Swim & Dive Wins Big in Season Opener Posted on February 6th, 2021 by CJ Siewert

SWIMMING RESULTS | DIVING RESULTS

SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted Augsburg, Concordia, and Hamline on Saturday for their season opener at Vic Gustafson Pool and came away victorious. In a dual meet structure, the Gustie men defeated Hamline 252-26, while the women defeated Hamline 281-13, Concordia 279-15, and Augsburg 289-5.

“It was a great first meet, the team was fired up to race,” Head Coach Jon Carlson said. “They wanted to put some times out there for everybody to see because they have been working very hard and it showed today. We had our women’s 200 medley relay just miss the pool record and our women’s 200 free relay broke the pool record. The team that they beat to break the record was an All-American relay team, so they were very excited. In the first meet to be able to do that is impressive.”

Out of 28 events during the day between the men and women, the Gusties won every race. The women’s 200 medley team of Evie Lima (Fy., Neenah, Wis.), Hailey Auran (Sr., Saint Paul), Ellen Hofstede (So., Hopkins), and Lucy Peterson (Fy., Saint Paul) posted a time of 1:48.94, which was just over a second from breaking the pool record, while the 200 free relay team of Hofstede, Peterson, Abby Yartz (So., Bemidji), and Amelia Bjorklund (Sr., Bloomington) broke the previous pool record by .12 of a second with a time of 1:37.72. The previous pool record stood for eight years.

As he has done for most of his Gustie career, Nolan Larson (Sr., West Des Moines, Iowa) highlighted the men’s team with a pair of individual event victories. He won the 200 butterfly in 1:57.94, which was more than six seconds faster than second place, while he also won the 100 butterfly in 51.21, which was over two seconds faster than second place.

“Overall, we had great swims up and down our lineup,” Carlson said. “Nolan Larson was phenomenal, but to say that is to miss seven or eight other performances that were spectacular. Honestly, this is exactly what this team needed after this long grind since the beginning of October without any competition. Trying to hold ourselves together and stay motivated and nothing helps juice up that motivation like having a meet and to perform well.”

The Gusties will host their second intrasquad meet of the season next Saturday before returning the MIAC competition on Feb. 20 as they host Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s.