Bantam Men and Women Excel In First Meets Of The Season

Mac McCarthy '14 Prepares For A Dive Against Weslyan Where He Took 1st in Both the 1M and 3M Events

The Bantams have set the tone for what looks to be an amazing season. In their first four meets the team has already had several personal best times and diving scores and a few dozen career best untapered performances. Audrey Butler ’15 set a new First Year record in the 50 breast going a 31.95 at the Cardinal Invite, besting the previous record set by Amy Corvino in 2003, and moving her to 5th on the  Bantam All-Time Top Times List.   Butler also improved on her season best in the 100 breast going a 1:10.61, a time which places her 6th on the Bantam All-Time Top Times list.

Sophomore Joanna Wycech had a season best of 2:32.40 in the 200 breast at the Cardinal Invite,. Wycech also swam a lifetime best in the 200 back against Bates, going a 2:19.79 which was good enough for 9th on the Top Times List. Fellow Sophomore Megan Chiu went a lifetime best of 2:18.87 in the 200 fly against Weslyan placing her 4th on the Bantam All-Time Top Times List. The sophomores continued their strong first semester as Chloe Miller swam three lifetime bests against Weslyan in the 200 IM, going a 2:18.03 to take first, going a 5:34.13 in the 500, and an  11:18.88 in the 1000 free, which was good for 9th on the Bantam All-Time Top Times List. 

Highlights for the men included Sophomores Max Ma, finishing second overall at the Cardinal Invite in the 200 breast with a 2:18.08, and Mark Yanagisawa who swam an in season best in the 200 fly at 2:01.95.

In diving action all of Trinity’s divers had season best scores.  Sophomore Emily Johnson led the group as she achieved an NCAA qualifying standard in the 1-meter diving event at the Cardinal Invite.

Megan Chiu Attends American Geophysical Union Conference In San Francisco: In Her Own Words

Megan Chiu '14

Not only is Megan Chiu '14 one of the top swimmers on Trinity's team, but she is also one of top students on Trinity's campus. She attended a conference in San Francisco this past December for the American Geophysical Union. She described her experience below in her own words:


Over the summer, I, along with a small group of students, wrote mobile applications (phone apps) that are currently being used in Haiti for food distribution purposes. One of the Trinity Professors, Jonathan Gourley, suggested we present our work at a conference that he would be attending, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference in San Francisco.


Four students, along with our project manager Trishan de Lanerolle and Professor Gourley, attended the actual conference.  When we landed in San Francisco, we drove down to the Fisherman's Wharf and had some delicious Italian food. Afterwards, we drove out to see the Golden Gate bridge.


The next morning, we woke up bright and early so that we could be at the Moscone Convention at 8:00 A.M. to present our work. The size of the convention center was probably around three football fields or less. I presented my work to people who were interested in how our work was being used in Haiti. Others were more interested in the sociological perspective of our research. 


After about four hours of presenting, we all went out to grab lunch and get some fresh air. When we got back to the Moscone Center, the atmosphere was a little more relaxing. There was an open poster session where people walked around looking at everyone else's posters.  There were over 22,000 attendees at this five day conference.


The last thing we did before our red eye flight back to Hartford was to see the Facebook building in Palo Alto. It was nice to see the place where all the "behind the scenes" action for the Facebook site happens. 

Reflecting upon this entire experience, I would say that all the time and effort that I put in to writing mobile applications for another country was definitely worth it.

After Megan's red eye flight back to Hartford, she swam to a lifetime best time in the 200 Fly against Wesleyan that night.

Joanna Wycech: Swimming To Success

Original Article Found At: http://athletics.trincoll.edu/sports/wswimdive/2011-12/releases/Women-s_Swimming_and_Diving_51112

Hartford, Conn. – Stare Babice, Poland is home to sophomore swimmer Joanna Wycech, but for the past few years Wycech has been taking advantage of the athletic and academic opportunities that American schools have to offer.

After the first six years of schooling, Wycech says that students in Poland go to Gymnasium, a secondary school where they are required to partake in a sport. Wycech's decision to swim was made easy, as she was already the Junior Polish Champion in the breaststroke.

According to Wycech, swimming is a competitive sport in her native country but not as competitive as in the United States due to its smaller size. Seeking greater academic opportunity, Wycech came to America when she was 15 and enrolled in the Peddie School in New Jersey.

She says, "I went to the Peddie School because I have family in New Jersey and it has one of the best swimming programs in the nation for high school. As a team we won three conference championships while I was there."

Trinity Head Swimming and Diving Coach Kristen Noone agrees saying, "Peddie has a very competitive swimming program and Joanna brings that intensity to the Trinity program as well. She pushes herself every minute of every practice."

