ST. JOSEPH, MINN. – With one meet in the books, the College of St. Benedict Swim and Diving Team will have a busy weekend ahead with a pair of competitions on the schedule. St. Ben's will host St. Cloud State at 5 pm on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Warner Palaestra Pool in Collegeville, Minn. Then, the Bennies head to St. Paul, Minn., where they will compete with Macalester College at 1 pm on Saturday, Oct. 1.
CSB opened the season on Saturday, Oct. 15 at the St. Kate's Pentathlon. In kicking off the season, just the swim members of the team competed in a five-event pentathlon, including participation in the 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 100 IM events. Scoring was for the top 16 in each event.
CSB, which is coming off its best finish (5th place) in the MIAC since 2012, had a solid performance in the opener, noted CSB Head Coach
Mandy Wolvert.
"The Bennie Swimmers did a fantastic job at going after every race. They each swam five individual events in less than two hours, and they proved to themselves just how strong they are! I look forward to more great races in the coming weeks," said Wolvert after the St. Kate's meet.
Smutka had four top-six finishes in the five events to finish fifth in overall points with 60. First year standout
Rachel Schlueter scored in four events and ranked eighth with 31 points while Johanson was 13
th with 28 total points. Sitzman was 18
th with 11 points with
Emi Wagner, 22
nd with nine points and
Mads Slavik, 23
rd with seven points.
Here is a breakdown of the events (results of top 16) –
100 Butterfly –
Lindsay Smutka, 5
th, 1:02.84;
Rachel Schlueter, 12
th, 1:04.73;
Mads Slavik, 13
th, 1:05.28; and
Molly Johanson, 15
th, 1;05.70
100 Breaststroke --
Molly Johanson, 8
th, 1:14.21;
Lindsay Smutka, 12
th, 1:15.40;
Emi Wagner, 14
th, 1:15.61;
Megan Bartels, 15
th, 1:15.87;
Liz Hansen, 16
th, 1:16.02
100 Backstroke –
Lindsay Smutka, 5
th, 1:02.73;
Lauren Sitzman, 8
th, 1:04.91;
Rachel Schlueter, 9
th, 1:05.24;
Mads Slavik, 13
th, 1:06.75; and
Molly Johanson, 15
th, 1:07.60.
100 Freestyle –
Lindsay Smutka, 6
th, 57.15;
Rachel Schlueter, 7
th, 57.20;
Emi Wagner, 11
th, 58.31; and
Hannah Tatge, 14
th, 58.82
100 IM –
Lindsay Smutka, 5
th, 1:05.39;
Molly Johanson, 6
th, 1:05.76; and
Rachel Schlueter, 11
th, 1:07.19
Mandy Wolvert begins 4th season at CSB
Mandy Wolvert enters in her fourth season as head coach in 2022-23. Along with three seasons as the team's head coach, Wolvert also has six seasons as the team's assistant under her belt. She served as an assistant from 2012-15 and then again from 2016-19. As an assistant, Wolvert helped coach the team to four All-MIAC honors in 2018-19 - the most for the program since 2012-13. In her first three seasons as assistant coach, Saint Benedict finished in the top five each year at the MIAC Championships, including fourth-place finishes in 2013 and 2014. Wolvert is a 2000 graduate of St. Cloud State where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in mass communications. She also swam for the Huskies for three years from 1996-99.
