Swimming & Diving Michigan State University Spartans, Official Athletic Site

Continuing with the Masters theme, I want to congratulate Kirk Nelson for his national championship in the 1,650 (17:16.07) at the U.S. Masters Nationals. Also congrats to Ron Orris for his national championship in the 100 fly (50.79) at the same meet. Alec Mull and Mike Orris also competed at the meet. I am quite sure many more of you have also, but I only got the update on those four.

On Saturday, I was at the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources commencement ceremony. At the ceremony, John Munley was awarded his degree posthumously. I got to spend time with the entire Munley family. It was a very emotional moment. I wanted to thank Associate AD Jim Pignataro as well as the people in the College of ANR for making this possible. I had the chance to have dinner with John's parents before the commencement and I know how much this meant to the family. This was one of the finest examples of a Spartan family and how we take care of each other.

I got an e-mail this week from Steve Ploussard. Plans for the 2nd Golden Spike reunion are set. It is going to happen on September 4-5. I know there is an expectation that it will be bigger than `06. Of course we hope that many of you can make it back.

Well we are into spring at Michigan State. The outdoor pool is filled and we are getting ready for summer. I wish you all a Happy Mother's Day.

I would like to thank the Mid-Michigan MSU Alumni Club for its $300 contribution to the swimming and diving Ralph Young Fund. The Mid Michigan MSU alumni club donated $3,450 to the athletic department for Olympic sports in 2008. Their contribution is greatly appreciated.

Forgot to mention last week that the MSU women's club water polo team won the Big Ten club conference championship. Erinn Wertz, a sophomore on our women's team, plays on the team and they are on their way to the national championships. Congrats to them.

I wanted to pass along our condolences to spartan Jon Cohen. His father passed away last week. The whole Spartan family has you in our thoughts.

Not a lot of information this week. Spring Finals begin on Monday. Adam Schmitt, Danny Schemmel and Jason Vadney will be walking next Saturday at commencement.

Let's begin this week with a big announcement from one of my favorite Spartan swimmers: Katie Sophiea. Katie and her long time boyfriend, Scott, are officially engaged. They are planning a wedding for next summer. Congratulations to both of them.

At Homecoming 2008, the Varsity alumni club plans to honor all the past Olympians in Michigan State history. As you can imagine, swimming and diving will have quite a few representatives in that group. I am very excited that Ken Walsh plans to return to East Lansing for this event. It has been a while since Ken has come back. It should make for a great alumni meet.

Many of you who stayed in East Lansing to train over the summer had the priviledge of training under coach Rick Edwards. Lately, coach Edwards has had some serious health issues and he is currently in the hospital. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. If anyone is interested in the details, please contact me and I will let you know.

I want to spend a little time thanking our sports information intern, Josh Rattray. Josh has done a very good job this year keeping the information updated on our web site. He has been fantastic in covering the meets all year long. He has been great and I wanted to publicly thank him.

In the coming weeks, I will be sure to update everyone on the Class of 2012. We have made a few additions since the November signing date.

The weather in East Lansing has been great and we are looking forward to the Long Course pool opening up. We have 17 swimmers staying to train this summer with the Capital Area Swim Team. So we will look to have a productive summer.

Over the past couple weeks we have had some more commitments and we are in the process of wrapping up 2008 recruiting...just in time to get started on 2009 recruiting.

This past Sunday (April 13) we had our annual awards banquet. As usual, the high point of the program came at the initiation of the Golden Spikes to our graduating seniors. The most engaging thing about our program is the golden spike. I described it at our banquet as the Cal Ripken award. All you have to do to get it is to show up for work every day you are in the program. It is a real thrill to watch varsity record holders stand shoulder to shoulder with four-year walk-ons and be honored equally. It is a testament to our tradition here at MSU.

Jack Seibold Award for Leadership -- Matt McNichols
Jennifer Parks Award for Leadership -- Alycia Mokedanz
Men's John Narcy Most Improved -- David Garry
Women's John Narcy Most Improved -- Erinn Wertz
Women's Spartan of the Year Award -- Marlys Fuqua
Men's Jason Vadney Spartan of the Year Award -- Marcus Poteete
Women's Swimmer of the Year -- Heather Kiluk
Men's Swimmer of the Year -- Adam Schmitt
Women's Diver of the Year -- Danielle Williams
Men's Diver of the Year -- Ivan Zalessov
Women's Freshman-of-the-Year -- Stephanie Fisher
Men's Freshman-of-the-Year -- Kevin Puskaric
Kevin Zielinski Heart Award -- Jason Vadney
John Munley Memorial Scholarship -- Matt Massman

As you may notice we did make a change this year in the naming of the Men's Spartan of the Year award. Henceforth, it will be named for one of the great Spartans, Jason Vadney.

This year's Munley scholarship award winner is Matt Massman. Matt is the sixth recipient of the award. He joins Nick DeFauw (2002), Chad Wilson (2003,04), Matt Wisniewski (2005), Matt Torres (2006) and Mike Van Beek (2007). I want to thank all of you who have donated to the scholarship fund these past seven years.

I got a call last Friday from Dr. Dave Seibold, who told me that his brother was planning to retire from officiating swim meets. He asked me if we could something to honor Jack. We decided to give Jack an honorary golden spike and we gave him a version of his poem, "Hang it up". Below is the version we gave to Jack:

The thrills of victory the tears of defeat,
The sights and sounds of a swimming meet.
This is the heritage of a contest you love,
Struggling swimmers in the water, twisting divers above.
Yet, for all of us the time must be,
When memoirs are woven from many meets he's seen.

The meets are longer, they're not as fun,
The event list seems endless so long to be done.
Tired of assessing stroking and kicking,
Tired of coaches constant nitpicking.
You've had your fill of distance and dashes,
Younger than your grandchildren are these new teenage flashes.

O'er many a season one thing is can be assured,
Your volunteer labor sadly goes undisturbed.
Your limbs are fatigued, your senses rebel
As you mentally prepare for that Final farewell
Ah those glorious moments are melting away,
As more you recall golden yesterday.

So with tumult ringing in your ears,
In retrospect we look back on all your years
Your love of Spartan Swimming and Diving so great,
Could the program have been without you at "State"
No...no the answer echoes back so bold
Of what our program owes to Jack Seibold.

This past week, Ian Clutten (who has been very busy working for Granger Construction on the new Duffy Daugherty project) stopped by my office and told me that I made a serious omission in my last update. I forgot to mention that he and his girlfriend, former MSU swimming trainer, Stephanie are engaged. The wedding is scheduled for July 11, 2009.

I would also like to let you all know that Alicia Copestick is close to getting married. I was reminded of that when her invitation came in the mail earlier this week.

I also got an e-mail from JP reminding me of some alumni happenings in the world of Master's swimming. According to her e-mail "former MSU captain, Marilyn Early, '79, who made 14 World Masters rankings in the 50-54 age group, her highest was second in the 200 free, SCM, 2:22. Also, she had several third and fourth place finishes in both LCM and SCM.

Melinda Whitcomb Mann, captain and Big Ten champion in the 50 in '78, was second in several events in that same age group, breaststroke, fly and IM. She is a World Masters record holder and won an event at Stanford World Championships in '06.

A week from Sunday is our annual awards banquet. This year the banquet will be in the LaSalle Bank club. In step with tradition, we will be giving out the Golden Spikes for our graduating seniors. We will also give out the season awards. I will be sure to include all the award winners in one of my future updates.

I want to congratulate all of our swimmers and divers who have already begun training and competing for the summer season. I want to especially congratulate Danielle Williams for qualifying for Olympic Trials.

