Plus Two

Another hot day for practice, but things were slightly different. Today, we got rewarded. Rewarded with a pool party. But to go to the party, one had to make it through practice first.

For most guys, this meant one of a couple different routes to Conway Park and then a couple tempo miles. We did the plus two tempo miles to get a little bit of speed work in before the highly anticipated Alumni Race this weekend. Everyone battled and took care of business on the tempos. I had Rob with me which made it way better.

After a stop at the picket we headed back to DeSmet. Rob, our new coach and 4 year member of the team in the early 2000s, gave Jacob and I a history lesson on some of the teams of the past. It is always cool to hear about the guys that have come before us in the program. There are so many stories, all of them unique. During the stretching, we realized it was Potter’s birthday, so we sang to him. Then, he got the water dump, fortunately for him there wasn’t much water left.


For the 2nd year in a row the team pool party was at Coach Boland’s house. And again it was a blast. Thank you very much for having us Coach. There was a bunch of stuff to do: basketball, washers, ladder golf, trampoline, and of course the pool. After defeating Matt OC in both ladder golf and washers, we teamed up to become team washers champions with our victory over Waller-Martini. During this time all sorts of craziness was happening in the pool. Splash bombs were going everywhere hitting anyone that they pleased. Patrick was being launched and did a flip. The grand finale was the races: Team Callahan (Michael, Patrick, Morris, and Sullivan) vs. Team Abernathy (Kevin, Matt, Potrzeboski, and LaBarge). It started with two freestyle relay races. With excellent performances from OC, Team Abernathy took both races. Next was the medley. Again Team Abernathy won as Potrzeboski beat out Sullivan on the final leg. Matt and I put our undefeated record on the line in one final race: 2v2 first half breaststroke second half freestyle. Patrick and I were dead even through the first leg. It came down to Michael and Matt. Mike took the lead on the breast, but Matt kicked him down in the free securing the victory by the slightest of margins.

This great day was capped off with another practice. This time it was a 1 or 2 mile run, weights, and core. The top guys saw the return of speed skating as the 2 miler was broken into two races. Again it was Abernathy and O’Connor on top, as each finished with a Gold and a Silver.

Quote of the Day: “Tell Coach Traughber that I said you could have the day off.”- Coach Vitello as we ran by on the warm-up.

Joke of the Day: “At least it wasn’t a jellyfish”- Matt O’Connor in response to someone saying they were stung by a bee. As most of us know, Matt was stung in the face by a jellyfish while vacationing in North Carolina.

Best Dressed: Matt OC. Having an all-around solid day will enhance anyone’s appearance. He was rocking the Jamers today. Yes, the half tights of swimming. After wearing them under his shorts during the first practice, he finally showed them off when it was race time in the pool.