A Day in the Life: Matt Lenton, Day 6

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, February 13. IN the sixth submission of his "A Day in the Life" series, Indiana University sophomore Matt Lenton writes about the importance of bulletin board material leading up to a championship meet. According to Lenton, Minnesota swimmers and divers have been quoted as saying that they should have won the title last year and that they will win this year. SwimmingWorldMagazine.com cannot find those specific quotes online, as they may have appeared in a print version somewhere. Either way, the Hoosiers look to be a motivated bunch heading into the Big Ten meet.

Monday, February 12, 2007, Day 6
Hey YA'LL (I'm working on my American slang.)

Today was certainly an interesting day as the first shots were fired leading into the Big Ten Championships this week. We have heard that archrival Minnesota has been quoted as saying that they should have won the title last year and that they will win this year because we are a much weaker team and don't deserve it. When I hear words like that, I can't help but get fired up, and it only motivates the team more to beat Minnesota to win Big Tens.

I woke up today and began packing and just trying to take everything relatively easy. After class, I headed on down to the pool for more of a loosen-up swim than anything else. I got started with 4 x 150's swim kick pull swim followed 4 x 50's at 70 percent working mid-pool turns. Then, onto 2 x 100's again mid-pool turns working breakouts and then into 200 easy kick to shake the legs out.

After this Frazier 'Fresh' Miller, Mark 'Chopper' Wetzel and I worked on some dives focusing on reaction time and entry point. Senior Drew 'Boom-shak-a-laka' Ossakow spoke to the men's sprint team today about the importance of visualization before a race – something very important that I think most athletes often forget to do.

After practice, I spent some time with Ben 'Bruiser' Hesen and new coach Ryan 'Fighting Fit' Millard discussing various aspects of school life over dinner.

Heading home, I couldn't help but feel the racing butterflies in my stomach as I thought about what we really could do as a team this year. We have worked so hard and I don't want to say we deserve it, because I'm sure every team does, but I want us to earn it as a team – something I think we can really do if we come out and race aggressively.

After some last-minute packing with assistance from team manager Andrea 'OC' Weintraub, I chilled out on the couch watching an episode of Sopranos before calling it a night. Tomorrow, we travel to Ohio and it is expected to take up to 8 hours (normally taking 4) because of a bad storm expected to hit the midwest this evening.

Speak to you on Ohio time.

Matt

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