Wycech knew that she wanted to continue swimming in college and earned high praise from Coach Noone after emerging as the team's top breaststroker in her rookie season. Wycech is proud to have already improved so much throughout her first season at Trinity, which both she and Coach Noone agree is doubly impressive considering her established suceesses at both Peddie School and across the pond.

Wycech says, "I swam on a relay that broke the school record last year. It is really encouraging to see your name on that board and know that you have contributed to the team."

Coach Noone added, "She is kind of the whole package as a competitor, an intense, serious athlete who, from a personality standpoint, also knows how to relax and enjoy her college years. She also understands the team aspect of things, and wants the best not just for herself but for her teammates as well."

Swimming and being part of the team has positively affected Wycech's experience as an international student at Trinity. She says, "The team has had a huge impact on my life here. I consider the people on the team to be my family, my closest friends and I can go to them for anything. Swimming is a way to release stress, and just relax and escape from thinking about school for a while. After I swim all the stress goes away and I can start anew, refocus."

An escape from academic stresses is especially helpful for a student-athlete like Wycech considering she is one of the few female engineering majors at Trinity. Wycech reflects on how college would have been different had she stayed in Poland saying, "I stayed for the education in America because it is much more valuable than the education I would get back home." Wycech started looking into engineering her sophomore year at Peddie. She remembers that it was interesting to her to think about how bridges are built and so she considered civil engineering. She has now switched gears and is studying biomedical engineering.

She says, "There are eight female engineering majors in my class, which is one of the biggest. It is a big step and it is really cool to see because the professors are excited about seeing more girls study engineering and the guys don't treat us any differently. We are all competitive," she adds, "I think it is important for women to want to study engineering."

Being only a sophomore, Wycech has big plans for the next three years at Trinity. According to Coach Noone, "She is very involved on campus. She was a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative for swimming, she helped out at a Boys and Girls Club open-swim event, and she taught swimming lessons for the children of Trinity faculty and staff." Wycech says that she would like to become even more involved on campus and in the community through the Trinity College Without Borders Program and the Society of Women Engineers, helping to inspire more women to study engineering.

As for swimming, Wycech hopes to improve her personal-best scores again and to continue to develop in all of her events. She says, "My main goal for this season is focused on the team, helping to achieve the team goals and making everyone feel as if they have accomplished what they were going for."

Coach Noone adds, "I am fully confident that she will continue to improve and continue to develop as a leader," she adds, "She is a joy to coach."

Looking ahead, Wycech has considered staying in the States for graduate school before possibly returning to Europe to work in a clinical setting as a neural engineer. She says, "I have realized there is so much more that I can do than I thought I could and that so many more opportunities are open to me."

Reflecting on her experience as an international student-athlete Wycech says, "My teammates do have some fun with my accent but I am comfortable here and I know that they are my friends. I have definitely found my home away from home at Trinity."

Audrey Butler Breaks Freshmen 50 Breast Record



Audrey Butler '15

At the Wesleyan Cardinal Invitation held December 3rd and 4th, Freshmen, Audrey Butler established a new Trinity Freshmen Record in the 50 yard breastroke. Her time of 31.95 broke the previous record of 32.64 which was set in 2003 by Amy Corvino. Butler's time also ranks her 4th All Time in Trinity History and puts her just .51 seconds off of the Trinity varsity record time of 31.54 set by Sarah Sweatt in 2007. Congrats Audrey!

Brian Castelluccio '12 Attends Society For Nueroscience Conference In D.C.: In His Own Words



Brian Castelluccio '12

I went to the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. to share my research and hear about cutting edge work happening in the neuroscience community. Many students and faculty from Trinity attend this conference every year, and this year was no exception. The conference hosted 32,000 people from around the world sharing research across many disciplines of neuroscience. Thousands of scientists presented research posters, seminars, and lectures over the course of five days. I presented my work on impulsivity in cocaine users at one of the poster sessions. At the Institute of Living's Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, I use functional MRI to study neural activity associated with inhibitory control and error monitoring in current cocaine users, former cocaine users, and healthy subjects. I have found that former cocaine users show particular patterns of overactivation in certain brain regions in response to commission of errors in a simple behavior task. One hypothesis is that these patterns reflect cognitive strategies that allow the former users to achieve and maintain abstinence. This research continues at the Olin Center, as do other projects investigating substance abuse and impulsivity.

Hour of Power



The Bantams Celebrate After The Hour of Power

On November 8, 2011 the Bantams participated in the Ted Mullin “Hour of Power.” The Relay event has grown from 15 teams in its first year to 146 teams in 2011, with almost 7,000 athletes participating. Over the past five years, participants in the "Hour of Power” raised over $265,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.  The relay style set was Ted’s favorite, and hist former Carleton College team felt it would be an appropriate memorial to Ted to run a “Leave it in the Pool” practice consisting of continuous relays, any stroke, all-out swimming, for one hour, with the objective of keeping all relays in each lane on the same length. All 146 teams across the country complete the set during the same hour.

