Wells is Alive, again!

All the students are back on campus and classes start tomorrow!

I have met most of the returning swimmers and met all of the new comers to the swim team. It is looking like we are going to have great season with many highlights. During season I will make sure to keep you all updated with comments about each meet, pictures and hopefully some video clips from the current team members.

I am looking at 14 women and 10 men on the team this year! With a total of 24 this will be one of the largest teams we have had in a very long time. Not only is this team bigger but we have better ability and a stronger desire to win.

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming season. Our first practice will be Monday, September 22nd and our first meet is the Hartwick Relay meet on Saturday, Ocotber 18th!

GO WELLS!!!

Day 7 & 8 - Recap

Women's 200m Backstroke - Margaret Hoelzer earned the silver while her team-mate, Elizabeth Beisel earned the 5th spot.

Men's 100m Butterfly - You wouldn't believe this race even if you saw it. At the finish, I was amazed that Phelps somehow took an extra quick stroke and touched the wall .01 seconds faster than Milorad Cavic from Siberia.


Women's 4x100 Medley Relay - The American team earned the silver medal with Coughlin (BA), Soni (BR), Magnuson (FLY) and Torres (FR).

Men's 4x100 Medley Relay - The American team earned the gold medal with Piersol (BA), Hansen (BR), Phelps (FLY) and Lezak (FR). Does the huddle below look familiar?


Women's 50m Freestyle - Dara Torres earn the Silver in this event and only missed the gold by .01! Another close race.

Great Swims USA!!!

Medal Tally - 12 Gold, 9 Silver and 9 Bronze

Day 6 - Recap

American Rebecca Soni started the Finals with a dissapointing upset for the Austrailian Leisel Jones in the 200m breaststroke. Soni stayed right next to Jones the whole race and then the last 50m, it was all about who wanted it more and Soni had the drive and came in to win her first gold medal (2:20.22) and a WR.

"I can't believe what just happened," Soni said. "It just kind of flowed. I just tried to stay relaxed."

The USA went 1 - 2 in the men's 200m backstroke. Ryan Lockte is an elite swimmer but many times gets over shadowed by Aaron Piersol and Michael Phelps but in this event Lockte was the person smiling with the gold medal. Piersol was not able to defend his title from 4 years ago. "I'm very proud of what I have done," Peirsol said. "Ryan swam well today, he earned it. A race is a race. You can get beat, no one owns anything."



There was less than 30 minutes from when Lockte won gold in the 200m backstroke and when he had to step up on the blocks to swim the 200m IM with team-mate Michael Phelps in the next lane. Phelps took gold (1:54.23) and broke his own WR while Lockte was not too far behind earning a bronze (1:56.53).


"I knew that was a hard double for Ryan," Phelps said, speaking from firsthand experience. "I knew, in the first half if I got a big enough lead I could hang on. That's all I wanted to do."

The final event was the women's 100m freestyle where American Natalie Couglin earned a bronze. Coughlin swam well but much of the focus was on the World Record holder Lisbeth Trickett from Australia in lane 8 who only made the finals because Jiaying Pang from China disqualified her self by moving on the block too early. Trickett earned the silver and Britta Steffen from Germany earned the gold but did not break Trickett's WR.

GO USA!!!

Medal Tally - 10 Gold, 6 Silver and 9 Bronze

Day 5 - Recap

To begin the evening the first event was the men's 200m breaststroke final. In most people's discussions about this event Brendan Hansen and Kosuke Kitajima from Japan were the favorites. Unfortunately, Hansen didn't even make it into the Finals. Instead Kitajima earned gold and for the Americans, making his Olympic daybeau is Scott Spann who came in 6th place.

Another upsetting event for the Americans was the women's 200m butterfly where Elaine Breedan and Kathleen Hersey who earned 7th and 8th place respectively. But in China this will be the "talk of the town" for awhile with Zige Liu and Liuyang Jiao taken 1st and 2nd place respectively. Liu earn a WR (2:04.18) breaking Jessicah Shipper's record. Shipper placed 3rd.

There was a bit of tension between Alain Bernard from France and our very own Jason Lezak. And if you remember Lezak took the Gold away from Bernard by a fingertip in the 4x100 free relay. Bernard earned his title back by earning gold in the men's 100m finals. Lezak was not too far behind and earned his first medal in an individual event.

The Final event was the women's 4x200 free relay. The Stephanie Rice from Australia made the lead for her team and her team-mates followed. The race for 2nd and 3rd place was between China and USA. In the end China out touched the American team by .4 seconds. On a personal note, this is one of my favorite races because you never know what is going to happen. China and the US sure kept me on my toes as I watched this event at the edge of my couch!

Go USA!!

Medal Tally - 7 Gold, 5 Silver and 8 Bronze

Day 4 - Recap

What was difficult to do at the last Olympics is becoming "easy" this Olympics. What has changed? Of course technology comes into play but is that all. The one thing that hasn't changed is that everyone of these athletes are in the water everyday practicing to reach their goals at Beijing.



The women started the events with the 200m freestyle where Federica Pellegrini from Italy defended her title and broke the WR (1:54.82). Sara Isakovi from Slovenia and Jiayng Pang from China took silver and bronze respectively. Katie Hoff was also in this event, she was seated 5th but managed to move up a spot to 4th place (1:55.78), no medal but to be 4th at the Olympics isn't half bad.