As I write this, Marcus Poteete and Kevin Puskaric are competing at the Toyota Grand Prix in Columbus, Ohio.

I would like to let everyone know that at the Spring 2008 commencement for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources John Munley will be awarded his degree posthumously. According to his older brother Tom, the award was "made possible through the relentless efforts of Richard Bader, Jim Pignataro, and Prof. Bruce Harte, as well as a couple of carefully worded letters by my father to President Simon." I am fortunate enough to be invited to John's graduation party on May 3.

On a very sad note, Coach Richard Bader's mother passed away this past Sunday (March 31) after a prolonged illness. Our thoughts and prayers are with Coach Bader and his family.

It is almost spring weather on campus and the last of the ice is off the Red Cedar. I hope all of you had a good winter. I know that many of our alumni spent the winter training for their master's meets, or they spent the winter following around their own children in their swimming endeavors. As you all know, please if you are near campus, drop by and say hello.

I have not been able to update much this past month with both Big Ten meets going on. I apologize for being behind. A lot has happened since the last time.

I would hope that all of you followed along with the results for the Big Ten meet on our website and the host websites. Both meets had their ups and downs and full results are available on our website. We improved off of last year with both the men and the women. The degree of improvement was not as much as we had hoped for, but we are moving in the right direction.

I wanted to pass along a couple of items. First, I received an e-mail a few weeks ago from Jim Thurston letting me know that he and his girlfriend, Mandy, got engaged. According to his e-mail, the wedding should be some time this year.

I also got an e-mail from Kirk Nelson with the latest Fina Masters rankings were released. Three former Spartans were represented:

Alec Mull (1994)
SCM 50 fly 26.63 (10th)
LCM 50 free 24.91 (10th)
LCM 50 fly 26.27 (6th)
LCM 100 fly 58.68 (8th)

Our annual awards banquet will be on Sunday, April 13 at 12:00 noon. If you are interested in attending, please contact Kathleen Milloy at milloy@ath.msu.edu

Unfortunately, no Spartans will be at the NCAA championships for 2008. We made it much closer than last year, but we still fell short. We have now shifted our focus toward the summer and the long course season. We will once again be aligning with the Capital Area Swim Team and we will be competing this summer under that name.

I want to thank all of you who came to our meets this past year and gave us your support. We appreciate it.

A lot of alumni news this week. First off, let's congratulate Kate Duncombe after she won the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right. The episode ran last week on Jan 31. Her total winnings were in the neighborhood of $32,000; she won a new car and a trip to Acapulco. Kate is now in Nursing school and living in the Washington, D.C., area.

I got a chance to see both Adam Pawlick and Mike Mulshine last week. Both were in town for the school of packaging career fair. Both Adam and Mike are doing well. They both have babies on the way, Mike's first and Adam's second. They have both put their packaging degrees to good use and they are both doing well. I want to thank them both for their support of the program. They have provided guidance to our packaging majors and they were particularly helpful to both Matt McNichols and Matt Torres.

I want to congratulate senior captain Matt McNichols for getting a paid internship with Kraft Foods in Chicago, Ill. It is a great internship and it is surely a step to bigger things. Matt Torres is sorting through his five options and he will be interning this upcoming year also.

I also want to congratulate Eve Brusie for her recent admission into medical school. I would think that for a 3.9 student, who volunteered at Sparrow hospital, is a varsity record holder and four-year letter winner it wouldn't be that hard to gain admission-but med school admission is hard and we are really proud of Eve and her pursuit of her life long dream of being a doctor.

I got a chance to see Sarah Salenski; I know that isn't her last name but old habits die hard. She stopped by the office with her kids last Saturday. She got me caught up on some of the people in her class. Most of the talk was around Ilaria Sciorelli. Ilaria, if you are out there, it would be nice to hear from you.

George Kruggel: George swam for coach Fetters in the early 1980's. He is a true Spartan and he gives unconditional financial and moral support to the program. He is a real asset and he is a real beacon on the west side of the state.

Bob Jones: Bob has been a constant supporter of the MSU swimming and diving team since he swam here in the 1970's. Even after he re-located to Corvallis, Ore., he has consistently supported the program.

Don Patterson: Don gave the largest financial gift in the history of our program this past year. He and his teammates from the 1950's era have consistently honored the memory of their coach, the great Charles McCaffree, by being supporters of our program.

Jennifer Parks: JP, who was the rock upon which the women's program at MSU was built, has been a loyal and steady supporter ever since. She is one of our best supporters

We are only one week away until the Women's Big 10's and two weeks out for the men. The rest has officially begun so I ask that you all wish us good health for the next few weeks.

Before I write about anything else I want to alert all of our supporters that Kate Duncombe '03 will be on the television game show, "The Price is Right" on Jan 31. Apparently she was the big winner on the show so check your local listings.

Our meet against Oakland went well and we performed very well. It was exciting for the Men's team because they finally got to swim at home in front of parents and friends. It was also exciting for the women because it had seemed so long since they could do the same. We won both meets and the results are on our website. A few highlights were the pool records set by Kevin Puskaric and Adam Schmitt. Adam broke Cam Mull's old record in the 200 free by going 1:38.34 and Kevin broke Giordan Pigioli's record in the 200 breast by going 1:59.14. We also had the 400 free relay record go down by Adam, Joe Schmitt, Matt Massman and Jason Vadney. It was a good meet for us and we're hoping to carry it through to the Big Ten meets next month.

I want to thank all our supporters who came out on Friday night. We had a great crowd and the place was really exciting. I have gotten estimates of about 400-1200 people. I don't know for sure how many, but there were a lot and it made for a great atmosphere. I also wanted to thank Pete Hovland and Oakland University. Oakland is one of the few schools left that are willing to come to MSU and have a meet. I would hope that will continue into the future.

I got a chance to see many of our alumni there. I apologize for not saying hello, but I was preoccupied. I know that Al Mull was there to see his little brother's record get taken down. I also saw Tom Munley, Eve Brusie, Pat Saucedo, Carly Zenk, Luke Lehner and JH Berg. Thank you for the support.

Being the end of the dual meet season, I wanted to publicly thank all of our parents and supporters who traveled so well to all our meets. We had some real troopers this year who got to see the four corners of the Big Ten. Of course they got to see other crazy sights as well. Next year we will hopefully have a few more home meets, so travel will not be an every weekend affair.

While we're on travel, I want to let everyone know that once again this year we had John Ricci drive our coach to every meet. He is the most trustworthy driver in the world. I consider him to be part of our program and he never fails us. I am thankful to him and Dean Trailways for such great service.

Well we're on the edge of taper time, so things will start to get a little jumpy around here soon enough. To date between the men's and women's teams, we have 15 top 10 swims and we are very close to possibly breaking a number of team records. We appreciate all your support.

Next week, I am going to officially announce the Bill Heusner Service Award winners for 2008.

Happy New Year,
This Friday we compete against Oakland. For the women it is the second home meet of the season. We have had 97 days between our meet against Illinois and our meet with Oakland. For the men it is our home debut and our home finale. It has been 377 days between home meets for the men's team. Friday is also senior night and we have the opportunity to honor six outstanding individuals who have given their hearts and souls to Michigan State:

Tony Grace, Matt McNichols, Adam Schmitt, Matt Torres, Jason Vadney will all be 4-year letterwinners at Michigan State. Joining them will be student-assistant Danny Schemmel, a 2-year letter-winner.

