MIAC Swimming Off To Strong Start This Season

By Wilson Josephson, Allie Clark, Swimming World College Interns

NORTHFIELD – The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) swimming season began on October 1, and squads across the state are working to integrate their newest recruits.

While October lacked the head-to-head dual meets that will show direct comparisons between teams, there have been multiple non-traditional events featuring MIAC teams that have given us hints of what’s to come, including the Augsburg Pentathlon, the St. Thomas Relays, and the Cows, Colleges, and Contentment Classic.

Of these, the annual St. Thomas relays feature the highest concentration of conference competitors – including the University of St. Thomas, St. Olaf College, Carleton College, Saint Mary’s University, Hamline University, and Augsburg College. While few schools stack their relays at this meet, we did get to see some phenomenal splits from both old competitors and new recruits.

The MIAC includes eight men’s teams and 11 women’s teams. Carleton College, St. Olaf College, The University of St. Thomas (UST), Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC), Hamline University, Macalester College, and Saint Mary’s University all have both men’s and women’s programs. St. John’s University is an all-male school, though they often travel with their sister school, the College of Saint Benedict. Augsburg College, Concordia College, and St. Catherine University all field solely women’s teams.

CARLETON

Carleton College has competed at both the St. Thomas Relays and the Cows, Colleges, and Contentment classic.

On the men’s side, a few returners have been dropping fairly quick times, especially in the sprint events. Evan Harris, Stephen Grinich, Wilson Josephson, and Evan Lahr have all put down relay splits in mid-21 territory, though they have yet to put it together in a single relay. Head coach Andy Clark seems focused on regaining the sprint dominance that the Knights used to enjoy; with a strong, injury-free season, the Knights have a chance at winning back the 200 Free Relay title. Freshmen Noah Brackenbury and Colin Lau seem poised to bring some much-needed IM talent to the team, shoring up spots left open by last year’s graduating class.

On the women’s side, many of the returning scorers are posting quick times in the sprint events. One standout is sophomore Maria Wetzel, who posted a 2:06.81 in the 200 backstroke, winning the Cows Classic. Wetzel left that meet with this year’s top times in the conference in the 100 and 200 backstrokes and the 500 freestyle and earned herself the Swimmer of the Week title. The freshmen women will contribute to the depth and versatility of the women’s team with the addition of breastrokers Emily Marks and Lauren Hoff, distance freestyler Lexi Shin, IMer Kat Nguyen, sprint freestyler Anisa Lester and diver Amy Roach.

ST. OLAF

On the men’s side, St. Olaf seems poised to retake the conference title this season. At the St. Thomas Relays, the Olaf men beat the Tommies (their main competition) in each of the 300-yard stroke relays. Returning powerhouses Tanner Roe and Billy Brebrick are joined by Andrew and Nathaniel France; while many of the Ole freshmen seem unprepared to fill the gaps left behind, the team may have just enough momentum to win at conference championships regardless. One critical factor for Olaf will be the return of senior Michael Gratz this winter. An Ole all-star, Gratz finished last season through intense and often overwhelming shoulder and back pain. He has been working for St. Olaf as an assistant coach, but will be out of competition at least until January. His successful recovery will be instrumental to St. Olaf’s success in the conference this winter; he scored sixty points at last year’s championships, the maximum possible at the meet.

The returning Oles on the women’s side are swimming well. Maddie Lee, Abbey Schnaith, and Marla Thomforde are three key legs to their 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. At UST relays St. Olaf took first in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:42.60 (Schnaith, Thomforde, Hannah Hein, Lee). At the Cows Classic the 200 freestyle relay of Schnaith, Thomforde, Zoe Barlow, and Lee clocked in at a time of 1:42.07 which earned them the fourth fastest time in the event after three division II schools. Those two relays are ones to watch.

ST. THOMAS

If anyone can challenge Olaf on the men’s side, it’s St. Thomas. They return a number of high point scorers, including Mike Lanz and Chris Tri, and boast a large and deep freshmen class (six freshmen have posted 200 freestyle times of 1:48 or faster). One frosh to watch is Bailey Biwer. At the relay meet, Biwer split 52.97 in his 100 fly and 48.11 in his 100 free. Most impressively, he led the St. Thomas 800 free relay in 1:45.85, giving him the third-fastest time at the meet after Lanz (1:44.56) and Olaf’s Tanner Roe (1:45.64).