Michael Phelps was in the next event, 200m Butterfly, his specialty. He broke is own WR (1:52.03) and now has a collection of 10 gold medals! He is the first individual to receive this many Golds!

Natalie Coughlin and Katie Hoff battled on the finish of the 200m IM. Coughlin finished 3rd (2:10.34) while Hoff was a close 4th (2:10.68).



The final event for the evening was the 4x200m relay with Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay. Phelps lead the relay with a lead and everyone that followed made that lead even bigger. This relay was not only ahead of 2nd place by 5 seconds but they also broke the WR by 5 seconds (6:58.56). Even though this team was so far ahead and it was a guarantee to get the gold, you can still see the enthusiasm in there faces when Vanderkaay finished!

GO USA

Medal Tally - 7 Gold, 5 Silver and 6 Bronze

Day 3 - Recap

The USA dominated the Finals events last night by winning Gold in all 4 finals!


Starting with Michael Phelps in the 200m Freestyle. 4 years ago he "only" earned the bronze medal and this year came in to prove that he is the best! He started the race with a lead and made the distance between himself and 2nd place grow. Phelps earned a WR, breaking his own record by almost 2 seconds (1:42.96). Now Phelps is tied with the greats such as Mark Spitz with the number of gold's won. If he gets gold in one more event he will be in a league of his own!

"To be tied for the most Olympic golds of all time, with those names," Phelps said. "The Olympics have been around for so many years. That's a pretty incredible accomplishment."

Next event was the men's 100m breaststroke where Peter Vanderkaay swam his first Olympics and earned the bronze medal. "It was an awesome effort with my swim," said Vanderkaay. "I was pretty sure I was in medal contention. It means a lot to win my first individual medal on a stage like this. It is awesome."

Next, Natalie Coughlin successfully defended her title in the 100m backstroke. Coughlin, with that win, became the first woman to not only win back to back titles in Olympic history in the 100m backstroke, but also became the first woman to win gold more than once in the event. Her team-mate, Margaret Hoelzer was also on the medal podium received her bronze medal.


The next event hit everyone with the "1-2 punch" as Aaron Piersol (52.54) and Matt Grevers (53.11) placed first and second in the 100m backstroke. Peirsol's victory made him the first back to back winner of the 100m backstroke since Roland Matthes in 1968 and 1972.

The final event for the evening was the women's 100m breaststroke where Rebecca Soni earned a silver medal (1:06.73).

GO USA!!!

Medal Tally - 5 Gold, 5 Silver, and 5 Bronze

GO USA!!!

Day 2 - Recap

Another exciting day for USA in Beijing!

The first Final's event was the women's 100m Butterfly. Christine Magnuson in her first Olympic appearance earned a Silver with a time of 57.10.

Next Final's event was the men's 100m Breaststroke where Kosuke Kitajima is the first person to swim under 59 seconds with a time of 58.91 earning himself a Gold Medal! The former record holder and world champion, Brendan Hansen just missed the bronze and placed fourth (59.57).

Katie Hoff, another one of USA's "favorite" earned the silver in the 400m Freestyle. "I gave it everything I possibly had, but they got me in the end," Hoff said. "I felt like I was a good racer, but I feel like I should gotten my hand on the wall first."



The finale of last night was the match up between the French and USA in the 400m Freestyle relay. The French were very confident of their ability and even said, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came for.” Unfortunately for the French, Phelps’ leadoff swim was an American record at 47.51 and Lezak anchored with the fastest split ever by over a second (46.06). USA finished .08 ahead of the French and claimed the Gold!

Medal Tally - 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze

Day 1 - Recap

The USA Olympic swim team took the rumors and made them reality with the first day of the Olympic games.

Michael Phelps started the games by shattering his own WR in 400IM (4:03.84) and getting gold. Finishing with with a WR and a gold, are the rumors true? Was this Phelps last 400 IM? His team-mate Ryan Lockte (4:08.09) was not too far behind Phelps and earned a bronze medal.

Larsen Jensen earned a bronze medal in the men’s 400m freestyle and a WR (3:42.78).

Katie Hoff also earned a bronze medal in the women’s 400m IM. Austrailia's Stephanie Rice is the first female in the world to swim under a 4:30 in the 400 IM (4:29.45) earning the Gold!

The American women’s 400m free relay (Natalie Coughlin, Lacey Nymeyer, Kara Lynn Joyce and Dara Torres) capped finals with a silver medal and an American record in that event with a time of 3:34.33.

A great first day for USA - 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze

Make sure to watch tonight's events!!

GO USA!!!

2008 Olympic Swim Schedule

Click HERE for the schedule of all the swim events!

Coming Soon...

It all starts this Saturday (9th) night!

All the Olympians are getting ready and practicing in the "Water Cube"
Who do you think this is?

Make sure you post a comment so we can all see your guesses!

Ready Room

Did you ever wonder what the Olympians are doing before they enter the pool deck and proceed to their lane?

Thanks to Erica sending me this article, now we know.

For Olympians, Head Games Before First Splash

Another swim team birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEVERLY!!!

Olympians...

...have to practice just like YOU!

Happy Birthday Erica!!!

I hope you are enjoying your day!