St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s swimming and diving team suffered a season-opening loss by the slimmest of margins 148-139 to UW-Eau Claire on Saturday afternoon at the Vic Gustafson Pool. The Gusties totaled nine first place performances and tallied 21 top three finishes on the afternoon.
“Despite the narrow loss, I’m pleased with our performance and am proud of our work-rate this early in the season,” said head coach Jon Carlson. “I’m happy with our fight and competitiveness – this is the type of meet that will make us better in the long run. To come out with the energy this team did after the past month’s training regiment is impressive and a great springboard for our season.”
Stealing the show was senior Zac Solis (Centennial, Colo.) who took gold in three individual races and added another relay win. Solis won the two distance races by taking the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:59.73 and the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 10:24.31. He also collected a gold in the 200 backstroke in 2:02.14, and joined Ross Larson (Sr., Brookings, S.D.), Jeff Nelson (Jr., Maple Gove, Minn.), and Kurt Youngdahl (Sr., Deephaven, Minn.) in winning the 400-free relay in 3:17.89.
Kurt Youndahl supplemented Solis’ three-win meet with a pair of golds of his own. The Deephaven product dominated the sprints by touching the wall first in the 50 free (21.92) and 100 free (48.91). Youngdahl was also a member of the first place 200-medley relay team that included Larson, Jacob Stern (Jr., Rosemount, Minn.), and Ben Miller (Jr., Des Moines, Iowa). The group turned in a time of 1:38.84 to complete the sweep of the day’s relay races.
Gustavus’s other individual event victories were provided by Jacob Stern and Ross Larson. Stern won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.89, added a second place finish in the 200 breaststroke in 2:16.86, and a third place finish in the 200 individual medley in 2:08.75. Larson out-swam the field to take the 200 free in 1:49.03 and came in second in the 100 butterfly in 55.55.
Jeff Nelson also provided the Gusties with big points – finishing second in the 100 free (49.91) and third in both the 50 free (23.14) and 200 free (1:52.16).
The Gustavus men’s swimming and diving team will be back in action next weekend when it hosts St. Cloud State at the Vic Gustafson Pool at 1:00 p.m.