by Sam Anderson (SJU ’24)
St. Catherine’s Swim and Dive team has been a dominant force at the division III level of the sport in Minnesota in recent years, taking home three consecutive championships the past four years (the exception of course being the year the MIAC championship meet was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Head coach Justin Zook looks to continue not only this stretch of impressive achievements, but also a culture that helps every swimmer grow, and buy into the values and goals of the team.
St. Catherine’s graduated four seniors and one fifth year athlete; Jordyn Wentzel, Annie Voss, Sophia Erikson, Andrea Voelker and Gillian Durand, although two of the graduates, Voelker and Durand, will be returning for a fifth year of athletics. The loss of those few, though, will be felt. “Annie and Jordyn won every event they swam at MIACs, so losing 120 points is not the easiest thing, but it’s also not the end of the world since we get to bring back a couple of other seniors,” says Zook. Wentzel’s accolades mentioned by Zook included being a four-time MIAC swimmer of the year, and the first national Division III champion in the program’s history. Voss also put together an extremely impressive resume with a top ten performance in St. Catherine’s history for every single event, proving to be a highly adaptable and reliable swimmer. Despite losing such an impactful class, Zook is confident in St. Catherine’s ability to continue their success moving forward, saying, “I think collectively we have a lot of gaps to fill… but they’re not gaps that we aren’t prepared to fill.”
To his point, St. Catherine’s has 18 athletes between first year (9) and second year (9) student athletes, which will easily make up the majority of the team, and this adds plenty of depth and versatility to combat the loss of the outgoing class. Even so, Zook was adamant in saying that he would rather not phrase it as replacing talent. “The reality is that I hope that I can’t replace my seniors, I hope that we’re in a position where they have developed and grown in our program so that it’s not an attitude of ‘well how do we just replace that?’ For us it’s more ‘can we piece together some things that will allow us to still reach some of the same goals?’” Each person leaving the program made a unique difference, and Zook is determined not to lose sight of that while still preparing the team for another high-level run.
Additionally, Zook intentionally recruits athletes at several different levels to preserve the balance of the team, and told me, “We’ve tried to make sure that if we’re graduating people in a certain training group that we’re also replacing people into that specific training group. We have three interval-based training groups, so if we graduate somebody who’s in the bottom of our roster in terms of performance, we make sure that we’re actively recruiting back into that group so that those people are still going to have a good experience.” He knows champion level athletes don’t just appear out of thin air, so he looks for not nly athletes who will instantly impact things, but individuals that will put forth the effort to grow in the sport through college and help the team in any way they can. “We kind of asked is there 50% of our class who can come in and help right now, and then is there 50% of our class who by the time they’re a junior can come in and help on our MIAC roster,” Zook said.
On the leadership side of things, St. Catherine’s does things differently from some schools by utilizing juniors as captains as well as seniors, and even a fifth year this coming season. This is so that the women selected as captains in their junior year can develop further before assuming more leadership as a senior. The captains for the 2023-2024 season include fifth year Gillian Durand, Seniors Anneke van Oosterom and Sammi Friedrich, and Junior Emma Svendsen. When talking about them, Zook stated, “I think that group has a really good mixture of vocal leadership but then also holding people accountable, they’re willing to speak up and actually be like ‘hey, this is how we do things as a group.’” Between this new leadership and a refreshing boost of flexibility with the large freshmen class, the future of St. Catherine’s swim and dive seems to be in good hands.
With seemingly more big things ahead for the team, I asked Zook how their culture stays grounded and focused on what they need to achieve, and he emphasized a group effort for goal creation and simple core values he asks the team to follow. “Our team goal setting is done together, so it’s not me setting goals for the team, our team gets to write down what they want and then I kind of write down how that going to happen, and then we have to come to an agreement on if that’s what they’re willing to work for.” This system allows his athletes to reach for what they themselves want to accomplish and really buy into the work it will take to get there. Finally, he stated that there are just a few things he expects his swimmers to do. “Are you willing to show up on time… are you willing to be kind to your teammates… and are you just willing to give me your best effort every day.” These three base expectations have proven to be effective for this program, and their hope and drive for continued success will be something to look for this coming season.
For more information about St. Catherine Swimming and Diving visit the school site.