Each class is unique as is their experience at Michigan State. This class, which became one greater when Jason redshirted in 2006, have put their stamp on our program by creating a culture of hard work and excellence. They have all stayed in East Lansing during the summer and trained and competed hard. They are all going to graduate and most of them have good leads on jobs already. They have had injuries, surgeries, great wins and bitter losses. They have had incredible ups and devastating downs. They have persevered through it all showing great leadership. They have never wavered in the love of Michigan State swimming and diving. They are all Spartans and they would be the first to let you know that. I want to personally congratulate and thank them for giving us four (and in Jason's case, five) great years.

Last weekend we had a great crowd at the Michigan meet and many of our supporters then went to Columbus the next day to support us there also. The meets were solid performances for us. Obviously we were a little disappointed with the scores of the meets, but we felt as though we performed well. The results are posted on our website.

I got the opportunity to connect with a few alumni at both meets. Tom Munley, Katie Sophiea and Sean Hickman were at the meet in Ann Arbor. Former Olympian Dave Burgering was at Ohio State and he got a chance to address the team before the meet. Dave was in Columbus as part of the USA Diving coaching staff running a select camp. It is amazing to see what they can do at Ohio State now with the new facility.

I omitted something last week I wanted to share. On our way to Valpo, one of the bay doors under the bus popped open as we were getting on Rte 496. Some bags fell out of the bus onto Kalamazoo and we didn't realize any of this until we were on 496. When the incident happened, Mark and Sandy Siegel of Hanover, Mich., were driving behind the bus. They stopped and picked up our bags and followed the bus. They flagged our driver and we pulled over and they returned the bags to us. I consider both Mark and Sandy official MSU swim and dive backers and I thank them for their kindness. Mark wanted to have no credit for what he and his wife did; he really wanted to remain anonymous. I would not let that happen and I wanted to publicly thank him.

Our meet on Friday is at 6 p.m. If you are around on Friday afternoon, please stop by. We can use the support.

2008 is only a few weeks old and already so much has happened. For the first time in a while we stayed in East Lansing to train. The experience of staying here was quite an experience. In addition to the training, we had a few lessons for our program on a variety of different topics - not the least of which is media relations.

As many of you may know, the IM west pool had issues over the break and when it was officially closed the swimmers were forced for much of the break to train in the Jenison and IM circle pools. My personal highlight was the thick fog in the circle pool when we opened the doors for fresh air.

By the way, when I got word the pool was closed, it was fairly easy to move swimming practices. Diving was a different story. After the IM pool was closed, Eric scrambled to find boards for our divers. After the new year, they were fortunate enough to move some of their training to Ann Arbor for a couple days. I would like to personally thank Chris Burgere, diving coach at Michigan, for helping our program out in a pinch.

Our training must have been pretty solid though because last weekend we had great performances on both Friday and Saturday. Friday night's meet was against Valpo and Saturday was against Purdue.

The Valpo meet was put together partially because MSU grad Brian Morrison was the coach. He resigned a week before the meet so there was not the Spartan reunion we had planned. For losing their coach only a week prior, the Valpo team showed a lot of heart and spirit. I give them a lot of credit. Many of our kids were able to swim off-events and many of our kids who do not normally grab headlines got that opportunity also. Alex Crigler, Matt Massman, Mark Rogers, Jordan Jackson and Mike Vanbeek all won their first ever collegiate race. The meet again showed how adaptive and classy the kids in our program are.

At Purdue, we faced the No. 12 men's team in the country and a women's team who had already beaten our team in November. That being said, our team fared very well. Adam Schmitt had one of his best meets ever, winning three events and doing it with impressive times. Heather Kiluk also had a great meet winning the 200 IM. The other standout was Becca Ebner, who swam her personal best time in the 200 Fly by more than 2 seconds. All of the results from the past weekend are on our website.

This weekend, we are at Michigan on Friday night (Jan.18) at 5 p.m. and then we go to Columbus to compete with Ohio State and Eastern Michigan on Saturday (Jan. 19) at 5 p.m.. If you are near, please come on out and support the Spartans.

Both of our teams finished the fall semester with team GPA's above 3.0. The women and men both finished around 3.1. We had three people with a straight 4.0: freshman Brian Rockwell, junior Mark Rogers and freshman Jordan Jackson. I was very proud of our athletes for their academic achievements.

I want to congratulate Clarke Scholes for induction into the Michigan Sports hall of Fame. Clarke is a former Olympic Champion who swam for MSU in the early 1950's for Coach McCaffree. The following link describes what an incredible honor it is for him. http://www.michigansportshof.org./inductees/current.html

Hope you are all doing well. Our program is really doing well. Our long time motor coach operator, John Ricci, commented on the way home from Purdue that he had never seen the swimming and diving team's morale higher. He has been driving us for eight seasons. My request is that if any of you ever see or read anything in any media about our program, you please e-mail me and I will do my best to clear up any confusion.

Dec. 13, 2007

I write this on the heels of our return from Ball State. I am happy to report that we won both meets and we had a few impressive swims to boot. Not an easy place to compete and it really amazes me that there was once a time that the Indiana High School State Meet was held there.

The Ball State trip pushed our motor coach miles up to about 3,000 for the semester. We have toured seven different states, watched nearly a dozen movies, stayed in four different hotels and we still have managed to swim fast and dive well.

This Friday, our team will volunteer at the Salvation Army toy distribution center in Lansing. This is the third consecutive year we have done this community service project as a team.

This being holiday time, I want to thank all of the people who make our program so special:

Kathleen, Manny and Eric - A coach could ask for no better coaching staff in the world. Diverse by any definition. Perfect by no means. Incredibly dedicated and hardworking, not a coaching staff in the country cares more about kids than ours does. Danny Schemmel - Danny is a two-year swimmer who has moved into student assistant his senior year. He has done his best to fill the void left by the departure of Rich Mull. A true swimming nerd, Danny has been an immense help from last spring to today.

Rob Aburto - While being a full-time law student, Rob has volunteered his time to help our program as a volunteer assistant coach. He has also done everything in his power to fill the void left by Rich Mull leaving.

Eric Bean - Eric has assisted the divers in their mental approach this season and it has paid huge dividends.

Nancy Wing - Our secretary for 11 seasons, Nancy is another dedicated tireless worker. She is responsible for us, wrestling and tennis. She is the best secretary in the athletic department and she really keeps our ship afloat.

Jeremy Flynn - Jeremy is responsible for overseeing our academic progress. He has been our academic advisor for five seasons and in that time, we have been honored a number of time both individually and collectively as a team.

I want to also thank all of you who unconditionally support our program. Our supporters are the best and we would not exist without you.

This has been a great semester for us. We are looking forward to the New Year and we hope you all have a great 2008.

Matt Gianiodis

Dec. 6, 2007

It has been a while once again but we have just returned from the Ohio State Invitational and I have had a little more time this week to update you all on the doings of the program.

The Ohio State invitational went fairly well for us. The complete results are on our website. Our philosophy for the meet was to rest for a week and have the team swim multiple events and some very tough doubles. We had numerous best times and we had multiple finalists. Through the three days, we had 11 top 10 all-time performances. In all, we did well and I thank the many of you who followed along and have e-mailed supportive things to our program.

I wanted to announce that in the past two weeks, we received a gift of $14,000 from Don Patterson. Don was the team captain in 1959. He was here with his teammates in September during our 1957 championship reunion. His donation is the largest gift in our program amd more than anything is a testament of the passion and the love MSU swimmers had for Coach McCaffree. Our program has already updated some of our equipment including power racks which hopefully will help our sprinters.

