Entering the final day of the MIAC Swimming and Diving Championship Meet, the swimming & diving Scots had already won five events, rewritten 10 school records and acquired one national qualifying time. At the outset of the meet’s final session on the evening of Feb. 22, the men were set for a fourth place finish that would be their best in recorded MIAC history. The women’s team title was still up for grabs: the Scots held second, 32 points behind leaders Gustavus Adolphus College.
On a night with an emotional and electric atmosphere, the first action was the women’s 1650 freestyle championship final. Skye Schmit ’25, a former MIAC Swimmer of the Year in her final race for Macalester, took the lead early. She held first all the way through 1550 yards, but Gustie first year Geneva Fackler would close her down in the last four lengths of the race to take the win. Still, three Scots raced in the A final — Schmit, Molly Nuckolls ’28 and Hannah Zurn ’26 — compared to just one Gustie, meaning the Scots closed the points gap in the team competition.
Next came the 200 backstroke races. For the women, Macalester focused on the chase for team points in the overall championships. Verity Wray-Raabolle ’25, fresh off her national qualifying effort in her leg of the 400 medley relay, reached the podium with a third-place finish, well ahead of the nearest Gustie. She broke the program record in the process, but that performance alone couldn’t close the gap in team scores. Gustavus landed four swimmers in the A and B finals of the event compared to only two Scots, allowing them to all but erase the progress the Scots had made in the 1650 free.
During the men’s final, the focus was on Kean Pajarillaga ’28. The first year standout hovered between third and fourth throughout the race until the final 50, where he made a decisive move on the last length. Pajarillaga had been disappointed to finish fifth in the 100 backstroke on day three, and this race offered a chance for redemption. “I wasn’t too satisfied with some [of my] times because it was hard for me to get into the groove,” Pajarillaga said. “But on the last day, I showed up and finished the race first for my 200 back. So, I’m pretty happy about that.”
Roared on by his teammates, he swam the back half of the race faster than anybody else and outtouched Logan Cyr of Gustavus to become a MIAC champion, a performance that helped earn him co-Rookie of the Year honors, alongside Gustavus’ Jacob Robischon.
Will St. John ’26 spoke on how the men’s team considered it their job to swim fast and maintain high energy for the whole team. Even if the men’s team didn’t have a chance at a team title themselves, they could boost the whole team’s morale with their own performances and motivate the women’s squad to chase down the Gusties. Pajarillaga’s comeback victory served that purpose; his thrilling win directly preceded another phenomenal race from a Scot leading the women’s team’s comeback bid.
With the women’s team title still in the air, the Scots’ poolside energy continued to buzz for the 100-yard freestyle. There, as Caroline Chapon ’25 battled St. Olaf College’s Katie Homme and Gustavus’ Marit Isaacson, every single point meant multitudes. Matching and adding to the energy of the race, the teammates outside of the pool were louder than they had been all night.
“It was everybody,” St. John said, several days on from the meet’s conclusion. “I think if you were to interview every single person on the team, you’d be like, ‘wow, everybody’s got a really hoarse voice today.’”
In the 100 free, Chapon ultimately lost out to the Olaf swimmer but earned second place ahead of Isaacson, to raucous reception from teammates and fans. That small points swing against the Gusties was welcome, but time to effect a comeback was running out. Remaining events dwindled, and the Scots’ inroads against their rivals were matched by Gustie scores in other events.
The Scots swam undeterred. Defending her title in the 200 breastroke, Izzy Uhlhorn-Thornton ’26 stepped up on the blocks for the A final as the top seed, swimming alongside Natalie Pollock ’25 and Carolyn Wolking ’28.
In the pool, Uhlhorn-Thornton pushed ahead with powerful underwaters, staying out of reach of her competition for the duration of the race and landing on the podium with a first-place finish and a new school record.
The highlight for Uhlhorn- Thornton, however, was not the accolades, but that she shared the podium with her teammates Wolking in seventh and Pollock in eighth. The environment of the Macalester team is the best part of the experience for many swimmers and Head Coach Kyllian Griffin.
“The way that this team cares about each other, and the way that they show up for each other, is different [than other colleges’ swim teams],” Griffin said. “The passion is different. I think some of that is because Macalester students are extremely passionate.”
This internal drive surfaced in the 200 butterfly, which boasted a host of Mac swimmers in the A final, including Olivia Johnson ’25, Nuckolls and Zurn. Johnson swam what Griffin described as “the race of her career,” and landed in second place in front of Nuckolls and Zurn, in fourth and sixth respectively.
