The Gophers swimming and diving teams amassed two more big wins over the weekend in Grand Forks, N.D.

The men’s team defeated North Dakota 179-113 while the women’s team won 179-114. The men won 13 of 16 events while the women won 14 of 16, including the first four swimming races.

Minnesota head coach Kelly Kremer said it’s important to get early-event wins, especially as the road team.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting off to a good start and not coming from behind,” Kremer said. “It gave the rest of the team confidence.”

Minnesota is rolling on the women’s side and is undefeated early in the season. Three freshmen have been vital to the women’s team’s success.

Breanne Siwicki took home Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors last week and won the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay this weekend. Maddie Hoch took home first place in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle and 200 individual medley. And Abigail Raatz helped Minnesota win four different events.

“Our freshmen as a whole were just outstanding this weekend,” Kremer said.

Kremer said many different athletes stepped up this weekend, which was crucial to his team’s success.

“I liked how we had some other people have an opportunity to really do some good things for swimming and diving in Minnesota,” Kremer said, “We had a lot of people step up.”

Sophomore Dylan Zoe, who won both the 3-meter and the 1-meter diving events, was one of those athletes.

“He’s been so consistent,” Kremer said. “He continues to get better every time we watch him dive.”

Minnesota returns to the University Aquatic Center this Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the first time in a month, but its competition won’t be easy.

“We’ve got an incredibly fast meet lined up,” Kremer said. “The Grand Prix meet is loaded with household names, and they’re all coming to Minneapolis. I can’t wait to get going on Thursday.”