Diary

Christian
Groth

Past Entries

January 19, 2004

So, we have been back from Florida about a week now, and our schedules for this semester are beginning to solidify. For me, there is an inherent excitement involved with starting a new semester, especially second semester.

I love second semester for several reasons. One, new classes are always great. It's fun showing up the first day of classes and finding out who you know in your class, and figuring out whether or not the class is going to be a struggle.

Two, the hardest part of the season is over after Florida winter training, and it's great to be back and ready to rock again on campus. We have put in so much time in the water for the past two weeks, not to mention the past five months, and we are all ready to see some of it pay off.

Lastly, TAPER!!! Second semester signals taper for everyone, and as every swimmer knows taper is by far the greatest (and most fun) part of the season because everyone has newfound energy.

Right now, the UAA/Emory Invite taper group is in the "pre-taper" phase, which is very deceiving actually. There is nothing taper-ish about pre-taper; it involves lots of hard, fast swimming.

This is something that the freshmen have never experienced, and the upperclassmen annually despise because of its confusing name. However, spirits are always high because, again, it signals that taper is merely days away.

In the coming week we have our meet in Lexington, Kentucky against Wittenberg and Transylvania Universities. This meet is going to probably be the last chance for those of us who are concentrating on the UAA meet for our championship meet, so it will be both fun and exciting to perfect our races that we have worked so hard on throughout the last five months.

After Kentucky, the UAA/Emory Invite teams are finalized and posted so that everyone knows exactly when they will be swimming out of their minds. Personally, after looking around at my fellow teammates, I have no doubt that this is going to be the best of my three years here; we are all ready to rip up the pool.

Christian Groth is a junior from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.