You knew this post was coming, didn’t you? Well, if not, then you must be new to the Swim Aid following!

Now that the major International meet of the year is over, we’re going through a bit of withdrawal already. Yes, the US Open is going on now, but the writing’s on the wall. We’re pretty much not going to have any swimming to follow until October-ish when NCAA season kicks into gear. That’s when we’ll be back to stanning for the Michigan Wolverines, I guess. Different year, same ol’, same ol’.

So, we’re already looking ahead to next summer’s Conoco Phillips Summer Nationals in Irvine, CA. Can anyone say “party”?! Well, we can!

The Swim Aids conquered the 2005 and 2006 Summer Nationals that were held in Irvine and had a blast doing so! Well, except for some unnecessary drama and having to drive on Cali roads (I thought I was going to die). We can’t wait to do it all over again and here’s why:

1. It’s an outdoor meet! Most of us reside in states where meets are contested indoors. So the chance to enjoy swimming outside — and the frolicking that goes along with it — is just wonderful. We don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that we don’t inhale as much chlorine, but we just enjoy outdoor competitions. We’re more spirited and fun, if you can believe that. Actually, most of us lost our voices cheering during the Irvine ‘06 Nationals.

2. In-N-Out Burger. ‘Nuff said.

3. Hot tub parties! The Swim Aids, for some reason, are obsessed with hotel hot tubs and jacuzzi’s. If our hotel has one, you will find us in it every night. That’s not even an exaggeration.

4. Most of the Swim Aids, if not all, will actually be able to make this meet. Our quality time together has been severely limited in the last 1.5 years. We aim to change that as soon as possible!

5. Tailgate possibilities. We’d like to think we were some of the first people to tailgate at a swim meet. Don’t be surprised if we bring that back next summer. Gotta make sure we get clearance/permits/etc. It’d be fun! Our last (and first) tailgate was a success! We had a pretty nice guest list which included Sir Phelps briefly, Katie Hoff, Kaitlin Sandeno, and Davis Tarwater. Debbie Phelps also stopped by and brought us cookies and balloons; which we later fought over. If we end up pulling off an Irvine tailgate, you won’t want to miss it. Trust us!

6. Post meet after parties. There will be some, and if we don’t have one ourselves, we will be cruising for others. Last time out, we partied with the Florida Gators and the Lochtenator. We owed him some Heineken (and still do), so we were able to get him some after the meet. It was a good time until hotel security shut it down! *shakes fist*

So, clearly we’re already psyched about next year! Show of hands: Who’s in?

For a grand total of 4 hours last night and this afternoon swimming came back into my life!

It’s been a very long stretch since I last covered an event. And while I wouldn’t call what I was doing this weekend “covering”, it was still nice to experience.

Everyone knows of my love affair with the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on the Ohio State University Campus. It’s literally one of the nicest facilities I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to quite a few in the past 4.5 years. I went to the Ohio State vs. Kenyon meet, back in October, but that didn’t do a whole lot for me. In my heart, I knew it wouldn’t be right unless the men of the Maize and Blue were in the house.

This weekend they were and I couldn’t have been happier! Not just because I rep for Club Wolverine, but because it meant I got to gossip with one of my fave sets of swim parentals: the Vanderkaays. If you don’t know, you betta ask somebody! Anyway, OSU hosted a big quad-meet that brough Northwestern, Penn State, and Michigan to town. In addition, the Penn State women made the trip to duel the OSU women. For those reasons, the meet pretty much had to be broken up into 2 days. Continue Reading »

This isn’t the nightly wrap-up, but I wanted to make a post just to shout out a very special visitor.

Mrs. Sandeno, thanks for the kind words and I’m glad you enjoy the site! Kaitlin made a point to let me know what you thought. I’ll try to keep it up! Be sure to check out MGoSwim, too. It revolves around all things Club Wolverine.

Oh, and the crime situation on the Ohio State campus isn’t quite as bad as it sounded in that earlier post, I promise! I hope you weren’t worring too much about Kaitlin!

This is gonna be short, cuz my ass needs a nap like you wouldn’t believe!

