Jack Wiessenberger – Staff Writer

After a tumultuous season, the Gustavus Swim and Dive teams are preparing to get in the water one last time this weekend. The team’s few months of competition have come with more than their fair share of challenges. COVID has provided many obstacles for the team to overcome, and the rival schools of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) have challenged the Gusties to continually work hard. The Men’s Team will host the Pipers, Johnnies and Tommies in a quad-meet and the Women’s Team will dual St. Thomas on Saturday March 6, and Sunday March 7 in what is sure to be a shootout. Hopes are high the Gusties will be able to finish the season on a positive note as they end St. Thomas’ time in the MIAC by handing them a loss.
“This meet is huge, and we are so prepared for it. St. Thomas has been our number one rival for years now and we are ready to hopefully send them out of the MIAC on an L. It will be extra special because in a normal year with the conference meet, only a select number of athletes can participate from each team. This year, we are able to have our whole team compete together in this last meet of the season,” Senior Swimmer Hana Pokornowski said.
The sense of togetherness within the swim team is at an all time high despite the circumstances surrounding the unusual season. All the challenges have led to this meet where some of the best programs from the MIAC will face off in a season finale.
“We are expecting a well-trained, determined team that only has one thing on their mind, and that is to win their last meet as members of the MIAC. St. Thomas has always been Gustavus’ biggest competitor and this weekend will surely be no different than any other final meet of the season,” Junior Swimmer Denis Engle said.
In recent years, Gustavus has held the edge over St. Thomas, but by narrow margins. The final meeting of these two outstanding swim programs will almost certainly come down to the wire. The bragging rights to the final chapter of a historic rivalry are up for grabs.
“They are going to swim fast. They always do at the end of the season, but so do we. The past couple years have been super fun to swim against them just because of the close competition. Our Women’s team placed second in the conference last year and beat out St. Thomas by just one point. Our Men’s team has claimed the Conference Championship for the past two years. They’re a tough team, but so are we,” Pokornowski said.
Due to MIAC cancellations, no team will be named conference champion this season. However, this has not put a damper on the competitive spirit of the Gusties. Swimmers from both the men’s and women’s teams are looking to use this final meet to showcase their hard work and dedication from this season.
“This odd season definitely had its ups and downs. The biggest challenge for us was probably having to just put our trust in our training for so long. We usually have more meets throughout the year to blow off some training steam and see our progress. Going for so long without that was hard on a lot of us. We had to continually remind ourselves of the end goals and that the killer training would get us where we needed to be,” Junior Swimmer Lillie Ortloff said.
The teams have been practicing since the end of September and have only competed in three meets against other programs. COVID adjustments led to the team’s season being much longer than usual, and with far fewer opportunities for competition. Additionally, a near full-team quarantine caused problems for the team towards the end of January.
“A definite low point of the season would have to be when a better half of the team was required to quarantine due to a poor decision made the previous Saturday night. That was a huge blow to the team morale. Once everyone was out of quarantine, the entire team had a candid discussion about what we could learn from this mistake, what could we do to prevent this from happening again, and how are we going to move on from this,” Engle said.
The strange season brought around a variety of challenges the team had never faced before. Mistakes were made, but the team handled them well and was able to come together as a family once again. Now, all focus is set on ending the season with a strong performance over a historic rival.