Sam Rauchwarter’s two first-place finishes in the 100 and 200 freestyle led the St. Thomas swimming and diving teams in the 3rd annual Ugly Sweater Invitational against St. John’s and St. Benedict’s Saturday at home.
The St. Thomas men outscored St. John’s 172.5 to 68.5 points and the Tommie women outscored the Blazers 139 to 87.
Coach Tom Hodgson said he realizes his team is a little worn out this time of year, but is very pleased with the its effort.
“This is a hard time of the year to compete because there are so many distractions with exams coming, but I was very happy with some of our swims,” Hodgson said. “We probably had about 50 percent really good swims.”
Diver Nick Johnson had a successful weekend as he set new St. Thomas records for the 1-meter (291.15) and 3-meter (328.40) dives.
The Tommies dominated the men’s and women’s 200 medley relays. Meghan Talbot, Emily Punyko, Mariann Kukielka and Hayley Trace placed first while Abbie Anderson, Anna Jeska, Rachel Nielsen and Laura Hebzynski finished third. The men also finished first with relay team of Justin Mullee, Michael Lanz, Brandon Hoshaw and Ben Henrickson.
Elise Guenther placed first in the women’s 1,000 freestyle while fellow Tommie Beth Wenman finished second. Guenther blew out the field with a time of 10:54.75. Guenther also won the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:22.41.
The men’s 200 freestyle race was all St. Thomas with swimmers finishing first, second and third. Rauchwarter took first, while Griffin Voss and Cole Fuerste brought in second and third places.
The men’s 50 freestyle was a close race. The Tommies swam strong and were able to secure the top three spots. Henrickson was first (21.65), Max Hubbard placed second (22.06) and Lucas Brandt came in third (22.10).
Lanz’s 400 individual medley time of 4:14.27 was another solid Tommie showing Saturday. Lanz cruised to the finish line, leaving teammate Chris Tri in second (4:21.05).
The Tommie women dismantled the Blazers in the 100 butterfly. Kukielka (59.72) took first, while Averi Splinter (101.85) and Jeska finished second and third (1:02.16).
The men also performed well in the 100 butterfly. Evan Eklund (53.40), Hubbard (53.92) and Matt Rippentrop (53.99) kept it tight but helped the team tally points.
Mullee edged Johnnie Braden McCormack by a second to win the men’s 100 backstroke and extended the Tommies’ point total to 140.5.
St. Thomas took control of the women’s 100 breaststroke as Punyko crossed first in 1:07.33. Jen Littlejohn was third (1:10.71) and Madeline Anderson finished fourth (1:11.82).
This was Littlejohn’s final meet of the year because she’s studying abroad next semester. Littlejohn said she was “happy” with the way she swam considering she missed a lot of training.
“I think finished relatively well,” Littlejohn said. “I was really close to my conference times last year; that’s really awesome because I have been missing the majority of our training.”
Hoshaw won the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:02.18, while Dane Washenberger placed third (1:04.19).
St. Thomas’ next home meet is the Meet of Saints on Jan. 19.
Andrew Eisele can be reached at eise6299@stthomas.edu.