Aguatic Sports

Meet the Team

Taylor Harris, sometimes known as Tay(she/her), who is going to be writing about scuba diving and other essential information. Taylor enjoys learning about different cultural dances, finds cleaning and dancing to be pleasant, thus dancing and cleaning are two of her favorite hobbies. After graduation, she wants to go to a variety of areas, including Latin American nations, South Korea, Japan, and Uganda. When she grows up she wants to be a marine biologist straight out of Texas A&M.

Haili Richardson (she/her) who is going to write about the sport of surfing, and everything that comes with it, like the equipment, out-fitting, good surfing waves, etc. Haili enjoys softball and played for one year, which she finds relaxing even though it's not much of a settled activity. She also enjoys cooking which she has been doing for the past four years, and loves experimenting with different ingredients. Something cool about Haili is that she lived in Saudi Arabia for eleven years, and even adapted to their culture!

Daniel wants to write about how swim meets are set up and run. He wants to get a degree in national security at Texas A&M, then become an FBI agent. In his free time, Daniel enjoys playing soccer and swimming competitively. Daniel also enjoys camping and hiking with his Boy Scout troop. He wants to travel around Europe and Canada to see the scenery.

Taylor Harris Haili Richardson

Daniel Bomba

Carolina is interested in olympic diving and plans to show how exciting it is in her part of the magazine. After LASA she wants to study criminology and wants to join the FBI. Outside of school Carolina enjoys going outside to paint and play tennis. When she is inside she loves playing ROBLOX and she laughs like an 8 year old. Her family is very important to her and she spends quality time with them by playing ROBLOX together.

Abe would like to write about water polo because it is a sport that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but is difficult and interesting. Outside of school, he likes to go sailing because it is a combination of mind games and physical strength. He also enjoys reading because it is a good way to relax. After Abe graduates from LASA, he would like to get a degree in Business at Stanford University.

Carolina Urested-Mirales Abe Gamble

Meet the Editors Swimming Scuba Diving Surfing Water Polo Diving

Swim Meet Setup

Here is an in depth look at how swim meets are set up and how coaches and swimmers prepare for them.

“Only 10 yards left,” you think to yourself. You take your last breath and start using every last drop of energy you have, your legs and arms are moving as fast as possible. You hear your heartbeat in your ears, and all you can think about is the finish. You touch the wall and look up… Lee and Joe Jamail Swim Center, the Texas Longhorns swim facility, is one of the fastest pools in the world. The 220,000-square-foot facility consists of a 50-meter indoor pool, a diving well, and a new outdoor pool. It is considered one of the fastest pools in the world because of its depth, gutter system, high filtration rate, and lane width.

Lee and Joe Jamail Swim Center is the University of Texas’s swim facility.

Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Bomba

Daniel Bomba

The swim center has hosted national events including the NCAA National Championships, the Pro Swim Series, and Sectionals. It hosts UT swim and dive, water polo, and Longhorn Aquatics. The director of the swim center Ann Nellis is in charge of the whole building and the setup for meets. The first thing that needs to be set up for a swim meet is the bulkheads.

Bulkheads split the 50-meter pool into two 25-yard pools or one race pool. The 13-ton bulkheads are lowered from the ceiling using crane cables and pushed across the pool with compressed air. This process alone takes anywhere from two to four hours. Other things like lane lines, flags, banners, and lighting are changed before a meet.

For championship meets they are changed to branded pieces. The timing system is a whole other setup. All the touch pads, timers, and relay reaction timers have to link up to a few computers to upload results and times.

A Kinesiology class is held inside the swim

center. Kinesiology is similar to PE, the course teaches human movement, sports culture, and health. The classes are held at the Jamail Swim Center on Tuesday(s) and Thursday(s) so the swim meet set up(s) are on Wednesday(s) for the actual swim meet on Friday(s).

