The Gophers men’s swimming and diving teams competed in Columbus, Ohio today as part of the four day Big Ten championships. The event will run through Saturday- the first these championships will run four days. This year is the premier of the expanded event that has been stretched to four days to fit all the necessary events. If Minnesota can bring home a title this year, it will be it’s sixth Big Ten title in the last ten years. The weekend got started with the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay championships at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus.
Results (Wednesday):
200 medley relay:
1st- Michigan ‘A’ 1:25.72
2nd- Ohio State ‘A’ 1:26.38
3rd- Penn State ‘A’ 1:26.65
4th- Minnesota ‘A’ 1:27.23
The Gophers are in fourth place in the team rankings through Event 1.
800 free relay:
1st- Michigan ‘A’ 6:15.80
2nd- Ohio State ‘A’ 6:23.19
3rd- Minnesota ‘A’ 6:25.07
Minnesota(62 points) is in third place in the team rankings after Event 2 and will end day 2 of competition in that position.
Day 2 beginning of session 2 Three events compose session 2: The 500 freestyle preliminaries, the 200 individual medley preliminaries and the 50 free preliminaries. Results(Thursday): 500 free (prelims): Minnesota senior Ray Bertuzzi finished in eight place with a time of 4:20.53. Other notable finishers were freshman Michael McBroom (4:24.12, good for 13th), freshman Matthew Benecki (4:25.05, 17th) and senior Nico Zebley (4:26.87, 25th) 200 IM (prelims): Minnesota senior Alex Wold placed 13th and was the fastest gophers finisher with a time of 1:47.18. Just off Wold’s mark was senior Mark Solfelt with a time of 1:48.73, good for 18th place. 50 Free (prelims): Michael Richards 1st- 19.47 seconds, Curt Carlson 5th- 19.91, Zach Bolin 18th- 20.37, Goran Majlat 22nd- 20.59, Hrvoje Capan 38th- 20.96, Ben Griggs 45th- 21.02 Note- since all events in session 2 were prelims, team scores will not be influenced. Minnesota still sits in third place with 62 points. day 2 session 3: 1 meter diving prelims 5th Kris Jorgensen- 336.85 7th Andrew Brown- 333.15 24th Tyler Jepsen- 240.45 day 2 session 4: 500 free finals, 200 IM finals, 50 free finals, 1 meter diving finals, 400 medley relay. 500 free finals: Ray Bertuzzi placed 4th with a time of 4:18.07. TEAM SCORE UPDATE: Minnesota sits in third with 81 points behind Michigan (156) and Ohio State (120) 200 IM finals: Alex Wold placed 12th in 1:47.20. TEAM SCORE: Minnesota is still in 3rd with 86 points. Michigan has stretched the gap and now has 209 team points. 50 free finals: Michael Richards won the event in 19.53 seconds and teammate Curt Carlson placed in 6th with a time 19.94. TEAM SCORE: Minnesota sits in third place with 119 points and is 29 points ahead of 4th place Penn State. 1 Meter diving finals: Kris Joergensen finished in 7th with a score of 343.50. TEAM SCORE: Minnesota has narrowed the gap but not by much. The Gophers still occupy third place at 148 points. Ohio State has taken the lead (240.5) from Michigan (234.5) 400 medley relay finals: Minnesota finished in third place with a time of 3:11.42. That team was composed of Karl Burdis, Ivan Gutsea, Nadav Kochavi and Curt Carlson. The finish brought the Gophers to 179 points, and they sit in third place. The 400 medley relay was the last event from session 4 and concluded Thursday’s action. The next finals will be Friday as part of session 7 which will kick off with the 200 freestyle relay. Beginning of day 3 (Friday). Sessions 5 and 6, held earlier today, were prelim rounds that have set the final fields. Session 7 contains the finals rounds for Friday’s events. Results (Friday): 400 IM: Alex Wold finished 4th with a time of 3.47.77, but Michigan swimmers took first and second. Michigan is the overall leader and Minnesota is still in third place. 100 flly: Minnesota junior Kevin Baseheart placed 8th in the event with a time of 48.36 second and earned 11 points. Unfortunately for the Gophers, Michigan and Ohio State secured every single one of the top 7 spots in front of Baseheart save 3rd, where Michigan State placed. TEAM SCORE: Minnesota is in third with 212 trailing only Ohio State and Michigan. 200 free: Hrvoje Capan placed 8th for the Gophers and earned 11 points with a time of 1:37.61. Ray Bertuzzi won the B Final with a time of 1:36.42 and earned 8 points. 100 yard breast stroke: Minnesota’s Ivan Gutesa placed third, finishing in 53.57 seconds. Ohio State received the top two spots in the event. TEAM SCORE: Michigan in first with 459.5 points and Ohio State (2nd, 448.5) are followed by Minnesota with 255 points. 100 backstroke: Karl Bundis of the Gophers finished the event in 6th place in a time of 48.51. 3 meter diving finals: Andrew Brown finished sixth with a score of 395.70 earning the Gophers 13 points. Kris Jorgensen just missed the top 10, finishing with a score of 353.60, good for 11th place and 6 team points. 200 freestyle relay: On the final event of day 3, Minnesota’s relay team composed of Michael Richards, Curt Carlson, Zach Bolin and Kevin Baseheart finished second to Ohio State’s top relay team; they recorded a time of 1:18.37. TEAM SCORE: Minnesota is in third place with 321 points. Ohio State and Michigan have really distanced themselves from the pack, each finishing Friday’s day of competition with more than 500 points.
