GRINNELL, Iowa – The Gustavus men’s swimming & diving team took first place out of 11 teams Saturday at the Pioneer Classic, hosted by Grinnell College. The Gusties accumulated 1381.5 points, nearly 200 points more than second place Grinnell. After racing out to a first place start in Session 1 Friday night, the Gusties won five of 15 events on Saturday and placed in the top-three in seven other events.
“We really needed that lead from last night as today was supposed to be an even meet with some of the other top teams,” Head Coach Jon Carlson said. “The last session we had so many guys pop off amazing times. Tanner Sonnek’s 100 IM started the evening and got everyone fired up. After that the team really followed suit and had a great finish to the meet.”
Here are Gustavus’s top performers in each of Saturday’s events:
200 medley relay
2nd – Josh Muntifering (Fy., Buffalo, Minn.), Tanner Sonnek (Jr., North Mankato, Minn.), Nolan Larson (Fy., West Des Moines, Iowa), Will Clark (So., Northfield, Minn.) – 1:37.25
400 IM
3rd – Zach Dawson (So., Eagan, Minn.) – 4:21.75
100 butterfly
3rd – Larson – 52.30
200 freestyle
5th – Andrew Peters (Jr., Montevideo, Minn.) – 1:51.35
100 breaststroke
2nd – Sonnek – 57.27
100 backstroke
6th – Muntifering – 55.31
800 freestyle relay
1st – Dawson, Thomas Fitzloff (Fy., Mankato, Minn.), Muntifering, Larson – 7:15.31
1650 freestyle
2nd – Mack Christianson (Fy., Cottage Grove, Minn.) – 17:06.01
1-meter diving
1st – Logan Bican (So., Monticello, Minn.) – 437.40
100 IM
1st – Sonnek – 53.10
200 backstroke
5th – Muntifering – 2:01.20
100 freestyle
1st – Larson – 47.72
200 breaststroke
1st – Sonnek – 2:05.55
200 butterfly
2nd – Larson – 1:59.23
400 freestye relay
2nd – Muntifering, Peters, Fitzloff, Larson – 3:16.70
Gustavus is off until Dec. 30 when it travels to Puerto Rico for its training trip, which lasts until Jan. 7.