Men's and Women's Swimming Head to MWC Meet Shaved,New
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Men’s and Women’s Swimming head to MWC Meet shaved The Grinnell Men and Women’s swim teams are heading into the Midwest Conference (MWC) Tournament this weekend at Lawrence College in Appleton, WI to defend their titles as Conference champs. The Mad Ducks and Dawgs prepared for the meet, in part, by tapering, a training technique used in track and swimming. “Over a period of two to three weeks, the total yardage will come down and intensity comes down, so it’s allowing their bodies to re-energized and recharge, building up their glycogen stores. So hopefully by the time they get to conference they’re completely rested and ready to go,” said Head Coach Erin Hurley. From left to right, Sam Sherwood ’12, Kelly Bruce ’12, Joe Sinwell ’12 and Max Fulgoni ’12 enjoy their final King of Hearts dinner in the Dinning Hall. Contributed The technique yields a visible effect on the swimmers. “You may notice that we get a little bit crazier, a little more energy, a little bubblier, [during taper] because our bodies are starting to recover after 6 months of wear and tear,” said Team Captain Morgan Bober ’12. The Women’s team is building momentum as the season nears its end. Claire Williams ’13 just set an American record for the 1000 freestyle in her division of the Paralympics with a time of 11:57.25 and Team Captain Kelly Bruce ’12 just broke the school record in the one-meter diving by 1.9 points with a score of 277.50. “Many people have been swimming really well and feeling really great, and that’s absolutely the kind of attitude you have to have going into this. It sets a certain tone, just really amps people up, and really gets them going,” Bober said. The Mad Ducks have high hopes for Bruce going into the MWC conference tournament. “What I hope for [Kelly] is that her best meet is yet to come. That’s a great way to go out as a senior. She put in all the hard work. Hopefully her scores and her video tape will get her to Nationals and beyond conference,” said Coach Hurley. “As a senior, I really just want to do everything to the best of my abilities, go out with a bang, and see what I can do,” said Bruce. The women’s team is going into the tournament with a focus on performing their best on an individual level. “We’ve tried to put our focus less on winning conference and more on swimming really well individually, so we’ve sort of set ourselves a goal of trying to get 100 percent personal best times,” Bober said. “That being said, we obviously really want to win and are going to do everything we can to do so, but it’s a sport, you know, it doesn’t always go the way you want it to.” The men’s team also has a positive attitude going into the conference tournament. Last year, Michael Brus ’14 finished fourth at the NCAA Division III National Championships in the 200 backstroke and Coach Hurley and the Team Captains have high expectations for him again this year. “We’re shooting for those automatic cuts for him to get him back to Nationals and do big things there,” said Coach Hurley. “He’s so great; his attitude’s the best. He never talks about himself, he always talks about the team first which is great for one of your best swimmers to do, put the team first. But even then, he’ll succeed in the water this weekend, and probably go to nationals again,” said Team Captain Joe Sinnwell ’12. The Mad Dawgs are aiming to send a men’s relay to nationals this year. “They only pick 16 relays in the country to go. So I think our best probability would be the 800 freestyle relay and the people looking to be on that are Michael Brus [’14], Tom Lankiewicz [’12], Joe Lytle [’14], and Ethan Drutchas [’12]. I think if they go 6 minutes 50 seconds, which is about 7 seconds faster than they did last year, they could do it, but it’s going to be tough,” Hurley said. “We’re pretty comfortable that we can get a B-cut, and hopefully send that relay [to Nationals],” Sinnwell said. The men’s team is on a conference tournament-winning streak of 10 years, Sinnwell thinks the men have what it takes to win conference again this year. “We’re one of the only teams that can fill out the whole roster of 18 swimmers who score and the seven who swim for exhibition. The exhibition team is going to try to out-score an entire team somewhere else in the conference, so hopefully we can raise the level of competition in the conference by dominating this year,” Sinnwell said. Both the men and women’s teams will swim this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 17-19 in the Midwest Conference Tournament at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. New Budgets Cause Senator Feud Joint Board passed the Spring 2012 Budget with overwhelming support on Wednesday, despite a lengthy and heated debate on the $25,000 allocated to Films for the spring semester. It was a stressful start for new SGA Films Chair Phillip Brogdon ’12, who was confirmed earlier in the meeting. “Something’s got to be done about Films,” said Senator Max Farrell ’12, who calculated that SGA is paying $50 to $70 per movie viewer, given low attendance at events and high screening fees. Senator Tom Van Heeke ’12 proposed that SGA slash the budget for Films and save the money, instead of overfunding an outdated department. Natalie Pace ’14 asked Joint Board to consider donating the money to charities in the Grinnell community. Both of those suggestions met vehement opposition. “We don’t actually know how many people attend these events,” said Administrative Coordinator Alex White ’12, disputing Farrell’s shaky math. “We don’t sell tickets—the events are free. You can’t come up with a per viewer cost.” “SGA does not decide its income,” said Scarlet and Black Editor-in-Chief and recently declared SGA presidential candidate Solomon Miller ’13, explaining the importance of the student activity fee. “Joint Board’s job is to spend almost all of that money to meet the needs of the student population as efficiently as possible.” VPSA Chris Dorman ’12 tried to reach a compromise. He said that unhappy senators should focus on “what a films committee should look like in the 21st Century,” by proposing solutions for low event attendance, not slashing budgets. Farrell, Van Heeke, and Ryan Creps ’12 were the only three senators who did not vote to approve the budget. In his report at the start of Joint Board, Dorman recounted the start of a new project for the Dining Hall—the quest for Nutella. Because the hazelnut chocolate spread is protected by licensing laws, it cannot be purchased for use in the JRC. However, student demand has convinced the chefs to work on their own recipe. They hope to discover the perfect blend of hazelnut and chocolate sometime soon. SGA President Gabe Schechter ’12 spoke in favor of Senator Sam Mulopulos’s ’14 proposal to have better cooperation and coordination between Joint Board and Grinnell’s security forces. “So much crap was going on [last semester] that I couldn’t believe it,” said Assistant Director of Security Russ Motta. “It seemed like we couldn’t get it under control. We were not pleased with last semester, either, so we are happy that you guys are paying attention and want to work with us.” The proposal was passed with all voting senators in favor and two abstentions. Student involvement and attention will be especially needed in the next few weeks. The Student Initiative Committee reminds Grinnellians that initiative proposals are due today at 5 p.m. Voting on those proposals and amendments to the SGA Constitution will occur on Wednesday, Feb. 22. Also, Schechter encourages all Grinnellians to comment on the administration’s new off-campus alcohol policy by following the link on the homepage of Pioneer Web. “If you don’t show interest this time, they don’t have to extend the opportunity next time,” he said. Finally, Presiding Officer Peter Aldrich ’15 ended the meeting with an unapologetic explanation of his “hard ass” attitude, following Farrell’s frequent tedious taunts in Joint Board and the pages of the S&B. “I’m paid to enforce Robert’s Rules,” said Aldrich. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.” New VP Bagnoli on Admissions On Feb. 6, President Kington announced Joe Bagnoli as the new Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Bagnoli joins Grinnell after serving as Dean of Enrollment and Academic Services at Berea College. The Scarlet and Black interviewed Bagnoli so that students could get to know him and his new position. What are your duties going to entail in your new position? As Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, I have been assigned organizational responsibility for the departments of Admission and Financial Aid. As a member of President Kington’s administrative team, I will also participate in Strategic Planning and operational initiatives at Grinnell. What are some of your thoughts about Grinnell? I see in Grinnell, a college eager to express its raison d’être through the students it seeks to serve—a place committed to excellence with clear goals for student learning and achievement.