ST. PETER, Minn. — It was a busy day in the pool for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota swimming and diving teams, as the Cardinals took part in the Gustavus Race 4Grace Invitational.
And no one was more busy than Grace VanBeest (Flossmoor, Ill.), as the sophomore posted three top 10 finishes—including a third-place effort in the 200 breaststroke—to pace the Cardinal women to a fourth-place team finish.
Joe Tonda (St. Paul, Minn.) led the way for the Cardinal men, pacing Saint Mary's fourth-place team finish with a pair of top 10 performances.
"It was a long day of swimming," said Saint Mary's coach
Eric Lindquist. "We had a lot of people swimming in a ton of events and I thought, overall, we had some really solid showings."
VanBeest stopped the clock in 2:42.07 en route to her third-place finish in the 200 breaststroke, while adding a ninth in both the 200 IM (2:32.17) and 100 breaststroke (1:15.33).
Janelle Mueller (Lewiston, Minn.) chipped in a third in the three-meter diving (342.50) and a fourth in the one-meter (340.85), while Reese Galewski (Winona, Minn.) was fifth in the 100 butterfly (1:03.44) and ninth in the 100 backstroke (1:07.03), and Katie Heller (St. Cloud, Minn.) was 10th in the 50 freestyle (26.55).
Tonda turned in a time of 1:07.30 to place seventh in the 100 breaststroke and tallied a 10th-place showing in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:36.22).
Zac Finkelstein (Naperville, Ill.) finished sixth in the 50 freestyle (23.16), and
Brian Mockler (Dubuque, Iowa) was ninth in the 200 breaststroke (2:34.54) and 10th in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.21).
The Cardinals are now off until Dec. 5-6, when they take part in the two-day, Jean Freeman Invitational at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis Minn.