Amy Schmidt, who is scheduled to graduate this month, has just been named Outstanding Senior for the fall of 2007. She earned the distinction by "exemplifying leadership in areas of academic excellence, community service, campus involvement, work experience, contributions to MSU, and its uniqueness." To be considered you have to be nominated by a faculty member and then you have to be voted by your fellow students. This is an incredible accomplishment when you consider the size of Michigan State. We wish her congratulations.

On Monday begins the exam week for the fall term. It is always a stressful time for student athletes.

Our meet against Purdue in West Lafayette on Jan. 13 has been moved from 2 p.m. to 1 p.m. so please make note of that.

Congrats to our football team making the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. My hope is that our many swimming alumni in Florida get a chance to go to the game and support the Spartans.

Hope you have the time to enjoy the holiday season with your family.

Until next week,

Matt Gianiodis

Nov 15, 2007

I apologize for missing last week-spent some time preparing for our fall color tour of New York and Pennsylvania. In the span of three days, we swam 4 dual meets for the women and 3 for the men. It was a marathon, but we felt pretty good about ourselves when it was all over. The highlight of the trip was the two-day meet at Penn State. Our men got to compete against the No. 12 and No. 25 teams in the country. Meanwhile, our women got to mix it up with the No. 17 and No. 20 team in the country.

The results of the meet are available on our web page. In all, we competed very hard and we made it known that our program is no easy out. On Friday night (Nov. 9) we won four of the nine men's events. I was incredibly proud of our kids, who spent better than 14 hours on a bus, coming out and competing like true Spartans.

We left for the trip on Thursday morning in order to make our meet at St Bonaventure by 6:00 p.m. that night. The trip was long, though we did get a good look at Jacobs field in Cleveland and about five inches of snow in Erie. Again it was another proud moment for me when our kids stepped right off the bus and took care of business at my alma mater.

I do want to note that the people at St Bonaventure University were very accommodating to our program. Of course, that kind of graciousness is to be expected from North America's only Franciscan University.

I also want to note that for the second consecutive road meet, we ran into an incredible environment for a swimming and diving meet. The McCoy Natatorium at Penn State held more than 1,000 raucous fans. It was a very fun experience for me and the team. Hopefully we'll be able to show them some Spartan excitement when they come out to East Lansing next year.

For those of you keeping track, the Spartans have now traveled a little less than 1,900 miles in our first two road trips.

Next week is Thanksgiving and it is my wish that you and your family have a great time eating turkey and watching football.

Congrats to our football program for becoming bowl eligible.

Wednesday, Nov. 14 is the official start of the early signing period. Next week, I will give you an update on our recruiting for the class of 2012.

The next competition for the Spartans is in Columbus at the Ohio State invitational. The meet is on Nov 30-Dec. 2. Please come out if you live locally. You can also follow along on our web site.

Until next week,

Matt Gianiodis

Nov 1, 2007

I wanted to start this week by thanking Jim and Marcia McNichols once again for hosting our team last week. On our way out to Iowa, we stopped in Naperville, Ill., and had lunch at the McNichols house. They also received help from Mrs. Lilja, Mrs. Puskaric and Mr. Torres. In all it was a great time and it was a great experience for our team. Thank you.

In 2009, Iowa is going to have their new $15 million aquatic center up and running. For me, that date can't come soon enough because I do not have many good memories in their current pool. This past week just added to the bevy of dismay as I watched our men's team get ties in two of the last three events and lose the meet by one point (150.5-149.5). On the women's side, we suffered a bit of a let-down from the previous week and we lost by a bigger margin. Despite the losses, we had quite a few people perform very well. Danielle Williams remained undefeated on the boards for the season. Marlys Fuqua pumped out two best times in the 1,000 and 500. Adam Schmitt won four events. Ricky Forrest made his collegiate debut by winning two events. Yet despite that, it was a relatively frustrating seven-hour ride home on Friday night/Saturday morning.

One note from the meet: I want to thank the Iowa coaching staff and administration for having such an incredible energetic crowd at the meet. It was an amazing environment in which to compete. I also wanted to thank all of our parents and supporters who hiked out to Iowa City. I also wanted to thank the MSU field hockey team, in Iowa for a game on Saturday, for coming out and giving us their support-quite a rendition of the fight song!

I have just one more note on the Iowa meet. The official results had a number of errors. Adam Schmitt won the 200 freestyle-not Joe Schmitt. As noted, Danielle Williams won the 3-meter board, not Alycia Mokedanz. Erinn Wertz and Mara Loniewski swam in the 100 freestyle. Jon Larocque swam the 100 backstroke, not Joe Schmitt.

This week marks the end of the outdoor pool season for 2007. Mother Nature was definitely on our side this year with all the beautiful weather East Lansing had from May through November. If this is a by-product of global warming, then I am all for it! Our final outdoor practice will be on Saturday, Nov. 3 from 9-11 a.m. The practice is followed by watching our seniors go off the 10-meter platform for the final time as varsity athletes at MSU. If you are around tailgating, please stop by.

Next week we are in New York and Pennsylvania. We will be at my Alma Mater, St Bonaventure, on Thursday-that meet begins at 6 p.m. We then travel to State College for a two day meet on Friday and Saturday. If you live near any of the meets, please come out and support the Spartans. If not, then look for results on our website from all three days.

Like all of you-let's hope for good luck on Saturday...Go Green!

Until next week,

Oct. 25, 2007

As you read this we are on our way out to Iowa for a swim meet. I want to thank in advance the McNichols family, who is hosting our entire team for lunch on Thursday. The meet against Iowa is at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26.

I want to thank Jennifer Parks (JP) for taking some time out of her schedule to come and inspire our team last Friday. JP, as she always does, shared her wisdom with the team and went some 40 minutes over her allotted 10 minutes. No complaints here, because her talk inspired the women to go out the next day and win their season opener against Illinois.

We had some great performances in the Illinois meet. Topping the list is Danielle Williams, who was recently named Big Ten Diver of the Week. Danielle had her first collegiate meet since shoulder surgery last year and she won both springboard events. Besides Danielle, we had freshman Stephanie Fisher win two events in her collegiate debut. Julie Kahn pitched in a victory in the 100 free and we won both relays. In all, it was a good way to lead off our season.

It has been a busy week this week getting both squads prepared to go out to Iowa. Please follow along the entire season on our website. If any of you live near Iowa City, come on out and cheer for your Spartans.

Next week is the Michigan football weekend. If you are going to be on campus for the game, please stop by our practice. Next weekend marks the end of the outdoor pool season for 2007.

Until next week,

Matt G

Oct. 5, 2007

As many of you know well, nothing brings a bigger smile to the faces of Spartan swimmers and divers like an extended summer! Having high temperatures in the mid 70's in October makes Michigan State the best place to swim and dive. We have had outdoor practices the entire way and we have been able to train Long Course as though it was the middle of July. Just keep your fingers crossed this global warming continues.

I want to apologize for missing last week, I was a little busy with things and I spent the end of the week traveling back to my hometown in New York. While in New York, I was fortunate to be inducted into my high school's athletic hall of fame. It was a real thrill for my family and me to be given such a nice honor.

OK, back to the important stuff.

We are now 9 days away from the alumni meet. If you have any questions at all regarding the meet, please call me. It is going to be confusing and I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to get to campus and the meet on time.

Also, here is a reminder that our three Heusner Award winners are: Kent Johnson, Dan Batchelor and the Munley family.

Please make note that we are having a Green and White meet on Friday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. We are going to have our team draft early next week and the meet promises to be very competitive. If you are in town, please stop by and say hello.

This Friday, we are going to have Tom Munley address our team for a few minutes. Tom is the fourth alumnus to pep up the team. It is a nice experience for the team to take in some of the wisdom of people who have been through it.

