Minneapolis – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s swimming and diving team registered 162 points on the final day of competition at the 2013 MIAC Championships to finish in fourth place with 526 points. The Gusties, who were in third after day two, were edged out of a spot inside the top three by Carleton who finished third with 528 points. St. Olaf took the 2013 crown with 787 points, while St. Thomas finished runner-up with 748 points.
“I was really proud of the guys,” said head coach Jon Carlson. “They swam with a lot heart tonight and really put their best effort forward on the final night of the meet. Although you don’t see as many All-Conference swims, the whole team from top-to-bottom left it in the pool and turned in some inspiring swims.”
“We lost to Carleton in the regular season and a lot of people picked us to finish fifth this weekend,” Carlson continued. “To be that close to third place was a credit to what was an great effort over the weekend. “
One of those swims came from Zac Solis (So., Centennial, Colo.) who earned All-MIAC marks with a third place finish in the 200 backstroke after touching the wall in 1:52.13, achieving the NCAA B cut standard.
Other top five finishers included Dante Colucci (Fr., Summit, N.J.), Jacob Stern (Fr., Rosemount, Minn.), and Sam Hanson (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn.). Colucci placed fourth in the 200 back with a time of 1:53.84, Stern came in fourth in the 200 breaststroke in 2:07.58, and Hanson finished fourth in the three-meter diving competition with a score of 298.65.
With the loss of just two seniors, Coach Carlson is excited about the future with a vast majority of his squad returning to the pool next season, stating, “A lot of teams graduated many great swimmers this year and this is still a very young team with us only losing two terrific seniors in Adam Rosell and David Kramer. We have a hard-working returning group and I think this year’s conference meet has lit a fire in them. They’re anxious to start training again and are looking forward to improving throughout the off-season.”
Following each race, all eight finalists were honored with a podium awards ceremony during Thursday night’s session, and the top three finishers in each event received MIAC All-Conference honors and medals for their achievement. Thursday’s updated team scores and All-Conference honorees in each event are listed below, and complete results from the session are available online here. The meet ended with an awards ceremony to honor the team champions, individual award-winners and All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team selections.
Fans can re-live the 2013 MIAC Swimming and Diving Championships on the event’s home page. The page features complete coverage of all six sessions including results, recaps, photos and videos. All six sessions were also broadcast live