Indiana University Athletics
2007 Big Ten Diaries: Heather Chapman
2/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 12, 2007
Throughout the course of the Big Ten Championships from Feb. 8-10, select Indiana swimmers and divers will check in with IUHOOSIERS.com. Senior diver Heather Chapman's account of day two appears below.
Friday - Feb. 9, 2007
TIMELINE:
7:15 a.m. - Woke up and went and tried not to wake Jaderade (Jade Summerlin). I went outside and saw our goody bags and embroidered towels that the parents made for us. They are awesome (the towels and the parents)!
7:30 a.m. - Worked out in the hotel exercise room to loosen up and get a morning run in before we had to go over to the pool.
8:15 a.m. - Breakfast with mom and dad at Applebee's because the breakfast that is provided for the team doesn't have oatmeal and I am spoiled ... ha.
8:45 a.m. - Make sure my buddy Jade is awake and get stuff ready for practice.
9:15 a.m. - Ash (Ashley Greene) and C (Christina Loukas) knocked on the door and we walked to the pool together. I talked to my boyfriend, Ty, on the phone, too, because he always has words of encouragement for me - he is so great!
10 a.m. - (Diving coach Dr. Jeff) Huber comes down to the deck after his 9-hour workout in the morning and we did lead-ups on one-meter before doing three-meter.
11:20 a.m. - Deck change and came back to the hotel to get everything ready for the meet, like our iPods and towels and coloring books.
12: p.m. - Ash and Christina came and got Jade and me before going to the pool.
12:30 p.m. - Huber and us divers cheered on the swimmers in prelims and they did AWESOME! Its so cool to see all the parents, too, because there are a ton of parents here at the meet and Chris Reynolds is here, too, supporting us - how cool!
1 p.m. - The meet.
3:30 p.m. - Deck change and we went back to the hotel.
4:30 p.m. - Jade and I changed into our Victoria Secret popsicle pants and put on our Olympic Trial jackets and my parents and her dad put IU tattoos on our faces and went to dinner at Applebee's. Then Jade and I came back and took and nap.
7 p.m. - Jade and I walked over to the pool to practice tower while the swimmers have finals. We will be cheering them on for sure! It gets crazy.
Tonight we will probably rent a movie like "Step It Up" again and try to dance like they do again, because we did that on Wednesday and it was awesome. We really can dance like them, I promise.
THOUGHTS:
Today was not a good day on the three-meter for me, but some of my teammates did really well, so instead of focusing on the negative things I will focus on the positive: Ashley "PNUT" Greene did SO well. She missed getting into finals by 4 points and so we were all a little bummed but that's awesome that she scored a lot of points for the team. Our freshman did well, too, especially because this is their first Big Ten meet and so they have handled their nerves really well. I still get nervous and I am a senior. I have to separate myself from the meet and the atmosphere so that I can focus on just me. Otherwise I worry about what other people are doing and what they are scoring on their dives. One of the ways that I keep myself distracted is by coloring. Today after I did really badly on one dive I had to go ask Christina to tell me a joke because there was nothing funny about the dive I just did - ha ... so she called her brother and he had a few jokes up his sleeve to share. Then I could forget about my last dive and move on. (Britney) Yancey colored with me today and there were newspapers and CSTV people that kept taking pictures of us. That was weird, especially since they probably should have been paying attention to the people that were not doing cannon balls like the girls that made finals on my team. I was so excited to see that we got three girls in finals again because that helps out points so much. It's really exciting and Ash did so well! Anyway, the camera should have been on them and not me coloring. Clearly the coloring was not working for me today, but tomorrow is a new day and tower is my best event. I just have to remember that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13. I want to look at tomorrow as a brand new day and finish up strong.
Something else that I want to say is that I think it is really cool to see all of the support that the IU parents coaches and teammates have for each other this year. It is different from any other year that I have been here. This year it is the way that every year should be. It is great to be a Hoosier but this year I know why. The Hoosiers have been set apart this year. We are classy, we are fast, we have an edge, we have pride, we have spirit, we have support from our fans - we are Hoosiers. It is so cool to see. Huber has been really into cheering on the swimmers and making sure he knows where we are after each event and (head coach) Ray (Looze) and (assistant coach) Pam (Swander) have been at the diving prelims every day as well as the swimming parents. Everyone is behind everyone. That's how it should be and I hope that is how it continues to be in the future. As a Hoosier - it is the best feeling in the world. Sure, it might be great to be a Michigan Wolverine and yes, we know who you are Penn State and M-I-N-N Minnesota might think they are #1, but I have heard a lot of people saying this weekend ...
I, I-N-D, I-N-D-I-A-N-A, Indiana ALL THE WAY!!!! And I have to agree.
