The St. Olaf men’s and women’s swimming and diving team participated in its first meet of the year at the University of St. Thomas on Oct. 27. The team earned 14 points and came in fifth place out of eight total teams.
The meet started off with one- and three-meter diving. Hannah Besonen ’16 and Hannah Fulton ’16 placed 10th and 11th in the women’s one-meter diving finals. Scott Hodgson ’16 placed third in the men’s one-meter diving finals. In the three-meter diving finals, Besonen placed ninth for the women and Hodgson placed third for the men.
St. Olaf took first place in the mixed 200-yard medley relay. The team of Carolyn Bernhardt ’14, Billy Brebrick ’16, Colby Kubat ’14 and Abbey Schnaith ’16 finished with a time of 1:42.37, beating out another group of Oles by more than two seconds.
Abbey Schnaith ’16, Madeline Lee ’16, Marla Thomforde ’16 and Meghan Weiss ’13 smoked the competition in the women’s 800-yard freestyle relay. Their time of 8:01.23 was 17 seconds faster than the second-place team from Carleton. The St. Olaf men’s 800-yard freestyle relay team of Spencer Scarth ’14, Evan Griffith ’15, Tanner Roe ’15 and Michael Gratz ’15 also placed first.
The Oles continued their domination of the relay events by placing first in both the men’s and women’s 300-yard breaststroke relay, 300-yard backstroke relay, 400-yard freestyle relay, 4 x 100 individual medley relay and the 1100-yard animal relay. The animal relay consists of three swimmers, the first swimming a 200-yard butterfly, the second a 400-yard individual medley and the third a 500-yard freestyle.
St. Olaf is looking to avenge the men’s and women’s close second-place finishes at the February 2012 MIAC championships. After competing at Carleton on Nov. 2, the Oles will host the Northfield Colleges Quad Classic at Skoglund Center on Nov. 3.
ripperge@stolaf.edu
