No break from training regimen for women's swimming

With no meets during Winter Break, the women's swimming team could afford to take a little time away from DeNunzio Pool. But time away from campus did not mean a break from the intense training that defines the team.

Most swimmers went home for the first two weeks of Winter Break and trained at their local swimming clubs. They were not expected to follow a Princeton-designed program but rather to join in club training, which is at peak intensity during this period.

Swimmers reported back to campus on Dec. 28 and started a weeklong mini-camp the following day. During the week, the Tigers trained twice a day in the pool, with dry land workouts and weightlifting to supplement the swimming. The workouts have changed since pre-break practices, which stressed longer distances to build up endurance. Now, training sessions involve shorter distances to focus on improving speed. The combination of practices and stress from finals make the mini-camp and the following weeks the toughest of the season, coach Susan Teeter explained.

Though there was nearly one month between competitions, the team remained focused on its primary goal of an Ivy League championship. The coaches have not yet selected the swimmers that will represent Princeton at the Ivy League championship meet in February. Those choices will be made this week after the coaches review the results from the Northeastern meet and evaluate the swimmers' progress. Competition for spots have certainly kept swimmers focused on improving their times.

Teeter explained that the lengthy layoff does not affect her swimmers' motivation. "I spend more time trying to calm them down. I have never met a Princeton athlete that is not driven in everything they do," Teeter said.

The Tigers have two important contests in January, a dual meet against Dartmouth and the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet.

The Dartmouth meet will be particularly intriguing because of the controversy surrounding the Dartmouth team. In November, the school terminated its men's and women's swimming teams, citing budget restraints. After weeks of protests, Dartmouth just last week reinstated the program.

Though the Dartmouth swimmers will surely be excited to compete, they will probably be emotionally drained as a result of their ordeal, Teeter suggested. As in the past, the teams will alter the traditional lineup of dual meet events by shortening the distances in order to provide a more exciting, sprint-oriented competition. All of the events normally swam at 100 yards, for example, will be set at 50 instead.

After Dartmouth, the Tigers face Harvard and Yale in Cambridge, Mass., in the annual pool meeting of the Big Three. Having cruised by its competition thus far, the team could receive its toughest challenge yet from Harvard. The Crimson are capable of knocking off the Tigers, both in the H-Y-P meet and the Ivy Championships in February.

In addition, Harvard traditionally swims especially well at home. Away from the comfort of DeNunzio, the Tigers will face stiff resistance in their effort to win their fifth straight H-Y-P meet. The meet will certainly be an important marker of the team's progress in advance of the Ivies.

Beyond the Ivy Championships, the team hopes to place several swimmers in NCAAs during March. Junior Sarah Fraumann and freshman Libby Engelmeier are nationally ranked 20 and 28, respectively, in the mile. Both could qualify for NCAA's with strong times in the coming weeks. Princeton has sent a swimmer to the meet all but two years during Teeter's nineteen seasons as head coach.