Senior criminal justice major Tommy T. Towner practices the butterfly stroke at practice Monday. The swim club's first meet will be Saturday, Oct. 3. Photo by Jordan Paris

by LINDSEY HUNTSINGER
Sports Reporter

The Appalachian State club swim team is gearing up for the 2009-10 season by practicing and collecting dues beginning Sept. 8.

“Right now we’re trying to get paperwork out of the way and getting people to commit to a semester or the full year,” club president and senior broadcasting electronic media major Kenny E. Christensen said. “We’re getting dues collected, and getting the home meet set up.”

The team was able to raise funds last year to support them during part of this season. The funds they collect pay for team expenses during meets and travel.

“We have a lot of money from last year, and we hope that a lot of new dues will get paid and help us with travel,” vice president and senior exercise science major Emily D. Hostetter said.

The team also raised some money last spring when they hosted Appalachian’s first home swim meet in the Student Recreation Center on campus.

“Last year was exciting. It was the first time I’ve ever been part of the people that host the meet,” club treasurer and senior accounting major Ben T. Pickell said.

Team members hope to host two home meets this year—one in the fall and one in the spring.

Their first home meet is scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 3, and they hope to have around 10 teams from throughout the Southeast in attendance.

“Teams want to come to Boone because there are tourist attractions all around here, especially during the fall when the leaves start to turns colors,” Christensen said. “We want the teams to want to come and when they leave to be able to say ‘That was fun.’ We want it to be a big meet on everyone’s schedule.”

Christensen sent out 20 invitations to various schools, but the team will have to limit the number of participating teams due to material and resource availability.

“We hope to have no more than 10 teams, because we’re inexperienced at hosting meets. We don’t have the equipment you need for a big meet like touch pads,” Christensen said. “We’re borrowing resources from high schools in the area.”

The team is also experiencing an increase in interest and participation this season that is exciting for many of the leaders on the team.

Last year club swimming was the second largest club sport on campus with 59 people on their roster, and they have a largely senior dominated team this year.

“We only lost about 10 people from last year. I would say 50 percent of the people are seniors,” Christensen said. “At the Club Expo we had 106 new people sign up, and we’re expecting about 20 percent of those people to actually join the team. I guess around 80 will be on the team. We will rival cycling for the largest club sport.”

Unlike many club sports, there is no tryout required to join the club swim team. They are one of very few individual club sports on campus, and draw in people for reasons different than many of the team sports.

“The thing that makes us unique is that we accept all skill levels. We’re not one of those sports that have to have a certain number of people to put on the field,” Christensen said. “You get out of it what you want. I know swimming is much more of an individual sport.”

2009-2010 Swim Club Officers
President – Kenny Christensen – senior – broadcasting electronic media major
Vice President – Emily D. Hostetter – senior – exercise science major
Secretary – Alyssa M. Mulhall – senior – elementary education major
Treasurer – Ben T. Pickell – senior – accounting major

Photo by Jordan Paris   |  The Appalachian

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