University of Minnesota Athletics
Hawaii Blog #1 from Devin Ste. Marie
1/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
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Happy New Year from Hawaii!
The team has just finished our third full day on Oahu and everyone has been enjoying the sun and working hard in the pool. Our training kicked off with double practices for all the training groups, followed by a lot of napping to catch up on the few hours that we lost flying from Minneapolis. With 2015 in full swing, all the Gopher swimmers have adjusted to the time, are swimming fast, and embracing the well-above- freezing weather.
On the 31st the male and female sprint groups were lucky to spend the last day of 2014 climbing two of Hawaii's famous landmarks: Diamond Head and Koko Head. The female sprinters hiked to the top of Diamond Head while the male sprinters walked 1048 steep steps up to the top of Koko Head Crater. The males completed the trek after doing the infamous "Fishburn" set at practice that morning while the females achieved another one of Terry's challenging kick sets.
For New Years Eve, Kelly and Ryan's mid distance and distance groups combined to share the last practice of 2014 together at the University of Hawaii pool. Assistant coach Gideon wrote a great workout for all of us where we spent approximately an hour of the practice holding our breath. Thankfully, we all survived and ended the year together with both our groups accumulating over 50 000 yards in two days.
After a tiring couple of days, many Gophers struggled to stay awake to celebrate the New Year, but some were able to make it to midnight and watch fireworks from the roof of our condo building. New Years Day began early for Kelly's group with morning practice at 5:30, while the other groups enjoyed a later sleep in and woke up to watch the Citrus Bowl game or go to the coconut pancake breakfast at the local Seaside Grill.
We have had an awesome start to training trip and everyone is excited there are still two weeks left to train hard in the pool and explore the island. I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for our team!
Players Mentioned
