Men's Swimming 1/24/2023 10:44:00 AM Morgan Vogels

Millikin Swimming: A Trip to the Sunshine State to Focus on the Little Things

The Millikin men's and women's swim teams traded in the dreary, gray Decatur winter in early January for some Florida sunshine on their annual training trip. The week consists of an intensive training regimen, capped off with a scrimmage meet against The College of Wooster.

Trip highlights included a myriad of team bonding activities, three workouts a day, time spent at the beach, and seeing an Olympic athlete at one of the pools they trained in.
Sophomores Jason Burrow and Brianna Brunk reflected on their second trip to Florida as members of the Millikin swim team upon return from the six-day expedition.

"A lot of people say being in cold, damp weather makes your mentality darker and a lot less energetic," Burrow said. "Having the chance to go to some 70, 80-degree weather as well as just being pushed to our limits over and over, I think that helped our mentality as we went through our trainings."

The trip not only gives the Millikin swimming student-athletes a chance to completely focus on training, it also helps the team to bond as a squad. The team begins each day on the trip with a 6:30 AM breakfast cooked by the coaches, followed by a 40-minute drive to their first in-pool workout of the day.

"We would do our our dynamic warmup until 8:00, put some sunscreen on, then get in the pool from 8:00-10:00," Brunk said. "The pool cuts us oranges every day, and they were the best things I've ever had in my life."

Once they left the pool, it was time for a dryland workout that varied by the day – sometimes yoga, a run, or calisthenics. After their second workout of the day, the swimmers headed back to their condos to eat lunch before being able to have a few hours of free time.

"There's a pool and a hot tub where we stay, so we usually hang out there and play some volleyball," Brunk said.

As part of the team-bonding experience, the squad is split into "color teams" for the week. One of the challenges they partake in as a color team is making a fun chant that defines what their team is about. They are also in charge of cooking dinner every other day as a group. Both athletes tabbed Dawsen Loafman as the best cook on the team.

Meals included taco night, chicken and rice, pasta night, and baked potato night with brussels sprouts. A vegetable that remained a consistent aspect of each meal was spinach.
"On our last night, we were able to go out so some of us went to Bubba Gump," Burrow said.

Eating each night around 5:00 PM, the team then loaded back into their vans to head to a different pool for their second swim of the day. After returning back to the condos, the team reconvened with a team meeting before turning out the lights for the night.

"Our team meeting usually focuses on the mental side of the sport," Brunk said. "Our big thing this trip was intentionality and making sure we're not just going through the motions, that we're actually focusing on what we're doing to get the best benefit out of it. Then you go to bed and do the same thing the next day."

While at one of the Florida pools, the Big Blue were able to see Olympian Bobby Finke training, a distance swimmer who took the gold at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 800-meter freestyle and the 1,500-meter freestyle.

"Getting to see the final minutes of his workout while we were warming up was pretty cool," Burrow said. "Where all of us would struggle in a 50-meter pool to get across in anywhere near 32s, he was doing it, not even kicking, in sub-30 second swims at the end of a 400.

Being in Florida helps the team to focus on specific parts of their technique, especially coming back from their time off on winter break. While there is a concerted effort to help bring the team together by the coaching staff, there is no bond quite like the one formed through going through workouts together.

"I think the intensity of our workouts does greatly impact how close we are," Brunk said. "I feel like a lot of times it feels like you do your own thing, stay in your own lane, swim what you gotta swim. Because we're pushed so hard we have to support the person next to us, even if they're trying to go for a completely different goal than you. You are both suffering in that moment because you'll accomplish your goals way easier than if you were by yourself."

"For such an individualized sport, there is a huge team aspect that I don't think people really recognize. We also really want to win as a team, but we also want to support what our teammates are doing and their goals. We all know what our teammates are trying to accomplish, and I think everyone is supportive of that and tries to push each other to reach our goals."