For those of you who are interested, the team of sophomores and juniors destroyed the seniors and freshmen in our annual scavenger hunt. It was a particularly weak effort by senior captain Matthew McNichols. To his defense, Matt may have been distracted in that he has been named the head of the MSU SAAC committee. He has also been appointed to the MSU Athletic Council and the Big Ten Athletic Council. So his poor effort at the scavenger hunt gets a pass.

I really hope all is well for you and I look forward to seeing many of you next week. As you all know, I love Homecoming and I love the alumni meet.

Until next time,
Matt G.

Sept. 20, 2007

Right off the bat I want to let everyone know that we had a great time this past weekend honoring the guys from the 1957 Big Ten Championship team.

Jim Clemens and Wally Dobler did a great job of organizing the event and Eldon Van Spybrook, the president of the Varsity S Alumni group, also helped with the arrangements. In all, we had 18 former swimmers and divers from the mid to late 1950's. They had a full weekend of events including: a visit to Jenison, a picture at Sparty, a breakfast and awards ceremony at the Kellogg Center, a seat in the LaSalle Bank club for the Spartan victory over Pittsburgh and an informal reception at the hotel on Saturday.

The reunion was a great event and it reminded me of the Golden Spike reunion last year. If you have a reunion planned or you want to plan one with your former teammates, please contact me and we'll help you with the plans.

Clemens, the 1957 captain, addressed our team this past Friday. His talk was inspirational and he reminded all the current team members of the importance of contributing to the Ralph Young Club. It is a message that should also resonate with our alumni.

This Friday marks our annual team scavenger hunt. This will be the fifth consecutive year we have the scavenger hunt, and of course, my favorite memory in those five years was when Ian Clutten rode his bike all the way out to the Beef and Cattle Research complex to get an item for the hunt.

Our practices have been very good so far and we have had relatively good weather (knock on wood) for our outdoor practices. The indoor pool is now officially open and it looks really nice. It is still the same pool, but it is so much brighter and cleaner. The new bulkhead is fantastic and the diving end is a real upgrade. Now all we need is a cover for the long course pool and we'd be all set.

Also, I'd like to congratulate David Diget on his induction into the Battle Creek Hall of Fame. Dave was an All-American swimmer here in the late 1950's. He was the head coach at Western Michigan University and he now coaches at Battle Creek Lakeview High School.

I saw Karen Fetters at the Bowling Green football game on Sept. 8. Shawn Elkins stopped by that same week. I also saw Tommy Parker this past weekend and I heard from Lindsay Fetters also. I am glad to see all of you and I hope that you always feel free to stop by or call anytime.

Beat the Irish!
Matt Gianiodis

May 17, 2007

The team grade reports for the spring 2007 semester are officially out. Our men's team finished with the highest term GPA in program history. The 23-member team finished with a 3.22 semester GPA, which was again the highest amongst men's teams in the department. It will almost certainly be one of the highest for swim teams in the country. Our women also did very well, with 20 team members over a 3.0 GPA. Carly Zenk was the only Spartan who finished the spring with a 4.0.

This past month, our program received its largest-ever cash gift in the Ralph Young Fund. George Kruggel donated a gift in excess of $11,000. We are very grateful for his generosity and his commitment to our program. His donation has pushed our fund-raised to over $50,000 for 2006-07. That is another record for our program.

As we move to the end of the fiscal year, I want to thank all of you who donated money to the Ralph Young Fund. Below is a list of names of those who have contributed money since July 1, 2006:

Nadine Crane
Eleanor Heusner
Glenn Disoway
Tom Kwasny
Coach Fetters
Coach Parks
Tom & Susan Kirkpatrick
Jane Hoag Demarchi
Dr. David Seibold
Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Kalmbach
Geraldine James
Mr. & Mrs. David Polk
Don Morey
Dean Taylor
Susan Eareckson
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Habel
Tosh Imai
Bob Rex
Forest & Mary Owen
Jack Seibold
Larry Walker
Rich & Leslie Mull
Ruth & Philip Mayercak
David Coward
Lewis Michaud
Dan Batchelor
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Tyrrell
Paul Fetters
Elyse Whitcher
Larry & Ann Edwrads
Kevin Smiley & Kristen Nelson
Margeret Smith
David & Elaine Yocum
Lt. Gen. Gordon Fornell
Allan Livingston
Tom Munley
Frank Reynolds
Bruce Richards
Jim Bradford
Mike Darbee
James & Pat Lanker
David Schemmel
Amy Straith-Drexel
Jack Zatirka
Eric Best
Manny Noguchi
Laurie Haring
Doug & Annie MacAskill
Alec Mull
Bob Jones
Dr. David McCaffree
Douglas Rowe
Kevin Schaefer
James & Mary Yoemans
Art & Linda Lessard
Maureen Eberly
Kathleen Wackerle
Kent Johnson
Bob & Kellie Hamilton
Robert & Natalie Van Beek
Michael & Catherine Biasello
Chris & Laura Koerner
Michael & Rose Deford
Jeff & Diane Grace
Dan & Beverly Reponen
Lawrence & JoAnn Rogers
ROI Consulting
Tom & Marilyn Smith
Bruce Wright
Chris & Pamela Lincoln
Bruce & Christine Dejonge
Brian Fitzgerald
Ron & Ann Hendrix
John & MaryAnne Massman
Mary Ruhland
Pat Saucedo
Dani Sawyer
Bryan & Ellen Augustine
Melva Bibbins
Mike & Emely Vadney
Robert & Debra Larocque
Mike & Sandra Fuqua
Larry Golen
Phil Johnson
Dennis & Janet Korn
Joseph & Ana Gordon
Fred Carter
Don Mason
Dan & Mary Meyers
Mary Poteete
Samuel & Lori Kasley
Terry Eudy
Jim Clemens
Don Korten
Deb O'Neil
Karen Carboni Kimple

Of course, I want to thank all the donors. Many of you have been consistent givers and it means very much to all of us involved in the program and the athletic department.

Another reminder of the John Munley Memorial Masters meet on June 24. The information is linked on our web site home page.

Until next time,
Matt G.

May 10, 2007

I have included our schedule for next year. We begin the year by bringing back our traditional Green & White Meet. This year, we are looking for guest coaches in the Green & White Meet, and we may have a guest-coach race during the meet for points.

The one thing that stands out is the lack of home meets. We owe quite a few schools return trips, so we are going to be on the road quite a bit this year. It is a difficult schedule with many Top 25 teams, but one that we hope will challenge us and better prepare us for the Big Ten Championships. The women open on Oct. 20 at home against Illinois. The men begin at Iowa the following Friday. Below is the full schedule:

Fri, Oct 12- Green & White (m&w)- East Lansing, Mich.- 6 p.m.
Sat, Oct 13- Alumni meet (m&w)- East Lansing, Mich.- 9 a.m.
Sat, Oct 20- Illinois (w) -East Lansing, Mich. -12 p.m.
Fri, Oct 26- Iowa (m&w)- Iowa City, Iowa- 5 p.m.
Thu, Nov 8 - St. Bonaventure- (m&w) Olean, N.Y. -5 p.m.
Fri, Nov 9- Penn St/Virginia (m&w)- State College, Pa. -5 p.m.
Sat, Nov 10- Penn St/ Virgina (m&w)- State College, Pa.- 11 a.m.
Fri-Sun Nov 30-Dec 1- Ohio State Invt- Columbus, Ohio- All day
Sat, December 8- Ball State (m/w)- Muncie, Ind.- 2 p.m.
Fri, January 11- Valparaiso (m&w)- Valparaiso, Ind.- 5 p.m. (cst)
Sat, January 12- Purdue(m& w)- West Lafayette, Ind.- 12 p.m.
Fri, Jan 18- Michigan (m&w)- Ann Arbor, Mich.- 5 p.m.
Sat, Jan 19 -Ohio State/EMU (m&w)- Columbus, Ohio- 4 p.m.
Fri, Jan 25- Oakland (m&w)- East Lansing, Mich.- 6 p.m.
Thu-Sun. Feb. 14-16- Big Ten Championships (w)- Columbus, Ohio- 11 a.m., 7 p.m.
Fri-Sun. Feb 21-23- Big Ten Championships (m)- Ann Arbor, Mich.- 12, 7 p.m.
Th-Sat Mar 2-4- NCAA Diving Zones- TBA- ALL DAY
Thu-Sat Mar 14-16- Women's NCAA Champ.- Columbus, Ohio- 11 a.m., 7 p.m.
Thu-Sat Mar 21-23- Men's NCAA Champ.- Federal Way, Wash.- 11 a.m., 7 p.m.

