San Antonio, TX - The  Lady Eagles went home from the National Swim Meet with some prestigious awards, and an experience they'll not soon forget.

 

The Lambuth Swim Team is in it's fifth year.  As any new program will, it has undergone many changes and accomplished many "firsts" since it's inception.  This year, the Eagles' proudest accomplishment is the achievement of NAIA National status.  On February 27th Coach Thauer took 4 ladies: Kimberly Bridgman, Ashlee David, Andrea Mason and Lore' Spencer to the NAIA National Swimming & Diving Competition in San Antonio, Texas.  They would be competing through March 1st and returning home as nationally ranked swimmers,  the evening of March 2nd.

 

An Awards Banquet at the Pearl Stables kicked off the events on Wednesday evening.  Junior Kimberly Bridgman was awarded the NAIA Champions of Character Award.  Recipients of this award are recognized for their principles in the pool and outside the pool as well.  These principles are Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Servant Leadership, and Sportsmanship.

 

As a way to break the ice and to foster comaraderie, a tradition of gift giving at the banquet was started last year, and continued this year.  Each team was paired up with another team of similar size, and asked to present the other team with a gift at the banquet.  Our Lambuth University Eagles were paired up with the Bulldogs from Union College in Kentucky.  The ladies made the Bulldogs personalized pillowcases and exchanged them with the Bulldogs for t-shirts.  The event was a sucess and the teams went back to the hotel to sleep and prepare for the real reason they came to San Antonio in the first place - to swim!

 

Thursday saw the competition begin.  The Palo Alto Natatorium has been host to many national events and the pool records are held by many swimming giants such as Jenny Thompson and Lenny Krazelburg.  It is a wonderfully built pool and was a pleasure to swim in.  It was such a pleasure that the during the first event, the 200 Medley Relay, the Lady Eagles (Andrea Mason - Backstroke, Ashlee David - Breaststroke, Lore' Spencer, Fly and Kimberly Bridgman - Freestyle) swam an incredible 5 seconds faster than their seed time.  They ended up with a 2:05.36 and placing 21st in the Nation.  Andrea Mason (pictured at right) also swam the 50 Free earnig a lifetime best time of 25.96!

 

Friday started out with another amazing swim by the Lady Eagles, the 200 Free Relay.  They dropped 4 seconds, swam a time of 1:50.14 and ended up placing 17th in the nation.  Andrea Mason and Lore' Spencer swam the 100 Backstroke.  Lore' swam a season best time of 1:08.05 and Andrea placed 17th in the nation a lifetime best time in a meet with a 1:03.97!  Unfortunately, Ashlee David broke her finger on the pool wall while practicing her finishes just prior to her 100 Breastroke race.  She was a trooper and swam her hardest, but her turns just were not executed fast enough to pull out a best time and she ended up with a 1:16.99 and placing 27th in the nation.  Fortunately Ashlee is a Freshman and she has 3 more National Championships to come and no doubt will end up being an All American Swimmer by the time she is a Senior.

 

Saturday was by far the most exciting day for the Eagles.  Andrea and Lore' both swam the 200 Backstroke.  Lore' swam a 2:24.29 which was yet another best time.  Andrea swam a 2:18.24, placing 14th in the nation and putting the Lady Eagles on the scoreboard for a Final National Ranking of 22nd place in the nation!

 

When asked about  this season and her plans for the team next year, Coach Thauer replied "These are great student athletes.  They worked hard this year and did something no other Lambuth Swim Team had done before.  They went to Nationals and competed among the best swimmers in the nation.  Now that they have a taste of that, next year I expect them to be even more focused and goal oriented - both in the pool and in their studies.  We'll be working towards the Team Champions of Character Award as well."