Blue-Gold and First Dual Meet

A few weeks ago we had our first races in the home pool. Just like last year the team was split in two, and everyone swam each 100 of the four strokes plus 100 IM. Everyone knows I'm not much of a sprinter, but it's nice to see where I stack up compared to them.
Blue Gold Overall Results

I was on gold, and although we didn't have the overall fastest swimmer, we won as a team. Go Gold!

Tonight and tomorrow at noon we have a meet against Azusa Pacific. I'll be swimming a lot, almost 4000 yards over the two days. So if you catch the live steam on Sunday you'll get plenty of bang for your buck!

Live Stream

Welcome Back

It has been a busy few weeks since I got back to the USA. Over the 'summer' vacation I had a great time in California, Vegas, the Grand Canyon etc.

However back to the real world, school, swimming, sleeping. I am in the apartment complex on campus this year. Which means no more hostel food! We have been eating plenty of fresh fish that my roommate caught over the summer, and there is some moose meat due to arrive around Thanksgiving.

Swimming is going well. We lost some girls from last year but we have four new freshman and a new assistant coach. We have started a weights programme, so I get to pump some iron at the gym three times a week.
Here is the schedule for this year. No meet on my birthday this time. The first one is on the 4th (an intra-squad meet) not sure if it will be streamed but I'll get back to you on that. There's still a trip down to Washington in December and a Christmas training trip to San Diego.
www.alaskananooks.com/schedule

So far we have had a toga dance, a concert, and today it even snowed. Back into it alright!

Summer Vacation

It seems like its been a long time since I left, but since being back not a lot has changed. I've been back in New Zealand for a few weeks now and I'm really enjoying having a break from school. I've missed a good flat white and mince pie! I'll be doing a bit of swimming over the break but now that hours drive each way seems so far, I think Ill be sticking to mostly dryland workouts on the farm.

The only thing about being home is the fact this will be winter number 3. While our wet weather has nothing on a Fairbank's winters day its still not pleasant mustering sheep in the rain. But I will be signing off from the blog for a bit. There may be a couple of things come up while I am home but watch out for early September when I head back to school.

Aloha

I was lucky enough to be able to spend the day exploring a bit of Hawaii.

Although I wasn't hopeful it would be pleasant when I landed, it was raining and cloudy.

The same shot the next morning. So I went out both of the nearby beaches. One of them being the famous Waikiki.

It was kind of like my first and last day of summer. 

Definitely on my list of places to come back to.

Movin' Out

And so the year comes to a close. Its sad to leave and come back to cold and rain when the days in Fairbanks are over 18 hours long and are getting up to 25c.

These were taken at midnight.

Fnished exams and moved out of the dorms. Ive got to say it was a fun experience, but something you only need to do once.

Im ready to be home and have a mince pie with tomato sauce and a good flat white. Can't wait to see everyone, but not before a day long layover in Honolulu, Hi!

Adventures

With the sun starting to show it's face again it's a great time to see the sights of Fairbanks.

1. The Large Animal Research Station Musk Ox

2. Angel Rock, a hiking adventure.

3. Hanging out at Ski Boot Hill trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. 

Prizegivings

To top off the year and reward all the athletes for their seasons we hold two lots of prize givings. Most sports have an individual banquet with just the team to recognize things like most improved, hardest worker and best attitude/ team player etc. Just another excuse to hang out with the team again, since we don't see at other at practice 4 hours a day since the season finished.

Last night we had the All Sports where every team gave out their MVPs and scholar athletes (the person on the team with the highest GPA). It was a bunch of free food and guest speakers. And free food to athletes is like gold.
Highlights of the night; Most outstanding athletes went to a skier and a rifler (??), who came 4th and 2nd at nationals respectively, and Scott won coach of the year for swimming.