St. Olaf Swim and Dive had a busy four days at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), Swim and Dive Championships, which were held Feb. 19-22. Women’s Swim and Dive finished third overall, while Men’s Swim and Dive finished fifth, and there were plenty of All-MIAC honors on both teams. Here’s a day-by-day recap of the MIAC Championships.
Wednesday, 2/19. Primarily a relay day, the 200-yard medley women’s relay team of Olivia Small ’28, Samantha Sylvester ’27, Ellen Varley ’25, and Katie Homme ’27 finished third. Additionally, the men’s 200-yard-medley relay and women’s 800-yard-medley relay finished fourth in their races.
Thursday, 2/20. In her first MIAC Championships, Homme found herself atop the podium after winning the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.92.
“It’s exciting … just [to] be able to contribute to the team,” said Homme in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
Thursday also had multiple second-place finishes for the Oles: Paige Steenblock ’26 in the women’s 200-yard individual medley, Nick Starcevich ’26 in the men’s 50-yard freestyle, and women’s 400-yard medley relay team of Steenblock, Varley, Small, and McKenna Hultgren ’28.
Friday, 2/21. It was now Steenblock’s turn to stand atop the podium, finishing first in the women’s 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:27.67, nearly seven seconds ahead of second place. Small continued her excellent MIACs with a second place finish in the women’s 100-yard backstroke. Marcus Hauck ’24 and Varley both finished third in their respective events. To round out the night, both the men’s and women’s 200-yard freestyle relay teams finished in third.
Saturday, 2/22. Small refused to be kept off of the podium, winning the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:03.78. Steenblock added her second win of the championships in the 200-yard butterfly, and so too did Homme, winning the 100-yard freestyle.
“The 100 is my favorite event, and I wanted to leave it all out there in the pool,” said Homme.
Travis Elling ’28 finished third in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle, Starcevich finished runner-up in the 100-yard freestyle, and the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay team, consisting of Starcevich, William Wallace ’26, Jack Homme ’27, and Dobbin Chong ’28, finished second.
Daniel Cameron ’28, Sawyer Eastman ’28, Zibby Hanifl ’26, Erica Johnson ’28, McKelvey McDaniel ’28, Mitch Thronson ’28, and Aiden Yung ’26 also received All-MIAC honors throughout the MIAC Championships.
