Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons In Florida: Daily Blog
January 09, 2016 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Follow the Falcons swimming & diving program during their training trip in Naples, Fla.
The Bowling Green State University swimming and diving program is on the road during the Winter Break for an extended training trip in Naples, Fla. Sophomore freestyler Natalie Criswell will be blogging daily during the trip to keep fans of the Orange and Brown updated.
Final Day – Jan. 8
Well today was our last day of training trip and boy did we go out with a bang. We started our morning again at 5:15am with a challenging sprint work out for middle distance and distance swimmers. The sprinters ran from the Norris pool to the local YMCA where they lifted weights and spun. After morning workout we all headed back to the hotel for a fast breakfast before the distance swimmers had to go to spinning. After spin the distance swimmers headed back to the hotel to get packed. One funny about getting from workout to workout was that because we were leaving that night our bus driver had to sleep all day so the coaches had to make multiple trips in their rental cars to get us from place to place. But, like I was saying after our morning workouts we all went back to the hotel and packed up, in addition most of us rested and cleaned our rooms. At about 12:50pm the coaches started making their trips to and from the pool to get everyone over to the pool for afternoon workout. We were supposed to get in the water at 1:30pm however we didn't end up getting in until 2:00pm because there was only one lifeguard switching the pool from long course meters to short course, usually there is 6. We kept ourselves busy by taking lots of pictures and listening to the coaches tell funny stories, in the end it all worked out because there wasn't a team swimming after us so we were able to run over an extra half hours. Now at the beginning I said our trip ended with a bang and boy did it, we ended the trip with some killer sets. The distance swimmers did a long test set that consisted of 14x300 yard freestyle on descending intervals, and the sprinters and mid distance swimmers did lots of no breath under water 25's and sprint relays. We finished off the practice with 3 fun relays as a whole team. After practice we had a team meeting where we reflected on the trip and talked about all the hard work we put in. Coach Matt asked us "Was the trip worth it?" Our answer YES!!! Overall going to Florida was a great experience, we worked muscles we didn't even know we had, went faster than we ever thought we could in practice and grew closer as a team. We should be arriving in Bowling Green at around 3:30pm Jan 9th. Thanks for everyone who supported us on our trip, it was a great experience!
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Day Eight
Our training trip is coming to a quick end. Today was our second to last day, and we definitely made the most of it. We started our day at 5:15am again with a water work out at the Norris pool. Everyone did a set that focused on their main stroke and involved fast 50's, 100's, and 200's. After our morning work out was finished we headed back to the hotel and had a big breakfast. Our next water work out was at 1:15 so many people went to nap, or laid in the sun, just doing something relaxing before we had to leave. Our workout in the afternoon was at Norris pool again and it was very challenging for everyone. As a team we felt we put in some great work, and Coach Matt was happy. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to swim outside. It was 80 and sunny! After our second water workout we went back to the hotel to relax before Hannah Albion's family brought us dinner. Her mom made salad, chili and rice, it was delicious and a home cooked meal was much needed. After dinner the coaches surprised Maria Galic with a cake and we celebrated her birthday as a team. Our last day of training trip is tomorrow, we have two water workouts and spinning/dryland.
Day Seven
Our 7th day of the training trip started with a sprint work out at 5:15 am. Yes, we were diving in a pool at 5:15am in the morning! Our work out consisted of best average 100's and 50's in your best stroke. After practice was over we headed to cross fit at 9:00 am. Today's cross fit included a prowler circuit and a set called "death by pull ups" – where we ended up doing 55 pull ups. In addition we did one-legged wall sits, and a plank circuit. After our busy morning we had a team meeting and ate breakfast. After that we traveled to the Red Coconut, an RV park on Fort Myers beach where Hannah Albion's mom works. There we had lunch and we spent the day there. The weather was absolutely perfect and many of us went kayaking and Alex Poitinger and Jordan Bullock rented a jet ski, it was so fun! After an afternoon at the beach we headed back to the hotel for a cookout, it was delicious!
Day Six
Today was the 6th day of our training trip. We started our day at 10:00 am with a cross fit class. Today's class was a great change of pace, after a warm up, we were broken into 4 teams and had a competition on the rowing machines. After that we did an 8-minute ab circuit to end class. After cross fit we went back to the hotel and relaxed until about 12:30 when we had to leave for afternoon swim. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, today we had a test set that was focused on our main events. After practice we headed back to the hotel to relax and prepare for our full day tomorrow.
