Saint John's swimming and diving opens the 2024-25 season with a pair of dual meets against Minnesota-Morris this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18-19. Friday's competition begins at 5 p.m. in Morris, followed by a 1 p.m. start on Saturday at the Warner Palaestra Pool in Collegeville. – Live Video (Saturday)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, starting at 5 p.m.
-400 Medley Relay
-500 Free
-50 Free
-400 IM
-1-Meter Dive (6)
-100 Fly
-100 Free
-100 Back
-200 Free
-3-Meter Dive (6)
-100 Breast
-400 Free Relay

Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.
-200 Medley Relay
-1,000 Free
-50 Free
-200 IM
-3-Meter Dive
-200 Fly
-100 Free
-200 Back
-200 Free
-1-Meter Dive
-200 Breast
-200 Free Relay

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: It had been over 20 years since the Saint John's University swimming and diving team had as many individual conference championships as it did a year ago.

The Johnnies claimed five MIAC crowns in all in 2023-24, the most since 2003. SJU placed third out of six teams – marking the program's fourth-straight top three finish at the conference meet.

And with 89 percent (566 or 635) of the points earned in that competition – including eight All-MIAC performers – returning, optimism is running high inside the pool at Warner Palaestra.

Diving Prowess
A three-time MIAC Diver of the Year and four-time MIAC champion, senior Eli Grabinski (Sauk Rapids, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice) returns for his fourth and final season. He is a four-time MIAC champion – winning three times in the 3-meter dive (including in 2024) and once on the 1-meter board – and a six-time All-MIAC honoree. Grabinski qualified for the NCAA Regional for the third-straight season and just missed one of the six bids to the NCAA Championships. He took fourth in the 1-meter dive and sixth in the 3-meter. Grabinski placed seventh on both boards at the 2023 NCAA Regional.

A Pair With a Pair of Titles
A pair of Johnnies, senior Carter Larson (Sartell, Minn./Sartell-St. Stephen) and junior Brayden Slavik (Green Isle, Minn./Chaska), each won two individual MIAC championships in 2024. Larson won the MIAC title in both the 100- (45.90) and 200-yard (1:39.82) freestyles and is a 10-time All-MIAC honoree. He led SJU with five All-MIAC honors last season and broke his own program record to win the MIAC title in the 200 Free, missing the NCAA B-cut time by just 0:00.11 of a second. The conference championship was SJU's first in the event since 1980. Larson set four SJU freshman records in 2021-22.

Slavik, meanwhile, won the 400-yard individual medley (4:03.98) and 1,650-yard freestyle (15:48.67) and totaled four All-MIAC honors at the meet. He broke his own school record in the 1,650 Free by 31 seconds (15:48.67) and set two other program records in the 500 Free (4:32.97) and 1,000 Free (9:30.45) last season. The time of 4:03.98 to win the conference title in the 400 IM was second-fastest in SJU history for Slavik, who broke three of Larson's SJU freshman records in 2022-23 (500 Free, 1,000 Free and 1,650 Free).

Double-Digit All-MIAC
Two Johnnie seniors, Liam Noble (Plymouth, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret's) and Colby Kern (Delano, Minn.), have combined for 26 All-MIAC performances in their first three seasons at SJU. Noble has 15 (nine on relays and six individual), thanks to five as a freshman in 2022, a team-best six in 2023 and four more last season. The crowning achievement of the top-three finishes was his first MIAC title with a time of 51.0 seconds flat in the 100-yard backstroke in 2023. The result came hours after he took first in the event's prelim with a school-record time of 50.77 seconds. He touts the program's second-fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle (20.61) and is fourth in the 100 (45.68).

Kern finished second at the MIAC Championships behind Larson in the 200-yard freestyle with the fourth-fastest time in program history (1:42.53). He also touched the wall sixth in the 100-yard freestyle (46.74) and raced in the 200-yard individual medley's B final last spring. All told, Kern is an 11-time All-MIAC honoree, has the fourth-fastest time in the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.53) and is a member of two SJU record relays, the 200-yard freestyle (1:22.31 in 2023) and 800-yard freestyle (6:48.30 in 2023).

Upperclassman Leadership
Seven returning upperclassmen combined for 140 individual points for SJU last season. The 2022-23 MIAC Men's Co-Rookie of the Year, junior Carsten Reuter (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) was All-MIAC in four events at his first conference meet in 2022-23 and added two more as a member of SJU's second-place 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays last season. Individually, he placed fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, won the 100-yard freestyle's B final and took 15th in the 100-yard butterfly.

Junior Clay Megaw (Monticello, Minn.) finished seventh at the 2024 conference meet in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes with the events' fourth-fastest times in SJU history. He recorded the second-fastest times by an SJU freshman in both events at the 2023 MIAC Championships.  

Senior Connor Thayer (Prior Lake, Minn.) just missed All-MIAC honors in fourth place in the 1,650-yard freestyle and touched the wall seventh in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. He served as the second leg of SJU's second-place 800-yard freestyle relay, which recorded the second-fastest time in school history (6:50.32).

Junior Tim Rotter (Blaine, Minn.) placed seventh in the 3-meter dive and eighth in the 1-meter board, while senior Langston Philion (Maple Grove, Minn.) served as SJU's butterfly specialist last season, claiming seventh in the 200-yard event and ninth in the 100-yard version. Philion also took 13th in the 400-yard individual medley.

Two Johnnies registered points in all three of their B finals. Junior Andrew Roggeman (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) finished 11th in the 200-yard backstroke, 12th in the 100-yard backstroke and 16th in the 200-yard individual medley, while senior Zach Ruoff (Melrose, Minn./Melrose Area) was 13th in the 50-yard freestyle, 15th in the 100-yard freestyle and 16th in the 200-yard freestyle.

Freshman Points
A pair of sophomores scored points for SJU at the MIAC Championships as freshmen in 2024. Cody Watts (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) reached the podium in third place in the 1-meter dive and cracked SJU's top five in all four diving categories for a freshman: third in the 1-meter (six dives, 249.20); fourth in the 1-meter (11 dives, 419.50); and fifth in the 3-meter, both in the 6- (220.50) and 11-dive (383.85) competitions. Simon Nyangamoi (Harrisburg, S.D.) claimed ninth in the 200-yard backstroke, 11th in the 100-yard backstroke and 14th in the 200-yard individual medley.

SJU's 2024-25 Schedule
The Johnnies open the season with four-consecutive dual meets, including two dates in the Warner Palaestra Pool: the second day against Minnesota-Morris (Oct. 19) and St. Olaf (Nov. 2). SJU travels for three-straight road trips – Gustavus Adolphus Invitational (Nov. 23), Rochester Invitational (Dec. 5-7) and Luther (Iowa) Invitational (Jan. 11) – before hosting Division II St. Cloud State for a dual on Jan. 18. The team visits Carleton Jan. 25 and hosts Gustavus Feb. 1 for its home finale. Two more road meets, including a diving invitational, lead up to the 2025 MIAC Championships on Feb. 19-22 at the University of Minnesota's Jean Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. 

The 2025 NCAA Division III Championships are scheduled for March 19-22 in Greensboro, N.C. for the third season in a row.