First Stroke

The first stroke to be swum competitively was the breaststroke. It was contested in the Ancient Greek Olympics and there are artifacts with artistic depictions of swimmers doing the breaststroke. Front crawl or freestyle, was developed around 100 years ago as Australian and British swimmers used the overarm stroke they saw Polynesians using. John Trudgen introduced the overarm stroke with a scissors kick, the Australian crawl had the swimmer flutter kick between scissor kicks. It became known as the American crawl when only the flutter kick was used. Butterfly developed from the breaststroke and was identified as a separate stroke in 1952. Well into the 1960's YMCA swimming still allowed a breaststroke kick with the butterfly stroke.

GVSU Sports features Swimming and Diving

Here is a link to the interviews with Coach Andy Boyce, Senior Allison Scholz and Sophomore Aaron Beebe on GVSU Sports. Next week, they are planning on interviewing team members whose names start with "B".

http://www.wgvu.org/gvsports/

Patrick VanDommelen and Kelsey Vermeer were named the male and female GLIAC Swimmer an Diver of the week for their efforts in the Findlay meet. Patrick earned his NCAA National cuts at the meet, and Kelsey won the 50 freestyle and was part of both winning relays. Congratulations to these outstanding athletes!

GLIAC Athletes of the Week

Karen Verbrugge and Justin Pattermann have been named GLIAC Swimming and Diving Athletes of the Week by the GLIAC office. Karen was a double winner against Wayne State and Justin won the 100 Butterfly and 200 IM to help lead the Lakers over WSU.

Westside-Eastside Showdown

GVSU and Wayne State started a new tradition this year by creating a trophy for the annual Westside-Eastside showdown. Points were awarded for winning each of the men's or women's meets and also for the school that was the top charity fundraiser. GVSU men won, Wayne State women won and even though I was quite touched by the fact that Wayne State chose to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in my grandson's name, Grand Valley out-fundraised Wayne State to win the first annual trophy.

The meet was very good, the times were fast and the crowd was loud and proud for both schools. What an exciting college swimming meet!!

Winter Break Training in Florida

The Lakers are in the middle of their training trip to Ft. Pierce, FL. Compared to Allendle, the tempatures are quite warm. However, they are much colder than the team hoped for. This morning's practice with air temps in the upper 30's was an adventure. This afternoon will feature a meet with Alma College.

The Lakers are getting in some GREAT training and building a terrific base for the final part of the season. New rankings are out and the Laker men remain first with the University of Incarnate Word in second. The lady Lakers are still second to Wayne State.

Most common college mascot name

When I posted the trivia question, I was sure that Tigers was the most popular name. After some research, the actual answer is the Eagles with Tigers second. Warriors comes in a distant 11th. The Banana Slugs are the mascot of UC Davis.