Home court advantage is a powerful thing, but over the last two weeks the Mayo Swim team proved it’s an advantage that they don’t need. Thanks to budget cuts and an expensive new pool at Century, the Spartans have found themselves in the Century pool at every dual meet. With the end of the season looming, the Spartans finally got a chance to spread their wings, as they’ve traveled across the region in search of opponents. 

On January 25th, the Mayo Spartans beat the Austin Packers 94-73 in their first away meet of the season. “It’s weird swimming in a different pool,” junior varsity swimmer Oliver Argue said. “We’ve only ever really swam at the Mayo and Century pools. I like it though, the bus rides are fun, and some of the pools are really nice.” Just a few days later on January 29th, the Spartans traveled to Albert Lea to swim against the Albert Lea Tigers and the Mankato East Cougars, where Mayo defeated both big cats in one fell swoop. Before accounting for exhibition swims, Mayo scored well into the 110s against Albert Lea, and beat Mankato East 94-78. Finally, on February 1st the Spartans took the fight across town to the John Marshall Rockets, winning 94-73 in their final dual meet of the season.

Later this week the Spartans will be competing at the Big 9 conference, hosted at the Rochester Recreation Center on Saturday Feb 10th. The coach of the Spartans swim team, Scott Diercks, discussed his expectations for the upcoming conference: “We have a very deep team, and should place very well at Big 9. We’ll be able to score more points than the other teams, because we have a very well rounded team.” If the Spartans can pull off a 4th away meet win in a row, they will secure themselves a place at the Sections 1AA tournament. For the first time in years the tournament will be held at the Lakeville Blanchard Aquatics Center. “I really like swimming at other pools,” captain Noah Larson said. “I always like seeing the different designs pools around Minnesota can have.”

The Spartans took 3rd place at Big 9, falling behind Century and Northfield. The Panthers scored 411.5 points, Northfield 401.5, and Mayo 365. Next Wednesday they will head to Lakeville for the Section 1AA prelims, and return on Friday for finals. The end of the season is always filled with the most exciting meets, so mark your calendars and come on out to support your Mayo Spartans!

Photo courtesy of Shannon Chen