The women’s swimming and diving team kicked off its 2015 season outdoors at Florida State University, defeating the Seminoles 212-88.

 

The team was led by Samantha Harding, who began her senior year by winning both distance freestyle events. 

 

Harding finished first in the 1,000-meter freestyle with a time of 9:57.80 and had a winning time of 4:52.09 in the 500. 

 

Another strong performance came from sophomore Brooke Zieger, who captured three individual event titles with a 1:50.92 in the 200 freestyle, a 2:02.51 in the 200 backstroke and a 4:19.13 in the 400 individual medley.

 

“I was happy with how some of my races went, and I’m looking to improve the times throughout the dual season,” Zieger said. “It’s always different 

swimming outside, so that threw me off a bit, but it was also such a beautiful facility.”

 

Head coach Kelly Kremer said one of the things that really stood out during the meet was that some of the returning swimmers, such as Harding and Zieger, 

really stepped up Saturday morning. 

 

He also said the freshmen did a commendable job in their first meet for the team.

 

Zieger said it was especially exciting to watch the freshmen race for the first time, since they make up such a big part of the team this year. 

 

In total, the team has 18 freshman swimmers this year. 

 

In diving, 2015 NCAA Diver of the Year Yu Zhou finished with 325.65 points for first place in the 1-meter event.

 

 

The men’s team was defeated by the Seminoles 158-142. 

 

They were led by junior Jakub Maly, who had two first-place finishes in addition to a second-place finish. 

 

The Gophers swept the 200-meter freestyle, with Maly placing first with a time of 1:40.59, followed by junior Paul Fair in second and sophomore Michael Nunan in third.

Maly had another first-place finish with his time of 3:56.18 in the 400 individual.

 

“I think they were some good times for the first meet in the season,” Maly said. “It’s something that we can definitely build on for the upcoming meets in the season.”

 

For the diving team, junior Matt Barnard led the men’s team with a first-place finish in the 3-meter event with a score of 382.35 points.

 

“This is early [in the] season, and we experienced a lot of travel and an early start to the meet today,” Kremer said. “The teams both handled it as well as we could have. We had some outstanding swims and some really good competition all around.”