A Day in the Life.....

This week's A Day in the Life comes from freshman Jessica Reed-Baum.  Coming from just down the road in Loveland, CO, Jessica swims the Sprint Freestyle events for the Bears and has already been a scoring contributor in both individual and relay events.

Freshman Jessica Reed-Baum

Music? Hannah? Oh no… Alarm- it’s that time again, time to wake up for weight lifting. I spring myself out of my glorious bed and ponder what I am going to rock at weights that morning. Oh of course! The same outfit everyone wears! The fabulous gray UNC Swimming and Diving shirt perfectly paired with the show stopping navy blue Under Armor shorts. I meet up with my astounding roommates-Hannah, Casey, and Melissa-in the living room where I complement them all on their breathtaking stylish outfits and bounce out the door to Butler-Hancock. Once at weight lifting, I joyously greet our strength coach Emily and all my teammates. Seeing all their bright shining faces tickles my heart. Now it’s business time. Pick up weights, put them down, pick them back up again. After a brilliant hour of such activities, it is time for breakfast. Omelet or waffle or bacon? OR how about an omelet inside a waffle all wrapped in bacon?? I couldn’t be more proud of my decision at this point. Omelet-waffle-bacon it is, now time for classes. I meander my way to History where I learn there was a time period without cell phones and Facebook? Get out.  I then gallivant to my favorite class, Psychology. It is here that I learn about my brain and why it isn’t as efficient as Albert Einstein’s. I promise myself that it will be one day. You just wait Mr. Einstein.  After Psychology, I mosey my way to the University Center where I pick up a bagel from Einstein’s Bagels, ironic isn’t it? Once my delicious asiago bagel vanishes below my nose I make my way over to the pool. The anticipation is abundant during this trek-full of excitement and adventure. Walking through the pool doors and seeing everyone’s bright eyed, bushy tails soothes my soul. I can’t wait for tonight’s activities. We all “suit” up and once again-it’s business time. Back and forth, up and down. We get stuff done.  Following business time, is dinner, hamburger, chicken, and pasta? I think yes. Now my favorite part of the day-roommate time. I change into my favorite blue sweater and wind down with no other than KE$HA. If I’m feeling spunky, I strut it up with my bear hat. After all, we are the Bears. This all makes for one stupendous day as a UNC Swimmer. I would never trade it for anything.

Great Start to the Season

The AquaBears have started off the 2011-2012 season with a bang!  Solid performances were turned in the first weekend of October at the Intermountain Shootout in Grand Junction, CO; the returners were at or faster than in-season times from last year while the freshman showed what they are made up in both individual events and relays.  A short two weeks later the Bears dominated Nebraska-Omaha by winning 12 out of 16 events; top performances were turned in by Gina Riggle, Courtney Van Oost and Sarah Moldenhauer.  The Bears have Air Force, Univ. of New Mexico and New Mexico State all within the next week and a half, its going to go by quick and no doubt they will be able to handle it!

Keep checking out both our Facebook Page and UNCBears.com for updates and pictures from the season.

Thanks for your support! GO BEARS!

This week's A Day in the Life of an AquaBear comes from Freshman Jasmine Fryrear. Jasmine, who is from San Diego, CA, gives us a rendition of the Ke$ha Tik Tok song to describe her day as a Bear.



Jasmine Fryrear



Wake up in the morning feeling like a zombie (hey what up moon)

Grab my clothes I’m out the door I’m gonna do this swimming.

Before I leave, rub the sleepy gunk out of my eyes because when I leave for practice there’s no coming back.

