by Sam Anderson
The next schools in our string of preseason overviews are the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, and I am especially excited to report on these as a student and swimmer at SJU. The all-women team at St. Ben’s is led by head coach Mandy Wolvert, and St. John’s team of all-men is helmed by head coach Ben Gill. The unique thing about these schools is that the campuses are separate, but the students take classes, attend events, and even eat meals at both as if they are one. This carries over to the sports, and while the swim teams practice separately, they compete at meets together throughout the entire season. In talking to the coaches, I found Wolvert is extremely excited for a strong class of leaders inside and outside the pool, along with several incoming freshmen who will make waves right away. Gill is looking forward to continuing a significant rise in success since taking over the program, while maintaining the closeness of a tight-knit team and a solid identity and culture for the group
First, on the women’s side, Wolvert was quick to sing the praises of her graduating class, stating, “We are saying goodbye to six seniors who are leaving behind a great legacy for the team. They showed the team that when women support women, great things happen.” This class included Katie Brewer, Molly Johanson, Emi Quill, Mary Ridgeway, Fiona Rosko, and Mads Slavik. A mix of high-scoring athletes, significant leaders, and outstanding classroom performers, this group will be one that St. Ben’s will miss greatly, but Wolvert is confident in her group to be up to the challenge of carrying on without them, since she’s seen it happen before. Regarding last season, she said, “We graduated a lot of points last year (2022), and what I was really excited about was to watch the swimmers and divers just step up and fill in those spots, so I think that when you lose really talented swimmers, our Bennies just kind of use it as an open door of ‘Okay it’s my time, it’s my year,’ and this last year was a really good example of that.”
Expanding on that, she touched on her leaders for the coming year and the new Bennies that will join the team this fall, and how those two groups will be a huge part of stepping up like she said. St. Ben’s has 7 recruits committed so far, and Wolvert knew exactly where each one could make an impact, whether that is picking up the slack of graduating top diving scorer Emi Quill, or bolstering tougher events like the 400 IM or both Butterfly events with the coming absence of Fiona Rosko, Molly Johanson, and Mary Ridgeway, staples for St. Ben’s in the last couple seasons in those hard races. No matter the challenge, it seems the bases will be covered by this new freshman class. The captains for the 2023-2024 season will be Emi Wagner, Lindsay Smutka, Jocie Larson, and Emma Vicker, and Wolvert is very happy for these women to be the next iteration of Bennie leadership. Not only are they an impactful group in the pool, but Wolvert was especially thrilled about a goal the captains set for academics this year. “These four captains will be able to stand up and lead the team down a path of not only just athletic success, but academic success. One of the captains’ goals for the team this year is to be in the top three highest GPA teams at Saint Ben’s,” said Wolvert. She estimated this will require the team to reach a GPA average of 3.6 or higher due to the success of many different CSB athletic teams. So, expect the Bennies to excel in and out of the water this coming season.
Before SJU is broken down in full, something both teams now share is a training trip to Puerto Rico over winter break. Both coaches stressed to me the rigor of the training, but also the bonds that this creates between the athletes. Each person comes out of the trip closer to their teammates because of the shared difficult training they complete, and it serves as a great springboard for the second half of the season not only regarding training but with team closeness.
Moving on to St. John’s, the class of 2023 is particularly special to Gill, since they arrived to the program the same time he did at the start of the 2019-2020 season. “It’s been really fun as a coach to kind of watch as they grow as student-athletes over the last four years, as individuals, as people, as swimmers… but even beyond that, to watch as they sort of became leaders of a team that was changing with them each year,” he said. SJU Swim and Dive has really evolved since the season Gill took the job into a significant contender in the MIAC, taking third overall at the championship in his first season, and second each year since. A lot of credit for that success goes to both his and the outgoing class’s effort to grow the program during the past four years. In terms of what they did in the pool, Gill said, “There was a lot of talent, we had a lot of all MIAC honorees in that class, champions in that class, national qualifiers, so it’s certainly going to be tough to replace that way.” This class consisted of 8 student-athletes: Tim Belov, Beau Brinkman, Sean Fisher, Jack Grabinski, Ethan Huber, Joe Koller, Christian Pfau, and Connor Reed. And as Gill said, this was an extremely decorated class in the pool, as well as a dynamic group of leaders that have helped the team find its identity with him since they arrived.
However, when looking to the future in the pool and out of it, Gill is optimistic. “On both those fronts, I’m actually really excited about what this next year has in store for our team. When it comes to leadership… we’re going to have a really good class of leaders coming up, the captains (Which include Travis Teeter, Rafael Rios, and myself) …are going to be phenomenal, I’m really excited about the leadership that you guys can bring, but even beyond that I think the class as a whole is a really tight-knit group and I think that really plays into what we’re trying to do as a team.” To compliment that, a fresh group of talent is headed to St. John’s that Gill believes won’t miss a beat filling into the areas the team will need to compete. “I’m also excited about a lot of the freshmen we have coming in, we got some really good guys that are going to be able to step in and make some immediate impacts in a lot of events,” he said. They have a lot to make up for especially with the losses of Koller, a MIAC champion in Backstroke and top scorer in other events, and Huber and Brinkman, both all MIAC athletes, not to mention four graduating divers, including Grabinski, another champion and huge scorer. But Gill is convinced they are up to the task and have the talent and drive to succeed.
Overall, the Johnnies have created a close group committed to one another and to furthering the success of the team, and that could be heard in Gill’s excitement about the coming season. In closing, he told me, “We’re going to have another great year to kind of reinforce some of those values, some of those ideals that we’ve put forward as a team, and that’s only going to make us better and stronger than we’ve been before. So I’m really excited, I think that the future is very bright for St. John’s swimming and diving.”