Happy 2007. I write to you, tanned and healthy back from our trip to the tropics. The swimmers spent eight days in the Bahamas and the divers spent the same time in Puerto Rico. For the swimmers, we trained hard but we also had a little bit of fun. On Jan. 1, we had a whole team single-elimination volleyball tournament.

Of course, we have the ability to take these trips because of the hard work we do in our year-round fundraising effort. The teams trained hard which is always easier to do when you are guaranteed good weather, and we have that in those locations.

And now it is on to conclude the season.

The spring semester is abbreviated by one week, so we only have two meets left. The first is this Saturday when the men and women host Purdue at 2 p.m. It will be Senior Day for Matt Akerley, Lindsay Bockstiegel, Eve Brusie, Katie Edwards, David Lessard, Megan Reponen, Dani Sawyer, Allie Sayers, Amy Schmidt, and Carly Zenk.

The class of 2007 was freshmen when I took the program over in 2003. They have been very supportive of me as we have tried to move this thing forward. The class is full of some fantastic performers and more importantly, great people.

• Lindsay is one of the few women who majors in engineering and does it on the dean's list.
• Dani is on her way to Vet School.
• As is Megan, who also played first chair violin in the MSU Orchestra last year.
• Carly, a consistent 4.0 student, went from freshman walk-on to Big Ten scorer.
• Matt Akerley may run for president someday with his background at James Madison College.
• Allie is one of the toughest kids I have ever met competing last year at the Big Ten with a broken hand.
• Dave many times has helped to organize our team to take part in diabetes fund raisers.
• Amy and Katie have been Eric's shining stars, and they have set a tone for excellence in the program.
• Eve is a fantastic student, varsity record holder and she is going to do something incredible in medicine someday.
• Amber has become a real shining star and great representative of our program.

All 11 are great Spartans.

Last time, I mistakenly omitted that in April at our Academic Gala, the men's program will capture the Athletic Director's Cup for having the highest GPA in the athletic department.

I want to thank all of you who sent along your year-end contributions to the Ralph Young Fund. Never too early to start thinking about those tax concerns for 2007.

Four weeks to the Women's Big Ten meet. Five weeks to the Men's Big Ten meet.

Until next time,
Matt G

Swimmers in the Bahamas.