University of Minnesota Athletics
MSD: Silkaitis Wins Bronze At World University Games
8/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Silkaitis led off with a career-best 100 free split of 49.84. His teammates were Ryan Verlatti, Kyle Ransom and Matt Grevers. The bronze was the first swimming medal for the United States at the World University Games and the first international medal in Silkaitis' career. He will compete individually in the 100-meter free on Sunday.
Although he wasn't assigned to the evening heat, Mortimer’s 8:02.27 morning swim stood for a fifth-place overall finish in the 800-meter free. Mortimer blew away the morning heat by 10 seconds, but his time could not match those put up by Poland’s Przemyslaw Stanczyk and Russia’s Yury Prilukov, who went 1-2 with times of 7:57.00 and 7:57.05, respectively.
“It was hard for me to watch the final,” Mortimer said. “When I can’t race people I know I can really race, and even beat, it’s not easy to see. My splits were the same as theirs for the entire race, but they came back really fast in the last 100. I think I would’ve raced with them and probably even won a medal. But my race (this morning) felt really easy, so hopefully my other races will be even better.”
Mortimer will also swim the 200, 400 and 1500-meter freestyles during the week.
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