Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Swimming & Diving Blog - Caroline Orem
11/2/2015 5:06:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving
So far in the 2015-16 season, the Bucknell Bison are off to a great start with our training and competing. We have been working extremely hard in and out of the pool, and we are excited to continue this dedication and teamwork into the following months of our season.
Outside of the pool, in September we spent a lot of time bonding with our new freshmen, coming up with team goals for the season, and focusing on our recruiting class for next year.
This past month we have definitely increased our level of training and have had three great dual meets against UMBC, Boston U. and Pittsburgh. These meets were a nice start to get the ball rolling for us. All of those teams were great competition, but we are excited for what lies ahead in November. Between the strenuous practices and the intense dry-land training, we have definitely laid the proper groundwork to proceed with our competition the rest of the season. November comes with two very important meets for us; the quad meet at Navy (Bucknell, Navy, Lafayette and American) and the Bucknell Invitational. We really look forward to the quad meet because it is a great opportunity to compete against not just one, but three Patriot League teams in the pool where Championships will be held in February. The Bucknell Invitational is another exciting meet for us because it heightens our team's energy and emphasizes our support for one another. It falls pretty much right in the middle of our season, which we usually take advantage of to rest for a couple of days. We also really appreciate the turnout and support from alumni, friends and family who come to watch the Bison take on some tough competition from all over the Northeast. The short taper we do for this meet tends to show us what tremendous progress we have made so far in the season.
Reflecting back to the month of September, one of the major things we concentrated on was creating our team goals for the season. We put a lot of thought into these goals because we use them as the foundation of everything we do for this program. Team goals are something that both the men's and women's team take very seriously and our captains have done a great job of reiterating the importance of them. Our final list is written on a large poster in our locker room which reminds us every day what we are there to do.
Every year since I have joined this team, I can honestly say that we always find a way to get closer than the year before. This year in particular, we have had a lot of great team activities outside of the pool, such as community service projects and going to a lot of fun campus events after practice. At the end of October, we helped out at the Riverwoods Community Center to get ready for Halloween by carving pumpkins with the senior citizens and trick-or-treating with children at the Halloween party later on in that week. These events have contributed greatly to our team unity and emphasizes our passion for working together outside of the pool. We have become such a close-knit group of young women that are always working towards making the team the best that we can be. We have been training at levels that we have never reached before, which can only mean good things for the future. It is easy to say that everyone on our team gives 110% in the pool and in the weight room every day which is one of the reasons why I am extremely confident in the way rest of the season will turn out. We are all excited for the upcoming months and are ready to continue to challenge ourselves and swim fast!
Go Bison!
Players Mentioned
