St. Thomas men’s and women’s swim and dive teams both placed last against the St. Cloud State Huskies and the Minnesota State University Mankato Mavericks in the JoAnn Andregg Invitational at Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex Pool on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12-13.
The invite, named after retired St. Thomas coach and assistant athletic director JoAnn Andregg, was hosted by the Tommies (2-1, 0-0 Summit) for the first time since 2019 and the first time since moving to Division I.
“I’m really happy that we’re able to continue to run this meet. It’s been a great tradition for us, and it’s been really great for us to be able to honor JoAnne Andregg and everything she did for St. Thomas while she was here,” coach Scott Blanchard said.
St. Cloud State (0-3 overall, 0-0 conference), whose men’s and women’s team won the meet, and Minnesota State Mankato (6-1 overall, 0-0 conference) are both Division II teams. Both teams, along with the Tommies, had swimmers that broke their personal records during the meet, but Huskies sophomore Raf Hendriks broke not only a school record but placed himself as the fastest DII swimmer this season in the 200 Backstroke.
Hendriks placed first in his event with a time of 1:46.71.
“I had (the record) earlier this year for a little bit, but then some people took it from me. I just wanted to break 1:48, because I had a 1:48.2 earlier this year, but then to go 1:46… I didn’t really expect it, but it was nice. I’m really happy with it.” Hendriks said.
In the 400 yard Individual Medley, St. Thomas sophomore Grace Urkel dropped 25.55 seconds off of her personal record and placed second with a time of 4:46.95.
“It’s been a really long time since I swam that event, and also, it’s not really an event I swim anyways,” Urkel said. “So I came in with the expectation of either I’m going to not drop time, but that’s going to be okay because I haven’t swum in a while, or I’m going to drop time and make the meet even better.”
Urkel said that she was not expecting to drop as much time as she did in the 400 IM, and was originally hoping to go under 4:50.
“Seeing I went for 4:46, I was really happy with that. I kind of feel like this event has potential,” Urkel said. “For the rest of my Division I season, I’m really hoping to do better in my breaststroke. I didn’t really swim it that much at this meet, but I’m hoping to do well at the end of the season.”
On the diving side, St. Thomas senior Andrew Godfrey placed first overall in the diving portion of the meet. His highest scoring dive, a forward 2 1/2 somersault pike, added 50.70 points to his 11 dive score of 384.60 on Saturday.
“I thought I was really consistent today. I was very consistent and performed well on every dive, not just a few,” Godfrey said. “I think we’ve been putting in a lot of hard work. A lot of early mornings, especially those early morning lifts. It’s just a lot of dedication.”
Godfrey, who placed third and fourth during the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships in 2020, said that he was excited for the remainder of the season.
“I’m looking forward to knowing that we still have another half of the season and a lot of time to work toward conference and build up and really show what we can do,” said Godfrey.
The Tommies swim next in Rochester, Minnesota, for the Saint Cloud State University Invitational on Dec. 3-5.
Owen Larson can be reached at lars6521@stthomas.edu.