Day Five
Our 5th day of the training trip was today and it was like no other. It was filled with sunny skies and big smiles. For some, our morning started at 6:00 am with a morning spin class. This class was a little different than our first; we had a different instructor and she was great! The class was full of great music and a lot of sweat. For the others they started their day off with a light swim at the Naples YMCA. After our morning workout we all headed out to Grace Place for some volunteering. Grace Place is an organization that provides a pathway out of poverty by educating children and families in Naples. They offer after school programs, daycare, and night classes for adults and children. We went there to help their volunteers spread safety mulch on their playground. Grace Place is amazing – the volunteers were so kind and we laid 14 pallets of mulch (that's 840 bags). And it only took us about one hour. The workers were so thankful after they even bought us pizza. It was a very eye opening experience for all of us. After volunteering we headed to the beach to relax for the rest of the day. The beach was beautiful and after we all split up and had dinner. My group went out for a great hibachi meal right on the beach and celebrated Maria Galic's birthday. It's not till the 6th but who knows when we'll have the night off again! Tomorrow we will start our day with cross fit and end with a test set at night.
    
Day Four
So, we finished our fourth day of the training trip late last night, finishing at about 9:30pm. And, let me tell you it was a wet practice! Not only because of the water, but because of the pouring rain. At the beginning of our practice it was just a light sprinkle but by the end it was coming down pretty hard and super windy – it was a fun one. But we had a great work out, we were at the Norris pool tonight and we had 22 lanes, so almost everyone on our team had their own lane and we did a hard test set. The set that we did focused on our main event and we put up some great times. The coaches were super happy. As for the rest of the day leading up to night practice it was pretty relaxing. We started our day with cross fit. We tried these new resistance vests, it was super challenging but a nice change of pace. About mid-way through cross fit we found out that our bus had a flat tire so getting to our swim after that was a little challenging but we made it work, and hey we can laugh about it now. At the pool we went for a "stretch out" swim. I put that in quotes because the coach's idea of stretch out is very different than us swimmers. After our first swim of the day we all went back to the hotel and had a 'make your own smoothie' party before we all went to nap. It wasn't the best weather today, but hey we are still in Florida!
    
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Day Three
Today was the third day of our training trip and we started the day at 7:30am with a team stretch on the roof of the Naples YMCA – what a great way to start the morning. After that we split into two groups, most of the team went to yoga and the distance swimmers and coaches went to a spinning class. Now, I can only talk about my experience in the spinning class, but we do spinning in BG and let me tell you I've never done anything like this in my life. I don't think I stopped sprinting or sat down on my bike once the whole hour; needless to say we were whooped, but it was a great experience. After that everyone went back to the hotel and we had a big breakfast where we planned our day at the beach! A little bit later 15 of us went to Vanderilt Beach. The water was super calm and warm. A couple of us rented a paddle board and even saw some dolphins! It was an extremely fun afternoon spent riding waves, working on our tan lines and bonding. After we got picked up from the beach we had our second practice at the Naples YMCA; we did a mix of dryland, weights and swimming, it was a great full body workout, and after practice Coach Matt [Ense] surprised us with news that Hannah Albion's parents will be throwing us an ice cream sundae party tonight! As you can probably imagine we are all very excited to have some ice cream, what a great surprise! Tomorrow we are back at it again and will be doing cross fit and swimming in the morning and swimming again at night!Â
  
Day Two
Today was the second day of our training trip and the first day of the New Year and for most of us 2016 is off to a great start. I say most of us because freshman Christin Swanepoel left granola bar wrappers in her bag this morning only to find a colony of red ants in it after practice! But for everyone else 2016 is going great! After a hard practice this morning we had a huge breakfast and than sat by the pool and worked on our tan lines for most of the afternoon. Today it was 82 degrees and sunny out, wow are we lucky! Tonight we will be swimming at the Norris pool for the first time and taking a cross fit class before. This is the first cross fit class for mostly everyone on the team, so it should be a pretty good workout, and a great chance to get better. Also to celebrate the first day of 2016 we will be going out for a team dinner! Happy New Year, Falcon fans!
Day One
Well, 25 hours later we've finally arrived in Naples, Fla. The trip took a little longer than expected due to some New Years Eve traffic in Orlando, and a few detours due to bad navigation, so we got out of our first practice. But don't worry, no rest for the weary we have another one tonight. Our hotel is great, we are staying at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham. It has a beautiful pool, big beds, and we even have a stove to cook on. I think we will be very happy here. Although the bus ride was long, being in 80 degree weather in Florida is a great way to end 2015! Talk to you tomorrow, Falcon fans!
