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Oles Compete at U of MN. Invite

Katie Buecksler
November 20, 2000

A handful of St.Olaf swimmers and divers headed to Minneapolis this weekend for the U of M invitational meet. The meet was based on the championship meet format which lasted three days with a prelim and final session each day of competition. The St.Olaf team encountered some of the country's top athletes in the pool. Most of the other teams that St.Olaf competed against this weekend were from division I schools.

Coach Bob Hauck commented that the meet was a great opportunity to swim against teams of a higher caliber. "This helps the team performance when they return to the competition at the division III level. This too, may have been a wake up call for some people. This meet helped them to figure out their goals and how much work it is going to take for them to attain those goals." An additional bonus of swimming and diving in this weekend's meet is becoming aquatinted with the pool. For the first time ever, the men and women will swim and dive their conference meet together at the University of Minnesota this coming February. To be able to swim or dive in the pool ahead of time is a great way to gain some confidence going into the conference meet. As far as times looked, Bob commented, "we most people finish with season best times, and even some with career best times. It is early in the season to shave and not rest, so the impacts of shaving were seen more so in the distance events and 200's of stroke rather than the sprints. However, it was very encouraging to see that we had more people than ever before qualify in order to come back in the evening for finals."

On the men's side the St.Olaf swimmers had some outstanding times. The 400 medley relay team of Jake Hvistendahl (FY, Minnetonka, MN), Tom Dow (JR, Poway, CA), Adam Garrett (FY, Cannon Falls, MN) and Lee Thomsen (FY, El Cajon, CA) swam their way to a time of 3:31.83, just two seconds short of reaching the NCAA B cut time. Hvistendahl had a fantastic lead off leg for the Ole's finishing the backstroke leg in a time of 53.03, while teammate Tom Dow reciprocated his efforts and finished the breaststroke leg in a time of 58.87. Individually the men were strong, too. Eric Kubat (SR, West Des Moines, IA) swam a great race in the 400 IM, he finished with a time of 4:17.04. In that same event, teammate Pat Marzolf (FY, St.Paul, MN) finished with a time of 4:21.85. Thomsen had a season best time in the 200 freestyle during the bonus consolation heat, he swam to a time of 1:45.43. Senior Chris Anderson (Edina, MN) saw improvement in his 100 backstroke and finished in the time of 56.77 in the bonus consolation heat. Garrett swam a smart race in the 100 fly and finished with a time of 52.88. On the third day Jim Chase (JR, Winnetka, IL) swam the mile, which is a timed final event, his time of 17:31.08 ranked him at 16th place. Kubat had great races, once again, he swam both the 200 backstroke and 200 fly in the consolation heats; in the 200 backstroke he finished with a time of 2:01.24 and in the 200 butterfly he finished with a time of 2:01.95. Like usual Gabe Kortuem (SR, Andover, MN) and Kyle Rudser (JR, Northfield, MN) did their part to contribute to the Ole's score. Kortuem finished 8th on the 3 meter board and 6th on 1 meter scoring 237.40 points while Rudser took 11th place honors on the 3 meter with a score of 360.50 and 14th on the 1 meter with a score of 193.75. These two individuals are certainly capable of competing with the best of them, and they proved it this weekend by capturing top places for the Ole team.

The Ole women showed their strength while competing in the weekend invitational, too. The 200 medley relay team of Chrissy Soule (SR, Mound, MN), Anna Guenther (SO, Minneapolis, MN), Sonia Karimi (SO, Rochester, MN), and Ellen Prange (SR, Madison, WI) had an excellent swim finishing in a time of 1:54.28. According to Coach Bob Hauck, "It was really exciting to see the women swim this fast. Their time is already faster than the time that the 200 medley relay team swam in last season's conference meet." Individually, Soule had some great performances, once again. She swam the 400 IM, 100 backstroke, and 200 backstroke and returned to the evening session in all three events. Soule dropped approximately 6 seconds in her 400 IM since the Eau Claire meet to finish in a time of 4:46.94 in the evening session. She swam her 100 backstroke in a time of 1:01.85 and her 200 backstroke in a time of 2:14.01. Other highlighted swims came from the breaststrokers: Anna Guenther, Rachel Sattler (SO, Madison, WI), and Allie Simpson (SO, Excelsior, MN). Guenther and Sattler both competed in the evening session for the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Guenther's best finish in the 100 came during the morning session in a time of 1:08.82 and for her 200 she swam a time of 2:30.80 in the consolation heat during the evening session. Sattler's best 100 breaststroke time was during the consolation bonus heat she finished in a time of 1:09.92. In the 200 breaststroke Sattler swam in the consolation heat of the evening session and finished in a time of 2:33.70. The Ole's third breaststroker, Allie Simpson swam her best time of the season during consolation bonus heat of the evening session and finished with a time of 2:36.12. Two other individuals on the women's team had remarkable swims- Sonia Karimi and Anne Lindberg (FY, Maple Grove, MN). Karimi finished the 200 fly in a career best time of 2:17.82 and Lindberg swam the mile with a career best time of 18:20.90. Coach Bob Hauck mentioned, "Anne had a great mile swim. She actually swam her first 1000 yards faster than she has swum the open 1000 swim all year, thus getting two career best swims for herself." Over all the menís team scored 135 points for a 7th place finish and the womenís team scored 88 points for a 7th place finish.

All in all, this meet was a great experience for the Ole teams. All of the participants had a chance to get acquainted with the pool, which will help out tremendously during the conference meet. While there were a group of swimmers and two divers over at the University of Minnesota, on Saturday members of the St.Olaf diving team headed to Macalester to compete in a one-day invitational. Jake Dunn (JR, St. Charles, MN) finished in 2nd place on both the 1 meter and 3 meter boards while teammate Paul Ryan (SR, Des Moines, IA) finished in 3rd place on both boards. On the Women's side Stacy Koskiniemi (JR, Blaine, MN) finished in 2nd place in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 203.45 and captured 6th place on the 3-meter board with a score of 152.40. Anna Rickert (SO, Northfield, MN) finished in 5th on the 1 meter at 164.05 and 5th on the 3 meter with a score of 164.05.

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