University of St. Thomas Athletics
JoAnn Andregg Invitational
Women's Swim-Dive has 11-top-2 places in home meet
11/14/2021 10:21:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Saturday Dive results
Friday Swim results
Friday Dive results
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St.. Thomas Swim-Dive hosted the Minnesota State men and women and the St. Cloud women in the two-day Jo Ann Andregg Invite competition Friday and Saturday at Anderson Pool.
The Tommie women won eight events while the St. Thomas men won seven,
The women's team race was tight as St. Cloud State (681) edged Minnesota State (675) and St. Thomas (593). On the men's side, St. Cloud State (787) outscored the Tommies (680).
Women's winners were:
- The 200 Medley Relay with Carly Wolf, Grace Urkiel, Anna Astrup and Skyler Leverenz;
- The 200 Free Relay with Leverenz, Taylor Rau, Megan West and Bonneville
- The 400 Free Relay with Leverenz, Astrup, West and Bonneville;
- The 800 Free Relay with Leverenz, Bonneville, Abby Larson and Astrup
- Bonneville in the 200 Free, 100 Free and 500 Free;
- Leverenz in the 200 IM
Women's runners-up were:
- Urkiel in the 400 IM;
- Astrup in the 200 Back;
- Leverenz in the 100 Free;
Men's winners were:
- Joe Rudd in the 200 and 400 IM and 200 Breaststroke;
- Will Goldman in the 100 Breaststroke;
- Michael Scripp in the 200 Fly;
- AJ Carollo in the 100 Fly;
- Andrew Godfrey in One- and Three-Meter Diving
Men runners-up were:
- The 200 Medley Relay with Carollo, Goldman, Luke Ridler and Alex Foti;
- The 400 Free Relay with Foti, Evan Schroeder, Carollo and Garrett Riley;
- The 800 Free Relay with Foti, Andrew Akermann, Carollo and Schroeder
- Blake Baertlein in the 50 Free, 200 Free and 200 IM;
- Foti in the 100 Free
The Back Story
A capacity crowd at the AARC enjoyed the warmth and humidity of the pool area while being treated to the first home meet in five weeks. Tommie Swim-Dive teams brought incredible energy to the JoAnn Andregg Invite – a decade-long Tommie favorite meet.
The meet started fast and stayed fast as two themes resonated throughout the weekend – the process of improvement that Coach Blanchard talks about is working, and the relay teams seem to have a winning formula figured out.
The St. Thomas crowd was brought to its feet during the very first race as the women's 200 freestyle relay hit the pool. It was a back-and-forth sprint against the swimmers from St. Cloud State, each team taking its turn inching ahead of the other. On the final leg, first-year Elizabeth Bonneville hit the water with a 0.4 second deficit and found a way to pull out the win by 0.05 seconds with the fastest leg of the event. The crowd had no time to sit down as the men's team executed an amazing come-from-behind victory in their 200 freestyle relay. St. Cloud State took the lead early after an amazing 50 swim from its star sprinter, but the "Refuse to Lose" attitude of UST took over, as swimmers AJ Carollo and Evan Schroeder got UST close enough to allow senior Garrett Riley to bring home the victory in a blistering final 50.
When commenting on the meet, Coach Blanchard said, "One thing I was really excited about was the energy that came with being back home. It's been five weeks since we competed here, and it was fun for us to be back in our home pool." That energy showed up specifically in the relay events as the Tommie women won every relay race of the weekend with a very clear formula for success. The first swimmer gets the lead, the second swimmer extends the lead, the third swimmer extends the lead further, and the fourth swimmer brings it home strong. A simple strategy but not easy to execute; however, that's exactly what the women's team did the entire weekend.
In the diving well, Andrew Godfrey won both the three-meter and the one-meter events to cap a solid weekend for the divers. Peyton Ekman, the school's current record holder for points on the three-meter board, continued her steady progress this season while improving on her best scores, finishing third in both events.
Newcomers Impress
The process that Coach Blanchard stresses of improving the smallest parts of the races to improve the overall success appears to be working. Two swimmers, in particular, stood out this weekend. First-year swimmers Elizabeth Bonneville and Joe Rudd.
Bonneville won every individual race in which she was entered and was a part of three winning relays this weekend. Using a strong, metronomic style, she took the early lead in every race and never relinquished it. A good example of her consistency was in the 200 freestyle. Bonneville was one second ahead after the first 50 yards, two seconds ahead after 100, three seconds ahead after the 150 mark, and finished four seconds ahead of her competition. Coach Blanchard commented on Bonneville's performance, "She swam great this weekend. She made some big adjustments in some of her races and had some spectacular results because of it. I'm hoping she continues to build on those results."
Joe Rudd used a different strategy in winning both of the men's Individual Medley races. He kept the race close until the third leg, which is the breaststroke, where he really opened up the lead. In the 200 IM, Rudd dropped 1.62 seconds from his seed time, and he dropped a whopping 13.27 seconds from his seed time in the 400 IM.
When asked about the goals for the rest of 2021, Coach Blanchard said, "We want to continue to clean up our race strategies headed into mid-season in Rochester, and I think we'll do just that. We'll rest a bit going into that meet, and hopefully, we'll have some really great swims."
The Tommies' final meet for the 2021 portion of the schedule is the St. Cloud State Invite in Rochester, Minn., starting on Dec. 3.
Players Mentioned
