Tracy Shessler

October 20, 2003

And so it starts again. Meet season is here and it's about time. We are all lean and buff after our aerobic training phase, which contained more running than my body wanted to do.

Run, swim, run what? I think just about everyone on campus saw us all running to and from the SAAC in our bathing suits on Saturday mornings. It's ok though cause we got to swim outside for a 500 every week.

As for the rest of our dry land, all I have to say is Steve Lewis. Steve, Emory's new strength and conditioning coach, has the swim team moaning from soreness, and there is nothing funnier than watching a bunch of swimmers work on dryland coordination. I know the track team got a kick out of watching us fumble their regular drills. It's really hard to do dynamic stretching when you are laughing at everyone else around you.

Now however we've begun to break into our specialty group practices. I don't think I've ever seen the sprinters so happy. As for the distance freestylers, well, they love what they do. We all get to throw in more speed work, more stroke work, and more, well work. But we're stronger for it as our efforts last weekend showed.

The freshmen are all settling in and we are ready to kick some butt this season. First semester is halfway over, and if we've all survived midterms I figure we can handle anything else they throw at us. Bring on the travel meets.

Tracy Shessler is a senior from North Andover, Mass. She would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.