This weekend the men and women's Blue Wave teams won against SUNY Fredonia to extend both their records to 2-0.
The meet started with the men's and women's 400 medley relays both recording 1-2 finishes. The event was followed by sophomore Rachel Giza (11:07.61) and freshman Colin Heinemann (10:30.04) each grabbing first in the 1000 freestyle.
Freshman Dan Strothenke then led a 1-2-3 finish in the men's 200 freestyle, and freshman Josh Kaplan won the 100 backstroke. Sophomore Alex Dockstader (1:10.05) and junior Matt Valvo (1:03.36) continued Blue Wave dominance as both took the top spot in the women's and men's 100 breaststroke, respectively.
Senior Lindsay Dressel had a commanding win in the 200 fly; her time of 2:15.35 nearly seven seconds faster than her closest competitor. Senior Sig Culhane led a 1-2-3 sweep in the men's 50 freestyle. Dockstader got her second win in the 200 backstroke with a pool record of 2:11.13, and Russ Sullivan led a 1-2-3 finish on the men's side.
Both the men and women had 1-2-3 finishes in the 200 breaststroke. Dressel brought it home for the Lady Wave in the 100 butterfly, as she closed in the last 15 yards to win by one tenth of a second (1:01.79). The meet closed with the men's 400 freestyle relay, in which junior Dan Szajta out-touched the Fredonia men by .03 seconds.
Swimming is a brutal sport.
When you finish a race, you are analyzed down to the hundredth of a second. The clock is unforgiving; it doesn't lie, and it doesn't play favorites. It can be easy to complete a race and immediately write off your effort as a failure because you didn't meet a time you set for yourself.
There is more to take away from a race, however, than just times. This weekend I had what I considered to be a pretty disappointing meet. I had thought I would perform much faster than I did and consequently, fell into this idea that my races were failures.
Instead of analyzing my performances, trying to learn from them, and applying those lessons to my next races, I sulked around deck, somehow thinking that being mad about something that already happened would change the result.
At some point, everyone will fall short of the expectations they have set for themselves, regardless of their skill or talent. There is nothing wrong with trying and failing, but there is something wrong with not taking a "failure" and using it to grow as a swimmer. Or as a person.