After a good night of sleep (hopefully) the teams prepare for day 2. The women and men are in a little bit different spots overall. The women finished last night with a 10 point lead over St. Olaf while the men found themselves in third after the first day. This morning, the women needed to make it a rally point and start to pull away. The men needed to set themselves up for some major point gains if we are going to make a run at it.
The first event of the morning was the 400 IM. Arguably the toughest event in swimming due to its length and need to be strong in all four strokes. The Gustie men and women fared well. Both the men and women will have two swimmers in the top eight and two more in the consolation heat. In the 100 fly, the women had two women make it in the top eight, including defending champion Stephanie Korba. The men have three in top eight, including two who are seeded seventh and eighth with only an opportunity to move up. Matt Van Fossen, a senior, is .21 seconds out of first heading into finals. This turned out to be the biggest event for the Gustie men.
Next up was the 200 freestyle. Katie Olson earned an NCAA B cut with her swim and is seeded second heading into tonight. She is only .22 seconds out of first. The men have two spots in the consolation heat. In the 100 breaststroke, the women have the third and fourth seed and will look to take down Emily Punyko of St. Thomas who set a new meet record in the morning. The men have two in the top eight as well. The final event of the session was the 100 backstroke. Alissa Tinklenberg sits first, the only Gustie (man or woman), to have the top seed heading into finals. Quinn Arnold found a way to make the top eight for the second time in the day, sitting in eighth with a time of 1:00.19. The men were paced by Ross Larson and Zach Nachtsheim, both making the top eight. Both have a strong shot at moving up as high as second. The women divers had the semi finals of diving on the 3m board this morning. Alicia Alvarado and Heather Funai both made the top 8.
Photo Courtesy of Kim Hagemeyer
If you plan on making it to the meet tonight, let it be known that it will be crowded. On Friday night, the excitment might be at its peak (depending on how close the meet is on Saturday). Friday night is the second round of scoring so tonight is where teams can make either big gains or suffer some losses. With students off for the weekend, a lot of people make the trek to the pool to see their school in action. Its make or break time for a lot of squads and its always fun to see who moves up and who moves down. Its session four of the meet and it starts in a mere four hours.
Gunnar Teigen, a senior on the Gustavus swimming and diving team, is an intern for the Gustavus Adolphus Sports Information Department. Teigen will be blogging from the 2012 MIAC Championships to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the conference championships through the eyes of one of the student-athletes competiting. Teigen will be posting a new installment his feature blog, “Deck Pass To The 2012 MIAC Swim & Dive Championships” following each day of competition.