Lake Travis Open Water National Championships

The Trinity women after the 5K swim. Photo taken by Leta Gatton and used with written permission.

Last Saturday, the swim team took yet another exciting trip! This time we went to Lake Travis in Austin, TX for the National Collegiate Open Water Championships. ‘Open water’ swimming is considered anything outside of a pool including lakes and oceans. For this race, we swam a 5K (or 3.1 miles) in Lake Travis by the Mansfield Dam. Trinity men and women competed in this race as well as Texas A&M women and Rice University women.

Our day started at 5:30 am in the Bell Center pool for a warm-up swim. Then we loaded up on the charter bus to make our way to Lake Travis. Much to our delight, we were served Panera bagels, Taco Cabana breakfast tacos, bananas, and orange juice on the ride over there. After about an hour and a half, we arrived at the lake with happy tummies and a bit of nerves as we anticipated our hour+ race.

Once there, all athletes checked in and had their race number written on our arms for identification. Then right at nine o’clock, we swam out to the starting line (marked by a bright orange buoy) and the air horn sounded and the race began.

The start of the race. Photo taken by Leta Gatton and used with written permission.

Open water swimming is a different experience than regular swimming. While there are orange buoys marking the route, the majority of the race is figuring out which way to go and how to get there more efficiently. When you’re a mile away from the next buoy, it’s hard to see and you have to pick your head up while you swim to make sure you aren’t veering off course. Another difference is not being able to see anything underwater. Lake Travis visibility was about three feet in front of you and it was a bit claustrophobic at first.

About an hour later, the first swimmer finished from Texas A&M. Then about half an hour after that, the last swimming finished their three-mile swim.  The over-all results were Trinity Men in first place, then A&M women were first, Rice women were second, and Trinity women came in third place. Overall, it was a very successful and enjoyable race for the Trinity swim team. Once we were warm and dry, we loaded up on the bus and were treated to Wendy’s for lunch.

Our next adventure will be one of our most exciting trips: the swim team is traveling to Florida to race against Rollins College and Tampa University. We’re even squeezing in a trip to Busch Gardens, so it will make for a good blog post.

Until then, adios!

Marisa

Trinity men accepting their team award. Photo taken by Leta Gatton and used with written permission.