Well this has been an odd spring to say the least. With the rise of the coronavirus and the closing of just about everything this spring, we have come upon a new normal for at least a bit. Zoom calls have replaced our in-person meetings and we have all been forced off our beloved St John’s campus for what we can only hope is a short while. We are hopeful that you and your family are all well in these tough times.
We are thankful that most of our swim and dive season stayed in-tac and we were able to compete at the MIAC Championships before everything was cancelled. Our guys performed well at MIACs this year with a third-place team finish. We had 11 total All-MIAC performances, including a MIAC Champion in 3m diving (Jack Grabinski). Ethan Huber posted two All-Time Top Freshman swims in the 200 and the 500 Free (and made the top 5 list on the 200 Back), as well as Mitchell Dockendorf posting the 3rd All-Time Top 100 Breaststroke swim. But it was truly a banner year for the diving program at SJU. We had three outstanding freshman divers come in and make an impact on the team right away. As a group they posted 11 of the potential 20 All-Time Top Freshman performances in the diving events (1m and 3m both 6 and 11 dives). Freshman Jack Grabinkski had an All-Time Top Diving score in each of the diving events, including the second best 11 dive 3m score in school history (behind only National Champion diver John Deters). Coach Jon Hazen was named diving coach of the year, and Jack Grabinski was named co-diver of the year.
Jack and fellow freshman Connor Reed both went on to qualify for and compete at the NCAA Regional Championships held at Denison University. Jack went on to qualify for NCAA National Championships which were set to be held at Greensboro, NC, but unfortunately was not given the chance to compete after the cancellation of the championships due to the coronavirus. Because athletes were not given the chance to compete the CSCAA honored all athletes that qualified with All-American status. As a result, Jack becomes our first All-American at Saint John’s swim and dive since 2011. We are certainly disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to compete, but thankful that Jack is only a freshman and will have several more opportunities to qualify and compete in the future.
Because students were sent home in March, we also didn’t have an opportunity to close out the season with a team banquet. As a team we did a zoom meeting in April at which time team awards were given out. We awarded four total team awards, Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, The Johnnie Award, and the MVP. Our Rookie of the Year went to Jack Grabinski for his incredible accomplishments in diving this year. Our Most Improved was Trevor Nelson, a sophomore who made great gains in his backstroke events to help the team at MIACs. The Johnnie Award goes to the guy on the team who made an impact as a leader in and out of the pool, someone who represents Johnnie swimming and diving in a positive way carrying on traditions and lifting up his teammates to be more successful; the Johnnie Award winner was Beau Brinkman. Finally, our MVP goes to the guy who scores the most points for the team and whom we would not have the success we did without, Mitchell Dockendorf. We also named our captains for the upcoming year: Eli Greenblat and Joseph Schwamm, but of whom are excited about the team and helping to lead into the next season.
As we look to next year, the future is bright for Johnnie swim and dive. We have a good incoming class of freshman that will look to make their mark on our program and continue the traditions of success. But with the coronavirus still looming for the foreseeable future, we cannot be sure what this next season will bring. We hope to be back in the water in the fall and competing as we always have, but there are still too many unknowns to predict what the swim and dive season will look like this fall/winter. What we do know is that SJU Swim and Dive will continue to gain strength and strive to be better than we were each and every day.
I would like to end this blog by saying that we are looking forward to hosting an Alumni meet this fall if it is possible. We couldn’t host one this spring because of the coronavirus but hope that we can host something this fall. This upcoming season will be the 50th anniversary of the swim and dive team at St John’s, and we would love to be able to connect our guys on the current team with all who have come before them. I will be sending out more information over the summer about the event, but we tentatively have it planned for October 10th. We hope to see you all there.
Go Johnnies!