Minnesota Leads Northwestern, Purdue After Day One of B1G Triple Dual

Photo Courtesy: Jordan Johnson/Minnesota Athletics

MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota swimming and diving teams raced to leads in the team standings Friday night at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center during the first night of competition at the B1G Triple Dual meet with Purdue and Northwestern. Minnesota won 11 events to establish a comfortable lead in both the men’s and women’s meet heading into tomorrow’s events.

Minnesota Press Release

Day one of the B1G Triple Dual between Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern concluded tonight at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. The Gophers have the lead on both the men’s and women’s competition. Competition will continue tomorrow with diving beginning at 11:00 a.m. CT, followed by swimming at noon.

To start the meet, Tori Simenec, Kierra Smith, Danielle Nack and Rebecca Weiland placed first in the women’s 200 medley relay with a time of 1:41.65.

The Gophers’ “A” relay was disqualified, with the “B” relay of Chris Johnson, Eric Sande, Nick Orf and Ryan Miksch taking third with a time of 1:31.87.

In the women’s 1000 freestyle, rookie Brooke Zeiger placed third with a time of 10:00.53. Fellow freshman Brooke Lorentzen placed fifth with a 10:02.33.

Senior CJ Smith took home first in the men’s 1000 freestyle, finishing with a time of 9:04.90. Logan Redondo finished with a time of 9:24.75 for third place.

Jessica Plant placed first with a time of 1:47.41 in the women’s 200 freestyle. Maddie Hoch followed with a time of 1:48.97 for second.

Sophomore Paul Fair placed second in the 200 free, finishing with a time of 1:39.09. Freshman Michael Nunan took home a third-place finish with a time of 1:39.75 in the event.

Senior Tori Simenec finished second in the women’s 100 backstroke with a time of 55.76. Katelyn Holmquist placed fifth with a time of 57.20.

Daryl Turner finished with a time of 47.99 in the 100 back for first place. Senior Chris Johnson tied for third place with a 50.06.

Kierra Smith placed first in the women’s 100 breaststroke, finishing with a time of 1:02.49. Freshman Rae Bullinger finished with a 1:03.90 for third.

Freshman Conner McHugh placed second in the men’s 100 breast with a time of 55.38. Eric Sande placed fourth with a time of 55.97.

Rookie Danielle Nack finished second in the women’s 200 fly, finishing with a time of 2:00.62. Senior Devin Ste. Marie took fourth with a time of 2:01.93.

Andrew Hartbarger (1:49.93) and Brandon Hatanaka (1:50.78) went 1-2 in the men’s 200 butterfly.

Rebecca Weiland had a first-place finish in the women’s 50 freestyle. The senior finished with a time of 22.60. Lauren Votava placed fourth in the event, finishing with a 23.38.

Daryl Turner placed second in the men’s 50 freestyle, finishing with a time of 20.38. Ian Gordon finished fifth with a time of 20.85.

Kierra Smith picked up her second individual win of the night in the women’s 200 IM. Smith finished with a time of 2:03.02. Freshman Brooke Zeiger followed for second with a 2:04.52.

Jakub Maly posted the top time for the Gophers in the men’s 200 IM, finishing with a time of 1:49.96 for second. Andrew Hartbarger had a 1:51.60 for third.

Lexi Tenenbaum placed first on the women’s three-meter board, totaling 316.90 points. Teammates Jessica Ramberg (312.40) and Yu Zhou (295.35) followed for second and third.

On the men’s platform, Matt Barnard finished third with 364.15 points. Manny Pollard (324.10) and Erik Larsen (294.15) took fifth and sixth respectively.

Tomorrow’s events will include: 200 free relay, 400 IM, 100 free, 200 back, 100 fly, 500 free, 200 breast, 400 free relay, women’s platform diving and men’s three-meter diving.

Purdue Press Release

Guillermo Blanco’s two individual event victories as well as an improbable first-place tie between Allie Davis and Kaersten Meitz in the 1000 freestyle highlighted the opening night of competition for the Purdue swimming and diving teams at the Big Ten Triple Duals.

Blanco won the 200 freestyle and the 200 IM, posting a Purdue season-best time in the 200 free. Lyam Dias was victorious in the 100 breaststroke, touching first in an event in which the top five finishers all finished within a second of each other. Marat Amaltdinov took third.

Rhiannon Sheets joined Davis and Meitz as an individual event winner. The senior touched first in the 200 butterfly. Meanwhile, Davis and Meitz went head-to-head throughout all 40 lengths of the 1000 and each touched in a time of 9:51.32. It was a career-best time for Davis and good for third-fastest in program history.

Steele Johnson was victorious in platform diving, his team-leading 11th individual victory of the season. Sean Mokhtri took second and Alec Back fourth to give the Boilers three of the top four finishers.

Caroline Weigand finished as the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke with a personal-best time of 1:02.36, moving into sixth place in the Purdue record book. She also teamed up with Hannah Manger, Kylie Vogel and Anji Li on the Boilers’ second-place 200 medley relay team. Their time of 1:42.16 was good for second fastest on the team this season.

