Bennie swim and dive brings in fresh talent for 2025-2026 season

The CSB swimming & diving team begins their regular season this weekend at the Hamline University Diving Invite and St. Catherine Pentathlon. After finishing sixth in the MIAC Championships last February, the Bennies look to improve from last year’s season with the help of junior Haley Zelen. Zelen, a DI transfer from UW-Madison, described what it was like moving from a DI school to St. Ben’s.

“I was kind of nervous coming in. I was kind of worried how people would react to me coming,” Zelen said. “They were all super welcoming. I really enjoyed getting to meet all of them, and they’ve been great.”

Zelen said she transferred due to a better fit in school size, her major, the team and the community at CSB+SJU. Head coach Amanda Wolvert praised Zelen’s contribution since she arrived.

“Haley is an incredible athlete and teammate,” Wolvert said via email. “She is excited to make a huge impact on the program not only individually but also with her teammates. I’m excited for prospective Bennies to see that DIII Swimming & Diving is a great place for great athletes.”

The Bennies have competed at two preseason meets, an alumni meet and a two-day intersquad meet, and broke multiple meet records. Zelen said the atmosphere highlighted the success of the team during the intrasquad meet.

“I feel like it went really well. We had a lot of people…, both on the Johnnies and the Bennies, that swam really good, and we broke a lot of… meet records,” Zelen said. “The atmosphere was great… I’m excited to see how we can continue like this and continue… bringing the atmosphere [in] all these other meets and seeing how much better we can be.”

Zelen said one of the big differences between DI and DIII schools is the relationship the swimmers and divers are able to make with their coaches.

“I get a lot more…one-on-one coaching than I’m used to. I feel like back in Wisconsin, I didn’t get that. I wasn’t as valued as much,” Zelen said. “I feel like I’m kind of more useful and then can actually get tips and technique work that I didn’t get beforehand.”

Zelen said that the team is looking forward to the Gustavus meet as they are a big rival.

“Gustavus, I believe that one’s a good one, just because, like, I feel like Gustavus is a rivalry, or bigger rivalry school, is what I’m learning,” Zelen said. “And then the other one is St. Kate’s, I think just because I think one year, they randomly beat us, and ever since then, it’s kind of been… more motivating to kind of just like, demolish them every time. And so I think those are the two big ones that everybody’s most excited for.”

Wolvert said she is impressed by the team’s chemistry which has contributed to the team’s early success. Zelen has large goals for her and the team.

“I want to go to NCAAs, and I want to win a couple events there,” Zelen said. “I definitely think we can run relays at MIACs…we should be able to win a couple relays…So just
getting…more teammates to go to NCAAs would be really cool…I don’t think a lot of people understand… how good our incoming freshmen class is as well. So I feel like we have a lot more depth than everything, and I think we’ll have a lot more upsets just coming into meets and stuff. I feel like people will understand how much better we will be now.”

The team is looking to stay focused on their goals all season.

“I believe as long as we stay focused on the process and the journey of the season, they will be unstoppable,” Wolvert said.