I want to congratulate 2006 Heusner Award Winner Jack Beattie for being honored by the Southern Association of Orthodontists as the 2007 recipient of the Oren Oliver Distinguished Service Award, the highest recognition bestowed by that organization.

On June 24, we are going to host the annual Masters Swim Meet. The proceeds go to the John Munley Scholarship fund. This is quickly becoming a summer alumni meet, and we'd love to get all of our supporters to the outdoor pool.

I want to congratulate all of our graduates for 2007. We have some very impressive work that is going to be done by these great kids. I also want to congratulate Basak Oguz, who retired from swimming last year but stayed at MSU. She recently graduated in mechanical engineering. She won the most prestigious award in the department and is going to be working as a TA in the engineering graduate school here at MSU. This is a great accomplishment.

As we move into the summer, the hope is that our team will put in the necessary work to help us improve next year.

Until next time,
Matt G.

April 26, 2007

I want to begin this week by announcing some exciting news. For the first time in a long while, the Spartans will not kick the Homecoming football game at noon. In fact, the football game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. That will afford us a greater opportunity to showcase our alumni swim meet since we won't have to rush through it early in the morning. The meet time is now at 12 p.m., and we will be able to take our time, and who knows maybe even run some races and dives outside.

Last Friday, the coaching staff, as well as Danny Schemmel, Tony Grace and Michael Van Beek helped out with the Special Olympics swim meet at Holt High School.

On Saturday, our team once again helped out with the Adopt-A-River program. Our assigned area was the section of the Red Cedar River, behind Kirchner Park. Our team worked a solid two hours from 8-10 a.m., and they cleared more than 25, 10 gallon bags of trash. Of course, the number one cleaner was Coach Mull, who also managed to make spare change collecting beer and pop cans along the way. He has a real knack for that.

On Sunday, we celebrated our season with our annual banquet. For the second year in a row, we held the banquet in the LaSalle Bank Club at Spartan Stadium. Thanks to Kathleen's organization, the presentation was very nice. Season award winners were:

Jack Seibold Award for Leadership: Matt McNichols
Jennifer Parks Award for Leadership: Amber Schroeder
Men's John Narcy Most Improved: Marcus Poteete, Joe Schmitt
Women's John Narcy Most Improved: Laura DeFord
Women's Spartan of the Year Award: Marlys Fuqua
Men's Spartan of the Year Award: Daniel Schemmel
Women's Swimmer of the Year: Sasha Lewerenz
Men's Swimmer of the Year: Adam Schmitt
Women's Diver of the Year: Katie Edwards
Men's Diver of the Year: Ivan Zalessov
Freshman of the Year: David Garry
Kevin Zielinski Heart Award: Amy Schmidt
John Munley Memorial Scholarship : Michael Van Beek

We welcomed 11 new members into the order of the golden spike. We also said an official good bye to Coach Mull, although I have a sneaking suspicion that he'll be around next year.

I want to thank both Tom Munley and Jack Seibold for attending the banquet. Their presence connects present to past so well.

By the way, I did get the update from J.P. about how the Spartans did this past weekend at the Master's State meet. Congrats to Alec Mull, Dr. Steve Bargwell, Marilyn Early, Kurt Kristenson, Don Korten and Joe Buys.

We have only a few days left in the semester and then exams. This time of the year, we always have to say good bye--sometimes for a long time--to our departing graduates. One graduate who I am particularly proud of is Johan Sunryd. "Jojo" has earned a full scholarship to the University of Massachusetts to study biochemistry. He is getting his undergraduate degree next Friday, and he is on his way to doing great things.

Next week, I promise a summary of our recruiting as well as our schedule for 2007-08.

Until next time,
Matt G.

April 19, 2007

I apologize for not putting together an update last week. Last week was the signing date, so we were busy trying to get a few more Spartans.

One highlight of this past week was our entry in the world cup intramural soccer tournament. Manny put together a squad of 13 and they were unceremoniously eliminated after three hard-fought games. I have included a picture of the team.

This is a big week for our program. We wrap up our official spring training, we have two separate community service events and the week culminates with our annual banquet.

On Friday, we will have many team members and the entire staff assisting in the special Olympic swimming event at Holt High School.

On Saturday, we will have the entire team taking part in the Adopt-A-River project, cleaning up the Grand and Red Cedar rivers.

On Sunday, we will have our awards banquet in the LaSalle Bank Club in Spartan Stadium. We will have 11 new members in the Order of the Golden Spike.

If anyone is planning to attend the spring football game, please try and stop by the pool. We will be working in the morning at the Adopt-A-River project, however, I will be in my office right before the spring game.

Many of you have e-mailed requesting photos of the new locker room. I have been a little delinquent in getting those out but I have included a couple.

Next week, I will have an update of our banquet (with pictures). I know most of you who read this are familiar with the Golden Spike, so a treat for this week:

Hang it up, Hang it up -Jack Seibold

The thrills of victory, the tears of defeat, The sights and sounds of a swimming meet. This is the heritage of a contest we love, Struggling swimmers in water, twisting divers above. Yet for each competitor the time must come, When memoirs are woven from ribbons he's won.

`tis time Old Veteran, Hang it up, hang it up.

The workouts are tedious, it's no longer fun, Once easy victories have become hard won. Tired you are of stroking and kicking, Tired you are of taking a licking. You've had your fill of distance and dashes, And most of all hearing about teenage flashes.

Tis time Old Veteran, Hang it up, hang it up.

Or' a year long season boredom is assured, As monotonous daily workouts go undisturbed. Your limbs are fatigued, your senses rebel, As you mentally prepare for that final farewell. Ah...those glorious moments are melting away, As more you recall yesterday.

Tis time Old Veteran, Hang it up, hang it up.

So with tumult still ringing in your ears, In retrospect you look back in years. A question prevails that one must submit, Was dedication to swimming really all worth it? Yes ...yesthe answer echoes back as if in a plan, Suddenly you realize swimming's made you a man.

Good luck, Old Veteran, Hang it up, hang it up.

God bless the campus at Virginia Tech,

Matt Gianiodis

April 5, 2007

Last week, I waxed eloquently of the many signs of spring on campus and today I write as it is snowing outside. How great it is to be in Michigan!

The Big Ten released its Academic All-Big Ten awards last week and Michigan State had 42 recipients. Of the 42 Spartan students honored, 22 of them are swimmers and divers. That is pretty good for us considering more than half our team are freshmen. Freshmen are ineligible from being named Academic All-Big Ten.

