MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's swimming and diving team completed its first runner-up finish in 14 years and the men finished fifth as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships concluded on Saturday at Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
Senior
William Wallace recorded St. Olaf's lone event victory on the final day of the meet by winning the 100-yard freestyle, while sophomores
Olivia Small and
McKenna Hultgren posted runner-up finishes in the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly, respectively. The St. Olaf women finished second in the nine-team field with 631.50 points, while the men were fifth with 426 points.
Wallace became the first Ole to win the men's 100-yard freestyle since 2014 and the first event champion for St. Olaf since 2020 by winning the 100-yard freestyle in 45.26 seconds. The senior's time was nearly one second ahead of the second-place finisher as Wallace collected his second All-MIAC accolade in the event after finishing as the runner-up in 2024.
Senior
Aiden Yung added a runner-up finish in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:05.80) for his first all-conference accolade in the event after finishing fourth a year ago. Senior
Nick Starcevich and sophomore
Travis Elling recorded sixth-place finishes in the 100-yard freestyle (47.01) and 1,650-yard freestyle (17:08.58), respectively, to earn Honorable Mention All-MIAC honors.
Small finished second in the 200-yard backstroke (2:04.71) to land All-MIAC honors for the second season in a row after winning the event as a first year, while Hultgren was second in the 200-yard butterfly (2:09.65) to move up from third last year. First year
Lena Minetto joined Small in the top five in the 200-yard backstroke in fifth (2:12.19) to land in the honorable-mention spots.
St. Olaf swept the three Honorable Mention All-MIAC places in the women's three-meter diving to add 42 points to its team score. Senior
Zibby Hanifl was fourth (411.60), sophomore
Savannah Carr was fifth (392.15), and first year
Alayna McCormick with sixth (390.00), with Hanifl picking up honorable-mention honors for the second consecutive season.
Junior
Alana Schmitzer, sophomore
Sawyer Eastman, junior
Samantha Sylvester, and junior
Katie Homme claimed the honorable-mention spot in the 400-yard freestyle relay by taking fourth (3:33.90), while sophomore
McKelvey McDaniel and senior
Paige Steenblock were fifth in the 1,650-yard freestyle (18:12.61) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:26.51), respectively.
Five St. Olaf women's divers will head to Kalamazoo, Mich. for the NCAA Division III Region 1 Diving Championships on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28.