjoy both aspects of what makes college swimming so great and unique from other levels of swimming.

We are continuing on our journey this Saturday with the first home meet against MWC foe Wyoming. The men look to improve to 2-0 and the women to 2-2 in conference. We also look forward to showing this to our newly signed 2010 freshmen next year: Michael Franz (Carmichael, CA), Ryker Saunders (Franklin, TN), Emily Rose Creighton (Newmarket, Ontario), Michelle Fleming (Whitby, Ontario), Taylor Bentley (Georgetown, TX), Christine Riddle (Colleyville, TX), and Mandy Vincent (Woodbridge, VA).

GO FROGS!!