It’s Wednesday afternoon, and there are shivering and wet athletes waddling into the gym. It’s ice bath Wednesday for the cross country team, and everyone is watching in awe as they see the current victims of the ice bath suffer and writhe. This may sound like a barbaric act of cruelty, but this event is one of the new norms for Wednesdays.  Ice bathing causes the tighter muscles to relax and heal. Senior Taylor Huntley said, “After the bath I feel cold, but I feel much better.”

When ice bath day comes around, many athletes have different approaches to  surviving. Sophomore Tyler Nigro said, “It’s so cold I can only put my knees in. I can’t put my feet in.” Taylor and many other athletes choose to scream the cold away. Some use the poker face method to shunt away the agony. Then, there is the group whose method is to get in for 30 seconds and then hop out. This method reduces the pain received by the ice bather, but it also causes a loss in the muscle cooling the ice bath provides. There are also those who prefer to avoid the ice bath completely, like senior Akosa Erinne. “I just don’t like the ice baths,” said Akosa.