Northwestern Women’s Press Release

Several young Wildcats turned in highlight swims, though Northwestern trails in the team races against a pair of ranked programs following the opening day of a two-day double dual at the University Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

NU is behind No. 16 Purdue, 124-59, and No. 19 Minnesota, 138-45. The Wildcats are facing their second and third ranked opponents in a row after felling No. 21 Iowa on the road last week. This is the final tune-up for the 2015 Big Ten Championships.

The Minnesota/Purdue double dual will conclude with the second half of the meet program at noon CT tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 31.

Northwestern kicked off the meet with a solid 1:42.57 in the 200 medley relay that placed the Wildcats’ squad of Lacey Locke (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), Julianne Kurke (Atlanta, Ga./Parkview), Julia Pratt (Vincennes, Ind./Vincennes Rivet) and Mary Warren (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) in third behind the `A’ squads of each of their ranked opponents.

In the first individual event, Minnesota and Purdue each scored a 1-2-3 sweep over Northwestern, with sophomore Lauren Abruzzo (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) leading the Wildcats with a seventh-place overall 10:07.86. Then, in the 200 free, sophomore Annika Winsnes (Singapore/United World College) was sixth with a 1:49.91 to pace NU.

Locke then gave the Wildcats their first win of the meet with a 55.45 in the 100 back. She trailed slightly at the halfway point before pulling away to touch first by .31 of a second over Minnesota’s Tori Simenec.

Kurke took fourth behind two Gophers and a Boiler in the 100 breast before Ellen Stello (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood) was part of a tight three-person race to the finish in the 200 fly. Stello swam a 2:00.93 to continue her string of 2:00 times in the event this season, but this time was edged out by Purdue’s 2:00.27 and Minnesota’s 2:00.62.

In the 50 free, Warren swam a strong 23.26 to finish second overall behind Minnesota’s Becca Weiland, who touched in an NCAA `B’ cut time of 22.60. Warren’s time paired with a fifth-place 23.52 from Winsnes gave NU a 1-3 finish in the event against Purdue.

Locke had another good swim in the 200 IM with a 2:05.35 to conclude Friday’s individual action. This time she finished behind a pair of Gophers but in front of all Purdue entries to give her another win over the Boilermakers in the meet.

In the 800 free relay to conclude Friday’s schedule, NU’s entries placed fifth and sixth overall.

For the second meet in a row, NU is without its divers due to injury and illness.

Northwestern Men’s Press Release

Following the first day of action in the final tune-up for the 2015 Big Ten Championships, Northwestern trails No. 23 Minnesota, 130-56, and Purdue, 114-72, in a two-day, double dual meet hosted by the Gophers at the University Aquatic Center.

The meet will conclude with the second half of the meet program at noon CT tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 31.

Northwestern began the meet on a strong note with a 1:30.25 and a victory in the 200 medley relay. Freshman Alex Snarski (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) led off followed by seniors Uula Auren (Helsinki, Finland/Mäkelänrinteen Lukio) and Mark Ferguson (Perth, Australia/John XXIII) before freshman Almog Olshtein (Haifa, Israel/Haifa) finished by touching in 20.02 for the fastest anchor leg in the pool.

In a duel between two of the top distance swimmers in the conference, Minnesota’s CJ Smith swam the fastest 1,000 free time in the Big Ten this season to top Northwestern’s Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./Malibu), who currently is slated to enter next month’s Big Ten Championships as the top seed in the 1,650 free. Friday, Smith touched in 9:04.90 while Wilimovsky swam a 9:09.62.

Sophomores Charlie Cole (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards) and Jonathan Lieberman (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) were sixth and seventh overall in the 200 free, then Ferguson went a 49.75 in the 100 back to come in second behind just a Golden Gopher. Sophomore Andy Jovanovic (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) and Snarski were fifth and sixth in the race to give the Wildcats a 1-3-4 result against Purdue.

Auren’s 56.47 in the 100 breast placed him sixth in the field behind three Gophers and two Boilermakers, then Grant Halsall (Laxey, Isle of Man, Great Britain) and Wilimovsky finished 6-7 in the 200 fly for NU.

The freshman Olshtein gave Northwestern its first individual event victory in the 50 free with pure racing, coming back from a deficit at the turn to touch in 20.37 and win by one one-hundredth of a second. Classmate Gage Kohner (Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton Community) finished sixth overall in 21.17 with Jovanovic in eighth in 21.25.

In the 200 IM, Halsall was NU’s top finisher in eighth position. During day one diving, senior John Andrade (Avon, Conn./Notre Dame) was NU’s top finisher on the platform with a 285.90.

The first day concluded with the 800 free relay, where Cole, Ferguson, Lieberman and Wilimovsky swam a 6:45.61 to place third overall behind the `A’ teams from their two opponents.

Northwestern, Purdue vs. Minnesota Dual Meet – Results

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