Thursday, February 25, 2010

And the Lyons have it! (Talent, I mean)

Ciao Ciao!

We are fresh from a stunning victory at the Regional meet at UPENN. Our trio, consisting of Christiana Butera, Jenna Swinkin and Kirsten Wendth, captured the first place in an unexpected outcome. This is the first time since 2003 that Canisius has not dominated all the events. We are ecstatic to see where our routines are going to place at Nationals in just two short weeks. Regionals was wonderful, some parents came up; such as mine, Christiana's father and Kirstens parents and grandmother. The strong support definitely helped out our swims, plus no matter what parents always think their children did wonderful.

This week has been spent preparing for this weekend's Canisius invitational, for which if nothing else we are looking forward to the amount of homework one can get done on a seven hour bus ride. In reality though, more important is the amazing food we receive at Ana's house on the way home, and also the competition.

As for me personally, there is some exciting news. I am turning 20 tomorrow and cannot wait to make cupcakes tonight (I mean... I cannot wait to eat all my veggies and lean chicken)! School has been going well, right now I am reading The Road for a class, and if any of you have spare time I highly recommend it. Along those lines, I am off to be productive student right now.

Here are some pictures from Regionals:






Buon Suerte!

Amanda =]

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Snow Day (but where exactly is the snow?)

Hello All!

I hope everyone is keeping warm, and training hard! Today Wheaton canceled classes after noon in preparation for the huge snowstorm that was supposed to come in. This alleged "snowstorm" however ended up just being a free day for us, as it is not actually snowing currently, but raining. At practice we were talking about planning a huge snowball fight and snow angels, then we walked outside and thought "Oh, maybe its supposed to snow later..."

Practice has been great this week, we are making some much needed alterations and working with weight belts. (Those are the devil, as I am sure most of you know.) My small routines are tweaking strokes and hybrids, and already are seeing improving, especially with the extra practices. The other small routines are looking great, and we are psyched to see how they are going to look by the time Nationals comes around!

I am taking five classes this semester, and they are all wonderful. Of course my class that was canceled today we were supposed to watch a film, because isn't that how these things always work out?

I cannot wait for single appreciation day! We have this weekend off, and plan to spend it catching up on homework, as well as sleep. Also I plan to go into Boston for some site seeing and nerdy-ness, maybe going into the Boston Museum of Science?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend spent with good people! PS if you all need plans, you should watch My Cousin Vinny, it is a wonderful movie.

Take Care!

Amanda =]

Thursday, February 4, 2010

New Semester, New Blogger!

Hello Hello Hello!



This is your second semester blogger, Amanda. I am a sophomore here at Wheaton, I enjoy walks along the beach at sunset, good movies, and synchro! I am from Lakeland, Florida, and swam for the Lakeland Flamingos. I am currently undeclared but very interested in History and Secondary Education, as well as the athletic training route. This is my 12 season as a swimmer, and I am fortunate to have a duet and trio with some wonderful girls.

We have just started our competition season and while our Winter Training is over now, I feel you all should know how it went. We left for the great island of Puerto Rico on the 28 of December and immediately hit the water hard. While there we trained every day save our "rest day," which we spent the day lounging and dancing and blowing off the crazy at the beach and walking around Old San Juan. Our training consisted of an all day water day, then after showering we did cardio. Cardio Tennis was by far the highlight of our nights, and I'm sure none of you are surprised when I say we are all water people for a reason. While training was brutal in PR, we came back to school with a determined attitude to work hard until the start of classes. Our two a days were nothing easy, but the addition of Track and Basketball being on campus made for some wild nights. (Don't get any ideas now though, they were spent destroying the track or basketball kids at monopoly and taboo and or movie nights, because yes, we are that cool =])


We have just started our competitions and have just come from the high that can only be experienced at a home meet. The amount of students that came to see us was astounding. The walkout counters literally had to yell over the deafening cheers. The athletic directors were present as well, but the most important part, our friends, showed beyond our expectations. The parents that came also were a welcome site, sadly my own were unable to come. We had a good showing of schools come, and the meet (thank goodness) ran quickly and smoothly.

We head to Canisius in Buffalo tomorrow for a routines only meet, where my teammate Ana is from. One good thing about having teammates from the Northeast is the home cooked meals, and her parents have offered to make just that for us on our journey back to school. I for one am looking forward to a free meal that is not campus food (although our food rocks).


That is all for this post, I will be posting every week for the remainder of the semester, so be on the lookout! Here are some pictured from Puerto Rico and the BU meet for entertainment!



















Hope everyones weekend is wonderful!
Amanda =]