On Monday April 9, our department will be hosting the 10th Academic gala. This year's speaker is none other than Steve Smith. I know many of you have attended this banquet in the past decade. Each year it gets more and more grand. In fact, this year I am required to attend in a tuxedo. It is a highlight every year for our program because of the large number of team members who are honored for their work in the classroom.

Speaking of honors, a very special congratulations to Matt McNichols. Matt has been selected to represent Michigan State at the NCAA leadership conference in Orlando, Fla. Only one person represents each member institution, so this is quite an honor for our program and especially for Matt. I am very confident that he will represent Michigan State very well.

Next week is the signing date and we are looking forward to adding s few more Spartans for 2007-08.

We are also getting ready for the banquet on April 22. If you have any interest in attending, please contact us as soon as possible.

Until next time,
Matt G

March 29, 2007

"A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something." -Plato

This past week, we have really been able to experience spring in East Lansing. The weather has been spectacular and all the signs of spring are here. Unfortunately, one annual sign of spring here at Michigan State is the rumor that the swimming and diving programs are in danger of being discontinued. As juicy as this rumor is, especially amongst the spectators at age groups meets, it is entirely untrue. In the past year, our program has been the recipient of new locker rooms and a new team room. We have also done a great job of fundraising, thanks exclusively to our alumni and supporters.

There are a lot of people who care deeply for this program and everyone in it and that includes administrators here at MSU. I would ask that if you hear of the rumor, please tell the person you heard it from to contact me and I will do my best to set them straight.

The Spartan swimmers and divers will be taking part in their spring community service projects in the next month. On Friday, April 20, we will participate in the Special Olympics. Then on Saturday, April 21, we will assist in the adopt-a-river project.

April 11 is the spring signing date, and we are hoping to announce a few more Spartan swimmers and divers to the class of 2011.

Finally, best of luck to the Spartan hockey program next week in the Frozen Four.

Until next time,
Matt G

March 22, 2007

At the end of every season, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, every program does an evaluation of the previous year. In our evaluation, one of the areas of need we identified was leadership. Of course, this is not to say we didn't have good leaders last year. In fact, our lack of leadership was a result of me not putting those leaders into a position to lead.

To rectify the problem, I have decided that our program needed captains for the 2007-08 year. For the first time in my head coaching career I will be working with captains. This past Saturday we announced the captains for the 2007-08 season. They are:

Matt McNichols
Adam Schmitt
Jason Vadney
Marlys Fuqua
Heather Kiluk
Alycia Mokedanz

All six understand the responsibility associated with being a captain. They all are ready for the season and have begun to do things in the way of organizing next year.

If you have the time, please say a little prayer for Coach Dewey Newsome of Grand Valley State. Coach Newsome suffered a stroke this past Sunday and he is in the hospital in Grand Rapids. Dewey is a good coach and a good person, your thoughts are appreciated.

Once again, I want to thank all of you who have been very supportive this past month.

Until next time,
Matt G

March 15, 2007

I want to thank the Zielinski family for their input and their support of the newest team award. It will pay tribute to one of the greatest swimmers in the history of our program, Kevin Zielinski (1988-93). His first time at Summer Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., he was named Rookie of the Meet for an outstanding performance. He went to the Olympic Trials (Indianapolis-Barcelona Trials) for the breaststroke. Kevin died last year and his former teammates suggested we honor him with an annual award at our team banquet.

This year we will give the Kevin Zielinski Heart Award. The award will go to a senior who has demonstrated excellence both academically and athletically. We are honored to do this and it is our hope that this becomes another strong tradition in our program.

Swimming and Diving awards:
Jack Seibold Leadership Award
Jennifer Parks Leadership Award
Men's and Women's Swimmer of the Year
Men's and Women's Diver of the Year
John Narcy Most Improved Award
Spartan of the Year Award
Kevin Zielinski Heart Award
John Munley Memorial Scholarship Award

Our banquet is on Sunday, April 22 at 12 p.m. All our alumni and supporters are invited to attend. Questions regarding the banquet can go directly to Kathleen Milloy at milloy@ath.msu.edu

I want to congratulate Ricky Forest, future Spartan, who won a championship in the 500 freestyle this past weekend at the 2007 MHSAA state meet. Ricky is going to help our program quite a bit.

We started spring/summer training this week, with an eye on getting better. Coming off the disappointing short-course season, our team's focus this summer is on the long-course season.

I wanted to also thank you all for your support of our program following two very disappointing Big Ten Meets. Our young people will get much better and we will continue to work hard to improve.

Until next time,
Matt G

March 2, 2007

We have seven divers competing this weekend at the NCAA regional at U of M in Ann Arbor. Katie Edwards, Amy Schmidt, Allie Sayers and Matt Akerly are competing in their final regional meet. We are keeping our fingers crossed that our divers do their best.

As we roll into spring, I want to pay tribute to Richard Mull. Coach Mull has occupied the fourth assistant position for the last seven years. He has made me sane and insane--sometimes in the same minute. He is the greatest coach I have ever worked with. He holds the love of every swimmer/athlete he comes in contact with.

In October 2003, I asked Rich to come to the Indiana football game. I had just been named interim head coach of the team, and I was doing my best sales job to get him to come back. In many ways, Rich saved me that year, and I am always indebted for that.

I want to highlight some of his tenure here since 2000.

First and foremost, he acquired a family member when his son Cameron married Ildiko Szekely.

He also became a grandpa three times over while working for the Spartans.

Richard coached multiple NCAA qualifiers, and he got the chance to see his son Cameron be coached by his other son Iian at the 2004 Olympic Trials.

He has seen many of his swimmers move on to become great people, and he has been a big part of their maturation.

Coach Richard Mull is a true Spartan in everything he does.

He will be missed.

Until next time,
Matt G

Feb. 22, 2007

Back in 1990, my coach at St. Bonaventure had a quote from the epic poem "The Aenied" he liked to share with our team: "To live is to suffer." That quote is perhaps applicable to our program's Big Ten experience in 2007. There is no experience for a swimmer in the country that is more intimidating than the Big Ten Championships. To make a scoring swim at night, you have to have an NCAA B standard. Athletes that are used to coasting into the finals in high school are forced to deal with having to compete full out in order to just get a swim at night. This year forced many of our younger swimmers to learn a hard lesson. As a program, we "suffered" greatly. But through the suffering, we emerged stronger and aware of what it is going to take to compete at this level. The kids never quit, and though frustrated; they represented themselves very well.

We had another very steady year in diving. On the women's side, we had Amy Schmidt and Katie Edwards score. On the men's side, we scored more points than we had in a decade. Between freshmen David Garry and Ivan Zalessov, we scored in all three diving events.

In swimming, we had no other choice than to use our young people. We had freshmen lead off all four medley relays. At the women's meet, we had at least two freshmen on every relay. One bright spot came when we had the second-fastest 800 free relay in program history for the men. It was also the only relay that scored in the top eight in the conference.

In all, the Big Ten Championships were a disappointment. However, we are returning a solid core of team members, and they seem to understand that to battle in this conference, you are going to have to work. We will improve, and we will do it together as a program and as a team.

I want to congratulate junior Matt McNichols, who was named a State Farm Champion in the Classroom. Look for his message at our football games in the fall.

Until next time,
Matt G

Feb. 1, 2007

Nothing quite brings smiles to the face of swimmers like taper time. We are in the midst of our rest period for both the men and women and the energy level is rising. We have all worked very hard this year and we are hoping that we do well. Both Big Ten meets are in very good facilities, so we hope to get very good performances from everyone. Of course, it is our intention to score as many points as we can and hopefully get people through to the NCAA's.

