Alissa Tinklenberg
St. Peter, Minn. – For the second straight month, the achievements of swimmer Alissa Tinklenberg (Willmar, Minn.) were so impressive that the junior has been named the March Female Student-Athlete Of The Month.
Tinklenberg, who garnered the Student-Athlete of the Month honors in February after leading the Gusties to a fourth consecutive MIAC Championship, proved herself on the national stage for the second year in a row. The captain became an All-American three times over and was also an All-America Honorable Mention performer in three races.
The Gustavus women’s swimming and diving team scored a total of 98 points at the four-day meet to finish in a tie for 10th place. The team score and standing were both the second best in the history of the women’s swimming and diving program at Gustavus.
The 2013 MIAC Swimmer-of-the-Year kicked off the NCAA Championships with a bang by contributing to a school-record swim as a member of the 200-medley relay team. Tinklenberg joined Jennifer Strom (So., Rochester, Minn.), Kayla Hutsell (Fy., Apple Valley, Minn.), and Katie Olson (So., North Oaks, Minn.) to finish 10th in the 200-medley relay. The group broke the school record in the preliminaries with a 1:45.65 then clocked in at 1:45.93 in the consolation final.
On the second day, Tinklenberg grabbed her first All-America plaque by helping the 200-free relay team of Olson, Sarah Hund (Sr., Willmar, Minn.), and Tarin Anding (Fy., Sartell, Minn.) finish seventh with a time of 1:35.02. Later in the day, the 400-medley relay team of Tinklenberg, Strom, Hutsell, and Olson earned All-America accolades after recording a time of 3:51.67 in the finals to place eighth.
On an individual level, the Willmar, Minn. product first grabbed All-America Honorable Mention distinction after placing 12th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.34. On the final day of competition, she swam a school-record 1:59.66 in the prelims of the 200 backstroke to earn the fifth seed in the finals. Tinklenberg swam a 2:00.51 later that night to come in sixth and take home All-America honors.
To go along with last year’s seventh place finishes in the 100 and 200 backstroke races, Alissa Tinklenberg became the first Gustavus swimmer to ever earn All-America marks in three individual races over a career.
She capped off the meet by swimming the final leg of the 14th place 400-freestyle relay (3:28.83). The group bested the school-record in the morning prelims by touching the wall in 3:28.62.