     
Final Day – Jan. 8
Well today was our last day of training trip and boy did we go out with a bang. We started our morning again at 5:15am with a challenging sprint work out for middle distance and distance swimmers. The sprinters ran from the Norris pool to the local YMCA where they lifted weights and spun. After morning workout we all headed back to the hotel for a fast breakfast before the distance swimmers had to go to spinning. After spin the distance swimmers headed back to the hotel to get packed. One funny about getting from workout to workout was that because we were leaving that night our bus driver had to sleep all day so the coaches had to make multiple trips in their rental cars to get us from place to place. But, like I was saying after our morning workouts we all went back to the hotel and packed up, in addition most of us rested and cleaned our rooms. At about 12:50pm the coaches started making their trips to and from the pool to get everyone over to the pool for afternoon workout. We were supposed to get in the water at 1:30pm however we didn't end up getting in until 2:00pm because there was only one lifeguard switching the pool from long course meters to short course, usually there is 6. We kept ourselves busy by taking lots of pictures and listening to the coaches tell funny stories, in the end it all worked out because there wasn't a team swimming after us so we were able to run over an extra half hours. Now at the beginning I said our trip ended with a bang and boy did it, we ended the trip with some killer sets. The distance swimmers did a long test set that consisted of 14x300 yard freestyle on descending intervals, and the sprinters and mid distance swimmers did lots of no breath under water 25's and sprint relays. We finished off the practice with 3 fun relays as a whole team. After practice we had a team meeting where we reflected on the trip and talked about all the hard work we put in. Coach Matt asked us "Was the trip worth it?" Our answer YES!!! Overall going to Florida was a great experience, we worked muscles we didn't even know we had, went faster than we ever thought we could in practice and grew closer as a team. We should be arriving in Bowling Green at around 3:30pm Jan 9th. Thanks for everyone who supported us on our trip, it was a great experience!
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Day Eight
Our training trip is coming to a quick end. Today was our second to last day, and we definitely made the most of it. We started our day at 5:15am again with a water work out at the Norris pool. Everyone did a set that focused on their main stroke and involved fast 50's, 100's, and 200's. After our morning work out was finished we headed back to the hotel and had a big breakfast. Our next water work out was at 1:15 so many people went to nap, or laid in the sun, just doing something relaxing before we had to leave. Our workout in the afternoon was at Norris pool again and it was very challenging for everyone. As a team we felt we put in some great work, and Coach Matt was happy. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to swim outside. It was 80 and sunny! After our second water workout we went back to the hotel to relax before Hannah Albion's family brought us dinner. Her mom made salad, chili and rice, it was delicious and a home cooked meal was much needed. After dinner the coaches surprised Maria Galic with a cake and we celebrated her birthday as a team. Our last day of training trip is tomorrow, we have two water workouts and spinning/dryland.
Day Seven
Our 7th day of the training trip started with a sprint work out at 5:15 am. Yes, we were diving in a pool at 5:15am in the morning! Our work out consisted of best average 100's and 50's in your best stroke. After practice was over we headed to cross fit at 9:00 am. Today's cross fit included a prowler circuit and a set called "death by pull ups" – where we ended up doing 55 pull ups. In addition we did one-legged wall sits, and a plank circuit. After our busy morning we had a team meeting and ate breakfast. After that we traveled to the Red Coconut, an RV park on Fort Myers beach where Hannah Albion's mom works. There we had lunch and we spent the day there. The weather was absolutely perfect and many of us went kayaking and Alex Poitinger and Jordan Bullock rented a jet ski, it was so fun! After an afternoon at the beach we headed back to the hotel for a cookout, it was delicious!
Day Six
Today was the 6th day of our training trip. We started our day at 10:00 am with a cross fit class. Today's class was a great change of pace, after a warm up, we were broken into 4 teams and had a competition on the rowing machines. After that we did an 8-minute ab circuit to end class. After cross fit we went back to the hotel and relaxed until about 12:30 when we had to leave for afternoon swim. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, today we had a test set that was focused on our main events. After practice we headed back to the hotel to relax and prepare for our full day tomorrow.