Setting up championship meets takes a lot of work. Parking, catering, sponsors, officials, and EMTs are all required. “We always hire an EMT, so we’ve had the same EMT come in for about 40 years. He has a whole crew of people we always, require, we require to have, an EMT on-site for each event for athletics events like a UT Athletics swim meet or dive meet. They bring they have a contract with St. David’s. And so they bring in their own ambulance and medic crew to meet that requirement.” UT uses IMG to get sponsors like Arena. For larger meets, a company is hired to put up signs and put advertisements on windows. For away meets, the team has inflatable pools, massage tables, cold tubs, and extra gear.

Snacks like protein bars and sports drinks are bought at the location of the meet.

At the swim center, not only are there college swim meets but there are age group meets for clubs. These meets have over 500 swimmers sometimes so the pool is split into two pools to speed up the meet and extra mats are laid down to prevent falls.

Junior Ava Longi swims for the UT women’s team. Ava swims the 50, 100, and 200 free and 100 fly. She gave me insight into how she prepares for college meets.

Not all pools are built the same, they can have different depths, temperatures, and markings. To help get used to the pool before the team arrives, one of the UT coaches has a presentation before an away meet with information about the pool like the depth and water temperature. One big change between pools is the “T” on the wall. The “T” is in center of each lane so the swimmers know where the best place to flip turn is. In different pools, the “T” can be off-center. UT

What to Eat

If you ever don’t know what to eat before your race, here is a timeline with what your meals should be.

Contrary to popular belief, carb loading before your race does not benefit you in short distances. You should try to eat lots of protein before you swim.

You want to eat something that is easy to digest like oatmeal or yogurt.

The night before The morning of

The morning of

on Race Day

45 minutes before

A small protein bar will give you energy before your race.

You want to have lots of protein to recover, a burrito is a good option.

Afterwards

clipart-library.com pngtree.com pngitem.com 123rf.com swimming.org

BEYOND THE WAVE

Wonder what the ocean contains? The ocean is divided into 5 zones. Zone of the epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abysso, and hadal. There are specific sea animals in each zone, but fish make up the bulk. Instead of listing every animal, the information is limited to the principal creatures you would encounter in this area based on moral considerations.

Epipelagic Mesopelagic

0 - 200 meters

The likehood of seeing billfish, whales, dolphins, tuna, jellyfish, sharks, etc. in the epipelagic zone is high. This zone is the earth's largest aquatic habitat.

200 - 1,000 meters

In addition to fish and jellyfish, this area is home to zooplankton, shrimp, squid, and snipe eels. Where just 1% of the incident light is still present, the mesopelagic begins.

irst wave of your day crashes down, and your face is pelted with small transparent drops of water. Soft and sweet. The smell of the ocean waves hitting the shore. Seagulls flying overhead, the sun shining bright, lightly warming your skin. You see the surfboard glistening in the sunlight. You grab the surfboard and run off the shore. You gain bal

The Anatomyof a Wave

Crest

Unbroken part of wave that follows the peak

Shoulder

The par t of the wave that is the Least steep, and fart hest from the pit

Face/Wall

Steep, Unbroken sec tion of the wave

Peak

Highest point of the wave

Spray

A misty spray occurs at a point on the wave which is breaking

Lip

Upper-most par t of the breaki ng wave

Barrel

Hollow par t of a breaking wave, the gap between the lip and the face of the wave

How

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The Challenges of Water Polo

By: Abe Gamble

Why water polo is one of the hardest sports

Eggbeater Treading

1 1

The first step to eggbeater treading is to lift one of your legs up so that your thigh is paralell with the water.

2 2

The second step is to kick down with the same leg. This is were the power comes from.

3 3

The third step is to lift your other leg up like you did in the first step.

Olympic Medal Comparison

- Minton

“it was a once in a lifetime experience” Aguatic Sports

Intrested in aquatic sports? This magazine is loaded with a variation of different sports for you to try out! All of which are located in Austin, Texas!