Results

MOORHEAD, MINN. – After a month of practices, the St. Catherine University of Swimming and Diving team was eager and anxious to get in the pool for its first competition of the 2016-17 season. The Wildcats certainly impressive in their first outing against Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. St. Kate's defeated the Cobbers 161 to 126 thanks to strong swims from junior Mary Jane Voss (Mequon, Wis.) and first years McKenna Peterson (Cameron Park, Calif. / St. Francis) and Emilee Lance (Brooklyn Park, Minn. / Park Center).

"With this being our first real chance to get up and race for the year, I was very pleased with the effort from the entire team," first year coach Justin Zook said after the race. "So much of this time of year is about training through meets and focusing on the process, rather than the immediate results. Coach Hempler and I are seeing great results during the week in training and the team just needs to stay focused on learning as much as they can after each meet"

Voss provided several highlights in the Wildcats first meet of 2016-17. The junior individual medley (M) and butterfly specialist won all three events that she competed in, despite the challenges each of the presented. Voss competed in three different individual events, the 1000 free, 200 butterfly, and 200 IM, spread out over a two-hour time period and won each event. Voss dominated in the 1000 free, beating teammate Brooke Soller (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) by over 30 seconds with a time of 11:30.74, then won the 200 fly and 200 IM with times of 2:24.46 and 2:25.55 respectively.

Peterson collected the first collegiate victory of her career in the 400 Medley Relay. Peterson swam the final leg of the four-team relay in the opening race of the day, helping St. Kate's win the race with a time of 4:23.86. However, the first year was not done making a good first impression and followed up her performance in the relay with a win in the 500 meter freestyle with a time of 5:42.17.

Lance also participated in the first-place 400 Medley Relay team. She was the third swimmer in the team, behind sophomores Katie Rising (Bismark, N. D. / Century) and Alissa Ellingson (Eagan, Minn. / Eagan), and swam a very impressive butterfly to earn the first collegiate win of her career as well.

Thanks to these and several other impressive performances, the Wildcats outright won the dual against Concordia 161-126. Overall, St. Kate's had 9 swimmers and one diver earn first place at the meet and several more finish in the top-two in their respective races.

However, despite an impressive performance at the first race of the season, Zook and assistant coach Nicole Hempler aren't planning to give their student-athletes a rest any time soon. After a month of both physical and mental training, the Wildcats have already shown great strides in their first meet of the season, but there is still plenty of work to be done.  

"There is so much to be taken away from the first competition of the year, I am looking forward to looking over the results and pulling away some more positives, along with some items we need to really focus on during the next training cycle," Zook commented. "Overall, the girls should be proud of their victorious effort after a long trip this morning and a tough training week. We have come very far this first month of the season and I look forward to more great performances this year."

St. Kate's will return to the pool next weekend, this time a little closer to home than Moorhead, Minnesota. The Wildcats will compete in the Roger Ahlman Invite at Macalester College on Saturday, November 12. Competition begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and continues through the day.