Today was an exciting day. We had quite a few swims! The 200 free relay was first and we swam really well in the morning getting the 6th seed going into finals that night. Kait swam the 100 fly, dropping about a half a second from PACS and moved up to 19th in that event. Jenna and Jenny swam the 200 free. Jenna got a best time with a 1:54.5 and Jenny also got a best time and re-broke the school record with a 1:53.53. This moved her up to 23rd. The Medley relay swam really well and broke the school record but was not fast enough to make it back that night... we knew that one was going to be harder to make it back in.

Not much happened in the middle of the day, just had lunch at Applebee's and rested before going back to the pool for finals. We only had the 200 free relay to swim. Jenny led off the relay with a 24.03! This broke the school 50 free record!!!!!!!!!! Each of us swam faster in the relay than we did in the morning but we ended up in 7th... which personaly i am still SO EXCITED about. Standing on the nationals podium for the first time might have been one of the greatest things ever and the awards are PRETTY SWEET! we each got a trophie!

We stayed to watch a couple more races but then jetted out of the pool before diving to get to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. They boys were right... AMAZING STRAWBERRY LEMONADE!

Today made me really thankful for what a great team we have. After racing i was just reflecting on how God is just so great and generous to give us not only the gifts and abilities to preform at nationals, but the school and coaches that get us there. I also love being reminded of this fact by my teammates! i love being surrounded by people who are willing to give their accomplishments up to God so the glory is to Him.

Well that wraps up day 2 here in Minnesota!
We miss you all thanks so much for all your support we wouldn't be here with out all of you!

LOVE ALWAYS
SP

So, not any amazingly funny stories in this post but we are back in the hotel after the first day of prelims. We had Kait in the 500, Angie swam the 50 and then we had the 200 Medley relay! As many of you know from the emails and texts and facebook statuses, we placed 16th in the RELAY! So we get one more chance to swim it! we were seated 20th so it was pretty sweet to move up and make it back in a relay we weren't too sure about.

Last night we had the banquet where they sat you by conference so we had some lovely chats with the westminster swimmers. The cookies were amazing... too bad jenny gave up cookies for lent :( The picture above is from the banquet. We love you all and thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! stay tuned for finals :)

LOVE SP

when you don't feel like writing about Milton's paradise lost.

sleep number beds.
you would think that they provide a world of comfort and magic. you would normally get excited when you see that your bed, that thing you get to spend your favorite hours of the day in, has a remote control accompaniment. but these beds have proven to be nothing more than a painful experience both to our bodies and to our pride.

evening 1.
lovely experience, really. sarah sits down on one edge, ange catapults off the other. sarah gets up off of her side, ange sinks into hers til she hits the box frame. their bed was just too too soft (picture now the scene from Goldilocks and the 3 bears...i know someone reading this thought of that. ok maybe it was just me.) my bed, on the other hand, was a piece of plywood...a rock...a slab of concrete...anything but that magical bed they display on the commericals...laying there, my hip bone uncomfortably jutting into the pavement-like surface...well, after spending many many minutes trying to adjust the relative hardness of our beds, we humbled ourselves and called our last hope: the front desk. Freshman always wins, so ange got the honor of making the call..."excuse me, but we just checked into our rooms tonight and we're having a little trouble with our beds...is it the higher the number, the harder the bed? or the lower the number?"...he didn't even know...what we got was a "one moment please." answer received, we figured we would sleep more comfortably afterall. higher number = harder bed. great. wonderful. thank you. ...hang up and play with the remotes, no such luck. looks like we're sleeping as is tonight.

next morning.
Dear Housekeeping,
please, if you can, adjust the firmness of our beds. we would greatly appreciate it as we are having trouble figuring out exactly how to work them. they are a bit too high-tech for us. any mid-range softness would do. thank you very much for your help.

afternoon.
well thanks to our ingenious, if not pathetic, note, our beds are somewhat better. mine is a little softer...well, kind of, and ange and sarah are no complaining that their is too hard. we can't win. ange takes a nap on her hard bed. i lay on mine to do homework. we have agreed to not touch the remotes anymore. my back is kiling me so i go back on my word and grab my remote...and attempt to make the numbers on the screen as low as possible. nothing. ange wakes up from her nap and starts to complain that her back is sinking in too much, their bed has reverted back to its old ways. hers is now, once again, too soft. WHAT THE HECK. these beds man, they have a mind of their own.

well, moral of the story...if your remote doesnt do anything to your bed, please remain calm and switch remotes with the other bed's inhabitants. i know, crazy idea. but wireless remotes may just get switched every once in awhile. so rather than getting frustrated at your hard bed and putting the numbers lower and lower while watching your room mates get frustrated with their soft beds, putting their numbers higher and higher yet yielding opposite-than-expected results, just stop, think, and work it out logically. it would save alot of trouble, a lot of backs, and a lot of pride.

