Cal, Texas Swim to Fastest 200 Medley Relay Times in NCAA at Minnesota Invitational

Cal's Daniel Carr led off the winning 200 medley relay at the Minnesota Invitational. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The 2019 Minnesota Invitational opened with some fast relays on Wednesday in Minneapolis.

The men’s 200 medley relay had three teams within about a half second from each other — including two from the same team — to lead the fast performances.

Texas leads the team scores after the first day with a 174, followed by Cal (132), Arizona (98), Michigan (98) and Iowa (46). Cal leads the women’s meet with 192, followed by Texas (124), Arizona (90), Michigan (78) and Minnesota (62).

Here is a look at the Day 1 of the Minnesota Invitational:

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Women’s 200 Medley Relay

The Cal women touched out Michigan to win the 200 medley relay to open the meet.

Keaton Blovad, Ema Rajic, Maddie Murphy and Abbey Weitzeil won the event in 1:35.24 to hold off the Wolverines. Weitzeil split a 20.56 to anchor the relay for the Golden Bears.

Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil, Miranda Tucker, Claire Maiocco and Daria Pyshnenko took second in 1:35.53.

Texas was third in 1:37.17 behind Claire Adams, Evie Pfeifer, Kelly Pash and Julia Cook.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

Three teams finished within about a half second apart in the men’s 200 medley relay.

Cal touched first in 1:23.12, followed closely by Texas (1:23.53) and Texas “B” relay in 1:23.69 as Michigan took fourth in 1:24.24. The top three times are the top three times in the NCAA this year so far.

Cal started with Daniel Carr on the backstroke leg (21.53) before Reece Whitley dove in for the breaststroke leg in 23.29. Pawel Sendyk went a 19.95 in the butterfly leg and Ryan Hoffer anchored in 18.35.

The Longhorns were just behind with Chris Staka (21.14), Charlie Scheinfeld (23.59), Alvin Jiang (20.23) and Daniel Krueger (18.57) taking second and the second Longhorns relay of Ryan Harty (21.30), Caspar Corbeau (23.23), Maxime Rooney (19.86) and Luke Bowman (19.30) finishing third.

The Wolverines had Eric Storms (21.91), Will Chan (23.62), Miles Smachlo (20.30) and Gus Borges (18.41).

Women’s 800 Free Relay

The Cal women put together a strong 800 free relay to win in 6:56.00, holding off Texas and the Cal “B” team.

Ayla Spitz (1:45.17), Izzey Ivey (1:44.19). Robin Neumann (1:44.22) and Abbey Weitzeil (1:42.42) ton the event for the Golden Bears behind the second straight dominating anchor leg from Weitzeil.

Texas was second in 6:57.04 behind Kelly Pash (1:44.41), Julia Cook (1:44.29), Evie Pfeifer (1:43.60) and Claire Adams (1:44.74).

Cal’s “B” team of Sara Dimeco (1:48.45), Alicia Wilson (1:44.79), Rachel Klinker (1:45.40) and Keaton Blovad (1:45.86) took third.

Men’s 800 Free Relay

The Texas men added 0.81 seconds from their seed time but still managed to dominate this race by more than six seconds.

The Longhorns finished in 6:08.40 behind Maxime Rooney (1:31.96), Matthew Willenbring (1:33.41), Austin Katz (1:32.02) and Drew Kibler (1:31.01).

Michigan finished second in 6:15.96 behind Patrick Callan (1:33.52), Felix Aubock (1:34.84), Tommy Cope (1:33.69) and Charlie Swanson (1:33.91).

The Minnesota Invitational continues through the week.

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