1. I’ll be honest. I didn’t think I’d have anything to share today because I’m that tired. But I do. Funny how that works, huh?

2. Oh Em Gee! Cesar Cielo KILLED IT this morning! His 21.99 was a crazy sick 50 free time! I saw that his seed time was in yards, so he was in one of the “slower” heats. I made sure I had a great spot on deck for it because I knew, coming off of NCAAs, that he’d be fast! Holy cow!

3. My quality time with the St. Petersburg Girls is never dull. They all made asses out of themselves this morning, in the presence of UF swimmer Shaune Fraser. When Meg sees this, she’ll probably kill me, but what is she going to do about it? Nothing! Anyway, I always know when Shaune is near because Meg follows him not just with her eyes, but her entire head! These girls don’t know what discretion (or whispering) is and it’s so entertaining to me. I won’t share the rest of the embarassment, because a lot of it you had to be there for. They wanted to go shopping at Easton this afternoon. I highly recommend it. They also said they were looking for a ride there. I’m soooo glad they didn’t ask me. I would have felt obligated and not gotten my much-needed nap!

4. Katie and I plotted our party plans for post-Beijing. She’s looking forward to getting her dance on the week after swimming is done. When she gets back stateside, we have a date, and it’s gonna be insane. Trust. She also noted how zombie-like I was this morning (I told y’all I was tired). I didn’t even shoot the women’s 400 IM because I was that out of it. That and I decided to sleep in a little, so I missed the early heats.

5. Kaitlin, Kaitlin, Kaitlin. What can I say about her? Well, besides how much I love her. Her hotel hasn’t been doing right by her. The bed are supposed to be comfy, but she can’t sleep. Then wakes up with a crick in her neck. Not cool! She’s also looking forward to checking out some of the shops on High St. Every time I pass them, I think about how Kaitlin would probably love to shop there. Guess I was right! I just urged her not to go after dark since there was a shooting on campus (in that area) last weekend…I gotta look out for my peeps. Don’t want them getting shot up.

6. Dan Madwed is swimming out of his mind this weekend. Really great times. Definitely going to make a nice addition to the University of Michigan/Club Wolverine Family.

7. Gary Hall Jr. signed autographs, this morning, for at least 30 minutes. Every time I walked by, age group swimmers and meet volunteers were crowded around him and he was signing anything and everything given to him. He was also taking pictures with everyone. This went on for a long time. I said 30 minutes, but it was probably a lot longer. Others shut themselves off, ya know, under diving platforms, so people can’t interact with them. So this was very nice to see.

8. I FINALLY got to meet Miss Felicia Lee face-to-face. About damn time, huh? I really, really, really want to fold her up and put her in my pocket with my other faves. Wonder if anyone would notice…

9. There may or may not be more to this morning, but I can’t think of it. I’m going to go take a nap. Peace out!

My thoughts aren’t very organized because I am so freakin’ tired right now. I forgot how much I hate mornings. Here’s what I got.

1. [begin rant] Club Wolverine is anti-social this meet. They are hiding under the diving platforms. If they think my black ass is going all the way over there for them, they got another thing coming! They should have chosen a nice bleacher area just like every other freakin team did. Snobs. [end rant]

2. Kaitlin is excluded from that rant. I caught up with her for a second after her 200 Free prelim. I timed it perfectly and got a wet hug from her. What did I get for my effort and planning? She called me a stalker. God bless Kaitlin Sandeno.

3. Paul Yetter is still my fave coach. I missed all of the women’s 200 Free races because we were chatting. If I intend on kidnapping 2 of his swimmers this weekend, I have to butter him up. BTW, my fellow Swim Aids, he asked about you all and says hi!

4. The Hoff is still cool as hell. Got my 1st wet hug of the day from her. She’s the one who told me where CW was hiding. Apparently those LZR suits have adventurous zippers. When they’re at the top, they’re fine, but once you start unzipping them, they just wanna keep going and going and going. With my help, Katie almost mooned the crowd. That would have been classic, no?

