University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Earn Three Event Titles
2/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
The No. 10 University of Minnesota women’s swimming and diving team is in second place with 418.5 points after three days of the Big Ten Championships, held this weekend in West Lafayette, Ind. Indiana holds a lead with 451 points heading into the final day of competition. The Golden Gophers added another three event wins to put the total at five between the two days.
Minnesota opened the night with its third event win of the championship when the Gophers gained 40 points in the 400 medley relay. The relay of Hannah Whitehead, Jillian Tyler, Kaylee Jamison and Alison Eggers combined for a provisional qualifying time and a season-best mark of 3:35.12.
“Were just really, really pleased with the way we swam,” Tyler said. “We all came in and did exactly what we wanted to do and we are so glad to be Golden Gophers.”
Along with the 400 medley relay, Tyler claimed her third-straight 100 breaststroke win when she won the event in an automatic qualifying time of 59.35. Her time set a new facility record, which was previously held by Caroline Bruce in 2005. Haley Spencer placed third in the event when she clocked a time and career-best time of 1:00.75. Molly Belk was fifth in 1:00.96, followed by Paige Bradley in seventh (1:01.68). Emma Jackson competed in the consolation and finished 15th in 1:03.17.
“It feels really good (to win the 100 breaststroke),” Tyler said. “The majority of the pool records set here are from NCAAs a couple of years ago (2005) so to break a record that was an NCAA record just a couple years ago is very honoring.”
Kelci Bryant added her second event win in the championship when she won the 3-meter. Like in the 1-meter, Bryant held onto the lead after prelims when she broke a facility record of 384.90. She bettered her score in the finals when she broke her own record and posted a score of 386.60.
“I feel good,” Bryant said. “I actually didn’t perform as well as I wanted to, so that’s definitely something I’m going to work on for the NCAAs, but that’s good enough for today. It’s really hard to judge diving based on scores. Every meet is scored differently so I’m just trying to go out and execute what my coach tells me, and if that happens then that’s great.”
Kaylee Jamison led the Gopher contingent in the 100 fly when she finished third overall. Jamison held a provisional qualifying time of 53.53, while Megan Braun placed sixth in the event in 53.86. Annalise Colton won the consolation final in a time of 54.99. Kelsey Ridder also placed in the consolation finals with a time of 55.21 and 11th overall.
Minnesota had three in the consolation finals in Ashley Steenvoorden, Marissa Davies and Lauren Weis. Steenvoorden finished 10th in 1:47.88, while Davies was 11th in 1:47.98 and Weis was 12th in 1:47.99.
Whitehead led the Gophers in the 100 back when she finished fifth in 53.69. Castina Wabeke also competed in the 100 back when she placed 10th in 54.72.
The Gophers resume action tomorrow at 11 a.m. (ET) with diving at 1 p.m. followed by finals at 6:30 p.m.
Players Mentioned
