Rutgers Swimming

This morning, I had a huge swim meet at Rutgers University for my club team in Summit. Still tired from a meet last night at Montclair State, I woke up at 5:30 and started the dark drive south to Rutgers's New Brunswick campus. I'd been to this pool several times in the past few years, along with several other college pools, but it is always a sight that never ceases to impress me. The pool itself is enormous. 50 yards long (Olympic size), separated by a bulkhead into two, 25 yard, 8 lane pools. There are three really tall diving blocks (that we can't see in the photo) that stand tall at one end of the pool. Each pool has its own scoreboard, and a record board stands at one end. If that wasn't enough, there are two more 4-lane warm up pools behind a small glass wall (around top-left of the photo). Teams spent weeks preparing for this event, and close races and nervous, tired kids made for a crazy morning. Many of our swimmers who had swum the night before for Millburn were present and operating on six hours of sleep or less, and leftover exhaustion from last night's races. I spent about 4 hours there, getting out in time for breakfast, but I really think this goes to prove the support that the state gives its athletic programs. I know both Princeton and GCIT have similarly impressive pool complexes like this one, and even high school and club swimming is well funded.