Sometimes Anya Arndt, senior captain of the women’s swim team, forgets that the men’s and women’s teams are technically separate. They do everything together.
Except compete in Speedos, that is.
“My favorite part of the CC swim team is that the people on it are my family,” Arndt said. “The swim team is an absolutely phenomenal group of people who are extremely dedicated to swimming, school, tons of other campus activities, and, of course, each other.”
Brenna Day, the other women’s captain, agrees.
“Most swimmers I have met, especially those at CC, have a strong work ethic, a great sense of humor, belief in loyalty and honesty among friends and teammates over all else, and they like to play hard. We spend so much time struggling together in order to improve that we create a very strong bond,” Day said.
Hopefully this work will pay off because Day and Arndt have high hopes for the season.
“Overall, I want the team to place within the top three at our regional meet, and I want our new faces to experience the bliss of racing at sea level after training at altitude and get some lifetime best times!” Day said.
Arndt said that there is an amazing group of freshmen that will help the team, and she can’t wait to see them compete.
“This is going to be a truly great year for CC swimming and diving as our team continues to grow and also gets more competitive with schools in our conference,” Arndt said.
The team is putting in the time outside of meets to prepare for this competition. They team practices for two and a half hours Monday through Saturday in addition to one-hour weight room sessions three times a week, Arndt said. The team will also return two weeks early from winter break to go on a training trip to with two-a-day practices.
“I’d count up the miles we swim to give you an idea, but honestly I don’t want to know how much I really swim on a weekly basis—especially during training trip. The magnitude of that number is something that would probably really scare me,” Arndt said.
Meets vary each year and the conference championship is over fifth block break.
Head Coach Anne Goodman James came to CC in 2006, leaving a Division I team, but finding a better balance of athletics and academics at CC.
“Swimming is something that our team members do and do well, but it is not their total identity,” James said.
The team members are involved in many other activities as well as their sports athletics on campus. Also, twice in the last six years, CC has had the highest GPA of any Division III Swimming and Diving team in the country, James said.
And while the team is very competitive, they know how to have fun. On Friday mornings there are themed lifts, ranging from bros, to 80s, to rednecks. Arndt said that they also introduced the strength coaches, Kevin Cronin and Tiana Perry, to flandex a couple weeks ago. According to Arndt, they loved it.
“The CC community should also probably know that seeing sexy swimmer men and women in Speedos racing can be a pretty enjoyable [Saturday] afternoon activity, so come to our meets!”
Look for the ladies’ wake in their first meet, when they swim against Air Force, Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Mesa University at the Air Force Academy at Nov. 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Ellie Cole
Staff Writer