The Gustavus men’s swimming and diving team is currently in first place after the first day of the MIAC Championships, which are being held in the Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The Gusties have compiled 212 points and hold a slight advantage over second place St. Thomas, who has 211 points. St. Olaf is in third with 184.5 points, as Saint John’s is in fourth (180.5) followed by Carleton in fifth (104).
Whitaker and Skylar Davis finished back-to-back in first and second place, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle. Both Whitaker and Skylar turned in NCAA B qualifying times, as Whitaker swam a 4:30.73 and Skylar swam a 4:31.09. Joining them in the top five was teammate John Rice, who took fourth place with a time of 4:41.12.
Other top individual performers for the Gusties were William Schultze and Sam DeFranco. Schultze made the top three with a third place finish in the 200 IM (1:55.11), as DeFranco finished fifth in the 50 freestyle (21.64). Schultze’s time made the NCAA B cut.
The 400 medley relay team of Paul Kirihara, Matt Van Fossen, Schultze, and Whitaker turned in the best Gustavus relay performance of the day, taking second place with an NCAA B qualifying time of 3:26.64. The 200 freestyle relay team of Gunnar Teigen, Zach Nachtsheim, Lance Switzer, and DeFranco added a top five finish by taking fourth with a time of 1:25.47.
The Gustavus men’s swimming and diving team will look to hold on to it’s narrow one-point lead heading into day two of competition with preliminaries starting tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.
For an inside look at the MIAC Championships check out junior Gustavus swimmer Craig Nordquist’s blog at the link below.
Blogging From Lane 4: An Inside Look At The MIAC Swim & Dive Championships