A Day in the Life.....from a "Fresh" Point of View

This week's A Day in the Life is from Freshman Courtney Van Oost who gives us her take on the season and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships.  Courtney gives us some insight to her first year as a Division I athlete as every experience is a new one!



Freshman Courtney Van Oost



It is now the beginning of March and I can officially say that I made it through my first year of being a Division I college athlete!! Making it through my first year of swimming I can honestly say that I am very happy with the way it went. Now that the swim season is over, we have three weeks off from swimming. One of those weeks have passed, and it turns out I get pretty bored when every minute of my day is not taken up by swimming!! It is also weird not seeing my teammates and friends every day. I am not sure I like that!!

Although the season is over now, it did take a year of hard work to get to the end of the season. Before my three week break, my team mates and I were busy swimming, doing dry land, and lifting weights everyday of the week for a total of about twenty hours a week over the course of six months. All of that work led up to one week. That week would be conference. This year we were in a brand new conference, it is called the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF for short!) and it took place in Long Beach, California. This was the week that we all looked forward to all year!  At conference this year, I swam the 400 IM, 100 Backstroke, and the 200 Backstroke; I also swam butterfly on the 400 medley relay, and was on the 400 freestyle and 800 freestyle relays as well.

In my events at conference, I got a personal best time in everything. I was very happy with this, because I had personal goals for myself, and I achieved almost every one of them. Plus as a bonus, I scored points for the team and helped us to a sixth place finish overall!! Another plus about conference was that my mom got to come and watch me!! That was the only meet she came to all year long, and I am glad I made her proud by swimming so well!! Conference was so much more fun than I ever would have thought!! My teammates were the ones that made it so much fun though!! Without them I would have been a little bored!

I am a freshman, so this was my first year on this team. I was a little nervous when I first got to school because it was so far away from home, I didn’t know what to expect. I came from a high school that didn’t have a swim team, so I never really had the experience of a close team; coming to UNC, I was really looking forward to that experience. As it turns out, that is exactly what I found. The girls on this team are amazing!! When I realized how nice all the girls on the team were, I was no longer nervous about being so far away from home. We support each other, and we made it through this season of grueling workouts together.  This year was filled with great memories and such fun times. I swam well throughout the season, even surprising myself at times. I am leaving my freshman season very happy with my overall performances. There is not one thing I would change about this season other then swimming better in dual meets. The girls on this team are a big part of what made my freshman year great and memorable!!

Zones 2011

The divers had a great season, finishing strong at the Diving Zone Championships in Minneapolis, MN.  Congrats to Kelly and Sara for a fantastic job on the boards!  Check out the video of Sara having some fun in the Mall of America.  The next contestant for Dancing with the Stars!?!?!

Follow this link for more pictures of our team on our Facebook page  Team Pictures

A Day in the Life.....at MPSF Champs

This week Sophomore Hattie Oatts is bringing us some insight from her experiences at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Long Beach, CA.  Hattie is from Sheridan, Wyoming swimming the backstroke events for the AquaBears.  GO BEARS!

Sophomore Hattie Oatts

            It’s 8:00 AM and my Hanson’s “Mmmbop” alarm is going off, which my roommate for the week, Melissa, loves. She groggily wakes up, but I’ve already been lying in bed wide-awake for an hour. I am so nervous- more nervous than my usual nervous self. It’s the very last day of our MPSF conference meet and today I have the 200 backstroke.

            The team eats a quick breakfast at the hotel, and we climb in the vans for another adventure in Long Beach traffic. Driving those vans are no easy task for our coaches. Luckily, we drive down the beautiful shoreline, which distracts me from my nerves for minute or two. When we arrive at the Belmont Olympic Pool, I get warmed up and then get mentally prepped….. to put on my new Speedo LZR suit. A few deeps breaths, precision, and some wiggling, the suit is on. Good thing I will be swimming the backstroke to optimize what little air I am getting.

            The 200 back is the first event today, so I get up behind the blocks extra early to get ready. I visualize my race and jump around to get pumped up. I hear the whistle to enter the pool, and I step in. The race starts and I feel the effects of being tapered: I feel fast in the water. When I finally touch the pad and look up at the clock, I see that I got a best time, and I couldn’t be happier. I hop out of the pool, and wrap myself in my towel to watch the rest of my teammates complete their races.

            As the morning session wraps up, I realize that I just swam my last race for the season. My nervous calm down, and in that moment of clarity, I suddenly want an In and Out burger…. the best thing about California. Over lunch break my mom takes me there. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

            After lunch, the team packs back in the vans to go watch the girls that will be swimming the mile. Melissa, Tatum, Emily, and Amanda do a great job swimming, and they always impress me because that race is far from easy. Now there is a break in the meet for the swimmers to warm-up who will be competing finals. The team manages to squeeze in a quick photo shoot on the beach. The girls on our team do awesome. The stand out swim for me was watching our captain Tori get an NCAA B cut. She always works as hard as she can, and she very much deserved that time. The entire team was definitely inspired by her swim if not everything she does.

            Tonight we get to have a team celebratory dinner with our families now that we are all done with our 2010-2011 season. Dinner is awesome. We are eating delectable ribs, and the restaurant is letting us make our own ice-cream sundaes!  Being around everyone always reminds me how much I love my team. We always have fun together and its okay that I don’t always swim my best because I am only going to remember the fun times I had, and there are a lot of those. Looking back on this year of being an Aquabear as a sophomore, I appreciate my experience with my team as well swimming much more. Being a freshman is hard because that’s when everything in your life changes and it’s a little uncomfortable learning all those new things. This year I knew what to expect and I could really enjoy the experience. Hopefully, that is a sign that it’s only going to get better as time goes on! 

MPSF Championships!



NCAA Qualifier Tori Gutt



The AquaBears had an outstanding showing at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships last week in Long Beach, CA.  The divers showed their dominance on the boards with a 1st and 3rd finish on 1M and 1st-2nd finish on 3M, new relay records were set in the 200 Medley(Sammy Leonard, Amanda Donegan, Gina Riggle, JJ Smith) 400 Medley(Sammy Leonard, Tori Gutt, Courtney Van Oost, Gina Riggle), and 200 Free(Gina Riggle, Jamie Byrne, Kira Alger, JJ Smith) Relays and Tori Gutt set new records in the 400 IM, 100 Breast and 200 Breast making her NCAA "B" cut in the 200 Breast along the way!  In addition to new records both the Top 10 Athlete List and Top 10 Performance List were re-written many new times by the AquaBears both in swimming and diving.

Many thanks to all the fans who came out to support the Bears in their final meet of the season!  WAY TO GO BEARS!



1M & 3M MPSF Champion Kelly Schmeckpepper-Cook

Follow this link for a recap on each day's events Bears Swimming and Diving