This Thursday at the women's basketball game, the MSU Athletics Department will be celebrating Girls and Women in Sports Day. Our team, along with the other women's teams at Michigan State, will be honored at halftime. If you get the chance, please come on out to the basketball game and support our women's team.

Our team banquet this year is going to be Sunday, April 22 at 12 p.m. This is a change to our traditional Saturday night banquet. We originally wanted to do it on April 21, however, that conflicts with the Spring football game.

Also, Homecoming 2007 will be on October 13. That puts our alumni swim meet on the 13th at 9 a.m. Please mark your calendars for that date also.

I got a chance to see Mike Mulshine ('99) last week. He was on campus recruiting packaging interns. Mike is a Senior Packaging Engineer for Campbell's Soup. He lives near Princeton, N.J., and he was recently married. He is doing well and looking great, and as expected I reminded him during our conversation of the importance of the Ralph Young Fund.

I want to congratulate Alec Mull, who set state records for his age group this past weekend. Al has taken up swimming again, and from the report I get from his dad, he is a state-record breaking machine.

Thanks to all of you who responded to the news that MSU is upgrading the IM west facility. I have gotten many e-mails. Hopefully this is the first step to getting a real aquatic center done at MSU.

At the end of February, we do have quite a few big basketball games. If anyone plans to be in East Lansing for the games, please let me know.

Due to the Big Ten meets, I will not have an update until Feb. 22. I will make sure to catch you all up on our progress then. Please be sure to check our website for results from both meets.

Until next time,
Matt G

Jan. 25, 2007

Our dual meet season came to close last Friday night. Neither our men's nor our women's records ended up where we had hoped. The men in particular never got any breaks and finished at 1-6. The women finished a little better at 3-5-1.

At Oakland, we had many great performances by a lot of people. For the men, Adam Schmitt continued his great season, winning three individual events. Sho Koba won the 200 freestyle. Jason Vadney swam hard in both the 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly. Chris Olszewski had a great meet. Perhaps, the swimmer of the meet was Mike Van Beek; he swam his heart out in the 1000 and 500 freestyle.

For the women we had great performances by Sasha Lewerenz in the backstrokes, Julie Kahn won the 100 freestyle, Mara Loniewski won the 200 freestyle, and Sarah Biasello got her first win in the 200 breaststroke. It was also nice to see Megan Reponen, a swimmer who embodies what it is to be a Spartan, win both the 200 and 100 butterfly.

Throughout the dual-meet season, we've trying to figure out what direction we'd like to go in when we get to the Big Ten Meet. With that in mind, I made so many mistakes this year in dual meet lineups that it cost our men at least two victories; however, we have seen real progress from October to today. The question of course is how much progress we'll see in February? Of course, we're hoping a lot.

There is a little mix-up on our schedule on the dates for the Men's Big Ten Championships in Columbus. The dates are Thursday, Feb. 15- Saturday, Feb. 17.

The event schedule goes as follows:

Thursday: 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 IM , 500 freestyle, one-meter diving, 400 freestyle relay
Friday: 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, three-meter, 800 free relay
Saturday 1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, platform diving, 400 freestyle relay

That is also the same event schedule for the women's meet in Minneapolis Feb. 8-10.

Congrats to Johan Sunryd, who this past week was accepted into graduate school in molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts.

So, it is getting close to the end of the season. We are in taper time at the pool, and the Spartans are getting ready.

Until next time,
Matt G

Jan. 18, 2007

We hosted the Boilermakers this past weekend and although we performed well, we dropped both the men's and women's meets. Purdue is always a tough team, and over the past six years they have been able to move their programs into an elite status. The Spartans did have great performances by quite a few members of our team including:

Adam Schmitt-20.79-50 free, 45.02-100 free, 1:39.62-200 free
Sho Koba-1:39.74-200 free, 4:36-500 free
Marlys Fuqua-10:26.12-1000 free
Megan Reponen-58.69 100 fly

As stated last week, it was also senior day for the class of 2007. Lindsay Bockstiegel swam in her final meet for the Spartans. She competed in the 200 and 100 freestyle.

I want to thank our parents who have done so much this home dual-meet season. They have made food, created a hospitality room, sold t-shirts and most importantly cheered loudly at every home meet. In particular, I want to thank Dan and Bonnie Schmitt, Jim and Marcia McNichols, Joni Kiluk, and Larry Schroeder-who has the best "Go Green, Go White" cheer of anyone.

This week, we travel to Oakland on Friday for a 5 p.m. dual meet with the Golden Grizzlies. The meet will be a 16-event format. It is our last competition before the Big Ten meet. Traditionally, when we have a meet at OU we get many of our alumni out to see the meet. If you think you can make it please try to come out and support the Spartans. We anticipate a very tough meet from Oakland. They have a great team and a great coaching staff, so we could use all the support we can get.

This week, I would like to recognize another member of our staff who gets very little attention. Jeremy Flynn is our academic coordinator and he is the main reason as to why our teams have really excelled in the classroom the past four years. He is a tireless worker with no ego. His genuine concern is that the kids on our team set themselves up to be successful in school and afterward. Jeremy is a real asset and I am very thankful he is part of our program.

If you are going to be on campus for any of the upcoming basketball games, please feel free to drop by. If you know you are going to be in town, let me know ahead of time.

As always, remember to renew/join the Ralph Young Fund.

Until next time,
Matt G

Jan. 18, 2007

Happy 2007. I write to you, tanned and healthy back from our trip to the tropics. The swimmers spent eight days in the Bahamas and the divers spent the same time in Puerto Rico. For the swimmers, we trained hard but we also had a little bit of fun. On Jan. 1, we had a whole team single-elimination volleyball tournament.

Of course, we have the ability to take these trips because of the hard work we do in our year-round fundraising effort. The teams trained hard which is always easier to do when you are guaranteed good weather, and we have that in those locations.

And now it is on to conclude the season.

The spring semester is abbreviated by one week, so we only have two meets left. The first is this Saturday when the men and women host Purdue at 2 p.m. It will be Senior Day for Matt Akerley, Lindsay Bockstiegel, Eve Brusie, Katie Edwards, David Lessard, Megan Reponen, Dani Sawyer, Allie Sayers, Amy Schmidt, and Carly Zenk.

The class of 2007 was freshmen when I took the program over in 2003. They have been very supportive of me as we have tried to move this thing forward. The class is full of some fantastic performers and more importantly, great people.

Lindsay is one of the few women who majors in engineering and does it on the dean's list.
Dani is on her way to Vet School.
As is Megan, who also played first chair violin in the MSU Orchestra last year.
Carly, a consistent 4.0 student, went from freshman walk-on to Big Ten scorer.
Matt Akerley may run for president someday with his background at James Madison College.
Allie is one of the toughest kids I have ever met competing last year at the Big Ten with a broken hand.
Dave many times has helped to organize our team to take part in diabetes fund raisers.
Amy and Katie have been Eric's shining stars, and they have set a tone for excellence in the program.
Eve is a fantastic student, varsity record holder and she is going to do something incredible in medicine someday.
Amber has become a real shining star and great representative of our program.

All 11 are great Spartans.

Last time, I mistakenly omitted that in April at our Academic Gala, the men's program will capture the Athletic Director's Cup for having the highest GPA in the athletic department.

I want to thank all of you who sent along your year-end contributions to the Ralph Young Fund. Never too early to start thinking about those tax concerns for 2007.

Four weeks to the Women's Big Ten meet. Five weeks to the Men's Big Ten meet.

Until next time,
Matt G

Swimmers in the Bahamas.