Minnesota Swimming Sweeps St. Thomas in In-State Dual

Photo Courtesy: Luke Jamroz Photography

The University of Minnesota Swimming & Diving program made quick work of the University of St. Thomas Tommies during their Saturday dual, with the women winning by a score of 222-75 and the men taking the meet 228-63.

“I thought today went really well,” said Minnesota coach Kelly Kremer. “We had the chance to gain a lot of experience for both our men and women in some of their second and third events which was great, and it was just a ton of fun. They had a ton of fans in our facility cheering on both teams, and it was just a really good and fun environment for everyone.”

Minnesota didn’t let a single event slip during Saturday’s meet, claiming all 32 event wins on the day. In fact, both sides of the program took the top two spots in every event competed in the dual meet.

Team captain Tom Donker led the way for Minnesota on the men’s side with three event wins, taking the individual titles in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, posting times of 50.74 and 1:50.91, respectively. He added his third as the anchor to the men’s 200 freestyle relay, winning in a time of 1:22.17 with the help of Lucas Farrar, Max McHugh and Kaiser Neverman.

The women’s side saw Minnesota freshman Hannah Cornish and junior Maggie Summit earn three event wins a piece. Individually, Cornish grabbed a win in the 50 freestyle in a time of 23.34, while Summit claimed a crown in the 200 freestyle (1:52.74). The duo also teamed up on both of Minnesota’s winning relay teams, with the team of Emily Cook, Emma Lezer, Cornish and Summit taking the 200 medley relay (1:42.41), and the team of Summit, Olivia Bloomer, Cornish and Pyper Doo winning the 200 freestyle relay in a final time of 1:33.08.

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Minnesota’s Lezer, Doo and Bloomer all earned individual wins as well, with Lezer claiming the 100 breaststroke crown in 1:03.45, Doo taking the 100 backstroke in 57.38 and Bloomer earning the 100 freestyle crown in 51.97.

Along with Donker, the men saw a number of multiple event winning swimmers in McHugh, Neverman, Farrar, Desmon Sachtjen and freshman Bar Soloveychik. Sachtjen, McHugh, Neverman and Farrar all earned a title in the first relay event of the day, the 200 medley relay, which they took in a final time of 1:28.83. Sachtjen also claimed the 100 butterfly crown later in the meet in a time of 50.64.

Soloveychik earned both of his crowns individually, the first of which came early in the meet in the 1000 free (9:23.56). His second came on the other side of the spectrum in the 100 free, where the freshman outpaced his competition in 46.57 seconds.

In the diving well, Minnesota’s Jake Butler claimed both the one-meter and three-meter diving events for the men, finishing with scores of 362.10 and 381.90, respectively. For the women, Joy Zhu and Av Osero split the two events, with Zhu taking the one-meter with 310.50 points and Osero claiming the three-meter crown with 303.75.

With Minnesota winning every event of the day, there were a number of individual event winners for the Gophers as well.

For the women, Summer West earned her first win of the season in the 1000 freestyle (10:30.04), while Maggie Erwin topped the leaderboard in the 200 butterfly (2:07.96). The remaining Minnesota event winners were Paula Rodriguez Rivero also secured first in the 200 back in 2:02.23, Grace Bennin in the 200 breast (2:17.74), Katia Soudakova in the the 500 free (5:07.54), Megan Van Berkom in the 100 fly (55.01) and Rachel Butler in the 400 IM (4:25.22).

The Minnesota men had a number of other event winners as well, with Chris Morris taking the 200 free (1:41.48), Antonio Octaviano winning the 100 breast (56.84), Nathan Kim topping the 200 fly (1:55.50), Josh Johnston touching first in the 200 breast (2:06.54), Jack Brown winning the 500 free (4:39.36) and Sawyer Grimes touching taking the 400 IM (4:05.33).

Next up for Minnesota will be their annual “Pack the Pool” meet, where Big Ten conference rival Wisconsin will travel to Minnesota on Friday, Nov. 5 for their first Border Battle of the season. The meet will kick off at 4:00 p.m. CT at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, and will be preceded by a meet-and-greet with Minnesota’s assistant coach and 2021 Olympic Gold Medalist Bowe Becker.

“We’re really looking forward to opening up both sides of the aquatic center and filling our this place next week,” said Kremer. “We’ve got a great Big Ten opponent in Wisconsin coming in, and as a team, we’re just looking forward to getting them here.”

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Minnesota Athletics. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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