You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Men's Swimming and Diving Finish Third at Conference Championships

Sawra Karimi
February 26, 2003

The St. Olaf men swimming and diving team combined young and old together to pull of an impressive performance this past February 20th-22th. After losing 10 men to graduation last year, 6 of whom were national qualifiers, the men were in a unique experience going into this championship meet.

From the very first swim of the meet they demonstrated that it was not the size and pure talent of their team that mattered but their determination and competitiveness that allowed them to achieve the success they did. The men finished third with 648.5 points only 50 points behind St. Johns University. Gustavus won the meet with 860 points.

Mark Glineburg (FY, St. Paul, Minn.) provided the youth to the Ole's equation for success with three day's of unbelievable performances. Glineburg swam to a close second place finish in the 200-yard individual medley on the first day of competition. Glineburgs time of 1:54.98 provisionally qualified him for the national meet. Glineburg assured his entry to nationals the next day when he completely dominated the competition in the 400-yard individual medley. Glineburg's time of 4:08.09 was over seven seconds faster than the runner up time. In addition Glineburg's preliminary time of 4:06.33 was even quicker and should qualify him for nationals. Glineburg finished up his meet with another win on the final day of competition. Glineburg won the 1650-yard freestyle by almost 50-yards. His time of 16:27.42 was also under the provisional qualifying standard for nationals. Glineburg tied with Jason Brown of Carleton for earning the most individual points at the meet. Glineburg will be the sole swimmer representing the St. Olaf men at the Division III national meet.

Jon Saxton (FY, Ames, Iowa), JC Chambers (FY, Englewood, Colo.) and Nick Hudson (FY, Madison, Wisc.) were also successful in their first participation in the conference meet. Saxton finished in the top eight in all three events highlighted by his fifth place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:59.02. Chamber's top finish came in the 50-yard freestyle in which he placed fifth with a time of 21.83. Hudson dropped a significant amount of time in all of his events. He finished fifth in both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke with times of 54.32 and 1:58.87, respectively.

Adam Lukens (SR, Witchita, Kan.), Grant VanLishout (SR, Reedsville, Wisc.) and BJ Brent (SR, Ankeny, Iowa) were the source of experience and leadership to the Oles through out the weekend. Luken''s ended his four year career in the best way possible with season best times in all three of his events and top eight finishes in two of them. Luken''s top finish came in the 400-yard individual medley where he finished fifth with a time of 4:20.62. VanLishout was the top breaststroker for the Oles with fifth and sixth place finishes in the 100 and 200, respectively (1:00.84, 2:14.84). Brent finished sixth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.76. Other top finishes for the Oles came from Anthony Blum (JR, Marshalltown, Iowa) and Lee Thomsen (JR, El Cajon, Calif.). Blum finished second in the 100-yard butterfly with a lifetime best of 52.33. He also finished sixth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.71. Thomsen also finished in the top eight in the 100 with a final time of 47.45 that placed him fourth. Thomsen''s top finish, however, came in the 200-yard freestyle in which he finished third with a time of 1:44.22.

Drew Vanderwert (FY, St. Paul, Minn.) was also finalist in the 200-yard freestyle when he finished fifth with a time of 1:46.37. Brad Wourm (SO, Cohasset, Minn.) led the men on the boards with a second place finish on the three-meter with a score of 438.95.

Coach Bob Hauck was impressed with the performances of the team in the water, but was also happy with the dynamics of the men's team out of the water, "The men swam as one cohesive unit from the first swim to the last, and as a result were unbelievable successful in their efforts."

Glineburg has almost a month to train before heading to Atlanta, Georgia for the Division III national championships that take place March 20th-22nd. "I was really surprised at how fast I swam at conference and I am hoping to further surprise myself at nationals."

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