University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Men's Swimming Remain in Seventh at NCAA Championships
3/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
In the 200-yard medley relay, the foursome of Todd Smolinski, Jeff Hackler, Bjorn Lundin, and Terry Silkaitis took fourth place. Their time of 1:26.02 set a new University of Minnesota school record. Texas broke its own school and NCAA record in the event with a time of 1:24.46.
Ryan Plummer placed tenth in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:48.65. In the preliminaries, Plummer set a season-best time of 3:48.16.
Big Ten Swimmer of the Year, Terry Silkaitis, placed eighth in the highly contested 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:36.17.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, a season-best time of 53.43 earned Jeff Hackler his 14th All-America honor. Hackler finished sixth in the event, just 0.4 seconds out of second place. Also in the 100 breaststroke, Brendan Hansen of Texas set a new NCAA record with a time of 51.96.
Also earning his 14th All-America honor was Terry Silkaitis. Silkaitis placed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 47.03.
In the final event of the evening, the team of Matt Taylor, Justin Mortimer, Sean McCaffrey, and Terry Silkaitis placed seventh in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:27.18.
In preliminary action, several Gophers swam well. Justin Mortimer swam a season-best time of 3:50.12, and placed 17th in the 400 IM. Diego Urreta swam the 400 IM in 3:55.11 to place 27th. In the 100-yard butterfly, Bjorn Lundin placed 22nd with a time of 47.83, while teammate Allen Ong swam a season-best 48.85 to finish 32nd. Matt Taylor placed 17th and Sean McCaffrey placed 30th with a career-best time of 1:37.96 in the 200 freestyle. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Mike Brown placed 32nd with a time of 55.43.
"We are pleased with today," commented head coach Dennis Dale. "I thought both of our relay's did very will by earning All-American status. We also put some distance between us and eighth-place Arizona. It is going to be a battle with Florida and Southern Cal from here on out. We're going to come in tomorrow morning and be ready to go to war."
The Gophers will continue competition tomorrow with preliminaries beginning at 11 a.m., and finals set for 7 p.m. Events tomorrow include the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, and the 400 freestyle relay.
