Taste of victory: Freshman swimmer reflects on first win

Stacey Mack Staff Writer

Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005. That date doesn’t appear to hold any special significance except as the end of October Break. However, for myself and fellow Vassar’s swimming and diving team members, it marked a new beginning. On this day Vassar’s men’s and women’s teams opened their seasons against William Patterson in our very own natatorium.

Friday evening: After a day of double practices, inspirational talks, and a team rock scramble experience in between, excitement for the next day’s competition was high. Following all of that, a pasta dinner and movie were held at senior Will Oldehoff’s Town House. The teams, sufficiently carbed-up with pasta and bread, enjoyed watching Heavy Weights in a comfortable environment before heading to their respective beds with nerves fluttering in anticipation of the next morning.

10 a.m.: While the majority of the men and women on the team met at ACDC for a team breakfast, those in need of the training room headed up to the pool a bit earlier. Having experiences of a minor shoulder problem earlier in the year, I made use of the opportunity to use heat and stim therapy for the next 20 minutes. I chatted with the trainers and other athletes who were in the room, yet I still couldn’t entirely shake off my nervousness. It would be the team’s debut this season, but also the freshmen’s debut as members of a college team. That made me more than a little anxious.

11 a.m.: By now, the entire team is decked out in their new suits—which not all of us enjoyed pulling on: there are few joys in putting on a tight suit for the first time—and have donned the Vassar College maroon and grey warm-ups. Filing onto deck, we talked to our coaches, Lisl Prater-Lee and Jesup Szatkowski, and took in the scene. The pool was ready for the meet to start. We began stretching and then took note of large, meaningful signs that several team members had created. Even more encouraging were the “Inspirational Pictures from Africa,” sent via e-mail in which former members had sent pro-Vassar messages from the other side of the world. Even though I had never met the people in the pictures, I instantly felt connected to those alumni. Suddenly, that butterfly feeling in my stomach wasn’t so bad. We were all part of the team.

After 12 p.m.: Somehow I didn’t notice whether the water was cold and ceased constantly checking the clock to see how much longer it was until the meet started. I suppose I was too preoccupied to notice after we had completed warm-up. Although my muscles had felt a little heavy as warm-up began, by the time we mock-raced towards the other end a few times, I felt fine. After drying off, we noticed William Patterson still hadn’t arrived, but our coaches informed us that they weren’t too far away. Looking over, I could see the diving team practicing in the well, and I was pretty impressed with their dives.

Around 12:45 p.m.: William Patterson had just arrived. The stands were starting to fill up with Vassar supporters as we jumped in the pool to complete a light loosening swim before the meet. Afterwards, our captains called us together to lead us in a cheer. As we belted out the “Rowdy” cheer and then the “V-V-V-A-S-S” Vassar cheer, excitement coursed through the team. We were ready. Shortly following that, two members of the women’s team, Teal Shepley-Blair ’07 and Charley Young ’09, sang the national anthem.

Around 1:30 p.m.: The meet got off to a great start, filled with cheering and quick swims. Every member of the Vassar teams was supportive of others—in a loud way, too. I was only swimming one event due to my shoulder, yet I still felt in every way a full member of the team. The 200-free came quickly, and I stepped up on the blocks after exchanging encouraging remarks from my fellow teammates in the race. Captain Kathryn Swallow ’07, Emily Love ’09 and I had announced we were going to go 1-2-3 in this race and it didn’t matter who got what place. I wasn’t the slightest bit nervous at this point, just filled with anticipation. During the first two laps of the eight-length race, the field was fairly tight, but following that, it began to spread out. As feelings of tiredness began to set in, one glance at my fellow team members cheering for us resulted in a fresh burst of energy. At the end of race, Vassar had swept the top three finishes in the race.

When I had finally finished, I experienced relief that it was over and a twinge of sadness that I wouldn’t be racing anymore that day. Although my racing was complete for that day, many more exciting races were left to be swam, and diving had yet to compete. Overall, the day was off to a great start and I couldn’t imagine being on any other team but ours.