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Ole Swimmers Pursue Goals

Katie Buecksler
January 23, 2001

Coach Dave Hauck outlined the goals that he has for the St. Olaf swimming and diving team before they headed off to this past weekends meet in Wisconsin. Goal number one: we want everyone on our team to compete as much as possible. Goal number two: we don?t expect sensational times, but we want to compete in a preliminary-final meet format to prepare ourselves for the conference meet. Goal number three: we want to build team unity. At this meet we not only compete together, but eat together, stay together, and tire from the intense meet all together. When all is said and done, the weekend long meet at Steven?s Point Wisconsin is a great opportunity to become better swimmers and have a unique team bonding experience. Over the coarse of the two-day meet, the Oles definitely reached all of the goals that Hauck mentioned. Times or scores did not prove to be "sensational", but the Ole swimmers did have great races, and the divers challenged some tough competitors.

On the first day of action, Friday, January 19th, at the Steven?s Point Invitational, the Oles showed their team depth by having 12 women and 11 men qualify for individual events during the evening finals session. To participate in individual races during the evening session, the swimmer had to place 9th through 16th for the consolation heat, or 1st through 8th for the championship heat, in the morning?s preliminary race. Having that many qualifiers is a great accomplishment, since the competition was tough. There were eleven teams present creating a realm of strong competitors from both division II and III schools. During Friday evening?s session, Jake Hvistendahl (FY, Minnetonka, MN), Anna Guenther (SO, Minneapolis, MN), Tom Dow (JR, Poway, CA), the women?s 400 medley relay team, and men?s 400 medley relay team swam their way to a top 3 finish. In the 100 yard backstroke Hvistendahl captured 3rd with a time of 54.63. Guenther followed with a 3rd place finish in the 200 breaststroke coming into the wall with a time of 2:31.54, bettering her prelim time by 2.5 seconds. Tom Dow captured the Oles' only 1st place finish of the day in the 200 breaststroke. Dow had a tight race with a competitor from Wheaton, but he managed to drop 2 seconds from his preliminary time, and come out the winner finishing in a time of 2:15.34. The women?s 400 medley relay team consisting of Chrissy Soule (SR, Mound, MN), Guenther, Ellen Prange (SR, Madison, WI) and Liz Hathaway (FY, Lincoln, NE) came in with a time of 4:12.15 to take 3rd place honors. The men?s 400 medley relay team of Hvistendahl, Dow, Adam Garrett (FY, Cannon Falls, MN), and Lee Thomsen (FY, El Cajon, CA) duplicated the women?s 3rd place finish. The men were a bit faster however, and finished into the wall with a time of 3:36.54. During Friday?s diving competition, the men?s diving trio of Kyle Rudser (JR, Northfield, MN), Gabe Kortuem (SR, Andover, MN), and Jake Dunn (JR, St. Charles, MN) placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. This round of competition took place on the 1-meter diving board, and they preformed 11 dives. Rudser finished in 1st with a score of 440.40 and reached the NCAA national B cut standard, Kortuem finished in 2nd with 414.55 points, and Dunn took 3rd place honors with 322.45 points.

On Saturday, the Ole women were able to have 12 individuals qualify for individual events during the evening session while 15 Ole men found their way back to the evening session. Eric Kubat (SR, West Des Moines, IA), Lee Thomsen, Adam Garrett, Jake Hvistendahl, Laura Schutt (SO, Niles, IL), and the men?s 200 medley relay team, all captured places within the top three during Saturday?s finals competition. The men?s 200 medley relay team consisting of Hvistendahl, Dow, Garrett, and Thomsen took 3rd place with a time of 1:39.02. Kubat followed with a 3rd place finish in the 400 IM finishing in a time of 4:26.75, which was 3.28 seconds faster than his prelim time. Thomsen captured 3rd place in the 200 freestyle swimming the event in a time of 1:47.98. In the 100 yard freestyle, Garrett finished in 53.65 seconds, which awarded him 2nd place honors. Hvistendahl dropped 1.66 seconds in the 200 backstroke from his prelim time to finish with a final time of 1:57.85 and 3rd place honors. Schutt captured the lone 1st place Ole swimming finish of the day in the meet?s longest event, the 1650 yard freestyle, better known as the mile. Schutt won the event for the women in a time of 18:51.21. Again, during Saturday?s round of diving, Rudser dove his way to first place honors on the 3-meter board with a score of 452.55 points, and once again, exceeded

Overall the Ole men?s and women?s teams placed 3rd. The women had a total of 575 points falling to University of Wisconsin Stevens Point finishing in 2nd with 700 points and Wheaton College finishing in 1st with 799 points. The Ole men finished the meet with a total of 733 points falling to Wheaton College who topped the men by just 1 point after winning the last relay. Wheaton had a total of 734 points. On the men?s side University of Wisconsin Stevens Point captured 1st place honors with a total of 788 points. Despite the long days, and developing sickness, the Ole swimmers and divers had a great weekend of competition at the annual Steven?s Point Invitational. This meet will be extremely beneficial to the team as the challenge of the conference meet approaches. the national B cut standard. Kortuem followed up with a 3rd place finish and a score of 391.75 points. On the women?s side, Alicia Fox (FY, Minnetonka, MN) finished in 3rd place on the 1-meter board with a score of 345.45.

Contact Kurt Anderson at 507-786-3315 or anderk@stolaf.edu.