St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s swimming and diving team’s depth was key on Saturday night at the Vic Gustafson Pool. After a back-and-forth meet that saw its share of ebbs and flows, the Gusties found a way to dig out a 147-141 victory over Carleton College for their second dual win of the season. The Black and Gold posted seven event victories on what was Senior Night at the Vic.
“Senior Dempsey Schroeder got us pumped up with an outstanding National Anthem and from that point on it was a battle to the end,” said head coach Jon Carlson. “This is a big win for our men’s team and an outstanding confidence booster as we embark on the second half of our season. We had some great individual swims tonight, but more importantly, I thought we had one of our best top-to-bottom showings of the season.”
Individual swimming standouts for the Gusties included Zac Solis (So., Rosemount, Minn.), Dante Colucci (So., Summit, N.J.), Kurt Youngdahl (Jr., Deephaven, Minn.).
Zac Solis led the squad with a pair of wins and another second place finish. Solis did his damage in the distance races by taking gold in the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 10:06.97 and the 500 free with a time of 4:54.24. His second place performance came in the 200 individual medley where he touched the wall in 2:03.73.
Dante Colucci registered a pair of individual event victories of his own with a dominating night in the backstroke competitions. Colucci outswam the field in the 100 back after finishing in 55:01 and the 200 back in with a time of 2:01.16.
Kurt Youngdahl rounded out the group with three top three finishes, providing the Gusties big points in the freestyle. The Deephaven product’s top swim came in the 100 free where he touched the wall first in 1:50.87. Youngdahl added second place finishes in both the 50 and 100 free in 22:16 and 48.76, respectively.
Sam Hanson (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) and Bennet Woltjer (So., Kandiyohi, Minn.) locked down the diving competitions and turned in Gustavus’s other top performances of the night. Hanson took the three-meter with a score of 219.05, while Woltjer won the one-meter with a score of 243.95.
After a short turnaround, the Gustavus swimming and diving teams will be back in the pool on Saturday when they travel to Decorah, Iowa to compete in the Luther Invitational set to begin at 1:00 p.m.