University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Win Three Times On Final Day of OSU Invitational
12/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Minnesota finished the three-day Ohio State Invitational strongly by winning three events on the final night of competition. Freshman Michael McBroom won the 1650 freestyle, junior Curt Carlson won the 100 free and the Gophers took the 400 freestyle relay title on this evening at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Gophers placed second overall in the three-day meet with 834 points while Ohio State took the title with 1424 points. West Virginia was third (447) and Notre Dame was fourth (422).
McBroom got the evening session started on the right foot for the Gophers by cruising to the victory with a meet record and NCAA B-cut time of 15:03.95. The freshman won the event by more than five seconds over Ohio State's Stefan Sigrist (15:09.25). The Gophers had several other swimmers with strong performances in the mile. Freshman Matt Benecki finished fourth in 15:28.73 and senior Michael Daup was fifth in 15:29.17, both finishing in NCAA B-cut times. Senior Nico Zebley also finished sixth in 15:37.03. Overall, the Gophers picked up 52 points in the event.
The Gophers continued to dominate the sprint free events, repeating the 1-2 finish they posted on Friday night in the 50 free. Carlson touched the wall first in 44.21 and junior Michael Richards was second in 44.64. Sophomore Zach Bolin placed fifth in 45.24 while Ray Betuzzi won the C Final in 45.27.
The Gophers closed the night the way it began as the 400 free relay team of Carlson, Rchards, Kevin Baseheart and Bolin took the title with an NCAA B-cut time o4 2:56.39. Ohio State was a distant second in 2:59.36.
Sophomore Karl Burdis had a strong swim in the 200 backstroke, placing fourth in 1:46.72, dropping more than three seconds from his prelim swim. In the C Final, Zebley was 20th in 1:51.58 and freshman Sean Nesheim was 24th in 1:52.66.
The Gophers had two finalists in the 200 breaststroke. Junior Ivan Gutesa placed fifth in 2:01.21 and senior Mark Solfelt took eighth in 2:09.19. Rob Schaefer had a nice swim to win the consolation final with a time of 2:04.81. Freshman Josh Hall was 11th in 2:05.02 and junior Rob Schnitzler was 12th in 2:05.36. Freshman Jared Anderson was 15th in 2:06.75 and junior Zach Weis was 16th in 2:07.87.
Senior Alex Wold led the Gophers' effort in the 200 butterfly with a third-place showing with an NCAA B-cut time of 1:47.43. Junior Kevin Baseheart was next in fourth at 1:47.96. In the B Final, Nadav Kochavi took 13th in 1:52.86.
Minnesota finished its competition for 2009 with the Invitational and will head to Hawaii for its annual training trip at the end of December.
Players Mentioned
