Tarin Anding finished fifth, Morgan Field took fourth, and Jenny Strom won the 100 breaststroke on day two of the MIAC Championships. Strom broke the MIAC and school record in the race. Photo courtesy of Angie Peters.
Minneapolis – In the two horse race that is the 2015 MIAC Swimming and Diving Championships, the Gustavus Adolphus women have pulled slightly ahead of the University of St. Thomas following Friday’s events. With two days in the books, the Gusties lead the way with 562.5 points, while St. Thomas sits in second with 547 points. St. Olaf College rounds out the top three in a distant third with 332.5 points.
“This is as good of a position as we can ask to be in,” said Head Coach Jon Carlson. “Especially after tonight with times dropping up and down lineups, I’m pleased with how the day turned out. It was an inspiring day full of inspiring swims; I can’t say enough about our effort and how well we competed. From start to finish, everybody stepped up and did their job.”
Stealing the show was senior Jennifer Strom (Rochester, Minn.) who etched her named in the history books with a fourth straight gold medal in the 100 breaststroke. Strom not only met the 2014 NCAA Selection time by touching the wall in 1:02.70, she also shattered her own MIAC and school record in the process. Strom’s previous record time came at the MIAC Championships last season when she recorded a 1:03.11.
“Once again, Jenny was lights out, knock ‘em dead good,” Carlson said his standout senior. “She was determined to go under a 1:03.00 and she accomplished that in record-breaking fashion. Jenny is consistently the toughest competitor in the pool and she always seems to rise to the occasion at big moments. It’s a privilege of mine to coach such a competitor and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us tomorrow.”
Hayley Booher (So., Warrant, Vt.) and Kate Reilly (Fy., Hastings, Minn.) also provided the Gusties with a pair of gold medals. Booher successfully defended her rookie title in the 400 individual medley with a second consecutive win after touching the wall in an NCAA B cut time of 4:31.43. Reilly followed up with the first gold medal swim of her young career by taking the 100 butterfly with an NCAA B Cut time of 57.17.
“Hayley was patient and wanted to hang with the field until the freestyle portion,” said Carlson. “The pack touched together on the freestyle, and kicked it in from there and willed herself to a win. It was fun to watch and a great tone-setter early on in the night.”
“Kate put together a great swim in the fly and it was great to see her get her first career gold medal at the conference meet,” continued Carlson. “She set the tempo with an incredible swim in the morning and was able to build on that tonight. Kate will need to follow this evening up with another big day tomorrow and I have no doubt she can do so.”
Rounding out Gustavus’s individual All-Conference performers was Michelle Campeau (Fy., Rochester, Minn.) and Leah Anderson (Jr., Apple Valley, Minn.) who finished second and third, respectively, in the 200 free. Campeau recorded an NCAA B cut time of 1:52.85, and Anderson finished in 1:53.54.
In the 800-free relay, the Gustavus team made up of Strom, Booher, Campeau, and Anderson edged the second place St. Thomas team by just over two seconds with an NCAA B cut time of 7:39.47.
Friday’s All-Conference performances were rounded out by a second place finish in the 200-medley relay. Booher, Strom, Reilly, and Katie Olson (Sr., North Oaks, Minn.) teamed up to finish runner-up with a time of 1:43.55.
“We normally don’t hold a team meeting after the night session, but I had to let them know that they did awesome and this is as good as it gets,” concluded Carlson. “If we can come out and swim like that tomorrow morning and throughout the day, the rest will take care of itself and we will have given ourselves a shot. If it comes out that we are conference champions, great. If it doesn’t, that’s ok too because we know that we poured our heart and soul in to it.”
The meet will conclude with two more sessions Saturday. The morning sessions will begin at 10:30 a.m. (doors at 9 p.m.) and will feature preliminary races. Saturday’s championship doors will open at 3 p.m. for preliminary heats of the 1,650-yard freestyle and diving. The heat sheet for Saturday’s prelim session is available online.
From The MIAC
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.