Tuscaloosa, Ala. — It’s 9 p.m. Thursday, and 32 Spartans form a circle in the parking lot of the Days Inn Suites Hotel, stuffed from the pasta they scarfed down at Olive Garden no more than two hours ago.With discussions of the next day’s schedule out of the way, it’s on to the business of cheers and nicknames. The majority of the group requests their names or classic Spartan chants, while other members of the MSU Triathlon Club laugh at suggestions such as “Weezy,” or sarcastic remarks such as, “Don’t be a Sally!” There also are cheers in German for a graduate student from Austria. “When you’re really struggling and hurting during the race and you hear someone call out your name, it mentally does a lot for you,” human biology junior and club member Amanda Venettis said. The club is in Alabama to compete against 1,000 athletes from 120 schools for the 2008 USAT Collegiate Nationals, and this night is just another way to bond and show their support for each other.
Getting ready for competition
Training goes beyond the gym, pool or track. Ranging from swims at IM Sports-Circle to daily runs and cycling on stationary bikes in the basement of TriHouse, 526 Virginia Ave., shared by four of the club’s members, training as a team is only the beginning.
For club member John Severin, a packaging senior, it’s just as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
“You got to have confidence, you have to believe in your training and believe in yourself because mental attitude is half the race,” he said. “You have to just be constantly on yourself because it’s like two hours of pushing your body to near the max.”
Since the beginning of January, the team has spent a minimum of Monday through Thursday training twice a day for the national competition, along with additional practices on weekends.
Club members turn to each other for guidance on a daily basis.
“Everyone’s experiences have been different, and bringing them all together is huge,” kinesiology senior Scott Przystas said. “It seems like this book full of knowledge we could write — giving people tips — there’s so much information about the sport.
“Everyone’s learned different things at different times. I think it’s great that we could ask, for me, someone I live with, ‘What should I eat for dinner today?’ or how to fix a flat or your swimming stroke or your running technique.”
More than a home
Although most athletes say goodbye to each other after practice or the game, members of the Triathlon Club always have a place to meet, even if it is to hang out. TriHouse is one such place.
Eric Tingwall, a mechanical engineering and journalism senior, said TriHouse is “four guys living together, training together, and picking on each other together.”
Serving not only as a home for Tingwall, Przystas, mathematics senior Greg Boyd and animal science sophomore Anthony Klingler, TriHouse also is a training area for the club and, more importantly, a place where members can come together, no matter who is paying the rent.
“Forty people really do live in that house when they come over for bike rides. They come over for meetings, they come over just to hang out,” Tingwall said.
“I’ll come home and the only person in that house will be someone that doesn’t live there, sitting there playing video games.”
The house will be moving to a new, to-be-determined location next year in order to accommodate the three girls and seven guys who will be moving in.
Close bond
It seems only fitting the club thinks of itself as a family.
Although his official title is club adviser, zoology graduate student Tim Fredricks is more casually referred to as the “team uncle.”
“He’s like our uncle. He helps us put our bikes together and if you have any questions, from sprints to triathlons to Ironmans, he’s done ‘em so he’s gonna be able to help,” kinesiology sophomore Lindsey Polinko said.
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This is a title Fredricks said he has no problem with.
“I’m kinda that guy that’s fixing bikes behind the scenes and making sure the van gets fixed and doing the odds-and-ends stuff that needs to happen to help them race without worrying,” he said.
And being a family means supporting one another.
Venettis, a member of the club for a year and a half, was unable to participate in collegiate nationals this year because of the MCAT, but flew down to support the club immediately after completing her exam.
“The team means a lot to me. I love these people a lot,” she said. “I’ve trained and hung out with them for hours and hours and I really wanted to cheer them on. Someone called me the ‘team mother’ yesterday because I’m passing around sunscreen and making sure people have stuff, getting people out of their hotel rooms.”
Along with Venettis, political science and pre-law junior Jimmy Walsh was compelled to come with the club to Alabama even though he wouldn’t be racing.
“I’m not in the greatest shape right now,” Walsh said.
“I was injured for most of the semester. I’m kinda just down here to support the team, do what I do — team manager, team cheerer.”
In the end, MSU placed 10th in men’s and 21st in women’s.
Three hours, 11 minutes and 20.1 kilometers later, the temperature is rising as the finish line draws nearer for social work sophomore Laurin Katzenstein. As she finishes the last leg of the race, her fellow athletes and friends greet her, forming a tunnel of green and cheering as she passes by. The final Spartan has crossed the finish line.
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