Swimmers Gear Up For MAC Championships
Final Warm-up at Lebanon Valley

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.—Following two Freedom Conference meets, at Scranton and King’s respectively, Lycoming’s men’s and women’s swim teams are one meet away from the MAC Championships. Head coach Jerry Hammaker’s squads travel to Lebanon Valley on Saturday, then on to the conference championships from February 9-11.

Hammaker’s top priority of late has been getting more swimmers qualified for MACs. At Scranton, Jess Bugno (Clarks Summit, PA), Libby Green (Roaring Spring, PA) and Meghan Jacobi (Woodbury Hts., NJ) achieved their necessary times to reach the championships, while several other women made the cut in additional events. 16 of 18 Lady Warriors currently will travel to Wilkes Barre in February, while 9 of 10 men, so far, qualify.

And, speaking of Wilkes Barre, Lycoming most recently traveled to King’s to face the Monarchs, as well as FDU-Florham. As Hammaker explains, “This meet was a perfect chance to get our team into the same pool the MACs will be held in a few weeks from now.”

Lycoming topped both King’s and FDU’s men’s and women’s teams, after falling to Scranton the week before.

With Lebanon Valley and the MACs in the near future, Lycoming’s swimmers have memories of the Bahamas in their recent past. The following article by Lycoming freshman and sports information assistant Jordan Hall details the swim teams’ annual holiday training trip…

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Warriors of the Carribbean!
Lycoming’s Annual Training Excursion Goes Bahamas
By Jordan Hall

Although Lycoming College and much of the northeastern United States are experiencing a relatively mild winter, many people would not object to the opportunity to spend several days in the sun and sand of Nassau. Lycoming’s men’s and women’s swim teams embarked on their annual training expedition on New Years Eve day. The teams stayed at the Paradise Island Harbour Resort in Nassau, which is very close to the site of their first training session—the Betty Kelly Kenning National Swim Complex located at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre.  

“We had so much fun swimming in the 50 meter Olympic-sized pool,” said freshman swimmer Mike Zaiser (Elizabethtown, PA), “After we were done swimming we went out to have a good time for New Years, that was crazy.”  The team gathered around the hotel swimming pool to watch fireworks that were being set off all around the bay, but that was only the beginning.

Because the trip overlapped Junkanoo, the Bahaman celebration for the New Year, the swimmers were awarded the unique opportunity to celebrate with an entirely different culture.  Junkanoo is one of the world’s biggest street parades and celebrations, held annually in the Bahamas. Thousands of people converge on the streets of the cities and celebrate from 2:00 a.m. until noon the next day. The swimmers made their way to the festival, but it was back to training shortly thereafter.

Coach Hammaker commented that this was possibly the program’s best training trip yet. They had access to a 10-lane long course, in addition to eight short-course pools during their workouts. On the last day of training, the team was able to do an open-water swim in the ocean. While at Cable Beach, located on Paradise Island, the team completed their workout with a fun ocean-rescue activity that was reminiscent of a certain famous television program starring David Hasselhoff.

The team was also given an opportunity to spend an afternoon at the famous Nassau Straw Market, where they shopped for souvenirs to help commemorate their trip. 

After spending six days training, tanning and having fun in the sun, the team left Nassau on January 6 to return home and return to classes. Regardless of what the semester holds, these Lycoming student-athletes will always have fond memories of the January week when they were Warriors of the Caribbean!