St. Peter, Minn. – On Monday, March 16, seven Gustavus Adolphus swimmers will make a three-stage trip to the site of the 2015 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The Gusties will drive an hour to Minneapolis where they will board a plane en route to Houston (part 1). They will then fly three hours to the gulf coast region of Texas where their plane will touch down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (part 2). The group will then cap the trek with a 30-minute drive to the northern suburb of Shenendoah where the Conroe Natatorium (part 3) is located. It is at the Conroe Natatorium that Gustavus will attempt to reestablish itself amongst the top swimming and diving programs in the country.
Representing the Three Crowns at this year’s NCAA Championships will be seniors Danielle Klunk (Appleton, Wis.), Katie Olson (North Oaks, Minn.), and Jennifer Strom (Rochester, Minn.), junior Leah Anderson (Apple Valley, Minn.), sophomore Hayley Booher (Warren, Vt.), and first-years Michelle Campeau (Rochester, Minn.) and Kate Reilly (Hastings, Minn.).
Although the Gusties won their sixth straight MIAC Championship in mid-February, the road to this point was not an easy one. Following one of the more dominating performances at the MIAC Championships in recent history in 2014, the Gusties found themselves in a head-to-head grudge match against St. Thomas in 2015. Despite being neck-and-neck with the Tommies following day one, Gustavus surged ahead and only got better on days two and three. Head Coach Jon Carlson said the team went in with a target on its back and became the underdog after day one. The Gusties thrived in that role and found a way to push forward.
With the NCAA Championships now just days away, the Gusties still feel like underdogs – something their head coach likes.
“This group has a chip on its shoulder and that’s exciting to see,” said Carlson, who is currently in his 25th season at the helm of the program. “Training is going well and the girls working hard and having fun. This segment of practice is so great because you almost have a “redo” after the conference meet. There are some things we need to clean up from our performance and those little improvements will make a big difference at the NCAA Championships.”
Swimming and diving differs from other collegiate sports due the length of time between conference championships and the NCAA Championships. For Gustavus, there are 24 days between the conference meet in Minneapolis and the bright lights of Shenandoah. For other conferences across the country, such as the NCAC and the UAA, programs get 31 days to prepare.
“Our conference meet was one of the last in the country,” said Carlson. “There are many schools who participate in their respective conference championships in the weeks prior to us, so that means they have roughly five to six weeks to prepare for nationals. Our window to train and taper is smaller this year, but that only forces the girls to come to practice even more focused.”
As if the build-up to the MIAC Championships wasn’t tasking enough, the Gusties must now direct their energy to a meet that will feature the best competitors in the country. With a solid mix of veteran leadership and young talent, Coach Carlson’s group is unfazed by the challenge and has attacked the workload with a narrowed focus.
“This is the next step of the process and the returners have established that as the norm in the Gustavus swimming and diving culture,” Carlson added. “Instead of being overwhelmed by the fact that we have another month of training, the lead-up to nationals is seen as standard operating procedure. Our seniors, Katie Olson, Jenny Strom, and Dani Klunk have created a positive environment and provide such great leadership for this group.”
Those three seniors have been here before – they understand the spectacle, environment, and pressure. The Gustavus women’s swimming and diving team has finished inside the top 10 three times, taking eighth (114 pts.) in 2010, 10th (98 pts.) in 2013, and a program-best seventh (154 pts.) in 2014. For Katie Olson and Jenny Strom, the trek to the NCAA Championships is business as usual. Both Olson and Strom have been to this stage every year of their collegiate careers and were significant contributors to the 2013 team’s finish the last time the meet was held in the Conroe Natatorium. They have earned numerous All-America and Honorable Mention All-America honors and are two of the most decorated swimmers in Gustavus history. They are battle-tested and coach Carlson has the utmost confidence in their leadership qualities and ability to set the tempo.
“Gustavus has established itself on the national level the past several years, and Katie and Jenny have been a big part of that,” Carlson said. “This group wants to go out and prove that what has been seen from Gustavus lately is not just a superficial bubble that bursts after a couple years. We want to be known as one of the best programs in the nation and these seven swimmers are hungry to establish itself as such.”
