University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Win Six Events To Clinch Ohio State Invitational Title
12/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
The No. 10 Minnesota men's swimming and diving team won six of eight events on the final day of competition to clinch the Ohio State Invitational at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Gophers, who won 15 of 21 events during the three-day meet, easily won the title over the 12-team field with 1,168.5 points. They were followed by Ohio State (1,074), Denver (429), Notre Dame (401) and Michigan State (300.5). Mike Holmes, David Plummer, Jon Roberts and Alex Wold won individual events this evening.
To start the finals session, Holmes cruised to a win in the 1650 freestyle with an NCAA B cut time of 15:23.43. Ohio State's Mark Neiman took second in 15:32.69 and Nico Zebley placed third for the Gophers in a career-best time of 15:34.68. Freshman Chris Peterson also finished 19th in 16:13.29.
Plummer completed a sweep of the backstroke events, taking the 200 backstroke in 1:45.00 and teammate Russ Payne was just behind in second with a time of 1:45.38. Payne had an outstanding meet, winning the 200 and 400 individual medleys and taking second in the 200 back. Freshman Jared White also reached the final and finished eighth in 1:50.26 after clocking a personal-best 1:49.58 in the prelims. Josh Griffey also placed 10th with a time of 1:50.48.
The only swimming event that Minnesota did not win was the 100 freestyle where Tyler Schmidt was edged by Denver's Blake Worsley. Worsley touched the wall in 44.66 and Schmidt finished in 44.78. However, Schmidt did clock an NCAA B cut time of 44.49 in the preliminaries. Mike Woodson grabbed his third top three individual finish of the meet, placing third with a time of 44.84. Curt Carlson tied for fourth with Ohio State's Matt Voelker in 45.10 and Steve Miller took sixth in a career-best 45.17. Matt Engel rounded out the final in eighth in 45.66. Ray Betuzzi won the consolation final in 45.28 and Michael Richards placed 19th in 46.21.
Roberts also swept the breaststroke events, taking the 200 breaststroke in a meet record 1:58.12 after winning the 100 last night. Roberts time was also the sixth-best in school history and was NCAA B cut time. Freshman Ivan Gutesa posted a time of 2:00.85 to place third and Jason Timmer took eighth in a time of 2:05.62. In the consolation final, Colin Lee-To finished 10th overall with a time of 2:04.29. Mark Solfelt won the C Final in 2:06.63.
Wold had an impressive showing in the 200 butterfly, clocking a career-best time of 1:47.12 to post the win and break the meet record. His time ranks as the sixth-best in Minnesota history. Freshman Kevin Baseheart also posted a lifetime-best time of 1:48.56 to finish third. Adam Weis took 10th overall in 1:50.79 and Anthony Portela took 15th in 1:53.29.
In the 10-meter platform diving event, freshman Drew Brown racked up a solid 329.65 points to place sixth in the 14-diver field while junior Cole Young took ninth with 288.10 points.
The Gophers closed out the meet by completely dominating the 400 freestyle relay. The Gophers' top three relay teams finished 1-2-3, led by the team of Woodson, Miller, Carlson and Schmidt with an NCAA B cut time of 2:57.55. The B team of Baseheart, Betuzzi, Timmer and Engel was second in 2:59.93 and the C team of Roberts, Lee-To, White and Payne was third in 3:01.40. Ohio State's A team was fourth and Denver's A team was fifth.
Players Mentioned
