Miami Swimming- Brendan Melling

Hello and Greetings my name is Brendan Melling and I am a junior here at Miami from Cleveland, Ohio.  I am an Economics major and a Statistics and Actuarial Science minor.  I swim distance free and IM and like to dabble in the 50 free as well.

            As John said in his last post we have just come off two duel meet victories to start off the New Year and the team couldn’t be more pumped up.  It is exciting to see my teammates swimming so fast despite being broken down from winter training.  The last two weeks, however, we have been preparing ourselves for our next duel meet this weekend against Eastern Michigan.  For those of you that don’t know, there is a long rivalry between Miami and Easterns’ swim programs and quite frankly… well… we really don’t like them.  Though it can be intimidating facing off against last years MAC champions, the team has been using this as motivation and I feel that we are the most prepared to face them than we have been throughout my previous 2 years here.  The team has trained extremely hard and has the mental edge that will be required to travel up north to beat them.

            So apart from our determination to take down that school up north, we have also had the (dis)pleasure of starting up classes for the second semester.  It is always tricky starting the second semester because we must immediately juggle swimming and school work, as opposed to the first semester where practices don’t start until the second week and meets aren’t until October.  From what I have heard my teammates have made the transition and are already spending there nights at King Library and not playing Call of Duty…  

            Anyway, the end of the season will be here before any of us know it and our team has our goal and we haven’t lost sight of it.  The meet this weekend will be a good test of our skill and a good precursor to what the energy at the MAC meet will be like.  Make sure to check out the results this weekend.

Love and Honor,

Melling

Miami University- John Eick

The first semester of our season is complete, and I am very pleased with where the team is right now. With two wins under our belts this second semester already, I think our hard work is starting to show. The word ‘hard’ is hardly stressful enough of a word to describe our training trip that took place here in Oxford this winter. We experienced ten days straight of strenuous workouts comprised of swimming, dryland, and weights. Every practice was difficult and most are now blurs as I can hardly remember when one ended and another began. This past winter was certainly the most difficult winter training experience of my life, but the rewards are already showing as I also feel in the best shape of my swimming career and am swimming faster in duel meets than ever before.
As a senior and having completed most of my required classes already, my schedule this semester is what one could describe as ‘comfortable’. For my last year here at Miami I wanted to make sure that I could fully prepare for our conference meet without the stresses of having to make multiple deadlines for many of my classes. One class that I am in now that I highly recommend no matter where you attend college is Intro to Personal Finance. It is a lot of useful information about the basics of saving, stocks, credit, and preparing for retirement. Yes, retirement. It is still a long ways away but you need to prepare while you’re young! I’ve already learned this and many other handy things.
I am very excited for taper to start, which for a sprinter is almost as fun as Christmas, and I am excited to see my teammates perform as the season nears its end. I am also excited to figure out where I will be attending medical school next year. If you are reading this and still trying to figure out where you want to go to school next year, I am right there with you. I wish you the best of luck!

John Eick
Class of ‘11