University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head To Atlanta For NCAA Championships
3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The University of Minnesota will be well represented at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships held March 23-25 at Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga. The Gophers qualified 12 swimmers and will have competitors in 20 of the 21 swimming events at the Championships.
Leading the way will be senior Adam Mitchell, who qualified for three individual events. He is ranked third in the 200 individual medley, fourth in the 400 individual medley and 10th in the 200 backstroke. Mitchell is a six-time All-American and recently won the 200 IM at the Big Ten Championships. Junior Igor Cerensek will swim three individual events (50, 100 and 200 freestyle) and is ranked eighth in the 100. Sophomore David Plummer qualified for three individual events as well, including the 100 and 200 backstroke and the 200 IM. He is seeded sixth in the 100 back. Plummer was a three-time All-American last year, including All-America honorable mention honors in the 100 and 200 backstroke. Sophomore Tyler Schmidt qualified in three individual events for his first NCAA meet, the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle, as did junior Andrew Knoechel in the 500 free, 100 and 200 breaststroke. It will also be Knoechel’s first appearance at the Championships. Minnesota is also one of eight programs overall and the only Big Ten team to qualify all eight of its relay teams. Leading the way is the 400 freestyle relay that owns the fifth- fastest time of 2:52.90 entering the meet.
Other NCAA qualifiers include: senior Travis Beckerle, junior Dan Berve, junior Mario Delac, freshman Colin Lee-To, senior Neil Osten, junior Ales Volcansek and sophomore Mike Woodson.
Beckerle and Osten are making their fourth trips to the NCAA Championships while Mitchell, Cerensek, Delac and Volcansek are going for the third time.
Auburn leads the field with 18 swimmers qualifying, followed by California and Stanford with 15 while Texas has 14. Minnesota and Florida will be represented by 12 athletes while Tennessee will send 11. Amongst Big Ten programs, Indiana and Michigan will send seven while Northwestern and Purdue will send five apiece.
MINNESOTA AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Minnesota will look to improve upon its 11th place finish in 2005.The Gophers have made 14 consecutive top 15 finishes at the NCAA Championships. This statistic is impressive considering the Gophers did not make a top 15 NCAA finish for 15 years from 1972-87. Since Dennis Dale took over as head coach in 1995-86, the Gophers have scored points at the NCAA meet every season with the exception of his first year. Minnesota boasted a stretch of five straight top 10 NCAA finishes from 2000-04, the best streak in school history. The best NCAA finish under Dale came in 1992, when the Gophers placed sixth. The best team results in school history came in 1943 and 1962, both third place finishes.
Since 1989, at least six Gophers have earned All-America certificates, including the 2000 Championships, when 14 earned All-America certificates and the Gophers finished seventh as a team.
BIG TEN SUCCESS
Minnesota has had a great deal of success at the Big Ten Championships under head coach Dennis Dale. The Gophers have won four of the last six conference championships and six since 1996. Even more impressive is the program’s consistency. They have finished either first or second every season since 1990. In that 17-year span, the Gophers have posted 80 individual or relay conference champions.
MR. VERSATILITY
Senior six-time All-American Adam Mitchell has easily been Minnesota’s most consistent swimmer this year and one of the nation’s most versatile. He has 27 individual wins during the 2005-06 season but what is more impressive is that he has won nine different events. He is unbeaten in the 200 individual medley in nine races this season, including the Big Ten Championships.
Mitchell had a career meet at the 2006 Big Ten Championships. He broke the Big Ten and school record in the 200 individual medley. His time of 1:44.64 broke the oldest record left in Minnesota’s books, taking down Paul Nelsen’s 1994 mark of 1:45.33. Mitchell then finished second in the 400 IM in 3:44.43, being touched out by Michigan’s Alex Vanderkaay by just .05 seconds. His time shattered Justin Mortimer’s 2005 school record time of 3:45.24. Mitchell broke his third school record in as many days in the 200 backstroke. He broke David Plummer’s school record with a time of 1:43.26 to finish as the runner-up to Michigan’s Chris DeJong.