5. Ian isn’t here. He has food poisoning lots of schoolwork. Everyone say it with me in their best Shannen voice: “Awww, Ian!” Neil Walker has the flu. Poor Longhorns.

6. Peter Bick is awesome. He keeps me company since I am posse-free this meet.

7. MEGAN ROMANO! While still ghetto, she is as funny as ever! I’d say I spent 80% of the session with her. I even smuggled her food from the hospitality room. Felt like a drug deal. But don’t tell her coach! He’s not supposed to know! Ever wondered where she wants to go to college? She’s going to be a senior in the fall. Well? Megan wants to be a Florida Gator, although she says she’s not too sure. She likes to point out their hot male swimmers to me. Sounds like her mind is made up! Also, her boobs are too big for the LZR suit she wore during prelims. How’s that for embarassing?

8. I saw a new NIKE suit that I really like. It’s black/white, which, to me, equals perfection. I 1st spotted it while hanging with Peter Bick and he inquired whether it was the suit or the suit-wearer that I really liked. Well played, Peter. Well played. For the record: I liked both

9. Coach Bob looks like he’s lost weight. We exchanged pleasantries in the hospitality room.

10. Did a litle OSU Spring Football Game planning with my bro’s friend, and GCSTO coach Tommy. We’re gonna get crunk. Mark my words.

11. Kate Ziegler loves the design I put together for her official website. We’re gonna hook up later and discuss it further this weekend. She didn’t mention being plum tuckered out, though.

12. I miss my fellow Swim Aids (and Mama VDK). While I may not have you guys around to entertain me, I think I have plenty of people to keep me company.

*Whew* I think that’s it.

Seems like a lot of folks are getting antsy and searching for the psych sheet.

Y’all know those aren’t released that far in advance! Wishful thinking!

What we can tell you are some of the teams who have already committed to compete. This is the best we can offer without a psych sheet.

They are Club Wolverine, North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC), Swim Atlanta, Germantown Academy, Bolles School, Dynamo Swim Club, Kansas City Blazers, Nashville Aquatic Club, St. Petersburg Aquatics, Dayton Raiders, Cincinnati Marlins, University of Louisville, & Longhorn Aquatics.

Putting 2 & 2 together, you should be able to surmise that a fast group will be in C-Bus for the meet, in less than 2 weeks!

Oh, and tickets are already on sale.

ETA: There is a new press release out from USA Swimming. Read it here. I’ve updated the post with some more of the additional clubs I hadn’t already mentioned.

The Swim Aids have been all over the place attending and covering meets the past few years. We were so on top of the game!

Judging from our past swim trips, it would be reasonable to think that once the Olympic year got here, things would be even crazier, right? Well, that’s what we thought too, but we were wrong!

Then something tragic happened. We faced the reality that The Swim Aids are broke as a joke right lately. It’s gut-wrenching, really. First we had to bail on Short Course Nationals in Hotlanta. Then we had to pull out of the Long Beach Grand Prix. (Well, not 100%. Kiwi got to see one session of that. Better than nothing!) And now, because of the same reasons, we regret to inform that we will not be at this weekend’s Missouri Grand Prix.

What we really need is a travelling allowance. That, or a sugar daddy of some sort. We’d take either! Since neither option appears to be in our immediate future, we have had to cut back significantly on our swim trips. It saddens us too.

But don’t fret! We see the light at the end of the tunnel! And I know you’ve heard this before, but we do have at least 2 meets lined up before Trials. See, things are looking better already!

Because the Ohio State Grand Prix is in C-Bus (where I live), we will definitely be in the house. And then Santa Clara is another definite destination. The yearly Cali trip is like a tradition, at this point. Also, the Women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships are also here in C-Bus, so I may go to that as well. I told y’all McCorkle was where it’s at!

So, there is swimming on the horizon. Never fear, Swim Aid followers!

And last, but certainly not least, we’d like to extend a sincere thank you to those of you who have started and continu to check out our fun side project, MGoSwim. And for those of you, who haven’t, that is why there is next to no Club Wolverine chatter over here anymore. It now resides on MGoSwim. To see the latest posts, check out the far right sidebar. We make it really easy for you!