University of St. Thomas Athletics
Minnesota
Swim-Dive has positive day in road loss to Gophers
10/30/2021 9:50:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Meet Results
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Minnesota flexed its muscle in the pool Saturday winning each event en route to dual-meet victories over the Tommie women and men at the Gophers' on-campus aquatic center.
St. Thomas had nine top-3 individual placings for the women, led by Anna Astrup (100 Fly), freshman Ellie Sizemore (500 Free) and freshman Elizabeth Bonneville (400 IM) with second-place showings.
The Tommie men had eight top-3 placings led by freshman Alex Foti, runner-up in the 500 Free. Other runners-up for the men were Julien Yung (400 IM) and freshman Michael Scripp (100 Fly).
The Back Story
A sea of Purple showed up at the Dorothy L. Sheppard Pool at the University of Minnesota a day before Halloween. Along with the usual group of parents, there were alumni who showed up in droves. A few were even wearing costumes -- unless Harry Potter really did show up to watch the meet between Minnesota's two Division I universities.
The deep and dynamic University of Minnesota teams won the team count by wide margins, but it was another fun opportunity for the Tommies' new D-I teams. The Tommie men fell 228-63, while the women also came up on the short end, 222-75.
Coach Scott Blanchard was quick to mention that the results he was looking for were not going to show up on the scoreboard. "We really weren't concerned about the scoreboard today. We were concerned with swimming with a lot of pride in the Tommie Family and ourselves. We just wanted to race and see what we had in the tanks today."
This was one of the meets where some swimmers swam "off" events. There were distance swimmers in sprint races, and butterfliers swimming backstroke. However, no swimmers decided to try diving, which would have made the meet ridiculously interesting.
Coach Blanchard commented, "There were a lot of races tonight where we needed to see times that we haven't had a chance to see yet this season. So I gave the kids a chance to pick an event on their own, which makes for a fun atmosphere."
Several swimmers continued to show improvement today as the season progresses. The highlight again was Alex Foti, as he swam 4:45.24 in the 500 freestyle, breaking his own school record. In addition, the following swimmers swam their best times of the season thus far:
- · Skyler Leverenz - 200 freestyle
- · Zach Upham - 100 backstroke
- · Will Goldman - 100 breaststroke
- · Joe Rudd - 100 breaststroke
- · Julia Guptail – 50 freestyle
- · Garrett Riley – 50 freestyle
- · 1M Dive – Peyton Ekman
- · 3M Dive – Andrew Godfrey
- · 3M Dive – Allison An
- · Taylor Rau – 200 breaststroke
- · Grace Urkiel – 200 breaststroke
- · Abbey Cornelius – 500 freestyle
- · Anna Astrup – 100 butterfly
- · Michael Scripp – 100 butterfly
- · Andrew Akermann – 100 butterfly
Coach Blanchard summarized the meet this way, "We have process goals for each athlete. We take bits and pieces of races and race plans and work on them throughout the season. We really want to see that progression from one meet to the next. I was happy with what I saw today."
The Tommies' next competition is next Friday in Vermillion, S.D., in the USD Coyote Extravaganza meet.
Players Mentioned