Individually, Olson will swim in the 50 and 100 freestyle, Strom will compete in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and 400 individual medley, Hayley Booher will go in the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 back, Kate Reilly will race in the 50 and 100 free, and 100 butterfly, and Michelle will perform in the 200 free.
Despite the importance of the group’s individual events, coach Carlson says the team thrives in the relays and feeds off their energy.
“It’s not the whole gang together [as compared to the MIAC Championships], so the motivation and energy is different,” he explained. “That’s why relays are so important and that’s why we put so much time and effort into our relay performances. It’s a chance to build on the performance of the others in your group – it’s an opportunity to feed off the energy of the bonds we’ve established. They all swim to inspire and each individual enters this meet with the mentality that she wants to contribute the swim that inspires the rest.”
Below is a breakdown of Gustavus’s competing relay teams…
200-free relay: Campeau, Klunk, Olson, Reilly
400-free relay: Anderson, Campeau, Olson, Reilly
800-free relay: Anderson, Campeau, Olson, Strom
200-meldey relay: Booher, Olson, Reilly, Strom
400-medley relay: Booher, Olson, Reilly, Strom
Coach Carlson says the biggest focus of this group is to once again record as many top eight finishes as it can.
“Although we have an opportunity to make a push for a medal in several races, a focus on the top eight keeps this team loose and helps them swim at their potential,” said Carlson. “If each swimmer does her job, the rest will take care of itself. If we can go to this meet and hold time – maybe go slightly faster – that turns a good meet into a great meet, and we’ll see some high finishes and great times as result.”
“We go all out to win our conference championship whereas many other top programs from across the nation do not,” he continued. “It’s an honor to make it this far, but the goal is to once again crack the top 10. That was our goal at the beginning of the year and that’s what this group has its sights set on.”
Although the NCAA Championships consists of the same number of events as the MIAC Championships over the course of four days instead of three, the meet is a grind. It’s eight sessions (morning and night) against the best swimmers in the country within the most intense atmosphere these swimmers will likely ever compete.
“You actually have more time in between events at nationals than you do at conference, but it doesn’t feel like that,” Carlson said about the comparison between the two meets. “There are only two more sessions, but the meet as a whole wears on you emotionally. The key to success is to go in with confidence early and feed off the support of your teammates. Last year I thought we started a little bit slow and gradually built momentum as the week went on.”
After settling in on Monday night, the Gusties will practice at the Conroe Natatorium on Tuesday afternoon. The group will then attend the NCAA Championships Banquet at 6:30 p.m. later that night. The meet will officially begin on Wednesday with swimming preliminaries taking place at 10:00 a.m. and swimming finals starting at 6:00 p.m.
“This is a fun group and while I’m excited to see them compete, I’m more excited to hang out with them and enjoy this journey,” said Carlson about what he is most looking forward. “It’s going to be fun, emotional, and inspiring all at the same time. This group knows how to get it done – it’s made up of racers who thrive on head-to-head competition. Times are ok but what really drives them is beating the person in the next lane. When you have that attitude, times take care of themselves and you see swimmers push themselves to levels they’ve never gone to before. I feel good about this trip because we have seven racers going – not seven swimmers, seven racers. The girls train as hard as they do so they can go out and win races…period.”
For complete meet information including directions, psych sheets, and a full meet schedule, please follow the link below. The 2014 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships will also be streamed online at NCAA.com.
http://www.ncaa.org/championships/division-iii-mens-and-womens-swimming-and-diving
To give fans of behind the scenes look at this year’s NCAA Championships, Sports Information Director Ethan Armstrong will be with the Gustavus swimmers in Shenandoah. Over the course of the four-day meet, Armstrong will be blogging, posting pictures and videos, and providing day-by-day recaps of all the action. His blog posts will be entitled “Lone Star State Of Mind” and will be updated on the Gustavus athletics website throughout the meet.