Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Swimming and Diving Blog - Matthew Segar
12/15/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Dec. 15, 2011
The past month has been incredibly busy for the men's team. Before leaving for Thanksgiving break, we competed in the Bison Invite held in our home pool. Each year, the winter invitational gives us a chance to get up and race fast competition and assess where we are as a team. We ended the three-day competition by winning the invite and achieving numerous season and lifetime best times. Mike Nicholson was the standout performer after breaking Jim Harvey's 23-year-old record in the 200 butterfly. We were pleased with our performances over the weekend, but realized we still have a long way to go before championships in February.
After break, Mike Nicholson, Emily Wright, and I traveled to Atlanta, Ga., for the AT&T Winter Nationals held at Georgia Tech. It was an incredible experience swimming in the same pool that hosted the 1996 Olympic Games. There, we not only saw some of the greatest swimmers in country, but also competed against Olympians from France, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. After adding time in the 400 freestyle the first day, I was a little nervous about how the meet was going to pan out. Thankfully, the next day I managed to put together the best 200 freestyle of my life to join Erik Heinemann and Emily Norton in qualifying for the US Olympic Trials in June. It was a surreal experience and I was extremely appreciative to have my parents and high school swim coach there to help revel in the experience. After the last session, we were exhausted. However, our weekend was far from over.
We traveled late into the night to meet up with the rest of the team in Philadelphia for a dual meet against La Salle. Last year, we ended up losing to the Explorers in the final relay. This year, we made it a team goal to not make the same mistake twice. We came to race and did exactly that. Mike Nicholson, Tom Brown, Erik Heinemann, and Eric Sokolosky helped combine for nine individual event wins. Overall, we ended the first half of the season on a high note. The next three weeks will allow us to focus on our training and gear up for a difficult couple of dual meets and championship season. After seeing so much success the past few months, I'm anxious to see what the second half of the season has in store.
