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Oles swim past St. Mary's

Sawri Karimi
January 13, 2003

In their first meet back after winter break the St. Olaf mens and womens swimming and diving team proved that they were still in top shape. The Oles dominated over St. Mary's University by a score of 123-51 on the women's side and 112-67 on the men's.

Coach Bob Hauck was very content with the team's performances adding, "Even after a tough week of practice, both teams still managed to turn in some very competitive times."

The men swept the top three places in the majority of the events. In many of the events the intense competition was between the Ole men themselves rather then with the Cyclones. This was demonstrated early on in the meet in the 200-yard freestyle. Jon Saxton (FY, Ames, Iowa) narrowly captured the win over teammate Drew Vanderwert (SO, St. Paul, Minn.). Their final times were 1:49.36 and 1:49.75, respectively. A few events later Anthony Blum (Jr., Marshalltown, Iowa) turned in a victory in the 100-yard butterfly with a season best time of 54.28, which was only tenths ahead of teammate Adam Garrett (Jr., Cannon Falls, Minn.). Blum's continuing improvement through out this year has led him to become a key performer for the men.

The Ole men also turned in the top times in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, and 500-yard freestyle. BJ Brent (Sr., Ankeny, Iowa) had an outstanding performance in the 50 with a winning time of 22.66. Vanderwert won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.09 while Nick Hudson (FY, Madison, Wisc.) took care of the backstroke with a time of 57.23. Lastly, Lee Thomsen (Jr., El Cajon, Calif.) easily won the 500 with a final time of 5:00.74. Although the men choose not to score the 400-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke they still turned in the fastest time in these events. Mark Glineberg's (FY, St. Paul, Minn.) time of 4:18.05 in the 400-yard IM was very impressive for this time in the year. Grant VanLishout's (Sr., Reedsville, Wisc.) performance in the 100-yard breaststroke was equally impressive (1:03.59).

The women's performances were also exciting. Kate Blum (FY, Marshalltown, Iowa) turned in two individual victories and was part of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay. Blum has been the top sprinter for the women this year, and her winning times of 25.38 in the 50-yard freestyle and 55.45 in the 100-yard freestyle further demonstrated her talent. Sonia Karimi (Sr., Rochester, Minn.) had here first individual win when she turned in the winning time of 2:07.85 in the 200-yard freestyle. Laura Schutt (Sr., Niles, Ill.) continued her domination in the distance events with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle (11:06.91). Lauren Haugen (FY, Faribault, Minn.) also turned in a victory for the women in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:03.96. The women choose to exhibition the 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard backstroke, and the 100-yard breaststroke. However, impressive performances were still turned in. Jenna Kubat's (Soph., Des Moines, Iowa) time of 4:59.03 in the 400-yard individual medley was the fastest of the meet. Backstroke standout Carly Knoell (FY, Lincoln, Neb) was lengths ahead in the 100-yard backstroke and turned in a final time of 1:02.59. In the 100-yard breaststroke Anna Guenther (SR, Minneapolis, Minn.) turned in an impressive time of 1:09.34. This event was additionally exciting due to the presence of Kate Nygaard (SR, Franktown, Colo.) who is back on the team after spending first semester in Norway.

The men and women will continue to utilize this part of the season for intense training in order to prepare for the MIAC championship meet in February. Fortunately, the team has a full meet schedule this month, which will allow them to refine their competition skills.

The team will take on St. Cloud this coming Friday, January 17th at Skoglund pool. The women narrowly lost to St. Cloud last year and will be looking to redeem themselves.

Contact Le Ann Finger at 507-786-3315 or finger@stolaf.edu.