St. Peter, Minn. – It was a recording breaking night as the Gustavus Adolphus women’s swimming and diving team swam to a 208-92 victory in front of a standing-room only crowd at the Vic Gustafson Pool on Friday night. Led by the individual performances of Alissa Tinklenberg (Sr., Willmar, Minn.) and Danielle Klunk (Jr., Appleton, Wis.) who both broke two pool records on the night, the Gusties picked up 13 event victories on the way to their third straight dual win at home.
“It was a electric atmosphere in the Vic tonight and I’m proud of the way both our men’s and women’s teams went out and competed,” said Head Coach Jon Carlson following the meet. “Especially this early in the season and how hard we’ve been pushing them in training, it was great to see us come out with a lot of energy and pick up a win over a very talented St. Olaf team.”
Stealing the show in the backstroke and butterfly races was Alissa Tinklenberg and Danielle Klunk. After breaking her first individual pool record in last weekend’s double dual versus MSU, Mankato and St. Cloud State, Tinklenberg upped the ante on Friday night with pool record swims in the 100 and 200 back. The senior captain touched the wall in 58.04 in the 100 to take down Carleton swimmer Kale Zicafoose’s pool record time of 59.52 set in 2010. Tink also bested her own record in the 200 back set last weekend by turning in a time of 2:06.45. She broke Carley Mosher’s record of 2:09.12 with a 2:08.22 in the event last weekend.
Danielle Klunk etched her name in the Gustavus record books with record-breaking swims in the 100 and 200 butterfly. Klunk posted a time of 58.20 to win the 100 and break St. Cloud State’s Kirsten Koetter’s pool record time of 58.96 set in 2011. Not stopping there, the Appleton, Wis. native bested the 200 butterfly pool record by out-touching the field with a time of 2:11.35. The previous record time in the race was a 2:12.31 and was held by both Meghan Walsh of UW-Stevens Point (2005) and Ellen Dean of Saint Ben’s (2011).
The other pool record broken on Friday night came in the 400-freestyle relay where Jennifer Strom (Jr., Rochester, Minn.), Katie Olson (Jr., North Oaks, Minn.), Klunk, and Tinklenberg teamed up to swim a 3:36.17. The group broke Carleton’s record of 3:36.73 set back in 2005 – one of oldest still standing pool records at the Vic.
Jennifer Strom continued her early season success with another dominating night in the breaststroke races. Strom took gold in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.71 and 200 breaststroke in 2:26.43. She also contributed a third individual event victory by taking the 1,000 free with a time of 10:56.84.
Katie Olson rounded out the group of top individual swimmers with wins in the 50 free and 100 free. Olson touched up in 25.09 to win the 50 and 54.84 to bring home gold in the 100.
Heather Funai (Jr., Lincolnwood, Ill.) was the top diver of the evening with a sweep of both the one and three-meter competitions. Funai scored a 193.65 to win the one-meter and a 196.10 to take the three meter.
The 200-medley relay comprised of Tinklenberg, Morgan Field (So., Albert Lea, Minn.), Klunk, and Nicole Lohman (Fy., North Mankato, Minn.) rounded out the evening’s top performances by winning the race with a time of 1:49.63.
The Gustavus swimming and diving team will be back in the pool next weekend when it hosts its third straight home meet. The team will host the Gustie Mini-Invitational beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Vic Gustafson Pool.