I’m talking suits riding up our butts butts, boys chekin out our sweats sweats, food filling up our guts guts

Swim starting , playing our favorite CDs

Outside it’s around 20 degrees

Trying not to be sleepy

Can’t stop, swim a lot

Swim will be the death of me

Today, I’m a fight

Til I get this time right

Tik tok on the clock

But the swimming don’t stop

Owwwowwwowowww

Can’t stop, Swim a lot

Swim will be the death of me

Today, I’m a fight

Til I get this time right

Tik tok on the clock

But the swimming don’t stop

Owwwowwwowowww

Ain’t got a care in the world, but I smell like chlorine

Ain’t got no shirts in my closet, cuz I got all this gear

And now, the fans are lining up cuz they hear we got speed

So we show them how the NC bears will succeed

I’m talking about NC bears getting crunk crunk

Teams tryin to get our spunk spunk

Gonna swim so I don’t sunk sunk

Now, now we swim til our food comes out

Or the team does a breakdown

The team breaksdown

Breakdown, down

Can’t stop, Swim a lot

Swim will be the death of me

Today, I’m a fight

Til I get this time right

Tik tok on the clock

But the swimming don’t stop

Owwwowwwowowww

Can’t stop, Swim a lot

Swim will be the death of me

Today, I’m a fight

Til I get this time right

Tik tok on the clock

But the swimming don’t stop

Owwwowwwowowww

Kelly, you build me up

You break me down

My heart it pounds cuz I can’t breathe

With my arms ripped

You got me now

I got that speed

Yea, I got it

Kelly, you build me up

You break me down

My heart it pounds cuz I can’t breathe

With my arms ripped

The teams arms ripped

The teams arms ripped

Now the swimming don’t start til the Bears walks in

Can’t stop, Swim a lot

Swim will be the death of me

Today, I’m a fight

Til I get this time right

Tik tok on the clock

But the swimming don’t stop

Owwwowwwowowww

In other words, life as a freshman on the UNC swim team is tik tokking! Although zombies and sweats aren’t everyone’s ideal approach to their day, I live for these days. I’ve had two full meals by the time many people have even woken up and I’m also asleep before many people’s classes are over. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this crazy stuff without the support of Ke$ha songs and my team mates. I love the smell of chlorine, banking study hall hours, and devouring the Holmes Dining hall food. The daily life of a freshman UNC swimmer is supported through a loving and goofy family that devotes hours of time to swimming and the team. Now break it down again!

A Day in the Life.....Blue vs. Gold

This week Sophomore Kira Alger talks about the Aquabears' Blue vs. Gold Intersquad meet; from Monument, Colorado, Kira swims Sprint and Mid-Distance Freestyle for the Bears.

Sophomore Kira Alger

 Today feels like any other day. First thing in the morning I wake up at 5:30 a.m. to go pump some iron with the team. Our weight trainer, Emily, pushes us to the limit. If I think I can’t go any lower on squats she tells me to go a little lower. If I think I can’t lift anymore weight she tells me to add five more pounds. It’s hard to believe that I have to swim in a meet later this afternoon. I was a little nervous as to how well I was actually going to do with all this working out we were doing prior to the meet.

            I go back to my apartment and take a quick nap before my first class. I find it a little sad that I am already taking a nap at 7:30 a.m., but I have to prepare myself for the afternoon. I wake up at 8:00 a.m. to start my day with a pleasant walk to my first class with my good friend Kaitlin Sorenson, who also happens to be on the swim team. We talk about anything and everything; it’s nice to talk to someone who is going through the same obstacles of being a student-athlete. I walk quickly from Kepner to Michener Library for my next class, psychology. Even with my long, fast strides I still don’t make it to class on time! I always have to sneak into the back of the classroom so that I don’t distract people from the professor. Today’s lecture is on sleep deprivation and talking about sleep made me sleepy. Next is Anthropology, I sit in the very front so that I can take good notes and pay close attention to the teacher, it’s so interesting!

            It’s almost noon and I have some time to wind down. I eat lunch and relax until 2:30 p.m. Today is the Blue and Gold meet, my first meet since Conference. I wasn’t sure what to expect or know how fast my times would be, but I knew one thing, I had to sprint my heart out. I swam the 50 free, 100 free, and anchored in the 400 free relay. Overall, I went a little faster than I did last year at this same point. I already see improvement and it’s so early in the season! The coach was very happy with me.

            Afterwards we had a team dinner. It was delicious! I loved it. My roommate, Jamie Byrne, and I stayed at the team dinner until the end. Patience is a virtue. When everyone left we stuck around long enough so that we got to bring some of the delicious chicken home with us. We had food for the rest of the month! I figured that was a good way to ended my day.