COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John’s swimming and diving opened their season with a first-place finish out of three teams on 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.
The Johnnies travel to face Macalester for a 1 p.m. dual meet this Saturday, Oct. 25, in St. Paul.
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