Day 3 Finals | Day 3 Prelims

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – If Thursday was any indication, it seems that the first two days of the MIAC Championships were just warm-ups for the College of Saint Benedict swim and dive team.
 
The Bennies finished the third day of the conference meet with three All-MIAC honors, three more All-MIAC Honorable Mention finishes, another school record and six other times in the top 10 in program history in Thursday's finals at the Jean Freeman Aquatic Center on the U of M campus.
 
As a team, the Bennies are in fourth with one day left to go. CSB has 216.5 points and is 37 points ahead of Carleton, which is in fourth with 179.5 points. St. Kate's leads the team race with 433, Gustavus is second with 333 points and St. Olaf rounds out the top three with 288 points.
 
Sophomore Lindsay Smutka led the way for the Bennies Thursday night, finishing second in the 100 backstroke in 58.16 seconds – the second-fastest time in program history and a career-best time by nearly seven-tenths of a second. Her runner-up finish is the best for the Bennies since 2018-19, and earns her a spot on the All-MIAC team.
 
Junior Fiona Rosko also earned All-MIAC accolades thanks to a third-place finish in the 400 IM. After swimming a career-best times in the prelims, she took two seconds off that time and took third in 4:39.21 – the second-fastest time in program history. Teammate Molly Johanson was literally right behind her in fourth in 4:39.26 – a four-second personal-best and the third-fastest time in CSB history.
 
Senior Ana Birklid set her second school record of the meet Thursday night – this time in the 200 free. After swimming a PR in the morning, she dropped nearly six-tenths of a second Thursday night to finish fourth in 1:54.05 to break the 23-year-old school record of 1:54.40, set in 1999 by All-American Gretchen Weber. Birklid earned All-MIAC Honorable Mention in the event.
 
Birklid also earned All-MIAC honors with the 200 free relay team. The foursome of Jessica Milstroh, Jocie Larson, Birklid and Emi Wagner finished third in 1:36.93 – the second-fastest time in school history. Their third-place finish marked the Bennies' first All-MIAC relay team since 2011-12.
 
Milstroh finished the night with two lifetime bests and two top-10 times in CSB history. First she took ninth in the 100 fly in 59.55 seconds – just the second time she's broken one minute in the event, a half-second PR and the fourth-best time in CSB history. Later, she took fifth in the 100 breaststroke to earn All-MIAC Honorable Mention. She finished in 1:08.14 – another half-second career-best and the eighth-best time in CSB history.
 
 
 
Madison Slavik also finished 11^th in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.16. Hannah Tatge took 12^th in the 200 free in a career-best time of 2:01.90, and Maria Beck finished 13^th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.60. Laura Jennings finished with a PR in the 100 fly as she took 15^th in 1:01.84.
 
Personal-bests and season-bests fell in Friday morning's prelims as well. Rosko started the day for the Bennies with a personal-best time in the 400 IM, finishing third in the prelims in 4:41.76, the sixth-best time in program history. Johanson finished the morning season with a season-best time of 4:44.18, good for fifth. Friday marked the first time since 2010 that the Bennies had two top-eight finishers in the 400 IM.
 
Milstroh just missed a career-best time – and a spot in the championship finals – in the 100 fly prelims. She took ninth in 1:00.18. Jennings finished 16^th with a career-best time of 1:02.28, and Jocie Larson finished 19^th in 1:02.57, a two-second personal-best.
 
Birklid continued her impressive conference meet with another career-best time in Friday's morning session in the 200 free. She finished fourth in prelims in 1:54.63, the third-best time in CSB history. Tatge took 15^th in 2:03.14 – a three-second career-best time. Riley Engle also swam a career-best time and finished 22^nd in 2:05.56. Senior Izzy Sonday took 24^th in 2:06.46, Morgan Gerhardt took 26^th in 2:08.87 and Hayley Davison finished 33^rd in 2:21.07 – all season-best times.
 
After finishing ninth in the 100 fly prelims, Milstroh came back and earned herself a spot in the 100 breaststroke championship finals thanks to a sixth-place finish and a half-second personal-best time. She finished in 1:08.54, the ninth-best time in CSB history. Beck recorded a one-second PR of 1:11.13 and finished 13^th, and Emi Wagner just missed a spot in the finals as she took 18^th in 1:14.43.
 
Smutka made the biggest jump up the CSB leaderboard in the prelims as she finished 4^th in the 100 backstroke in 58.91 seconds – a career-best by nearly two seconds and the second-best time in program history. Slavik took ninth in 1:00.15 and seniors Nicole Lefebvre and Jordan Anderson both recorded career-bests in their final 100 back race of their careers. Lefebvre took 23^rd in 1:06.03 and Anderson 24^th in 1:07.76.
 
The fourth and final day of the MIAC Championships starts with prelims at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 19. The mile prelims start at 2:30 p.m., and finals for all events start at 6:30 p.m.