The UST women won four relays in their home pool, convincingly establishing themselves in the 300 breaststroke and 300 butterfly relays, as well as two relays that couldn’t be more distinct: the meet’s “Animal” relay (200 fly, 400 IM, 500 free) and the 200 freestyle relay. UST’s men and women have double meets this weekend: Friday night against Carleton; Saturday vs. St. Olaf. Victories in both of these meets would be huge for their momentum as they look towards February.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

The absence of Gustavus Adolphus College at the relay meet was felt on the women’s side in particular; the GAC women were clear conference champions last year and are set to be favorites again this year. While Carleton and St. Olaf duked it out at the Cows Classic, GAC hosted a dual meet against UW-Eau Claire. The women won handily and the men were narrowly beaten – which could become a theme for the program throughout this season. For the women, underclassmen Hayley Booher and Kate Reilly both won three individual events at this dual meet, Booher in the backstroke and IM races and Reilly in the sprinter’s trifecta (100 free, 50 free, 100 fly). Senior Jenny Strom, who scored sixty points at conference last year, also seems to have had a productive, winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.50.

Zach Solis’ performance for the GAC men won him the MIAC Swimmer-of-the-Week title; he won all three of his events, dipping under five minutes in the 500 on his way there. Powerful swims on the men’s side for GAC seemed to come entirely from their upperclassmen, but there will be plenty of chances for their young swimmers to deliver in the coming weeks’ dual meets.

MACALESTER

Last year, Macalester graduated Renee Jordan, NCAA champion on the one-meter boards. It’ll be tough to replace the points she won for their women’s team, but Mac seems to be on the right track. At the Augsburg Pentathlon, the women finished first, led by Smaranda Georgescu, who placed first in the 100 freestyle and second in the 100 backstroke. The Macalester men showed no such firepower; they were led by freshman Max Edwards, who finished in the top seven of all five races, though none of his times were close to last year’s consolation heats. Mac’s men’s team is very small, which will be detrimental to their dual meet record, though the fact that none of their thirteen swimmers are seniors means that next year they can only be faster.

AUGSBURG

The Augsburg College women are being led into their season by Kelsey Knollmueller. Knollmueller started posting quick times at the Augsburg Pentathlon, where she won high-point honors and added two new marks to the school’s top-ten times list. The next weekend, at the UST relays, Knollmueller threw down a quick breaststroke split, which would have set a new Augsburg record had it been from a flat start. Augsburg’s seven new recruits make up the biggest class of their twenty-person team and will no doubt be looked to shore up points in outside lanes while Knollmueller charges down the middle.

ST. CATHERINE’S

To date, St. Catherine’s University has only competed at the Augsburg Pentathlon, but that meet has given them reason to be optimistic. They were led through the Pentathlon largely by their underclassmen, who have arrived ready to race. Mary Jane Voss, Haley French Krahn, and Bryana Waage all posted three top-five finishes. The trio took third, fourth, and fifth in overall point totals.

SAINT MARY’S

Saint Mary’s University adds 11 freshmen to their roster (seven women and four men). On both sides, this makes the freshmen the biggest class for Saint Mary’s. While this may be a building year for the program, their newest athletes are all ready to race; freshmen Katie Heller and Reese Galewski put down the team’s two fastest splits in the 400 freestyle relay at UST, while the trio of PJ Heller, Joe Tonda, and Brian Mockler all finished within a second and a half of each other and guided their 400 free relay to a time only two seconds off of Mary’s 2014 championship swim.

HAMLINE

Hamline University hasn’t been a contender for the top spots in the conference for a long time, but the program has been slowly building up, and in the next few years they could be scoring some serious points. Points this winter could come from freshman Skiah Garde Garcia, who was runner-up on the one-meter board and third on the three-meter at the relay meet. Fellow freshman Hodd Gorman can also be counted on to score points, especially with his 5:06 500 split in the meet’s Animal Relay. Gorman was also first among the men at the Augsburg Pentathlon, which bodes well for his all-around versatility. At that same meet, Hannah Hawker won the 100-yard backstroke and was Hamline’s top finisher in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing 6th. Overall 2014-15 seems to be another building season for Hamline, though they gain momentum with each passing year.

CONCORDIA COLLEGE

Concordia College has added seven athletes to their roster, including sophomore Jackie Hanson, who won the 100 freestyle in their season opener against Northern State University. The meet’s score – a 137 to 58 loss – could be symptomatic of Concordia’s depth, but as the season builds, expect times to drop. Especially promising are milers Ann Marie O’Connell and Jordyn Olson, who are poised to push each other through the season.

SAINT BENEDICT, ST. JOHN’S

The College of Saint Benedict (women) and St. John’s University (men) have yet to participate in any meets, but both can boast of deep freshmen classes – SJU bringing nine new names to their roster, CSB bringing on ten. Both teams will compete for the first time November 8 at the Hamline University invitational, along with Saint Mary’s and Carroll College.

Wilson Josephson and Allie Clark are teammates at Carleton College. Josephson is a junior butterfly specialist, while Clark is a sophomore who fills in multiple roles on the team.

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