University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Win Ohio State Invitational
12/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The seventh-ranked University of Minnesota men's swimming and diving team completed a dominating showing at the Ohio State Invitational in Columbus, Ohio, winning with a score of 1,193.5 points. The Gophers won three events on the final day of competition, including individual wins by Igor Cerensek and David Plummer. The Gophers won 12 of the 20 events overall, including a sweep of the five relays. Ohio State finished a distant second with 749.5 points, followed by Notre Dame (601), South Carolina (499.5) and Utah (243).
Minnesota had five of the eight finalists in two events on Sunday. In the 100 freestyle, Cerensek won his second event of the Invitational, touching the wall in an NCAA B cut time of 44.46. He clocked an impressive 44.08 in the morning preliminaries. Tyler Schmidt followed in second in 44.92 and Mario Delac was fourth in 45.09. Mike Woodson placed seventh in 45.48 and Ales Volcansek took eighth in 46.18. Minnesota also had five finalists in the 200 butterfly. Hiro Sugimoto posted a career-best time of 1:48.55 to place second, just off the winning time of Notre Dame's MacKenzie LeBlanc. Zach Wood finished third in a career-best time of 1:48.70, just ahead of Evan Bernier in fourth (1:48.84). Alex Wold placed sixth in 1:50.22 and Adam Weis took eighth in 1:52.42.
Plummer cruised to a win in the 200 backstroke in an NCAA B cut time of 1:44.45. He swept both backstroke events during the meet. Russ Payne placed second in 1:46.73 and Dan Berve took sixth in 1:49.75.
The Gophers capped the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle relay that completed a sweep of the meet's five relays and kept them unbeaten in relays this season. The A relay team of Cerensek, Schmidt, Delac and Bernier posted an NCAA B cut time of 2:56.27. The B team of Jason Timmer, Woodson, Matt Engel and Volcansek took second in 2:59.34, also an NCAA B cut time. South Carolina was third in 3:00.28.
In the 200 breaststroke, Timmer took second place in 2:02.00, behind Ohio State's Daniel Malnik, who touched first in 1:59.17. Drew Knoechel was fifth in 2:03.16 and Colin Lee-To won the consolation final to take ninth in 2:04.71. In the evening's other swimming event, Mike Holmes placed third in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 15:33.50 and Nico Zebley took fifth in 15:45.09.
The Gopher resume competition on January 13 at the completion of their winter training trip at the Rainbow Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Players Mentioned
