St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s swimming and diving team suffered a 155.5-86.5 dual meet loss to the University of St. Thomas on Saturday afternoon in the Lund Center Natatorium. In their one and only home dual of the season, the Gusties recorded four wins and 11 individual top three finishes on the day.
“Although the scores didn’t come out in our favor, I’m proud of the way both the men and women competed today,” said head coach Jon Carlson. “It was our ‘Race for Grace’ meet and I thought our swimmers gave it their all and left it in the pool. Training has been tough as we head into the backstretch of our season, so today was good chance for our swimmers to see some conference competition inside our pool for the final time this year.”
Top Gustavus performers in the pool included sophomore Zac Solis (Centennial, Colo.) and rookie Jacob Stern (Rosemount, Minn.). Solis delivered big points in the distance races, winning the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 1:28.98 and finishing runner-up in the 500 free with a time of 4:53.04. Stern touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.95 and provided a second place mark in the 200 IM in 2:06.89.
Freshman Bennet Woltjer (Willmar, Minn.) turned in a pair of podium finishes in the diving competitions. Woltjer placed first in the one-meter after scoring a 264.06 and added a second place finish in the three-meter with a score of 252.05. Sam Hanson (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn.) also added a third place dive on the one-meter board with a score of 208.35.
The 200-medley relay team comprised of Dante Colucci (Fr., Summit, N.J.), Stern, Tommy Payne (Fr., Montevideo, Minn.), and Kurt Youngdahl (So., Wayzata, Minn.) registered Gustavus’ final first place finish of the afternoon, swimming a 1:38.86 to out-touch St. Thomas by 0.14 seconds.
Payne also added two top-three marks, placing runner-up in the 50 free (22.32) and finishing third in the 100 free (49.66). Colucci swam a 55.56 to finish second in the 100 backstroke, while Tommy Panetti (So., Bloomington, Minn.) rounded out Gustavus’ top swimmers with a third place swim in the 1,000 free (10:46.28).
The Gustavus swimming and diving teams will be back in the pool for their final swim before the 2013 MIAC Championships next weekend. The Gusties will travel to the St. Paul to take part in the two-day MIAC Invitational hosted by St. Thomas on Feb. 1-2. The MIAC Championships begin two weeks following on Feb. 14-16.