Like the women, head coach Dave Hauck feels that depth will be a key factor in the men’'s success this season.

"“I feel really confident about the depth that we have right now, which we haven’t had in previous years,"” Hauck said. “"The past couple years we’ve been able to compete with and beat Gustavus in dual meets, but during the championship season we’'ve come up just a couple guys short. Our hope is this year that we'’ll have better depth and again be able to challenge for that title.”"

This season, the men expect to again battle with defending champion Gustavus for their 23rd conference championship since 1977.

In addition to a solid cast of returning swimmers (including Ben Wareham ‘'06, Mark Glineburg ‘'06, Joe Anderson ‘'07 and J.C. Chambers ‘'06) as well as champion diver Christian Lorentzen '07, the Oles boast a few notable newcomers. Nelson Westby '‘09 has been impressive thus far, qualifying for nationals in his first meet of the season and earning MIAC Swimmer of the Week honors. Sprinter Jake Koch ‘'09 is also expected to contribute.

Also contributing to this preview were Matt Stortz and Peter Gloviczki. Special thanks to Mike Ludwig and the St. Olaf Sports Information Department.

Printer friendly version | Email this | Write the editors | More articles by Matt Tiano