With the underclassmen arriving back on Monday and the upperclassmen touching down on Wednesday, the Gustavus men’s and women’s swimming and diving team returned home to the snowy wonderland of Minnesota following its winter training trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Gusties left for Puerto Rico and arrived in the nation’s capital on Dec. 27th.
The Gusties trained at the University of Puerto Rico’s RUM Natatorium located at the University’s Mayagüez Campus. The outdoor Natatorio is a 50-meter Olympic sized pool.
While on the trip, the Gusties competed in the 2011 Copa Coqui swim meet that took place in the Entantada swimming facility in San Juan. The meet featured schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the University of Puerto Rico. The Wolverines won the meet with a combined men’s and women’s score of 112 points.
On the women’s side, individual standouts included Dajana Vidovic, Serena Elthon, Sarah Hund, Alissa Tinklenberg, and Steph Korba. Vidovic registered a top-three finish by taking third in the 50 freestyle with a time of 28.15. Elthon placed sixth in the 50 free (28.89), while Hund and Tinklenberg both recorded seventh place finishes in the 50 free (28.99) and 100 backstroke (1:12.96), respectively. Steph Korba rounded out the group with an eighth place finish in the 100 butterfly (1:11.12). The 200 meter medley relay team of Tinklenberg, Anika Erickson, Korba, and Hund took fifth place with a time of 2:12.13.
Paul Kirihara, Whitaker Davis, Sam DeFranco, and Zach Nachtsheim led the men’s team by placing in the top-10 in their respected races. Kirihara place sixth in the 100 backstroke (1:05.27), Davis took seventh in the 200 IM (2:21.39), DeFranco finished eighth in the 50 free (25.51), and Nachtsheim rounded out the group with a 10th place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:08.65).
The Gustavus swimming and diving teams will be back in the pool this Saturday for a triangular against the St. Thomas and Hamline at 1:00 p.m. in St. Peter, Minn.