Well, we’re almost there. The end of the season is approaching fast. We are breaking into two groups of swimmers for the end of the season, those who taper for the Minnesota Challenge Meet, and those who will go onto MIACs. Because we have such a highly competitive team this year we added an additional competition: the best performer from the Minnesota Challenge will join the MIAC team in the final open roster spot. The hope is that this will bring out the best of all those who are swimming at the Minnesota Challenge, and give us the best option going into MIACs. This weekend (Feb 4 – 5) is the Minnesota Challenge. It’s being swum at the U of M and beings at 6:00 pm on Friday if you are interested in coming on down, we would love to see lots of Johnnie fans to cheer us on for the final meet of the season before conference.
The second half of the season is always a bull rush to the finish. With several of our more challenging duals of the season it certainly saw higher levels of competition and some very fast swims. We had a dual against St. Cloud State for the first time in about 10 years. While it was a lopsided event, there were lots of good swims and it was great to see our guys step up and push themselves against Division II level talent. We followed that up with our dual against Carleton, whom we were able to beat 178-118. They are the clear third place team in the conference right now, so to be able to step up and handle business against them was a great sign for where our guys were at. Finally, we had our last dual of the season against Gustavus. While it was lopsided loss (86 – 201), there was several positive takeaways. We didn’t have any divers at the meet, and they counted all their divers’ points in the meet. And almost every single race was a close race to the finish. The highlight was the 200 Free Relay in which we out touched Gustavus with a final time of 1:25.63. For some context, that time would have been about the same as our 200 Free Relay at MIACs for the three previous years. Knowing that we have a taper coming off that yet, it is our hope that we can qualify a relay for NCAAs. While NCAAs is ridiculously competitive these days, I believe we are in position to make a run at it, and hopefully put some individuals and relays in position to qualify!
Looking ahead to MIACs, I think it’s going to be a two-dog race between us and Gustavus. When pointing the meet out it looks like it’s with about 30 points, so one relay DQ could change the whole outlook of the meet! We have several guys in position to make a run at MIAC Champion in several events including the 200 IM, the 50 Free, the 200 Free, the 100 Back, the 200 Back, and the 100 Free. Not to mention that if we swim well on relays we could be looking at a sweep of the freestyle relays. We are excited to see what we can do and hope that we will be able to see you all there! With it coming down to being a close meet between us and Gustavus we really hope that we have a large cheering crowd for us at the U. The U of M will allow spectators, but be aware tickets need to purchased online and they will require masks for all visitors to the pool. I will send out a link next week with information on how to get tickets or to purchase the live stream.
This has been an incredibly successful season to this point, but we are most looking forward to a positive finish at MIACs. Our guys have been building toward this meet for the whole season. This weekend will fill in the final spot on our roster and then it will be the big push to the end. I can’t thank all of you enough for all the support you have given us this season. We really would not have been successful without all of your support! Help us make a push to end the 50th anniversary season with a MIAC Championship for the Johnnies. Hope to see you there!
Go Johnnies!