(photo courtesy of SPX Sports)
GRINNELL, Iowa – The Gustavus men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams Saturday concluded competition at the Grinnell College Pioneer Classic. The men won the meet with 1630 points and the women took second at 1357.5, just 2.5 points behind Carleton. This marks the third consecutive season the Gustie men have won the Pioneer Classic. The women won in 2017 and 2018.
“It was a great weekend of swimming with a lot of season-best times all around,” Head Coach Jon Carlson said. “We competed well and the women came close to Carleton. We were very pleased with how it went even though we were missing people for Christmas in Christ Chapel. The team we had battled hard all weekend. The guys were dominating swim after swim. The team is very excited going into the next stretch of the season with hard training and to focus on the end of the year.”
Other teams competing included Beloit, Carleton, Grinnell, Illinois College, Monmouth, Nebraska Wesleyan, Principia, Ripon, Simpson, Lawrence, and Wash Univ. (divers only).
Including Friday night’s first session, the Gustie men won 16 events. Highlights of the two-day competition included meet records in the 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, and 200 freestyle.
Saturday’s first-place finishers:
200 medley relay
Dane Hudson, Taylor Vander Jeudt, Nolan Larson, Matt Allison – 1:37.22
100 butterfly
Hudson – 52.39
200 freestyle
Larson – 1:41.92* meet record
800 freestyle relay
Andrew Becker, Dutch Franko-Dynes, Thomas Fitzloff, Larson – 7:12.40
1650 freestyle
Jared Dawson – 17:03.67
1-meter diving
Logan Bican – 433.90* NCAA B cut
100 IM
Larson – 53.49
100 freestyle
Becker – 47.44
200 butterfly
Larson – 1:59.02
400 freestyle relay
Erik Small, Becker, Allison, Larson – 3:11.02* meet record
The Gustie women won three events on Saturday and four throughout the entire competition, highlighted by a meet record in the 400 freestyle relay.
200 freestyle
Amelia Bjorklund – 2:00.81
1650 freestyle
Allie Mayfield – 18:30.98
400 freestyle relay
Annika Johns, Bjorklund, Abby Yartz, Alyssa Lokensgard – 3:36.26* meet record
Gustavus now takes the rest of the calendar year off and returns to competition Jan. 10 at home against Carleton for Senior Night.