After winning their third consecutive Big Ten Championship, the Gophers carried a great deal of momentum heading into the NCAA championships which started Thursday. Despite their success heading into the final competition of the season, Minnesota — never finishing higher than ninth as a team — understood the effort it takes to be successful.

As of now, ninth place is where the Gophers sit in the overall standings heading into the final day of competition.

Minnesota started the competition Thursday night by finishing in 12th in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Junior Kiera Janzen and sophomore Samantha Harding provided quality performances in the 500-yard freestyle where they finished seventh and 12th respectively.

Senior diver Maggie Keefer placed fourth in the one-meter diving competition after placing second at NCAAs last season.

The Gophers finished their opening night at the Aquatic Center by placing 15th in the 400-yard medley relay.

Junior Becca Weiland led the way for Minnesota Friday night, finishing 14th in the 100-yard butterfly. Fellow junior Jessica Plant also provided a solid performance by finishing 15th in the 200-yard freestyle.

On the three-meter springboard, Keefer placed ninth.

Despite only qualifying three athletes for consolation finals during preliminaries, the Gophers' best performance came from the swims of junior Tori Simenec, Plant, sophomore Lauren Votava, and Janzen who worked together to finish sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay. 

That final performance on Friday helped Minnesota hold their ninth place spot.

Georgia currently leads in the team standings with 369 points. Stanford ranks second with 297 while California is in third with 285.