The 200 butterfly, taxing on mind and body, is one of the toughest races to swim. Griffin commends the grit the event takes and the strength the team showed throughout the year.
“We had some hard moments this year,” Griffin said. “Both from a physical health standpoint as a team, but also some emotionally and mentally tough moments that [were] really hard for individuals and the team to work through, and our resilience was good this year.”
On the men’s side, Boden Allen ’28 swam in the B final ahead of Bode Thompson ’28 in the A final. Thompson finished in sixth with a new school record.
With short races and a continuous cycle of swimmers taking off from the blocks, swimmers need to stay positive and forward-focused.
“Even if your race wasn’t as good as you wanted to be,” Griffin said, “still being proud of how hard you tried, and seeing your teammates being proud of you and being able to bring that energy out helps that next person who’s about to get on the block have confidence that they can get their best time.”
Once individual swimming wrapped up for the night, attention turned to the diving pool for the 1m diving finals. Kate Yehle ’25 warmed up in seventh place on the leaderboard. After six dives, that’s where she finished; the highest she’s placed in the event in her Macalester career.
With only the 400 free relay left, Griffin, who had been crunching numbers all evening, broke the news to the women’s team that they would not pass Gustavus to claim the title.
“A lot of us were pretty emotional in that final talk, but I think at the end of the day, it was a good decision on his part,” Merkadeau said. “That final freestyle relay on the women’s side, with all seniors, got to go into it being like, ‘this is going to be our last swim, and all of our last ones together.’”
With the pressure of a championship challenge off of their shoulders, four senior Scots lined up for their final event together as a team with nothing to lose. The Gusties, with a seeding time 1.6 seconds faster than any other team, were the favorites.
Chapon opened the race for Macalester. Although a frontloaded Oles squad ended the first leg in front, Chapon’s swim beat Gustavus’ opener and left the Scots in second as Merkadeau began her swim.
“Caroline went out super fast, and I was like ‘okay, I guess we gotta do it,’” Merkadeau said. “I felt myself smiling on the first turn, which was weird. I think it was just all the emotion and gratitude for the people I was swimming with.”
She swam a 53.90 in her individual effort in the 100 free B final, but in the relay Merkadeau cut six crucial tenths off her time to swim a 53.32. She was able to extend the distance over the Gusties by over a second, as the Macalester poolside crowd grew louder, realizing what might be brewing.
Wray-Raabolle’s third leg would be the fastest of the four Scots in the relay. She chased down the Oles in front and left the anchor, Natalie Pollock, with a lead for the first time in the race. With Isaacson, one of the MIAC’s fastest swimmers, bearing down on her, Pollock held her nerve and held the lead to the wall, finishing off a winning relay that broke the Macalester record and put an exclamation mark on a historic team placing.
“The energy was crazy when Natalie was on the last leg,” Merkadeau said. “She had an amazing last 50. There was a picture of her finishing and Verity telling her that we broke the record and that we won … And I love that picture because she’s just freaking out in the water. It was a really sweet moment.”
Photo courtesy of Mac Athletics.
It was a fitting sendoff for the class of 2025. As this class of seniors departs, they’ll be missed not only for their speed and skill but also for bringing the program into a new era. That cohesive team culture will continue to benefit this program, even as they leave the squad.
“Kyllian told us that the seniors this year are very special to him, and they’re very special to the team,” St. John said. “They’re fast, but they also changed the culture for the better, dramatically. And I think it’s going to be quite a change not having them.”
Although the championship that the women’s team sought eluded them this year, the second-place finish they left with is still the best this squad has ever done and a foundation to build upon.
“It’s the best women’s team in school history,” Griffin said. “So we should be proud of that. We are proud of that. And I think there’s also some hunger for more, knowing that we can do it.”
While Wray-Raabolle’s 100- yard backstroke national qualifying time from the 400 medley on day two relay means she’ll have one more chance to race at the national championship meet, the rest of the team is left to process this season. The disappointment of missing out on the conference title is real, but the high mark set by the women’s team, the event wins and the support shown between swimmers all still stand out.
“They absolutely poured everything they could into every swim and every dive,” Griffin said. “The energy on the pool deck was amazing the whole time. So it stinks a little bit, and it certainly stings as well. But we’ve never been this good.”
