Senior Lauren Votava broke six pool records in Denver over the weekend — two as an individual and four as a relay team member.
The Gophers women’s swimming and diving team broke 13 pool records on Friday and Saturday, defeating Denver 201-151 and BYU 282-70.
“Across the board we performed a little better than I anticipated,” head coach Kelly Kremer said. “The team overall, both on the swimming and diving side, just did an outstanding job.”
Votava won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:49.01 and followed with another victory in the 100 freestyle with 49.86.
Freshman Zoe Avestruz collected two individual victories of her own by winning the 100 backstroke with 55.63 and the 50 freestyle with 23.32.
Sophomore Danielle Nack won both butterfly events, taking first in the 200 with a time of 2:02:15 and the 100 with 55.80.
“I felt pretty good about my performance at Denver. It was great to have a meet to focus on and have fun at,” Nack said. “I’m really happy with the team. Everyone did awesome for the circumstances we faced.”
Senior Samantha Harding was the top finisher for the Gophers in the 1,000 freestyle, swimming the race in 10:17.54 and finishing in second overall.
The Gophers also set four pool records with their relay teams and swept both diving events.
Junior Yu Zhou set two pool records by scoring 343.55 points on the three-meter dive and 333.30 points on the one meter. Freshman Mariam Khamis and senior Jessica
Ramberg placed second and third, respectively, in both events.
Men win against BYU and Denver
Junior Daryl Turner returned to his hometown to lead the men’s team to its fourth and fifth team victories of the year over the weekend. The Gophers beat Denver 199.5-152.5 and BYU 221.5-130.5.
Turner won the 100 backstroke in a pool record time of 47.67 and won the 100 butterfly with 48.40.
“I felt very good about how I did,” Turner said. “It was nice coming back to Colorado and racing in my hometown and being able to see my family.”
Sophomore Conner McHugh won the 200 breaststroke and set another pool record for the Gophers with a time of 2:00.35.
Minnesota also took second through fourth place in the 200 individual medley with junior Jonathon Thielen taking second with 1:52.51, junior Jakub Maly following with 1:52.67, and senior John Bushman closing out the trio with 1:53.85.
Junior Matt Barnard took first in the one-meter dive after setting a personal best and breaking the pool record with 372.40 points.
Barnard also placed second in the three-meter competition by scoring 398.05 points, close to his personal best of 402.20 points.
“I believe that the winter training we did in Hawaii really helped my team and I with working on the details of our races and being able to fight to the finish,” Turner said. “I couldn’t be more happy with the results of the meet.”
