Simmons Swimming & Diving participated in the Hour of Power Relay, a nation-wide swimming event held annually to raise cancer awareness, on Thursday evening.

With Head Coach Mindy Williams shouting encouragement from the pool deck, the Sharks jumped into the pool at 5pm EST, simultaneously with a projected 5,300 athletes from over 80 Division III college teams across the nation. Several swimmers from nearby Wheelock College joined Simmons in the event.

The Hour of Power is held in memory of Carleton College swimmer Ted Mullin, who lost his battle with Sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, in the fall of 2006. Carleton alum and former teammate of Mullin, Lauran Allinson, spoke to the team before the event, recalling Mullin's passion for swimming, and how he often showed up to practice during chemotherapy treatments to visit his teammates because he couldn't stay away from the pool. Allinson explained that Mullin was a distance swimmer, and each time he jumped in the pool he gave everything he had, every stroke, and "left it all in the water."

"The event was inspiring, said Williams. "To see the Simmons women giving it everything that they had for such a great cause was truly touching. They had such a strong understanding of what it was they were swimming for, and having Lauran present for the event helped to clarify the cause and made the event very personal."

In addition to swimming continuous 50-yard sprint relays in four lanes, another challenge to the event was having the swimmers in all four lanes touch the wall together at the end of the hour. "The final minute of the Hour of Power was deafening with the cheering and clapping of the athletes. It gave me goose bumps," said Williams.

Senior captain Keri-Ann Arsenault (Chester, N.H.) knew her teammates were up to the challenge. "The hour of power was an awesome bonding event for our team. Not only did we come together to leave everything in the pool, we did it for a swimmer who can no longer do it. It wasn't easy, but it was great to have everyone work together and make sure we all finished as one, in memory of Ted."

The Hour of Power has grown in size since it was first held in 2006 with 15 teams and a total of $11,000 raised for Sarcoma research. In 2007 the event was able to raise over $42,000 with 3,500 athletes from 53 teams; this year's participants eagerly await the total for 2008.

"There's no question that the Hour of Power is a grueling set that challenges the athletes," said Williams. "It would be easy for them to feel the pain and be tempted to hold back, but with the reminder that there were 5300 other athletes feeling the same exact way at the same exact time kept them giving it one hundred percent."