Swim teams to take part in "Hour of Power" Relay

On Tuesday, Nov. 13, the Simpson swim team will join thousands of athletes across the country in jumping into the pool in support of Carleton College's Ted Mullin "Leave it in the Pool Hour of Power" Relay. Over the first six years of this nationwide—and worldwide—event, participants raised over $330,000 to support research at the University of Chicago into the causes and treatment of sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, in young people.

First started to honor former Carleton swimmer Ted Mullin, who passed away in the fall of 2006 from sarcoma, the Ted Mullin "Hour of Power" Relay has grown from 15 teams in its first year to 160 teams in 2011 with 8,000 participating athletes who joined forces to honor all those who are fighting against or have lost the battle to cancer.

Last year's event included 107 college and university programs representing 39 conferences across NCAA Division I, II and III, and Independents, along with 46 high-school and club teams. This year's numbers are on pace to match and possibly exceed last year's totals. All those athletes will hit the pool with a shared goal—to increase awareness about sarcoma and raise money for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.

2012 Ted Mullin "Hour of Power" Relay registrations to date:

Total Registered Teams: 145
Colleges and Universities: 92
High School and Club Teams: 49
International Teams: 4
New Teams: 33
Estimated Athletes: over 7,000 

For a full description of the event, visit http://go.carleton.edu/HourOfPower

The event takes place in each team's home pool and is a one-hour, all-out, leave-it-in-the-pool practice consisting of continuous, any-stroke relays for one hour, with the objective of keeping all relays in each lane on the same length.

The all-out 60-minute relay is a challenging workout the fuels both team spirit and team energy.

Funds raised during the event act as seed funding for the University of Chicago's pediatric sarcoma research program. The program brings together oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists and physician scientists who have a particular interest in adolescents and young adults with sarcoma, allowing collaborative efforts in the identification of the causes of sarcoma at the most basic molecular and cellular levels.