The swimming and diving team had a successful month, with the men’s team earning a victory over Carleton early in the month.
“This January the men’s swim and dive team made some amazing progress. We really came together as a team and raced hard beginning with our victory over Carleton in early January. We rode this momentum into a great month of training, and an awesome taper meet for those who are not swimming at conference. We couldn’t be more excited for the conference championship meet this weekend, where we planning on fighting Carleton for third place and dropping time across the board,” Sophomore Jacob Stern said.
The women’s team won both of their dual meets against conference-rivals Carleton and St. Thomas, and was the top team at the Grinnell Invitational.
“The women’s team continued to show our depth in January by winning duel meets against Carleton and St. Thomas and coming out on top at the Grinnell Invitational. We continued to work hard and push each other at practice and developed our relationships with one another as well. It was a fun and exciting month,” Senior Alissa Tinklenberg said.
Both the men and women will be competing at the MIAC Championships this weekend held at the University of Minnesota.
The gymnastics team hosted three meets during J-term. While they were unable to win any of these meets, Senior Paige Dielman (pictured) helped lead the Gusties to their best performance of the season at their Alumni Meet on Jan. 25 when the Gusties hosted UW-Oshkosh.
On Friday, Feb. 14 the Gusties will travel to UW-Stout to compete against the Blue Devils.
The men’s basketball team was 6-6 during J-term, but their performance was enough to earn the team a spot in the MIAC playoffs.
The men kicked off the month with a loss to St. Olaf, but were able to rebound quickly with a win at Macalester two days later.
The men fell to Bethel University, but were able to end the week with a win over Carleton College.
During the second week of J-term the men lost to the University of St. Thomas, before going on a three-game win-streak over Saint Mary’s University, Hamline University, and Concordia College.
The team had a disappointing finish to the month, with three consecutive losses in games against Augsburg College, St. Olaf College, and Saint John’s University.
Sophomore John “Big John” McLean (pictured) has been a key part of the men’s hockey team’s January success. The men’s team is on a seven-game win streak, and was 6-1-2 during J-term. The Gusties are ranked thirteenth in the nation, and are currently in second place in the conference. The men will take on conference-leader St. Thomas this weekend.
The men opened up the month with a non-conference series, as they hosted Lake Forest College and Adrian College. The Gusties tied Lake Forest, and suffered their only loss of the month to Adrian College.
The Gusties then went on a win-streak, sweeping their series against Augsburg College, Saint Mary’s University, and Saint John’s University.
Last weekend the men’s team tied with UW-River Falls in their last non-conference battle of the season.
The men’s and women’s nordic skiing teams have enjoyed the large quantities of snow this season.
“This has been a good season for us because we have so much snow this year, so finding places to do our workouts had not been an issue. A lot of us have made improvements in our strength and technique over the season and it really paid off in January. We had two women skiers in the top ten in a skate race at Mount Itasca this January and our women’s team placed third that day. We all have put in a lot of effort over the past few months and it is great to see it pay off,” Senior Captain Marian Lund said.
The skiers opened the month at the Minnesota College Championships. They spent the middle part of the month at two different NCAA Qualifiers, before traveling to Michigan for the CCSA Championships to finish off their J-term. This weekend the teams will compete at the NCAA Central Region Championships in Michigan.
“This season was a good one for the women’s nordic team. We are always a close-knit team and this season we had a lot of great bonding opportunities doing ski camps, traveling, and through practice everyday. We had some good racing weekends this winter with some of the women placing higher than they ever have before,” Junior Megan Allen said.
The women’s basketball team got off to a rocky start during J-term, losing their first three games of the month. The women snapped their losing skid with a win over Carleton College on Alumni Day, with their highest scoring performance of the season.
The Gusties fell to St. Thomas and Saint Mary’s, before going on to win their games against St. Catherine University and Hamline University.
The Cobbers served the Gusties their last loss of the season, when the Gusties travelled to Moorhead to take on Concordia College.
Returning home, the Gusties started off their five-game win-streak with a victory over Augsburg College. The Gusties finished off the month on a high note, winning five in a row, putting them in sixth place in the conference.The women are holding out hope that their strong finish to the month of January will propel them into a MIAC playoff appearance.
“January was a fun time for the team. We started off a bit slow but by the end of the month we had really started to click and play some great basketball. We had some great wins, which was important as we approach the final stretch of the season and hopefully playoffs,” Senior Captain Julia Dysthe said.
Track and Field kicked off the competitive portion of the indoor part of their season during J-term with a meet at St. Olaf and a meet at Mankato State University.
The Gusties took first place out of three teams at the St. Olaf Invitational, beating both Bethel University and the host, St. Olaf College.
The team then went to Mankato where they competed against DII schools such as Augustana College, St. Cloud State University, and Mankato State University. Team scores weren’t kept at the MSU Ted Nelson Classic.
Individually, Senior Cameron Clause won the pole vault and Sophomore Sarah Swanson won the shot put. First-year Thomas Knobbe (pictured front right) took first in the 3,000 meter run, which was filled with Gustavus runners.
On Saturday the track and field team will travel to Northfield to compete at Carleton in the Meet of Hearts. Different from the previous meet at MSU, the Gusties will face MIAC schools at this weekend’s meet.
The women’s hockey team continued their strong season throughout J-term, going 7-3-0 during the month. The women are ranked ninth in the nation, are currently in second place in the conference, and have qualified for the MIAC playoffs.
The Gusties opened the month with a loss to non-conference opponent UW-Stevens Point in the first game of the series, but the women managed to split the series with a win the next day.
From there, the women went on a five-game win-streak, winning the second game against UW-Stevens Point and then sweeping their series against conference-foes Augsburg College and Saint Mary’s University.
Heading into the final weekend of J-term, the wome remained unbeaten in conference play. The team was in familiar territory, as they were unbeaten in conference play last season as well.
The Gusties’ perfect conference record wouldn’t make it to the end of the season this year, however, as it was broken in the final weekend of J-term by the College of Saint Benedict, as the Blazers upset the Gusties and swept the series.
The women landed on their feet and finished off the month with a sweep against St. Catherine University during Touring Week.
Throughout the month all the women on the team worked together to score goals and beat the other teams. Sophomore Allison Eder-Zdechlik has added to the team’s goal total, scoring 16 goals this season, eight of which were scored during J-term.
On Friday, Feb. 14 and Saturday, Feb. 15 the women will face conference-leader St. Thomas as the two teams battle for the conference title.