life does seem a little brighter now, now that our problem is solved.

as a side note: coach doesn't like these beds either. he's been complaining how "the king size bed has 2 different numbers...one for either side. why would they do that?" poor coach...the KING SIZE bed. i can only imagine what he's suffering through...i mean, i can see how two numbers could get extremely annoying...think of the problems that could cause--he explained to me today that his back, which hurt all over yesterday, now only hurts on the one side of his body. and you know what? he blamed the king-size have-it-the-way-you-like bed. clearly, his right back hurts because that side of the bed was harder than the left.

well, hope you enjoyed this one example of our already high-number of blonde moments on this trip. looks like i'm the only one here with an excuse.

The Epic Flight and Day One...So it Begins...

Alright everyone...

We finally arrived here in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a LONG flight.

We were SUPPOSED to leave at 2:15 PM, BUT of course Jenny and Jenna forgot their driver's license in their rooms. I guess it's better that they realized this before we left campus! I also got made fun of for my ugly suitcase I received for my senior rec. last year...it is Barney purple.

After we arrived at Pittsburgh Airport and have had our fill of Ben & Jerry's, we met our first of many friends, Shelly (age 12). We actually have NO idea what this girl's real name is, but she was too cute. She awkwardly commented on everyone, starting with Jenna's shoes and ending with my stuffed dog, Forrest. She asked about my dogs...(YES I have multiple stuffed dogs in my bag...) and what their names were. Then, Shelly and I had a delightful chat about how her dog hates to fetch a frisbee and how her grandma's dog LOVES to catch. Made me want a real dog. After a while, it was time to head off to Chicago and we said our farewells.

On the plane, Jenna got the pleasure of sitting next to a wonderful gentleman. He asked where we were from and naturally she replies Grove City College. The man kindly says "OH! The one where the porn star went? DeSalvo right?". What does one say to something like this? WELL, the normal person would kindly say yes, but Jenna being the colorful person she is says "Yeah he's fun...." YIKES. And the man finally said after a pause "Well, gotta do what you gotta do..." That's a whole lot of awkward.

We finally arrived in Chicago where we met our first of many teams, Williams, and made a couple "friends." By friends, I mean acquaintances that we just happened to talk to for a while.

Jenna, having such great luck with seat buddies, has yet ANOTHER strange seat buddy.

He was an overweight 26 year old male that kept trying to hug her...saying anything to try to get Jenna to talk back and MAYBE just MAYBE give him her phone number. Unfortunately, there was no escape for poor Jenna, but she would be out of there soon enough. Meanwhile, Jenny and I sat with an old man and watched the end of Gamer and the beginning of Wall-e. After our flight, we picked up our 12 person "party bus" and went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.

The dinner was delicious as usual, then we were off to our awesome hotel! The purple suitcase and I went to our room and went to sleep, on our sleep number beds of course...although, Jenny says she didn't sleep. Apparently, I kick and steal covers, who knew??

This morning after breakfast, we picked up our free gift, which were quality headphones. Coach was not impressed. He doesn't feel like he can use them. But hey, we think they are awesome!

We swam for a little bit and the pool is BEAUTIFUL. I will have to take pictures tomorrow. Of course I forgot my camera. Darn. We got new suits today, too! Lzr Elites. We can't wait to try them out tomorrow!

Lastly, we have the banquet today...more food...oh man...Can't wait!

Keep you all updated,

LOOOVVEEE,

Kait & Ralphie the Raptor towel

It's Official

The year has finally come where we have some FEMALE representation at NCAA's. The 6 women from the team that made it are Jenna Richert, Kait Riesmeyer, Lauren Baur, Jenny Ryan, Angela Palumbo, and myself (Sarah Page). The 200 freestyle relay (Page, Palumbo, Ryan, Baur) and the 800 free relay (Richert, Riesmeyer, Ryan, Palumbo) were selected. This is only the second time the women's team has sent relays to nationals and the last time was in 1993! Other relays and individual events will be swum. We were pretty bummed that the guys didn't make it with us this year. Kyle Grubbs was a hopeful to get selected for diving and i personally think the NCAA messed up! Coach Fritz will get a new type of nationals experience traveling with 6 girls who really just want to go to the mall of america and swim fast :)

We take off on this years trip on MONDAY (3/15) , only 6 days away. Hopefully we won't get stuck in Chicago with my unlucky flying reputation. We are really excited to go and will defiantly be posting fun events, pictures, memories, and successes that happen while we are gone! STAY TUNED!