Enterning the Big Ten Championships, Mitchell was ranked in the top 10 in the conference in eight different events and was the top-ranked swimmer in the 200 and 400 individual medley.
The Des Moines, Iowa native finished seventh in the 200 and 400 IM at the NCAA Championships as a sophomore in 2004. As a junior, he took eighth in the 200 IM, 15th in the 400 IM and 12th in the 200 backstroke.
CROATIAN CONNECTION
Minnesota’s recent successes in the pool have had a great deal to with its three stars from Zagreb, Croatia, juniors Igor Cerensek, Mario Delac and Ales Volcansek. Primarily short distance freestyle specialists, the trio has accumulated a combined 14 All-America certificates and been a key element of two Big Ten team championships.
Cerensek recently had an outstanding Big Ten Championships, finishing second in the 50 freestyle, third in the 100 and fourth in the 200. Cerensek has finaled in all nine of his individual events at Big Tens in his career. For his career, he has two runner-ups, four third place finishes and one fourth place mark. He has contributed on six All-America relays but the only thing missing from his trophy shelf is an individual All-America certificate.
Delac owns the second-fastest time in school history in the 100 freestyle (43.15) and is a five-time All-American. He earned individual All-America honors with a 13th place finish in the 100 free at the 2004 NCAA Championships. He has also finaled four times at the Big Ten Championships and has four Big Ten relay titles under his belt.
Volcansek owns the sixth-fastest time in school history in the 50 free (19.85) and has been a part of three All-American relays.
Veterans of the 200 Olympic Games in Athens, Cerensek and Delac will leave almost immediately following the NCAA Championships for the 2006 World Championships in Shanghai to compete for Croatia.
DUAL DOMINANCE
The Gophers went 10-0 during the 2005-06 regular season, running their dual meet record to 80-6 over the last 11 years. The Gophers were 4-0 in Big Ten competition and have not lost a conference dual meet since falling to Iowa in 1997, a span of 35 meets. Overall, the Gophers have won 15 straight dual meets. Their last defeat came at Florida on Oct. 29, 2004.
RELAY U’
Minnesota’s relays have powered its recent successes. The Gophers qualified all five of their relays for the NCAA Championships, making them one of only eight programs to accomplish the feat this year. This is the second straight season to qualify all five relays. Minnesota won the 400 free relay and finished second in the 800 free relay and third in the 200 free and 200 and 400 medley relays at the Big Ten Championships. During the regular season, Minnesota was virtually unbeatable. The Gophers only lost a relay once in 10 regular season competitions this season, a span of 32 races. The Gophers only second place finish came to Ohio State in the 400 medley relay at the Ohio State Invitational. All five of Minnesota’s relays earned All-America honors last season, headed by the 400 free relay that finished fifth. The Gophers won the 400 free relay at the Big Ten Championships and were the runners-up in the 200 freestyle, 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays.
DALE’S THE DEAN
Dale is the dean of Big Ten coaches in his 21st season. He is one of only two active coaches with a conference title under his belt and has entered elite waters for his tenure. With six career titles, he ranks fifth all-time in Big Ten history behind only James Doc’ Counsilman of Indiana (23), Michigan’s Matt Mann (16) and Jon Urbanchek (13) and Ohio State’s Mike Peppe (12). Dale is also a six-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003).
TITLE TOWN
With the Big Ten title in 2005, Minnesota has eight total crowns, ranking fifth in conference history. Michigan has 32, followed by Indiana with 24, Ohio State with 12 and Northwestern with 10. However, Minnesota has six of its titles since 1996, the most in the conference during that span. Among the teams ranking ahead of the Gophers in total conference crowns, Indiana ended a 21-year title drought in 2006, Ohio State hasn’t won since 1956 and Northwestern since 1930.
Players Mentioned