Day Five
Our 5th day of the training trip was today and it was like no other. It was filled with sunny skies and big smiles. For some, our morning started at 6:00 am with a morning spin class. This class was a little different than our first; we had a different instructor and she was great! The class was full of great music and a lot of sweat. For the others they started their day off with a light swim at the Naples YMCA. After our morning workout we all headed out to Grace Place for some volunteering. Grace Place is an organization that provides a pathway out of poverty by educating children and families in Naples. They offer after school programs, daycare, and night classes for adults and children. We went there to help their volunteers spread safety mulch on their playground. Grace Place is amazing – the volunteers were so kind and we laid 14 pallets of mulch (that's 840 bags). And it only took us about one hour. The workers were so thankful after they even bought us pizza. It was a very eye opening experience for all of us. After volunteering we headed to the beach to relax for the rest of the day. The beach was beautiful and after we all split up and had dinner. My group went out for a great hibachi meal right on the beach and celebrated Maria Galic's birthday. It's not till the 6th but who knows when we'll have the night off again! Tomorrow we will start our day with cross fit and end with a test set at night.
    Day Four
So, we finished our fourth day of the training trip late last night, finishing at about 9:30pm. And, let me tell you it was a wet practice! Not only because of the water, but because of the pouring rain. At the beginning of our practice it was just a light sprinkle but by the end it was coming down pretty hard and super windy – it was a fun one. But we had a great work out, we were at the Norris pool tonight and we had 22 lanes, so almost everyone on our team had their own lane and we did a hard test set. The set that we did focused on our main event and we put up some great times. The coaches were super happy. As for the rest of the day leading up to night practice it was pretty relaxing. We started our day with cross fit. We tried these new resistance vests, it was super challenging but a nice change of pace. About mid-way through cross fit we found out that our bus had a flat tire so getting to our swim after that was a little challenging but we made it work, and hey we can laugh about it now. At the pool we went for a "stretch out" swim. I put that in quotes because the coach's idea of stretch out is very different than us swimmers. After our first swim of the day we all went back to the hotel and had a 'make your own smoothie' party before we all went to nap. It wasn't the best weather today, but hey we are still in Florida!
     Â
Day Three
Today was the third day of our training trip and we started the day at 7:30am with a team stretch on the roof of the Naples YMCA – what a great way to start the morning. After that we split into two groups, most of the team went to yoga and the distance swimmers and coaches went to a spinning class. Now, I can only talk about my experience in the spinning class, but we do spinning in BG and let me tell you I've never done anything like this in my life. I don't think I stopped sprinting or sat down on my bike once the whole hour; needless to say we were whooped, but it was a great experience. After that everyone went back to the hotel and we had a big breakfast where we planned our day at the beach! A little bit later 15 of us went to Vanderilt Beach. The water was super calm and warm. A couple of us rented a paddle board and even saw some dolphins! It was an extremely fun afternoon spent riding waves, working on our tan lines and bonding. After we got picked up from the beach we had our second practice at the Naples YMCA; we did a mix of dryland, weights and swimming, it was a great full body workout, and after practice Coach Matt [Ense] surprised us with news that Hannah Albion's parents will be throwing us an ice cream sundae party tonight! As you can probably imagine we are all very excited to have some ice cream, what a great surprise! Tomorrow we are back at it again and will be doing cross fit and swimming in the morning and swimming again at night!Â
  Day Two
Today was the second day of our training trip and the first day of the New Year and for most of us 2016 is off to a great start. I say most of us because freshman Christin Swanepoel left granola bar wrappers in her bag this morning only to find a colony of red ants in it after practice! But for everyone else 2016 is going great! After a hard practice this morning we had a huge breakfast and than sat by the pool and worked on our tan lines for most of the afternoon. Today it was 82 degrees and sunny out, wow are we lucky! Tonight we will be swimming at the Norris pool for the first time and taking a cross fit class before. This is the first cross fit class for mostly everyone on the team, so it should be a pretty good workout, and a great chance to get better. Also to celebrate the first day of 2016 we will be going out for a team dinner! Happy New Year, Falcon fans!
Day One
Well, 25 hours later we've finally arrived in Naples, Fla. The trip took a little longer than expected due to some New Years Eve traffic in Orlando, and a few detours due to bad navigation, so we got out of our first practice. But don't worry, no rest for the weary we have another one tonight. Our hotel is great, we are staying at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham. It has a beautiful pool, big beds, and we even have a stove to cook on. I think we will be very happy here. Although the bus ride was long, being in 80 degree weather in Florida is a great way to end 2015! Talk to you tomorrow, Falcon fans!
     
Players Mentioned
Freestyle
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Butterfly/IM
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Freestyle
/ Women's Swimming & Diving
Backstroke/Freestyle
/ Women's Swimming & DivingBG Swim/Dive : Ava Vial Postmeet 2.2
Monday, February 05
BG Swim/Dive : Coach Perkins Postmeet 2.4
Sunday, February 04
BG Ziggys : Daisy Platts
Monday, April 25
BG S/D : Coach Perkins Post-Mac's 2.26
Sunday, February 27