University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head West For NCAA Championships
3/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
GOPHERS SEEK TOP 10 FINISH AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Minnesota will pursue a seventh top 10 finish in the last nine years at the NCAA Championships this week in Federal Way, Wash. The Gophers, who finished 10th at the NCAA Championships a year ago, are coming off a third place finish at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor.
Seven All-Americans return for the Gophers, including senior David Plummer who has a career haul of 10 All-America awards. The seven past All-Americans own a combined 28 All-America certificates. Of the 13 swimmers, nine boast NCAA experience.
The 2008 NCAA Championships will be held at Weyerhaeuser Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. The University of Washington will serve as the host institution.
GOPHERS LEAD BIG TEN WITH 13 NCAA SWIMMING QUALIFIERS
Thirteen University of Minnesota swimmers earned invitations to the 2008 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships as announced by the NCAA on March 13. The ninth-ranked Gophers will look to improve on a 10th place finish from last year.
Minnesota's 13 athletes ranks sixth overall and the most among Big Ten schools. Only Florida (17), Texas (16), Auburn (15), Arizona (14) and Stanford (14) will have more swimmers competing.
Seniors David Plummer (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Russ Payne (Broomfield, Colo.), Tyler Schmidt (Topeka, Kan.), Jason Timmer (Sauk Rapids, Minn.) and Mike Woodson (St. Louis, Mo.), juniors Mike Holmes (Eagan, Minn.), Colin Lee-To (Excelsior, Minn.), Steve Miller (Windham, N.H.), Anthony Portela (Lawrence, Kan.) and Jon Roberts (Raleigh, N.C.), sophomore Ray Betuzzi (Calgary, Alberta) and freshmen Curt Carlson (Maple Grove, Minn.) and Michael Richards (Falcon Heights, Minn.) will compete in Federal Way. Schmidt, Roberts, Woodson and Plummer will swim a minimum of five events apiece.
Minnesota qualified all five of its relays for the NCAA Championships for the sixth straight year. All of them enter the NCAA meet with top 10 seeds. Only five other schools had all five relays invited, joining Michigan, Auburn, California, Stanford and Tennessee.
Several Gophers own high seeds at the NCAA meet. Roberts, a three-time All-American and 2008 Big Ten runner-up in the 100 breaststroke, is ranked seventh entering the NCAA meet in the 100 breast. He finished sixth in the event last year while at Auburn and also earned a 15th place finish in the 200 breast and 14th in the 200 IM. Holmes holds the top seed for Minnesota at the meet, owning the fifth-best time of 14:55.60 in the 1650 freestyle. He placed ninth in the event last year.
Plummer is Minnesota's most decorated swimmer, owning 10 All-America honors. He placed fifth in the 200 back at the NCAA meet last year and ninth in the 100 back. Payne is in search of his first All-America honor and will be ranked 12th in the 200 individual medley, 10th in the 400 individual medley and 22nd in the 200 backstroke.
GOPHERS AT NCAAS
Minnesota has made 16 consecutive top 15 finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a 10th place finish in 2007 with 131 points. Minnesota finished third at the Big Ten Championships two weeks ago in Ann Arbor, Mich. Since 1989, at least six Gophers have earned All-America awards. Last year, 12 Minnesota swimmers and divers picked up 12 All-America certificates.
Minnesota’s top showing at the NCAA Championships in 1963 and 1943 with third place finishes. Recently, the Gophers took sixth in 1992, seventh in 1994, 2000 and 2003.
THE BIG TEN AND THE NCAA MEET
Minnesota has made 10 top 10 finishes and 16 top 15 finishes since 1992 at the NCAA Championships. The top 10 showings rank second to Michigan (14) while both schools have made 16 straight top 15 finishes. Only Northwestern has made a top 10 finish at the NCAAs since 1992 with three while only Northwestern (4), Indiana (2), Iowa (1), Penn State (1), Ohio State (1) and Wisconsin (1) have placed in the top 15.
PLUMMER LEADS RETURNING NCAA TALENT
Senior David Plummer is Minnesota’s top returning NCAA performer from the 2007 meet. He took fifth in the 200 backstroke and ninth in the 100 back. Plummer has earned six individual All-America awards in his career and has reached the championship final three times. At the 2007 NCAAs, Plummer shattered both of his school records in the 100 and 200 back.
Junior Jon Roberts had an outstanding 2007 NCAA meet while swimming for Auburn. He scored three times individually including a sixth place finish in the 100 breast, 14th place showing in the 200 IM and a 15th place finish in the 200 breast. Junior Mike Holmes is the Gophers’ other individual All-American returning. He took ninth in the 1650 free a year ago.
However, Minnesota’s strength continues to be its relays. All five earned All-America status in 2007, led by a fifth place showing from the 200 medley relay. Minnesota has garnered All-America honors in all five relays each of the last three seasons.
EXPERIENCED BUNCH
Of the 13 Gophers that qualified for the NCAA Championships, nine have competed at the meet before and seven have been All-Americans. David Plummer will be making his fourth appearance while Tyler Schmidt, Mike Woodson and Colin Lee-To will make their third trip to nationals.
