Annual Jackrabbit Intrasquad kicks off swimming season

By ROBERT MYERS Sportswriter

 

 Friday, Oct. 4, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams kicked off their season with their annual Jackrabbit Intrasquad meet at the HPER Center Pool.

The meet itself was informal and intended to be fun for the athletes, a theme that head coach Brad Erickson preached throughout the entirety of the meet. Before and after the meet he addressed his team regarding the theme.

“We were going to have some fun today, and we were going to have some good swims,” Erickson said. “We had some good swims; we had some good surprises and now can get back as one unified team.”

The overall impression from the meet was a positive one, leaving Erickson very optimistic about the season ahead. 

“[Assistant coach] Phil [Hurley] and I were pleased with most everybody’s swims,” Erickson said. “There were some things that were really surprising for us. I’m not going to single anybody out … But like I said we did have some things that kind of opened our eyes and made us smile.”

The Jackrabbits have lofty expectations for the season as they hope to finish second, behind very talented University of Denver teams, in the Summit League. The Jacks men were ranked second in the Summit League’s preseason poll and the women fourth, but Erickson believes the women can exceed those expectations. 

“We put team goals for both teams to finish second,” Erickson said. “It’s just a coaches’ poll and I think a lot of times coaches look at what teams did the year before and just kind of plug them in there. Like I said, I told that to our women – that our goal is not to finish fourth. We weren’t happy with that place last year because we’ve been second for three years before that, three years in a row. So, our goal on the women’s team is to finish behind Denver, and then the same thing on the men’s is to retain that second place.”

The men’s and women’s squads were each split into a Blue team and a Yellow team a contest in which both Blue teams won. 

The event winners on the women’s side were Blue SD – Mikayla Mayer, Emily Campbell, Nicole Grimit, and Kaylin Caron (200 Yard Medley Relay – 1:51.80), Andee Budahl (1000 Yard Freestyle – 10:46.31), Julia Bodnaruk (200 Yard Freestyle – 1:58.73), McKenna Shallberg (100 Yard Backstroke – 1:01.27), Emily Campbell (100 Yard Breaststroke – 1:07.86), Emma Wright (200 Yard Butterfly 2:14.77), Devonne Dalin (50 Yard Freestyle – 25.09), Olivia Olesiak (1 Meter Diving – 226.58), Devonne Dalin (100 Yard Freestyle – 54.86), Elizabeth Buckholz (200 Yard Backstroke – 2:16.65), Emily Campbell (200 Yard Breaststroke – 2:24.13), Andee Budahl (500 Yard Freestyle – 5:18.98), Devonne Dalin (100 Yard Butterfly – 1:00.54), Olivia Olesiak (3 Meter Diving – 250.58), Emily Campbell (200 Yard IM – 2:13.91), and Blue SD – Abby Zenner, Mikayla Mayer, Julia Bodnaruk, and Kaylin Caron (200 Yard Freestyle Relay – 1:41.92).

Winners on the men’s side were Blue SD – Alex McLain, John Overman, Tony Mikrut, and Cody Hoyes (200 Yard IM Relay – 1:37.33), Matthew Carpenter (1000 Yard Freestyle – 10:01.86), Geoffrey Longhurst (200 Yard Freestyle – 1:44.65), Phil Albu (100 Yard Backstroke – 52.65), John Overman (100 Yard Breaststroke – 1:00.90), Tony Mikrut (200 Yard Butterfly – 2:02.86), Cody Hoyes (50 Yard Freestyle – 22.60), Clark Kocourek (1 Meter Diving – 288.98), Garth Wadsworth (100 Yard Freestyle – 49.08), Alex McLain (200 Yard Backstroke – 1:58.62), John Overman (200 Yard Breaststroke – 2:18.52), Geoffrey Longhurst (500 Yard Freestyle – 4:56.03), Tony Mikrut (100 Yard Butterfly – 53.32), Clark Kocourek (3 Meter Diving – 245.71), Alex McLain (200 Yard IM – 2:03.39), and Blue SD – Tony Mikrut, Cody Hoyes, Geoffrey Longhurst, and Matthew Carpenter ( 200 Yard Freestyle Relay – 1:29.51).

The Jackrabbits will face their first external competition of the year on Saturday, Oct. 12 when the men’s and women’s teams travel to the University of North Dakota to face North Dakota and St. Cloud