ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The St. Catherine University swimming and diving team opened the 2024-25 season at the St. Kate's Pentathlon while the program's divers competed for the first time in three seasons at the Hamline University Invite on Saturday.  Senior Emma Svendsen led the way for the Wildcat swimmers scoring 265 points pacing St. Kate's to a second place team finish. 

Svendsen won the butterfly, backstroke and the freestyle on Saturday taking 10th in the breaststroke and was runner up in the 100-yard individual medley. Junior Ella Hochstetler finished with 254 individual points while Olivia Weil and J Dombroksi were the other two Wildcats in the top 10 finishers. 

In the 100-yard fly, Hochstetler was runner up with a time of 1:00.99. Dombroski was seventh in the event at 1:02.82 and Natalie Chandler finished 12th at 1:05.72. Weile was 13th at 1:05.75 while Jordyn Grotbo rounded out the top 15 with a time of 1:06.51. 

Hochstetler was the runner up to Svendsen again in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.88 with Grotbo clocking in eighth with a time of 1:05.96. Shea Bradley recorded a time of 1:06.36 and Chandler was 12th at 1:06.37. 

In the 100-yard individual medley, Svendsen clocked in as the runner up with a time of 1:03.54 while Hochstetler was sixth at 1:04.59. Weil and Dombroski tied for sixth in the event at 1:06.67 and Chandler was 13th with a time of 1:07.43. 

St. Kate's top finisher in the 100-yard breaststroke was Weil with a second place time of 1:12.25. Dombroski followed in fifth with a time of 1:14.17 and Svendsen clocked in at 1:15.70, in tenth. Sierra Hermansen was 12th in the event with a time of 1:16.04 ahead of Hochstetler at 1:16.91 in 13th and Chandler in 14th at 1:17.31. 

Svendsen's final win of the meet was in the 100-yard freestyle taking medalist honors with a time of 55.76. Hochstetler was third overall at 56.52 and Grotbo was eighth in at 57.65. Ava Hacker finished with a 12th place time of 59.64 and Bradley was 13th at 59.70. 

At the Hamline Diving Invite, St. Kate's first-year Macey Morgan led the way for the Wildcats with a score of 150.20 in the 3M with six dives. Sophomore Juliet Peterson recorded a score of 123.10 on 3M while first-year Maddie Galazen scored 114.90. 

On the 1M board, Morgan led for St. Kate's with a six dive score of 158.65 while Peterson tallied 110.35 just ahead of Galazen with a score of 107.40. 

The Wildcats will travel to Hamline University on Saturday for the Hamline Relays.