University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Men Swimmers Blow Away Field, Win Minnesota Invitational
11/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The 1650-yard freestyle was dominated by the Maroon and Gold. Justin Mortimer won the event with a time of 15:24.72, which is a B standard time and provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA tournament. Mortimer was followed in second and third place by Travis Beckerle with his 15:29.09, and Ryan L'Roy who swam a 15:39.66.
In a thrilling race, Todd Smolinski won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:49.37. Adam Mitchell placed third in the event with a time of 1:49.43. Nate Leopold and Scott Young placed seventh and eighth respectively.
The Gophers took the top two spots in the 100-yard freestyle. Allen Ong won the event in 44.94. Ong was followed in second place by Terry Silkaitis and his 44.99 time. Sean McCaffrey and Brian gettelfinger placed fifth and sixth respectively in the event.
Gold Country again took the top two spots in an event. Jeff Hackler placed first with a time of 2:02.03 in the 200-yard breaststroke. He was followed in second place by Mike Brown, who's time of 2:03.18 is a season best. Ryan Plummer placed fifth, while Dustin Chalfant placed sixth.
In the 200-yard butterfly, Matt Taylor and Travis Stensby</ a></ a> took third and fourth place. Taylor swam the event in 1:50.87, while Stensby came in with a season best time of 1:52.49. Mark Dillon placed ninth.
Four Gophers scored points for Minnesota in the platform diving competition. Ben Baumann scored 358.30 points to place 12th. John Schmidt placed 13th, while Ben Herdt and Luke Larson placed 15th and 16th respectively.
The meet concluded with the hard fought 400-yard freestyle relay. Minnesota teams placed in second, third, and fifth. This was the only relay that the men lost during the Minnesota Invitational. The team of Matt Taylor, Terry Silkaitis</ a>, Allen Ong, and Sean McCaffrey took second place in the event with a time of 3:01.47.
The Gophers next competition will be the US Open which takes place at the Aquatic Center on December 5-7 with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.
Male Team Scores Place School Points 1 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MINN 1,126.50 2 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA IOWA 650.50 3 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN WISC 642 4 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI MIZZ 553 5 FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FAU 317 6 AIR FORCE ACADEMY USAFA 226 7 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA UND 144 8 AUBURN UNIVERSITY AUB 93 9 UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE TENN 84 10 TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY TSING 71 11 ST. OLAF STO 35 12 LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY LSU 34 13 GUSTAVUS GAC 32 14 CARLETON COLLEGE CARLE 8
Players Mentioned
