By: Victoria Hamel
Swimming 18-20+ miles a week, putting additional hours into the weight room, balancing class and work schedules and filling up weekends traveling to meets. These things are all apart of being a member of UW-Whitewater’s swim and dive team.
Our team currently has 20 girls and 17 boys rostered and we are coached by Elise Knoche.
Our team competes from the beginning of October until the middle of February ending the season at WIAC championships. However, if members make it to the NCAA championships, their season stretches until the end of March. Beyond dual meets and invites, the season is packed with intense pool and weight-room training, team gatherings and meetings, volunteering, and a ten day training trip in January. The team has gone to Puerto Rico, California and most recently Florida for their training trips. Within eight days, the team has 14 in pool practices and additional out of pool workouts. Although these workouts and meets can be long and tiring, being able to compete in the sport you love, with a team as great as the one here at UW-W, makes it all worth it.
On of the best parts of representing Whitewater and being a hawk through the swim and dive program is the feeling of purpose and passion. As a team we work towards our individual and team goals together and we share the mindset to bettering ourselves everyday. We share victories and we share losses, but no matter the outcome we come back day after day to train because of our shared passion. As challenging as the sport of swimming can be, together we carry the hawk spirit and continuously overcomes triumphs in and out of the pool. Being apart of a team that is full of passion and dedication has shaped not only myself into a better person, but my teammates as well.
Although being apart of the UW-W Swim and Dive program lasts only 4 years, the knowledges that I have gained form being apart of a team like this will last a life time. Whether it’s an intramural, club or collegiate sport, I feel that everyone should experience what it’s like to be apart of a team in college.
No matter what, we are, and always will be Warhawks.
Hawks on three- 1, 2, 3. Hawks!
If your interested in utilizing the pool during open swim hours, visit: https://www.uww.edu/recsports/about/hours
Feel free to check out our team schedule for the rest of the semester at: https://uwwsports.com/sports/mens-swimming-and-diving/schedule
Follow the team on social media for season updates:
Twitter: UWW Swim & Dive (@UWWSwimandDive)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uwwswimdive/?hl=en
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