A loud buzzing sound jolts her from her deep sleep.
It was a late night. Senior Kortney Mullen spent hours after practice doing homework and studying for two tests. Now, at 4:50 a.m., another day begins.
With a loud yawn, she slides her legs over the side of the bed. It’s time to hit the pool for swim practice.
Her new day begins just four short hours after her old one ended. For the next three months, this will be her new routine.
“On a good night I get around five to six hours of sleep,” Mullen said. “On a night crammed with labs and homework, I get around four hours.
“It is very difficult to balance school and swimming and still be able to get enough sleep.”
Dr. Michael Stump recommends teenagers get eight to 10 hours of sleep in order to maintain a healthy body.
“Unfortunately that number is hard for teens to get because they are involved in so many activities,” Stump said. “If they don’t sleep enough, their performance may suffer. Also, sleep is imperative to recover the body from working out and if the body cannot recover, it can’t perform.
“Another common problem is with the immune system. Especially during the winter, athletes will suffer from more colds and sore throats.”
Junior Nick Topel experiences these symptoms, especially during swim season.
“Practice in itself is very demanding on my body. Sometimes we can swim up to four and a half miles a night, and over Christmas break we can get up to 10 miles a day,” Topel said. “With morning practice, weight lifting, evening practice and swim meets, along with schoolwork and getting barely any sleep, I'm always tired.
“I have trouble concentrating in the morning, studying for tests and staying awake at the end of the day.”
With mandatory practices every weeknight from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and three each week from 5:30 to 7 a.m., head coach Jeff Wobser believes time management is the key to success for his swimmers.
“Our schedule is very intense, we spend a lot of hours in the weight room, doing dry land, and in the pool,” Wobser said. “It is difficult, no doubt, for these athletes to balance everything.
“It (this schedule) teaches the benefits of appropriately scheduling their time. In Ohio this is what it takes to be a good team with the ability to get to state.”
However, even after three years on the team, Topel has trouble maintaining his grades due to a busy schedule.
“When swim season begins, I struggle a lot more to keep my grades up due to our demanding practice times,” Topel said. “I'm often doing homework in 3a and studying for tests in lunch.
“Balancing schoolwork, swimming and sleep is a tough thing to handle, but luckily over the past couple of years I've found some tricks and creative ways to get things done. For people who haven't learned to be disciplined, their grades can suffer dramatically.”
Topel believes everything he sacrifices for swimming is worth it.
“I have been swimming since I was a toddler and I have seen where my hard work can take me,” he said. “I've set high goals for myself, and for our team.
“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of hard work for all of us to achieve the goals we have set.”