The Johnnies’ swimming and diving team returns to St. Paul for a neutral-site dual meet against St. Olaf at 10 a.m. (swimming, diving at 1 p.m.) Saturday, Nov. 1, at St. Catherine. – Live Video
A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John’s dropped a dual to Macalester, 155-143, last Saturday (Oct. 25) in St. Paul. SJU won six events and totaled 24 top-three performances.
The reigning MIAC Men’s Swimming and Diving Athletes of the Week at the time – senior Brayden Slavik (Green Isle, Minn./Chaska) and junior Cody Watts (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech), respectively – combined for four wins on the day. Slavik claimed first place in two individual events – winning the 100-yard backstroke by more than a second with a time of 52.23 and the 500-yard freestyle in 4:43.78. The next closest finisher in the 500-yard freestyle took second 22 seconds later.
Watts, meanwhile, swept the diving competition, taking first in the 1- (237.70) and 3-meter boards (243.80). Sophomore Henry Hilgendorf (Owatonna, Minn.) was second in the 1-meter (227.20) and third in the 3-meter (209.30).
Junior Trevor Barton (Buffalo, Minn.) won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:37.41, followed by junior Luis Flores (Hugo, Minn./Mahtomedi) in second with a time of 10:51.49. Barton also took second in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:07.76.
Senior Clay Megaw (Monticello, Minn.) added another first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, touching the wall .06 seconds faster than Macalester senior Will St. John, who won two other events Saturday afternoon. Megaw was also second in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.39).
Freshman Braydon Ohrtman (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) took second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.66), 0.29 away from Macalester sophomore Max Taufen in first. Senior Carsten Reuter (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) was second in the 50-yard freestyle (21.97) and two seconds away from the top two times in the 100-yard butterfly (56.60). He missed first in the 100-yard freestyle by a margin of 0.37 and second by 0.18.
SJU’s top two relay teams took second in both the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle events. The 200 medley group of senior Andrew Roggeman (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech), Megaw, freshman David Lammers (Willmar, Minn.) and Reuter finished with a time of 1:41.83. The freestyle group of Ohrtman, freshman Vince Schulze (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Lammers and Slavik touched the wall in 1:29.19.
LAST YEAR’S MEET: SJU won 13 of the 16 events in a 192-102 dual victory over St. Olaf last Nov. 2 (2024) in Collegeville. The Johnnies totaled 29 top-three times on the afternoon.
Liam Noble ’25 led the Johnnies with three individual wins. He took first in the 100- (55.61) and 200-yard (2:06.45) backstrokes, as well as the 100-yard butterfly (54.50) and was the first leg of SJU’s first-place 200-yard medley relay (1:38.36; Noble, Megaw, Philion, Reuter).
Carter Larson ’25 nearly did the same by winning the 100- (47.51) and 1,000-yard (10:13.50) freestyles, and tied with Reuter for the victory in the 50-yard freestyle at 21.92 seconds.
Slavik claimed first in the 200- (1:45.26) and 500-yard (4:52.32) freestyles, while Watts recorded the top score in both the 1-(219.55) and 3-meter (216.95) dives.
Megaw served as the other individual win for SJU in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.06) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:14.07; Slavik, Kern, Larson, Hovda) also reached the top of the podium.
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