Saint John's swimming and diving returns to competition with a pair of duals this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28-29. The Johnnies host Division II St. Cloud State (swimming only) at 5 p.m. Friday at the Warner Palaestra Pool in Collegeville and visit Macalester (swimming and diving) at 1 p.m. Saturday in St. Paul.

LIVE COVERAGE
-Saturday at Macalester: Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's opened its 2022-23 season back on Oct. 15 at the St. Catherine Pentathlon in St. Paul. Each swimmer competed in a 100-yard version of each of the five strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle and individual medley. The 22 Johnnies were joined competitively by two student-athletes from Hamline on the men's side.

Freshman Brayden Slavik (Green Isle, Minn./Chaska) led the 24-man field with 82 points in his first collegiate meet. Sophomores Colby Kern (Delano, Minn.) and Liam Noble (Plymouth, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret's) tied for second with 68 points and senior Ethan Huber (Mitchell, S.D.) was close behind in fourth with 66.

Slavik finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.67, 0.64 of a second behind Hamline's George Hubbard, and 1.08 ahead of Noble. Slavik also touched the wall second (56.52) - 0.03 of a second behind Hubbard - in the 100-yard individual medley.

Noble won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 55.28 seconds and sophomore Carter Larson (Sartell, Minn./Sartell-St. Stephen) claimed second in the 100-yard freestyle (49.43), 0.12 of a second ahead of Slavik in third.

A pair of freshmen, Ren Kitko (Papillion, Neb./Creighton Prep) and Clay Megaw (Monticello, Minn.), went 1 (1:02.29)-2 (1:02.83) in the 100-yard breaststroke.

MIAC SWIMMER OF THE WEEK: Slavik's collegiate debut garnered him MIAC Men's Swimming Athlete of the Week honors Oct. 18. 

LAST FALL'S LOSS: SJU suffered a 175-100 loss to St. Cloud State the last time these two teams met on Jan. 20 in the Halenbeck Hall Pool. The Johnnies recorded 34 top-five marks/times, including 17 in the top three.

Senior Joe Koller (Savage, Minn./Shakopee) touched the wall second in the 100-yard backstroke (54.43) and third in the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.35).

Senior Beau Brinkman (Wayzata, Minn.) placed second in the 50-yard freestyle (22.35) and third (2:07.29), behind junior Alex Heer (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) in second (2:06.14), in the 200-yard backstroke.

Larson claimed second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.39) and third in the 500-yard freestyle (5:02.08), while Kern finished second in the 100-yard freestyle (49.55).

Huber was second in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.14) and third in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:20.39), and sophomore Langston Philion (Maple Grove, Minn.) claimed third in the 100- (56.32) and 200-yard butterfly (2:06.86).

In the diving events, sophomore Eli Grabinski (Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice) led SJU by taking third on both the 1- (240.45) and 3-meter (216.25) boards.

The Johnnies' 200-yard freestyle relay (Kern, Noble, Larson, Brinkman) finished second (1:27.30) and the 200-yard medley relay (Koller, Dylan Fleischhacker, Kern, Noble) was third (1:38.85).

LAST YEAR'S WIN: The Johnnies posted a 187-91 victory over Macalester over a two-day dual last Oct. 29-30 (2021). SJU hosted swimming events that Friday and wrapped the dual the following day with diving events in St. Paul. The winning squad compiled 20 top-two finishes and won 12 of the 14 events. 

Three Johnnies, all freshmen at the time, won multiple events:

-Kern in the 50-yard freestyle (22.18) and 100-yard butterfly (54.29);
-Connor Thayer (Prior Lake, Minn.) in the 500- (5:09.25) and 1,000-yard (10:47.37) freestyles; 
-Larson in the 100- (48.82) and 200-yard (1:47.63) freestyles. 

Spencer Atkinson '22 touched the wall first in the 200-yard backstroke (2:08.74) and Heer placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (56.10). Philion won the 200-yard butterfly (2:04.42) and claimed second in the 500-yard freestyle (5:15.04).
  
Three Johnnie divers competed uncontested. Senior Jack Grabinski (Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice) won the 1-meter dive (255.40) and senior Christian Pfau (Williston, N.D.) took first on the 3-meter board (205.40).  

SJU's 400-yard medley relay (Huber, Andrew East, Atkinson, Travis Teeter) finished second (3:47.90) by 0:00.05.