The Gophers men’s and women’s teams entered their first meet of the season ranked among the top 25 swim and dive teams in the nation. The men’s team started the year at No. 22 and the women’s at No. 24. 

The women’s team beat Nebraska 196-104 and South Dakota 251-49 on Friday while the men’s team defeated South Dakota 241-59. There was no men’s competition against Nebraska because the Huskers do not have a men’s swim and dive team. 

The Gophers women’s swimming team was led by Claire Reinke, who won three individual events — the 200-meter butterfly, the 100-meter fly and the 200-meter individual medley. Reinke and Minnesota’s A team finished second behind the Gophers’ B team in the 200-meter medley relay. 

Fifth-year swimmer Kaiser Neverman won two of his individual events for the men and a team event. Neverman finished first with Minnesota’s A team in the 4×50 medley relay and individually he won the 100-meter breaststroke and the 500-meter free. 

The men’s diving team had one-sided performances against South Dakota. Sophomore YuTong Wang, junior Drew Bennett and freshman Braylon Goodno finished first, second and third respectively in the one-meter dive and three-meter dive. 

The difference in the one-meter dive between Wang and the closest South Dakota diver, redshirt freshman Teague Bates, was nearly 150 points. 

The women’s diving team saw a tighter competition against Nebraska and South Dakota. 

The one-meter dive was won by 2024 National Champion junior Vivi Del Angel with a score of 295.15, narrowly outscoring her teammate sophomore Elna Widerstrom (291.10). 

Widerstrom also finished first in the three-meter dive with a score of 330.35. 

Following Widerstrom was Nebraska’s sophomore Antonina Harned and Minnesota’s senior Kate LaMonica, then Del Angel. 

Del Angel said one of her goals is to improve her higher dives, specifically on the three-meter. 

“I want to do different dives like front dive pike. Higher degree of difficulty and more competitive,” Del Angel said. 

Five Gopher freshmen picked up their first collegiate wins. 

Jacob Johnson won the 200 free and 100 fly, Luke Brennan won the 1,000-freestyle and Joe Polyak won the 200-yard breaststroke for the men. 

Men’s swimming head coach Kelly Kremer talked about the high status of his newcomers.

“Johnson, I think he’s the number one short course 200-yard flier in the country coming out of high school,” Kremer said. “Polyak represented the United States this summer at Junior Worlds.” 

On the women’s side, freshman Kamdyn Periat won the 400 free relay while her teammate freshman Livi Wanner picked up her first wins in three different events — the 50 free, the 100 free and the 200-yard relay. 

Alongside the newcomers, men’s swim sophomores performed well, with Tyler Hansen (200 free), Ian Steffen (100 backstroke) and Ryan Slonac (200 IM) earning individual performance wins. 

The Gophers teams won all four relay events. Minnesota’s A team won the men’s 4×50 medley relay and the women’s 4×100 free relay. The B team won the women’s 4×50 meter relay and the men’s team won the 4×100 free relay. 

Gophers fans will have the chance to watch the highly-touted swimming and diving teams on Oct. 11 when the teams compete against Army.