The start of the 2022 - 2023 season: the fall is always such an exciting time here at Saint John’s. Student are starting to come back to campus, we are at the start of anther school year which also means that we are going to be starting another swim and dive season. This year promises to be another exciting season as we prepare our guys to be ready to compete with the best the MIAC has to offer.
The off-season has been a good one, with another good class coming to join the Johnnies this fall. We have several standout incoming guys joining our team, including a few that should vie for MIAC titles in their respective events right away within their freshman year! We are also excited to have a strong team coming back as well; this will be the first year as a coach that I have a more balanced team of upperclassmen and underclassmen. Our team should now be at about 40 guys in total, once again being one of, if not the, largest team in the history of Saint John’s Swimming and Diving. With this large team comes great competition, which add excitement and intrigue to the MIAC roster, and it makes everyone on the team better by knowing they have to give their best in order to be a part of our MIAC team at the end of the season.
Our MIAC Champions of last year, Eli Grabinski and Joe Koller, are both coming back for another season – Joe is going into his senior year and Eli will be a sophomore. Eli will have to contend with his brother Jack, who will be back for his senior season on the boards, as well as Connor Reed (2nd place finisher from last years MIACs). There is a very real possibility that our divers will go 1, 2, 3 on both boards at MIACs this year. The dominance of SJU Diving will be real this year. 😊 Joe will be back to defend his MIAC Championships in both backstroke events as well, though he’ll have to do it with a shortened season as he is studying abroad this fall. We will also be returning several other strong finishers from our team last year including Ethan Huber (senior captain top 8 finisher in the IMs and Breaststroke), Carter Larson (sophomore top 8 finisher in 200 – 1650 free), Liam Noble (sophomore top 5 finisher in backstroke and sprint free events), and Colby Kern (sophomore top 8 finisher in the sprint frees and fly events). All in all, we will be returning all 27 All-MIAC honorees from last season to this year’s team, meaning, if everything goes right, this year should be another incredible season for SJU Swim and Dive.
I should also mention that we will be having our annual Go Johnnies Challenge again this year in the fall. The Go Johnnies Challenge will be on Thursday, September 8th. The Go Johnnies Challenge is the athletics department annual fundraising campaign, where all the sports raise money to help each of the individual teams. You can donate online by going to: https://www.givecampus.com/schools/SaintJohnsUniversity/2022-go-johnnies-challenge. We have already had alum Scott Welle offer a match $1 for $1 up to $5000 for anyone that donates to swimming and diving meaning your donation will go further! We truly need your help, any and all donations help our team stay competitive and allows us to travel to more competitive meets (such as the Rochester Invite in December) and buy the latest tech suits for our MIAC roster, keeping all our guys competitive at the end of the season. Your support means so much to our team and allow us to be the best that we can be.
This is going to be another great year for Johnnie Swimming and Diving, I believe our strongest team yet that I have coached here at SJU, and our best opportunity to get over the hump and win a MIAC team championship, but we need your support! Come to our meets, meet our current guys and find out how amazing these guys are not only in the pool but well beyond as well.