With being an individualized sport comes a different level of preparation for meets. When you think of preparation for a basketball or football game, there is some amount of time spent studying what to expect from your opponents. With swimmers, the focus is more on what each swimmer wants to achieve, rather than thinking about how fast their opponents are currently swimming.

"I kind of prefer to show up and just race because I know that me personally, if I know who I'm swimming against and they're faster than me, I could maybe talk myself out of the race," Burrow said. "I just focus on my events and what I need to do to swim those events effectively."

Brunk echoed the sentiment, saying "I know the time I'm going for, and I know what I need to do. I'll look at the heat sheets and see that the people near me are also near that time, so I know I need to try and stay with them. But besides that, other than noticing that a person is really fast at meets, I'm not trying to keep track or watch for the future."
Though the intensity of the workouts on the trip takes a toll on the swimmers, they recognize that it is a vital piece of their training.

"I think the biggest thing to know about Florida is it is as fun as it is our most difficult training week," Brunk said. "We are pushed extremely hard but Coach [Molly] Duesterhaus also does a very good job of making sure that we're not pushing so hard that it's unobtainable. Any set she gives you, you can handle. Even if you don't think you can handle it in that moment, you can – and she won't push you past the limit you should be pushed past."

It gives the swimmers an opportunity to tire out their bodies and hopefully get used to swimming tired.

"We are swimming twice a day and doing a dryland every day, but it's done safely – we don't just jump in and drown," Brunk joked. "It's built up pretty well and I think Coach does a pretty good job of that. It's nice to be there and have some fun, see a little bit of sunshine other than just Illinois which can be a little gray sometimes."

The training doesn't stop once the team arrives back on campus for the remainder of winter break, though. The two-a-day swim workouts in addition to a dryland are still the norm until classes begin again.

"I think the biggest difference between now and being in Florida is the mentality," Brunk said. "Florida kind of feels like a vacation. Yes, we're working extremely hard, but we're in a new environment where it's sunny. You can lay on the beach on your break. Here, we're just kind of in the same spot we always are."

Spending an entire week living in the same vicinity as your teammates, spending almost the entirety of the time with them could be means to cause a bit of a rift. However, the swimmers see it as an opportunity to further their bond and continue to build up team morale.

"We're all pretty connected and we're there for each other," Brunk said. "We get irritated with each other when we're spending 24/7 with the same group of people, but I think we're doing a pretty good job of supporting each other."

Differing from last year, the Big Blue swim team features a younger roster. What was last year senior-heavy sees a majority of underclassmen on the roster.

"This year it almost seemed like we had more energy, I would say more youthfulness," Burrow said. "No one ran out of gas super early on, and a lot more of us were able to push ourselves even further than I remember last year being pushed."

As the team transitions into their final dual meets and invitationals of the season before heading to Pleasant Prairie, Wis. for the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Championship Meet, they plan to focus on training their bodies to swim tired.

"Most of our dual meets are one day throughout the season – you go, you swim your races, and you're done," Brunk said. "At CCIW, we're there three days and you swim six sessions usually. That's a lot on your body that I don't think most people expect."

For the remainder of their dual meets, the plan is to swim tired, meaning they are building up to their goal times at the conference meet.

"We want to train our bodies to swim tired because we're going to swim tired at the CCIW Championships," Brunk said. "We're not going for times right now, we're just trying to race them well strategy-wise and then train our bodies to figure out how to race tired because that's not something that comes naturally."

The trip remains a staple in the Millikin swimming program because of the benefits and the experience it is able to provide Big Blue student-athletes.

"We know we're down there for the sole purpose of training – like yeah we have fun here and there, but we're there to train," Brunk said. "I think just being with the team 24/7 really helps with – the workouts are hard, we're in pain a lot – and just having your teammates with you at all times that can really help I think. That's not something we get here, necessarily."

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Players Mentioned

Jason Burrow: Sophomore

Dawsen Loafman: Sophomore

Brianna Brunk: Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Jason Burrow
: Sophomore

Dawsen Loafman
: Sophomore

Brianna Brunk
: Sophomore