Ryan McCann Attends Fall Leadership Conference For the Presidential Fellows Program In Washington D.C.: In His Own Words

Ryan McCann '14

"I went to Washington D.C. last November for the fall leadership conference, which is one, of two, mandatory conferences for the Presidential Fellows Program. The purpose of the program is to enrich the 75 selected undergraduate students with knowledge and leadership training, while allowing them first hand experience into meeting the leaders of the American political world. This experience is boiled down to the crafting of a 15 page single spaced dissertation that is relevant to some aspect of the American political system. The ultimate goal is that my paper will be among the top two and win the distinguished James R. Moffett Award or the Donald B. Marron Award. In addition the top 18 papers are also published into the Fellows Review, which is read by many members of Congress. Among 75 other students, from the best schools in the country, I was able to not only share my ideas about what I wanted my paper to focus on, but I was able to hear feedback from what they thought would be better approaches. There were also many guest speakers throughout the three days spent there, among them were, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, The Honorable Togo D. West Jr., The Honorable Adrian Fenty, and Dr. James Zogby. The experience was one that I will never forget, and I look forward to attending the spring leadership conference."

Christine Myksin '07 Gets Married!

Former swimmer Christine Myksin '07 and Jonathan LaFrance were married at the Trinity Chapel last weekend. Shannon Conner '07, Luvean Myers '07, and Jennie Knott Bolt '07 were all members of the wedding party. Other former swimmers & divers in attendance were Mike Lenihan '07, Sarah Sweatt '07, Chris Minue '07, Emma Goehring '08, and Crosby Bain '11.


I had the honor of attending, and it was such a treat to visit and catch up with so many of our swimming & diving alums (and their parents too!).


It was a beautiful ceremony on an unusually warm fall day on campus. The Bantam made a surprise appearance for a post ceremony photo-op and to congratulate the newlyweds.


Here are a few more photos from the evening:

Christine Myksin's Wedding

CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO CHRISTINE & JON!

Megan Chiu & Alex Zhang Work On Humanitarian Free and Open Software Project

Alex Zhang '14

Megan Chiu '14

Congratulations go out once again to Alex Zhang '14 and our very own Megan Chiu '14. Please see the attached article (and video) about how Megan Chiu ’14 and Alex Zhang ’14 spent their summers at Trinity working on the Humanitarian Free and Open Software (HFOSS) project, programming developing mobile applications to help non-profit organizations supply food and water to those in need in Haiti.

https://twebmail.trincoll.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=d0e9cea4f11c44b2a7b2a45cb66a249d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.trincoll.edu%2fNewsEvents%2fNewsArticles%2fPages%2fHFossHaiti.aspx

Alex Zhang Named Dean's Scholar

Congratulations to Alex Zhang ‘14, who has become a Deans’ Scholar for the Class of 2014! “Deans’ Scholars are the 25 full-time first-year students with the highest grade point averages at the end of the spring semester. Membership in the company of Deans’ Scholars is intended both to recognize outstanding academic achievement and to encourage continued academic excellence. Students remain Deans’ Scholars through the end of their sophomore year.” Way to go Alex!

Trinity Swimming & Diving Welcomes Newest Bantams

The Trinity College swimming and diving team welcomed the class of 2015 to campus this past week. 

The men’s team adds Sam Ruddock III (Cleveland, OH), a sprint/mid-distance freestyler who should make an immediate impact with incoming times of 21.90, 47.70 and 1:44.38 in the 50, 100 and 200 Free. Alex Kurose (East Greenwich, RI) will add depth in the sprint freestyle events as well as the butterfly sprints and has potential to push our sprint free relays to new heights with top incoming times of 22.97 and 49.83 in the 50 & 100 Free. Isak Kurbasic (Lousiville, KY) should excel in the 100 fly with an incoming time of 54.30 and should add depth in the breast stroke events with times of 29.98, 1:03.32, and 2:24.08 in the 50, 100, & 200 distances. Rounding out the men’s Freshmen class is Ryan McConnell (Merion Station, PA) a distance freestyler who will push our ever improving distance group to even greater heights with incoming times of 5:03.45, 10:18.12, and 17:51.00 in the 500, 1000, and 1650 Free distances.                                               

The Bantam women welcome Audrey Butler, who will be competing for a NESCAC championship title in her rookie season as her incoming 50 breast time of 30.63 puts her 5th among returning NESCAC swimmers and only .48 seconds off of last years top finisher. Butler should also be strong in the 100 breast as her time of 1:07.68 puts her 9th among returning NESCAC swimmers. Butler will also be an asset on the medley and sprint freestyle relays. Danielle Carp (Wenham, MA) will be very strong in the 100 and 200 Fly with times of 1:01.25 and 2:22.15 respectively and should be a strong force in our mid-distance freestyle groups as well. Lexi Moroney (Manchester, MA) is a sprint freestyler who should help push our sprint group and sprint relays to the next level in the NESCAC as she boasts times of 25.4 in the 50, 55.7 in the 100 and 2:02 in the 200. Rounding out this years group of first year women is Megan Darnley holds the 1 meter diving record at her high school. Megan will bring much needed depth to our women’s diving team and will have the opportunity to learn from the best female diver Trinity has had in junior Emily Johnson.                                          

