Swimming & diving: Comets to participate in “Hour of Power”

OLIVET, Mich. -- On Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Olivet College men's and women's swimming & diving teams will join thousands of athletes from collegiate, high school, and club teams across the nation and abroad in the Ninth Annual Ted Mullin "Leave it in the Pool" Hour of Power Relay for Sarcoma Research, sponsored by Carleton College swimming and diving teams. The event gets underway tomorrow at the Upton Center Pool at 4 p.m.

The Hour of Power event honors those who are fighting or have succumbed to cancer, including former Carleton swimmer Edward H. "Ted" Mullin, who passed away from synovial sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, in September 2006.  The annual swim relay, which now includes dryland teams as well, has grown from 15 teams in its first year to over 160 teams and more than 8,000 athletes in recent years. Participating swim teams engage in continuous relays of any stroke for a full hour of all-out swimming. Dryland teams engage in their particular sport non-stop for a full hour.

The all-out 60-minute relay is a challenging workout that fuels team spirit and fosters cooperation among team members. The event aims to generate awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that disproportionately affects adolescents and young adults.

Over the first eight years, participating teams have raised almost $500,000 to support research at the University of Chicago into the causes and treatment of sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer.

2014 marks the third straight year the Olivet teams have participated in the Hour of Power. This year, the Comets have made a $300 donation to the Ted Mullin Fund. Anyone else at Olivet who would like to make a donation can do so online or see Head Coach Shea Davisson.

The funds have been used for a variety of projects that evaluate the genetic basis of sarcomas, the identification of novel markers of disease diagnosis or progression, and the development of new small molecule and cell therapies for resistant disease.  Each summer, the University also hosts Ted Mullin Fund scholars, offering four to five Hour of Power participants an opportunity to advance their interest in science and cancer biology by spending 10 weeks in a laboratory under the mentorship of a pediatric cancer researcher within the Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, at the University of Chicago.

All teams are welcome to participate whether or not they fundraise.

As of November 9, 167 teams including 8,200 athletes have registered for the 2014 Ted Mullin Hour of Power Relay. Registration is still underway and more teams are expected to take part.

For more information on the 2014 Hour of Power, go to http://go.carleton.edu/HourOfPower.  You can also contact Carleton College Head Coach Andy Clark at aclark@carleton.edu or Rick Mullin at rmullin9@comcast.net.