Grinnell’s men and women’s swimming and diving teams dominated last weekend’s Grinnell Invitational. The Invitational, which hosted at the College’s Russell K. Osgood Natatorium, took place last Saturday, Jan. 17, saw the men’s team defend their title and the women take third place.

Over winter break, Pioneer swimmers and divers traveled on an annual weeklong trip to Florida a week before the Invitational to start practice and compete in a scrimmage meet versus Connecticut College.

The Florida practice helped the men’s team finish in first-place with three wins and 1,212 points. The women’s team scored 919 points in a performance that earned them a third-place finish at the Invitational.

One of the all-stars of the meet was Daniel Goldstein ’16 who won the one-meter diving with a score of 472, an NCAA Division III Regional qualifying mark.

“I was very excited to get this score the first meet back from abroad. The coaches we trained with in Florida were very helpful to get me back on track after taking that long of a break,” Goldstein said.

For his efforts, Goldstein was named the Midwest Conference Men’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week. 

Other wins on the men’s team helped to push the Pioneers to the top of the scoreboard. With the help of wins from Ian Dixon-Anderson ’17 in the 400-yard individual medley and Joshua Cottle ’18 in the 1650 freestyle, the men’s team garnered another victory for Grinnell. Even though there may have been some pressure to do well at home, Goldstein confessed how much he appreciated the attendance of his friends.

“It was fun to be at our home pool for such a large meet and it is really great getting to be with the whole team there,” Goldstein said. “It is nice to see Grinnellians come to watch our meets and of course it will be fun to have even more Grinnellians come to conference in a few weeks.”

Furthermore, Grinnell managed to allocate four of its male swimmers in the top eight of the 1650 freestyle thanks to the performances of Thomas Robinson ’16, Collin Kramer ’15 and Tim Sherwood ’16.

The women’s team brought home some victories of their own too. Despite placing third behind runner-up Gustavus Adolphus College, several Pioneer women broke records. Maria Venneri ’18 outperformed herself at the meet by breaking her own school record, finishing third with a personal best of 2:08.64.

“Breaking my own record was great and it shows me that I am doing something right and am hopefully on the right track to a personal best time at our conference championship meet,” Venneri wrote in an email to The S&B. “Just like everyone else on my team, we have been training really hard all season and are finally starting to come around the final bend in order to race our best at conference.”

For her efforts, Venneri was named the Midwest Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the week.

Maddy Pesch ’16, Beth Gillig ’15 and Beth Tsuha ’17 helped the women’s team further by placing second in the 200 medley relay team with Venneri.

“I was really happy with my performance this weekend. It was cool to place high at a competitive meet, but I was most happy that I stuck to the race strategies and technique adjustments that my coach and I discussed before my races,” Pesch said.

In spite of the victories at last weekend’s meets, the team has nowhere to look but forward, as both the men and women will travel to Saint Paul, Minn. to play Macalester College on Saturday, Jan. 24. In the past, Grinnell has fared well against Macalester, with the men and women earning victories in the past three meets.

“We had a great training trip in Florida over winter break and an even better meet this last weekend, so this competition is practice for us to race different people and gear up for our final meets coming soon,” Venneri wrote. “We are still in the high-intensity part of the season, so no one is by any means racing at a hundred percent, and with taper right around the corner, everyone is tired and sore. All we can do is get pumped and race with what we have and get ready for conference.”