GOPHERS FINISH THIRD AT BIG TENS
Minnesota finished third at the 2008 Big Ten Championships at Michigan’s Canham Natatorium with 682.5 points. Although the Gophers were unable to defend their conference title, they did earn a top three finish at Big Tens for the 19th straight year.
Overall, 11 Gophers earned berths in the championship finals (top six). Mike Holmes bettered the second-best time in school history in the 1650 free on Saturday to take runner-up honors to Michigan’s Matt Patton for the second straight year. Senior David Plummer also was the runner-up in the 100 backstroke on Saturday. Jon Roberts took runner-up honors to Michigan’s Scott Spann in the 100 breaststroke on Friday and took fifth in the 200 breast on Saturday.
Other top finishes included a third-place finish by Tyler Schmidt in the 100 free, a third-place finish by Colin Lee-To in the 100 breaststroke and a third-place showing by Michael Richards in the 50 free. Russ Payne won the consolation final of the 200 and 400 individual medley before taking sixth in the 200 backstroke.
The Gophers 800 free relay placed second while the 200 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay all finished third.
Cole Young led Minnesota’s diving efforts with a sixth place finish on the platform and a 10th-place showing on the 3-meter springboard.
HOLMES TO SWIM IN FINAL OF THE MILE
Junior distance freestyler Mike Holmes has made quite an improvement in his three years as a Gopher. Starting as a lightly-recruited freshman out of Eagan, Minn., Holmes has transformed into one of the top distance swimmers in the nation and is seeded fifth in the 1650 free and will compete in the championship final on Saturday.
He burst on the scene as a freshman, shaving 40 seconds off his career-best time to clock a 15:20.09 to finish seventh at the Big Ten Championships. He upped his performance as a sophomore, posting the second-best time in school history (14:58.20) to take runner-up honors at the Big Ten Championships. He placed ninth at the NCAA Championships in 15:01/67, securing his place as one of the top milers in the nation.
At the 2008 Big Ten Championships, Holmes dropped his best time by another three seconds to finish as the runner-up again to Michigan’s Matt Patton. He has his sights set on First Team All-America honors and the school record of 14:45.20. set by Justin Mortimer in 2005. He has a chance to become just Minnesota’s third First Team All-American in the 1650 free, joining Mortimer (2005, 2002, 2001) and Bill Bishop (1997).
SPEED RACER
Freshman Michael Richards had one of the more impressive performances for Minnesota at the 2008 Big Ten Championships. The 2006 U.S. Junior National champion in the 50 free posted three sub-20 second 50 freestyles on the first day of the Big Ten meet. He began the day with a 19.72 in the prelims of the 50 free, a time that ranks as the second-best in school history. Ricardo Dornelas set the school record of 19.54 in 2000. Richards followed with a 19.83 in the finals of the 50 free to finish third. He also managed a 19.82 leading off the 200 freestyle relay on Thursday night, helping the Gophers to a third place finish.
Richards will attempt to become Minnesota’s first All-American in the 50 free since Dornelas placed 14th in 2000. Del Cerney posted the Gophers’ top finish in the event, placing third in 1992 in 19.79.
TITLE TOWN
With the Big Ten title in 2007, Minnesota has nine total crowns, ranking fifth in conference history. Michigan has 33, followed by Indiana with 24, Ohio State with 12 and Northwestern with 10. However, Minnesota has seven 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. Michigan won for the first time since 2003 this past February.
DALE’S THE DEAN
Dennis Dale is the dean of Big Ten coaches in his 23rd 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 seven 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).
13 GOPHERS ON NCAA OFFICIAL INVITE LIST
Thirteen Golden Gopher events are on the NCAA invitation official list. With the Gophers qualifying all five relays and the automatic qualifiers achieving NCAA B cut times in many other events, Minnesota will be heavily represented at the NCAA Championships. In all, Minnesota will swim a minimum of 31 times in the preliminaries. All of the Minnesota automatic qualifiers are listed below:
Swimmer Time NCAA Rk
200 Free Relay 1:18.55 9
(Richards, Lee-To, Schmidt, Timmer)
200 Medley Relay 1:26.37 8
(Plummer, Lee-To, Portela, Richards)
400 Medley Relay 3:11.84 10
(Plummer, Roberts, Woodson, Carlson)
400 Free Relay 2:54.73 9
(Schmidt, Miller, Woodson, Carlson)
800 Free Relay 6:28.07 10
(Woodson, Schmidt, Betuzzi, Carlson)
Mike Holmes 1650 Free 14:55.60 5
Colin Lee-To 100 Breast 53.69 15
Russ Payne 200 IM 1:45.81 12
Russ Payne 400 IM 3:46.79 10
David Plummer 100 Back 47.62 21
Michael Richards 50 Free 19.72 19
Jon Roberts 100 Breast 53.29 7
Jon Roberts 200 Breast 1:57.81 21
Players Mentioned
