Twice a week the UW-Eau Claire Swim Club can be found taking over the McPhee Pool for an hour or so of sprints and long distance sets of varying strokes and lengths, intermingled with conversation and laughter.

The UW-Eau Claire Swim Club, formed in 2016, is an on-campus group that welcomes swimmers of all backgrounds who wish to stay in shape, without the time commitment that would come with joining a competitive swim team.

Nicole Lindmeier, a fourth-year communication sciences and disorders student, is one of the club’s co-presidents and has been a member since the club’s establishment. She said the team currently consists of 13 official members and trains twice a week, with unique workouts set up for each swimmer depending on their abilities.

“We typically swim about 2,000-3,000 yards each practice,” Lindmeier said. “We build up throughout the season. Each practice has a warm up, main workout and cool down. Sometimes we do goof off and play water basketball. We like to have fun and keep it light-hearted.”

Riley Upton, a fourth-year chemistry major, is the other co-president and has also been a member of the club since its beginning.

Upton writes out the practices each week, and said while the conditioning is enough to keep swimmers in shape, it is nothing like the heavy training many competitive high school swimmers are used to.

“Practices are always fun and it’s a good time,” Upton said. “There’s a lot of joking and laughing around. We take swimming seriously, but it’s not stressful or anything.”

In addition to practices, the club holds out-of-pool get togethers to encourage team bonding within the club. Upton said he has already seen growth in the camaraderie of the swim club.

“We have our ups and downs of only four people showing up, but at other times there’s 20,” Upton said. “Now we’re getting a more solid core of people that are a part of the swim club. It’s becoming a thing where people say they’re from the swim club.”

Isabelle Felton, a first-year marketing student, swam competitively in high school and decided to join the swim club at UW-Eau Claire after a friend encouraged her to join. She said she enjoys being able to stay competitive and active without the stress of swimming on a competitive team.

“It’s a fun way to stay in shape without having to go to the gym by yourself,” Felton said. “Really fun team activity. I would recommend it to people who swam competitively in high school who want a fun way to work out.”

Felton said she is most excited for the swim meet at UW-Stout that the club will be participating in. The club first participated in the meet last year, and both Upton and Lindmeier said the club hopes to continue participating in swim meets.

“It was during our spring break so only three members could make it, but we still ended up winning the meet,” Upton said, “It ended up being one of my favorite memories of the club.”

The UW-Eau Claire Swim club holds practices from 8:30-9:45 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday nights. Interested swimmers can contact Nicole Lindmeier at l[email protected].

Kopke can be reached at [email protected].