Zac Solis reclaimed his title in the 500 free on day one of the MIAC Championships.
Minneapolis – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s swimming and diving team is in fifth place with 121 points after the opening day of the 2015 MIAC Championships being held this weekend at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. St. Thomas is the day one front-runner with 218 points. St. Olaf College is in second with 191 points, while Saint John’s University and Carleton College sit ahead of the Gusties in a tie for third with 173 points.
“The guys swam well and we are about where we’d thought we would be after day one,” said Head Coach Jon Carlson. “The next two days are better for us, but you still have to swim the races. You can’t just show up and expect to earn points just because on paper you should. We are going to have to come prepared to race from start to finish tomorrow.”
Headlining Gustavus’s performance to kick off the weekend was senior Zac Solis (Centennial, Colo.) who successfully defended his 2014 title in the 500 freestyle with a second consecutive gold medal performance. Solis, who won the race with a time of 4:35.35 last year, out-touched the field with an NCAA B cut time of 4:33.27 on Thursday night.
“Zac swam a very smart race,” said Carlson. “It was close all the way through, but he had enough energy at the end where he took off to win by over a half a pool length. It was an inspiring swim and a great way to get the session started. He achieved a lifetime best time and set the tone for what should be a fun weekend.”
Other top Gustavus swims were turned in by Jeff Nelson (Jr., Maple Grove, Minn.) and Kurt Youngdahl (Sr., Deephaven, Minn.). Nelson swam a 1:57.43 to take sixth in the 200 individual medley, and Youngdahl swam a 21.27 to finish sixth in the 50 free.
The MIAC Championships will continue tomorrow morning with preliminary races beginning at 10:30 a.m. The evening championship races will start at 6:30 p.m.
Courtesy Of The MIAC
Following each of Thursday evening’s races, a short awards ceremony was held to honor the top eight finishers. The top three finishers in each event received medals and automatically earn All-Conference honors. Thursday’s All-Conference honorees are listed below.
Tickets are available at either a single-session rate, or all-session passes will also be available for fans who plan to attend the entire event. Single-session passes cost $8 for adults and $4 for students, and all-session passes are $40 for adults and $20 for students. Heat sheets are included in the cost of admission. Children 5 and under are admitted free, and MIAC passes will be honored for all six session. No other passes or discounts will be accepted.
As in years past, all six sessions will be broadcast live online thanks to Webcast America. Fans will also be able to watched archived video of each session following the event and purchase DVDs of the broadcasts via Webcast America’s site. MIAC Media’s Mike Gallagher will handle play-by-play duties for four of the six sessions, with St. Catherine swimming alumnae Lauren Kranig taking over for the other two sessions. There will also be “live” results available online with results updated shortly after the conclusion of each event for fans following the action from afar.
The MIAC has an exclusive Web site for the 2015 MIAC Swimming & Diving Championships. The site features the complete event schedule, psych sheet, ticket information and venue information. The site will be constantly updated throughout the event with heat sheets, links to follow the action live, results, recaps, photos and more.
Fans can also monitor MIAC women’s swimming and diving on-the-go thanks to the the MIAC mobile app, which is a free download for both Apple and Android devices. Also, connect to the conference on its Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages and use the official event hashtag #MIACSD to interact throughout the championships.