St. Cloud Orthopedics Characteristic: Competing With Himself has Made SJU Swimmer a MIAC Champion

By: Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – When Carsten Reuter touched the wall to win the 50-yard freestyle ultimately season’s MIAC Championships, the then-Saint John’s University junior wasn’t pondering as a lot in regards to the different swimmers he’d simply overwhelmed

His ideas had been extra targeted on his time (20.56 seconds), which was nearly a full second sooner than his earlier finest.

“The first thought that popped into my head wasn’t just that I’d won, though that was exciting,” Reuter mentioned. “It was also that I’d pushed myself to improve and go faster than I had before. That’s what I love so much about swimming – the individual aspect. There’s a team component too, of course. 

“But you are additionally continually difficult your self.”

And challenging himself is what the St. Cloud Tech High School graduate has been doing since he first arrived in Collegeville as a freshman in the fall of 2022.

“Carsten is a really inner-driven sort of child,” SJU head coach Ben Gill said of his senior standout. “He has lots of private objectives he needs to realize and he pushes himself exhausting to perform them. He’s all the time his personal harshest critic and he is all the time on the lookout for methods to enhance himself. 

“He is competing against the other swimmers in his race, but he’s more focused on being the best swimmer he can be. And that’s gotten results.”

Indeed it has.

Reuter presently boasts the MIAC’s prime time within the 50 freestyle this season (21.11) and sits second within the 100 freestyle (47.05) behind solely senior teammate Brayden Slavik (46.92), final season’s MIAC Co-Men’s Swimmer of the Year.

He additionally has the convention’s fifth-fastest time within the 200 freestyle (1:46.27).

“It’s really all about my training and my team,” he mentioned. “That’s been the key to any success I’ve had. You can train your butt off, but if you don’t have the right group of people around you, you won’t get as far.

“Having Brayden and all the opposite guys there day-after-day makes an enormous distinction. We all push one another to get higher.”

But, in the end, it’s his inner drive that Reuter relies on most when he steps onto the starting blocks.

“You must consider in your self,” he said. “A whole lot of swimming is a psychological battle, and in case you have religion in your means to perform the belongings you need to, it goes a great distance.”

That same approach serves Reuter well in the classroom where he is majoring in biology on a pre-medicine track.

“There’s lots of perfectionism on the planet of pre-med,” he said. “Everyone needs that 4.0. Everyone needs to ace each check. There’s lots of alternative to check your self to everybody else round you. But there’s all the time going to be somebody with the next GPA. Or with a greater check rating.

“Being focused on doing the best job I can do helps keep me grounded.”

Reuter first turned interested by a profession in well being care in highschool, which led to getting a nursing assistant place at St. Cloud Hospital. He has gone to work as nursing assistant for Essentia Health at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth the previous three summers.

“I’ve gotten such great experience there,” mentioned Reuter, whose dad and mom Bret and Nicole moved to Duluth simply after his highschool commencement and work for Essentia Health as effectively. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of the physicians and the nursing staff. I’ve been able to do a lot of different things. It’s been amazing to work with people after open-heart surgery and to help them get up and move for the first time. 

“I’ve simply discovered all of it actually rewarding.”

Reuter – who has two younger sisters, one of whom (Elliana) is a freshman at the College of Saint Benedict – is also a member of the SJU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and works at The Study, a resource center for students on campus. 

But his primary focus lies in the pool where his team will play host to Carleton in an MIAC dual meet on Senior Day at noon Saturday at the Warner Palaestra pool.

This season’s MIAC Championships are scheduled for Feb. 11-14 at the University of Minnesota’s Jean Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

“There are issues I need to accomplish, however my principal objective is simply going as quick as I can, spending time with my associates on this crew and having enjoyable,” he said. 

“If I can stroll away understanding I pushed myself to my limits and did the perfect I probably may, that is a win and I’ll be blissful.”