The Johnnie swimming and diving team travels to face Macalester for a 1 p.m. dual meet this Saturday, Oct. 25, in St. Paul. – Live Video
A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John’s opened its season with a first-place finish out of three teams last Saturday (Oct. 18) in the Warner Palaestra Pool. The Johnnies won 14 events – all but two in the meet – and recorded 33 top-three finishes on the day for 822 points. Minnesota-Morris finished second with 602 points and Hamline was third with 393.
Three of SJU’s individual wins came from senior All-American Brayden Slavik (Green Isle, Minn./Chaska), who touched the wall first in the 100- (52.43) and 200-yard (1:57.13) backstrokes and 200-yard individual medley (1:58.25).
Two other seniors, Clay Megaw (Monticello, Minn.) and Carsten Reuter (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech), each won a pair of individual events. Megaw recorded the top time in the 100- (1:02.58) and 200-yard (2:20.04) breaststrokes, while Reuter took first in the 50- (21.54) and 100-yard (49.38) freestyles.
Junior Trevor Barton (Buffalo, Minn.) took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:40.03) and three freshmen stood atop the podium at their first collegiate meet: Lincoln Cochran (Helena, Mont./Capital) in th e200-yard butterfly (2:15.47); David Lammers (Willmar, Minn.) in the 100-yard butterfly (56.77); and Braydon Ohrtman (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.49).
The Johnnies’ 200-yard medley relay (Slavik, Megaw, Lammers, Schulze) claimed first place with a time of 1:40.12.
On the boards, junior Cody Watts (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) swept the competition, finishing first on both the 1- and 3-meter dives. Watts totaled a 240.45 on the 1-meter and a 216.15 on the 3-meter. Senior Tim Rotter (Blaine, Minn.) finished third on the 1-meter (198.99) and fourth on the 3-meter (176.60), while sophomore Henry Hilgendorf (Owatonna, Minn.) was third on the 3-meter (185.90) and fourth on the 1-meter (182.25) to round out the top finishers of the Johnnie diving contingent.
MIAC ATHLETES OF THE WEEK: Slavik and Watts were named the MIAC Men’s Swimming and Diving Athletes of the Week, respectively, on Tuesday (Oct. 21) for their performances over the weekend. The honor was the seventh of Slavik’s career and the fourth – and second-consecutive – for Watts.
The reigning MIAC Swimmer of the Year and a 2024 All-American (honorable mention with a 15th-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle), Slavik broke three program records, including two of his own, to win the 400-yard individual medley (4:00.12), 500-yard freestyle (4:29.49) and 1,650-yard freestyle (15:32.98) at the 2024 MIAC Championships. He is a six-time MIAC champion (five individual and one relay) and 10-time All-MIAC honoree (top three at the conference meet).
A College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America second-team honoree last season, Watts participated at the NCAA Regional, where he finished 10th in the 1-meter dive (392.50) and 15th on the 3-meter board (361.95). He collected his second All-MIAC honor with a third-place score in the 1-meter dive at the MIAC Championships for the second year in a row.
LAST YEAR’S DUAL MEET: SJU won 10 of the 13 events in a 151.5-89.5 victory at Macalester last Oct. 26 (2024) in St. Paul. The visitors recorded 24 top-three performances on the day as three Johnnies won two events each.
SJU swept the top-three times in the 1,000-yard freestyle, led by Slavik with one of his two first-place times on the afternoon. He also tied with the Scots’ Kean Pajarillaga for the title in the 100-yard backstroke (53.81).
Carter Larson ’25 took first in the 200- (1:45.78) and 500-yard (4:58.44) freestyles, and Eli Grabinski ’25 won both the 1- (287.70) and 3-meter (305.50) events.
Colby Kern ’25 and Langston Philion ’25 won the 100-yard freestyle (48.66) and 100-yard butterfly (53.66), respectively, and Reuter led the way in the 50-yard freestyle (22.06).
SJU’s 200-yard freestyle relay (Kern, Liam Noble, Jackson Hovda, Larson) placed first, while the 200-yard medley relay (Slavik, Megaw, Philion, Reuter) took second (1:39.97).
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