Gophers Dominate Minnesota Speedo Champions Series Event

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., July 24. THE University of Minnesota Golden Gophers dominated the 2006 Speedo Champions Series Central Sectionals held in their home pool in Minneapolis, Minn., over the week. Overall, Minnesota claimed five out of the six relay titles while garnering the bulk of the individual gold medals offered. Meanwhile, competitors eclipsed nine meet standards, while posting 13 Olympic trial cuts.

Andrea Hupman and Yuen Kobayashi each pocketed a pair of gold medals on the women’s side, while Zach Wood, Matthew Stewart, David Plummer and Matthew Engel picked up double-gold for the men.

Hupman opened the meet with a bang by posting a meet-record and Olympic trial cut of 56.73 in the 100-meter freestyle, while also capturing the 200-meter freestyle in similar fashion with a 2:02.37. Kobayashi nearly notched a trifecta by touching right behind Hupman in the 200 free with an Olympic trial cut of 2:02.85.

In other action, Kobayashi ran away with the 400-meter freestyle title in a meet-record effort of 4:19.83, while also demonstrating her versatility by blazing to first in the 1500-meter freestyle in a meet-record time of 16:57.61 – the only sub-17-minute effort of the event.

For the men, Wood raced to first in the 200-meter butterfly with a 2:06.00, while also winning the 400-meter freestyle in a meet-record effort of 4:01.54. Just like Kobayashi, Stewart almost picked up three titles with a second-place performance in the 400 free by clocking a 4:02.39 as well as touching first in the 800 free in 8:25.93. Additionally, Stewart snared a 1500 free victory with a 16:11.45 clocking.

Plummer dominated the backstroke events with an Olympic trial cut of 56.84 in the 100 and a 2:05.42 in the 200, while Engel won both the 100-meter butterfly and the 50-meter freestyle. Engel claimed the 100 fly in an Olympic trial cut of 55.53, while touching out Josh Baseheart by the slimmest of margins 23.58 against Baseheart’s second-place 23.59.

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