Let me start with some advice for the freshmen: I'm sick, stay away from me. Now for the boring stuff. Hope school is going well. My first exam was this week, but I was kind of in denial that I had to start the 3 month long season of constant exams, so I didn’t show up. I highly recommend this strategy as it is much more fun than studying. We are three days into official practice, so I hope there is still at least a little bit of excitement for the season left in you. Stay motivated each and every practice so that we can beat Ithaca again. I left you hanging at the end of my last blog post, and I know you have all been waiting to hear how the USAM coaches did in the coach’s relay at our summer champs in August. We did the 200 medley relay, with Meg leading off, myself doing breaststroke, coach Rob doing fly, and my friend Niko anchoring. I regret to inform you that we were out touched by a team of 4 in-shape college swimmers. Hopefully next year Rob will pull his weight a little more so that we can take back our championship record. Something good did come out of this race though. Meg swam 50 backstroke in 23 seconds, and beat David Gardiner in the lane next to us. Looks like he lied about all that training he did over the summer. David almost got away with convincing us he trained. There’s no way Matt could get away with that because his new gut would give it away. I know everyone misses Meg, and I wanted to let you know that she misses the whole team, too. Whenever we text her or snapchat her, she responds with something like “Even when I don’t have anything to do with you annoying kids, you still drive me crazy!” Aww she’s too nice! See you dark and early at 6am weights! -DC