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St. Olaf Swimming Opens Season

Pat Buresh
November 7, 2000

The St. Olaf Women?s Swimming and Diving Team opened the season at Moorhead, Minn. against Concordia College and Moorhead State University. The Ole women officially started their dual meet season, and swam their way to a 2-0 record. Coach Dave Hauck said, "the team's performance today was highly competitive." Several swimmers were placed in different events to discover new capabilities. Hauck commented, "we found our strong points and places that could use improvement." The 2000-2001 women?s team will be very strong and proved just that with great performances.

Strong performances were turned in by Chrissy Soule (Sr. Mound, Minn.), Anne Lindberg (FY. Maple Grove, Minn.), Sonia Karimi (So. Rochester. Minn.), Anna Guenther (So. Minneapolis, Minn.), and Liz Hathaway (FY. Lincoln, Neb.). Soule had three strong performances for the Oles, and won all three of her individual events, the 100 Backstroke with a time of (1:03.65), the 200 Backstroke in a (2:18.68), and the 200 Individual Medley finishing in a time of (2:18.68). Karimi captured two first places in the butterfly events. She swam to a win in the 100 Butterfly with a time of (1:03.82) and in the 200 Butterfly with a time of (2:20.86). Lindberg showed her strength in the distance events, taking first place in the 1000 Freestyle with a time of (11:08.20). Lindberg also showed her strength by taking two second place finishes in the 500 Freestyle (5:29.88) and the 200 Butterfly (2:26.96). Guenther showed her strength in the breastroke events. Hauck mentioned, "Anna swam against the conference champion and challenged her very well." She finished both races in second place with a time of 1:10.05 in the 100 and a time of 2:34.97 in the 200. Liz Hathaway claimed two second place finishes, one in the 100 Backstroke (1:05.49) and the other in the 200 Backstroke (2:21.97). Liz topped off her night with the fastest 100 Freestyle relay split for the Oles in a time of 57.78. Without divers, this group of Ole women just would not be complete. The divers have already begun to prove they will be a strong force to contend with. According to Hauck, "the divers were exceptional in the meet, and will be a strong point of this team the entire year."

Chrissy Soule and Liz Hathaway commented on the Oles' performance, "For the high amount of training that we have been doing, everybody swam really well. Our first-years stepped up to the challenge and performed very well" remarked Soule. Hathaway commented on the meet, "It was fun! There was great team motivation throughout the meet, even though it was a long day." The Ole women will team up with their other half, and get back to work this coming weekend against Gustavus on Friday Nov. 10 at 6pm at Skoglund Pool, and they will travel to Eau Claire, Wis. for a Saturday competition at 1pm.

Contact Pat Buresh at 507-786-3315 or buresh@stolaf.edu.