Reenergized Jayhawks host William Jewell in dual action
LAWRENCE, Kan. – After a full winters break that consisted of a training trip to Hawaii, the Kansas swimming and diving team returns to competition mode as they host William Jewell Thursday, January 18th inside Robinson Natatorium.
Head coach Clark Campbell believes his team took full advantage of its training session in Hawaii in preparation fro tomorrow’s meet.
“It’s part of a larger training camp time period,” Campbell said. “We consider the time between the fall and spring semesters our winter training camp, which is basically about five weeks. We are able to focus on what we call being professional athletes. The school component was out of the equation and all our team had to focus on was eat, sleep and train. We did a good portion of it here, and the Hawaii part was part of our overall training camp. Taking away the school component enabled our athletes to focus on being the best they can be. It was one of the best training trips we have ever had.”
Getting out of the team’s comfort zone helped re-energize the Jayhawks as they look forward to the rest of the season.
“Hawaii definitely took them out of their comfort zone,” Campbell said. “We were outside, the weather was different and we even had the opportunity to train in the ocean. On top of that, between training, there was hiking, surfing, other outdoor activities and a lot of physical excursion. Now we are back and can get into the school routine again.”
That routine continues Thursday when the Jayhawks welcome William Jewel to Robinson Natatorium.
“It has almost been eight weeks since we have competed and we really haven’t gotten to use our competition schedule to sharpen up our competition skills,” Campbell said. “Training wise we are fit and we are strong, and with meets coming up we have to get fast and divers have to get sharp. We want to use these next three meets to really focused on race fitness and translate the tremendous job of training into getting better.”
The Jayhawks look to lengthen their four-year winning streak over the Cardinals and kick off the second half of the competition season in a high note.
“We are going to be able to do some things that we normally wouldn’t do,” Campbell said. “We know there is going to be some rust and they need to shake that off. The following two meets are against two excellent programs. William Jewell will be a great meet to gauge where we are now and platform into our next two meets.”
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