MIAC Release

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Saint John's junior Brayden Slavik (Green Isle, Minn./Chaska) and junior Cody Watts (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) were named the MIAC Men's Swimming and Diving Athletes of the Week, respectively, on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

The weekly honor is Slavik's sixth of the season (third-consecutive) and 12th of his career, while Watts' award is his fourth of the season and sixth of his three-year career.

Slavik won three events for the second-straight week, including a pool-record time of 16:10.20 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, in the Johnnies' 157-143 home win over Carleton on Saturday (Jan. 24). The previous pool record was 16:23.13 set by St. Olaf's Ryan Palmer in 2000. Slavik was also first in the 200-yard backstroke (1:56.32) and 200-yard individual medley (1:57.65). He was also the final leg of the Johnnies' first-place, 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:26.91. 

Watts, meanwhile, topped the reigning MIAC Men's Diving Athlete of the Week and last season's MIAC Diver of the Year, the Knights' Hans Anderson, to win the 1- (273.70) and 3-meter (238.65) dives.

The Johnnies return to the pool in two weeks with two events. SJU competes at the two-day First Chance Meet hosted by Division I Minnesota on Friday-Saturday, Feb. 6-7, at the Jean Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, while the divers travel further south for the Dodd Road Diving Invitational on Feb. 7 at Carleton in Northfield.