For the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, the holiday break was a good way to prepare for their upcoming meet at Lindenwood University Jan. 26.

“We went to Florida for a training trip, so we were in Fort Myers at Florida Gulf Coast University for seven days,” Swimming and Diving Coach Jim Halliburton said. “We really worked hard and practiced a lot.”

Every year, most Division I teams go south for a training trip, said senior Brad Byars. He said it is a good way to get away from all the distractions and concentrate on swimming, and it helps bring everyone on the team together.

“We did some dry land swimming, which was intense,” Byars said. “The trip has gotten more intense each year. The workouts are harder, but we also have a better team this year.”

While in Florida, the team had three workouts a day. Byars said that was more than the SLU team had ever done this season or in his career.

Halliburton said that getting away from St. Louis was the best option for training over break.

“We do not have much choice but to get away from here with the dorms being closed and the weather not always being that great,” Halliburton said. “But a trip like this is really one of the keys to how we do at the end of the season.”

Halliburton said he anticipates the Lindenwood meet in St. Louis to have fast times, considering the school has a good facility.

“We really hope to swim well,” Halliburton said. “It’s a fast pool and we will probably be focusing on fewer events. We will be focusing on two or three events, and then we can start making final decisions on what events people will be doing for conference. This meet is a chance to fine tune things.”

Byars said Lindenwood typically has a lot of solid swimmers and one or two standout guys that can swim with SLU’s top guys. He went on to say that this meet will not be easy, but that Lindenwood is not the best team the Bills have faced this season.

“I think we can go in and do what we need to do and take care of business,” Byars said.

Halliburton hopes that the momentum his teams built up during the first half of the season will carry over into this meet and into the final stretch to the A-10 Championships.

“We got in shape quickly and swam well early in the season,” Halliburton said. “I think that we are in better shape now, and we will be swimming a lot faster.”

Byars agreed that the first half of the season went well for the Bills.

“We lost our first meet at Washington University, but then we had an incredible string of wins, and we have had some incredible individual performances as well. We have a lot of guys ranked really high in the Atlantic 10 Conference,” Byars said.

Both Halliburton and Byars said they are confident the team is on the right track and will continue to see good results.

“The last meet we had was the best that we had swam all year,” Halliburton said. “I am very optimistic for the rest of this season.