Rounding out the newbies is first year Assistant Coach, Justin Anderson, who joins Trinity after a year assisting at his alma mater the University of Mary Washington. It’s an exciting time here at Trinity as we are looking to have another record breaking season and looking to bring in our best recruiting class yet.

Bantams Raise Nearly 10K For Swim Across America

In what has become an annual tradition for the Trinity Bantams the team once again participated in Swim Across America. On July 16, the Trinity College Bantam swimming and diving family participated in a one-mile, open-water swim off of Nantasket Beach in Hull, Mass.  The Trinity team participants raised $9,925 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the total for all teams that participated in the Boston event was $87,280.  Mike Lenihan '07 was responsible for getting Trinity and ultimately the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) involved in the annual event.  Trinity swimming and diving has raised more than $50,000 in six years for this cause.  

Below is a list of the participants from the Trinity swimming and diving program:

Katie Adams '14
Crosby Bain '11
Megan Chiu '14
Emma Goehring '08
Brooke Haynes '11
Mike Haynes   P'11
Mike Lenihan '07
Kristen Noone  M'07
Sarah Weitzman '12
Joanna Wycech '14
Mark Yanagisawa '14

For more information on Trinity’s efforts in Swim Across America, visit:
http://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR?team_id=1288&fr_id=1251&pg=team

Trinity Swimmers Compete In Half Iron Man

Adam Eramo

http://athletics.trincoll.edu/sports/mswimdive/2010-11/releases/Men-s_Swimming_and_Diving_51011

Half Ironman San Juan information

Bassman Half Ironman information

Justin Anderson Hired As Assistant Coach

Justin Anderson has been hired as the Assistant Coach for the Trinity College Women's and Men's Swimming & Diving Teams. Anderson comes to the Bantams from his Alma Mater, The University of Mary Washington where he was the Assistant Coach for both the Men's and Women's swimming teams. Anderson also swam for the Eagles from 2006-2010.

As a swimmer for the Eagles, Anderson was one of the most decorated athletes in UMW history. During his career he held Top 10 All-Time times in the 8 diffrent events, and held school records in the 400 and 800 Free Relays as well as the 400 Medley relay and owned the fastest 100 Freestyle Relay split in school history. Anderson earned NCAA qualifying times three times throughout his career and was a 22-Time All Capital Athletic Conference Performer, as well as a Two-Time Academic All-American.

Following his senior season Anderson's teammates honored him with the team's Most Valuable Swimmer Award as well as the Team's Eagle Award, for the swimmer who most embodies all the ideals of what it means to be an Eagle swimmer. Anderson was further honored by the school's Athletic Department when he was selected as The University's Male Scholar Athlete of the Year. He later went on to be named the Capital Athletic Conference Male Scholar Athlete of the Year after finishing his academic career with B.A. in English and a 3.68 Cumulative GPA.

After graduation Anderson headed up to Maine on June 4, 2010 and thru hiked all 2,179.1 miles of the Appalachian Trail to Georgia, finishing this feat November 21, 2010. Upon finishing Anderson was hired as the Assistant Coach at his Alma Mater. As the Assistant Coach Anderson helped lead both teams to Capital Athletic Conference Championship Titles, the men's 17th, and the women's 21st in the conferences 21 year history. He also coached five women and four men to NCAA qualifying times, getting two male swimmers to the National Championship Meet in Tennessee. Both swimmers earned All-American status and finished Top 10 at Nationals. Anderson also assisted in recruiting UMW's first ever US Open qualifying swimmer.

"There's no place I'd rather be. I'm excited about the opportunity to work with and learn from Coach Noone and to be a part of the Bantam Swimming & Diving tradition. The NESCAC is the best swimming conference in the country and we're lucky to be a part of it. I'm thrilled to build upon the many successes the team has ready had, both academically and athletically. I can't wait to help the Bantams achieve even more and move to the next level in both the conference and at the national level." Anderson stated.

Tinity Men's Swimming & Diving Sets 13 Records In 2010-2011

http://athletics.trincoll.edu/sports/mswimdive/2010-11/releases/Men-s_Swimming_and_Diving_41011

Haynes Finishes Women's Swimming Career With Share of Six School Records

http://athletics.trincoll.edu/sports/wswimdive/2010-11/releases/Women-s_Swimming_and_Diving_51011