University of Minnesota Athletics
MSD: Gophers Win Georgia Invitational In Impressive Fashion
12/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
- Click Here for Complete Results
The No. 7 Minnesota men's swimming and diving team won three more events this afternoon at the Georgia Invitational en route to a first place finish at the three-day meet. The Gophers, who won 13 events overall, finished with 1,215.5 points to easily defeat the eight-team field. Florida State finished second with 860.5 points, followed by Georgia with 673 and Harvard with 492.
The Gophers completed a sweep of the relay events at the Invitational and posted the nation's fastest time in a relay for the third time at the meet. This time it was the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Mario Delac, Terry Silkaitis, Neil Osten and Igor Cerensek posted a winning time of 2:54.86 to win by four and half seconds. Earlier in the meet, the Gophers ripped the nation's best times this season in the 400 medley relay and the 800 freestyle relay.
The Gophers had two individual champions on the afternoon, led by Terry Silkaitis who made a statement in the 100 freestyle. He posted the fastest time in the nation this season (43.27) en route to winning the event. His time is an NCAA automatic qualifying mark, his second in as many days. The Gophers went 1-2-3 in the event as well. Cerensek finished second in 44.21, followed by Delac in 44.27. Osten was fifth in a time of 45.20.
Adam Mitchell won his third event of the meet, taking the 200 backstroke in 1:45.45 to touch out teammate David Plummer (1:45.53). Russ Payne finished fourth in 1:47.20 and Michael Woodson was sixth in 1:48.49. Mitchell also won the 200 and 400 IM earlier.
Sean Kelly paced Minnesota in the 200 breaststroke, finishing third in 2:02.46 while Jason Timmer finished fifth in 2:05.00. Drew Knoechel also made the final, finishing eighth in 2:06.76.
Mitchell finished an exhausting meet by posting another solid performance in the 200 butterfly. He took second place in a time of 1:49.55. He was the Gophers' only finalist in the event although Lucas Petersen won the consolation final in 1:49.90, Sean McCaffrey finished 10th (1:51.93) and Payne was 11th (1:52.31) to add some scoring for the Gophers.
In the 1650 freestyle, Justin Mortimer was edged out by Florida State's John Cole. Mortimer's time of 15:12.79 was just off Cole's time of 15:11.05. Travis Beckerle was sixth in 15:42.46, followed by David Moulder in seventh (15:44.62) and Zach Wood in eighth (15:47.45).
Minnesota will not compete again until a dual meet at Hawaii on January 13 at the end of its winter training trip.
TEAM SCORES
1. University of Minnesota 1215.5 2. Florida State University 860.5 3. University of Georgia 673 4. Harvard University 492 5. Michigan State University 275 6. Emory University 267 7. University of California 60 8. Virginia Tech 29
Players Mentioned
