University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Big Ten Championships (10 am/5:30 pm CT)
Gophers Finish Fourth at B1G Championships
2/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Minnesota broke a pair of program records on the final day of the Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. The Gophers finished fourth with 879 points in Columbus, Ohio. Indiana won with 1504 and Michigan and Ohio State tied for second with 1382. Minnesota has finished in the top four in all but one of the last 29 conference meets.
"I'm really proud to coach this group of men," head coach Kelly Kremer said. "The leadership of the seniors has been tremendous, and the rest of the team really came together. I can't wait to get to NCAAs with this group."
Senior Jakub Maly was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team. He won a silver medal in Friday's 400 individual medley, was part of the 800 free relay relay and competed in three individual "A" finals overall. Senior Noah Busch was the Gophers' Sportsmanship Award recipient.
Bowe Becker broke Derek Toomey's 2014 record in the 100-yard freestyle in morning prelims, posting an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 42.24 seconds. The sophomore went on to finish fourth in 42.35 in the final. Paul Fair finished 13th with a personal-record time of 43.33, and Daryl Turner was 16th in 43.98.
Conner McHugh, who Friday broke his own Minnesota record in the 100 breaststroke, did the same in the 200-yard race on Saturday. He placed fourth in 1:53.61. The Gophers scored 82 points in the 200 breast. Maly (1:55.34) and John Bushman (1:56.33) placed sixth and seventh in the final with McHugh. Eric Sande (1:58.81) and Nick Hatanaka (1:59.02) swam in the "C" final and placed 19th and 22nd.
"Breaststroke continues to be one of the strongest areas for our team," Kremer said. "Conner is swimming faster than ever. Jakub and John trained so hard together all year and it was great to see them in the 200 breast final as well as yesterday's gutsy 400 IM."
The Gophers qualified their fifth relay for the NCAA Championships with a fourth-place 2:51.31 in the 400 free relay. Becker, Fair, Turner and Tuomas Pokkinen were .07 seconds away from tying the 13-year-old program record.
"Our relays have really come together and these four swimmers had a big meet for us," Kremer said. "Daryl was an iron man on Friday with five races."
Matt Barnard placed fifth in platform diving with a score of 439.45. The senior scored 92.80 points on his last Big Ten dive. Alan LeBlang placed eighth with a personal-best 358.95 points, scoring 84-plus each on his last two dives. Jeremy Moser finished 16th at 304.55, and fellow freshman Lucas Cooperman also scored, placing 24th with 256.25 points.
"Having both Matt and Alan make the final today finished off a great morning for us," Kremer said.
Logan Redondo led the Gophers with a 10th-place finish in the 1,650 free in 15:07.40. Michael Messner (15:11.14) was 13th and Nick Plachinski (15:21.42) 20th, both with personal records.
Freshman Nick Saulnier turned in the fourth-fastest 200 backstroke time in Gophers history. He finished 11th in 1:43.62.
"Nick had such a nice meet, and he cut almost four seconds off his seed time in the 200 back," Kremer said. "He has a bright future ahead of him."
Another freshman, Matthew Thomas, led the way for Minnesota in the 200 butterfly. He placed 11th in a personal-best 1:46.55. Nick Orf was 16th in 1:47.79, and Pokkinen was 20th in 1:48.08.
Gophers Big Ten Roundup
*Four school records fell in Columbus. Prior to Saturday, the Gophers' beat the previous 400 medley relay best and McHugh lowered his own 100 breaststroke time.
*Minnesota achieved six NCAA "A" cuts during the conference championships.
*The Gophers took home a silver from Maly's 400 IM and a bronze from Thursday's 400 medley relay.
From earlier today, here's @bowe_becker's 100 free record: https://t.co/GuG2O9YVeb
-- Minnesota Swimming (@GopherSwimDive) February 26, 2017
Here's @conner_mcq breaking his own record in a breaststroke event for the second day in a row! https://t.co/Q7XBVHMuhX
-- Minnesota Swimming (@GopherSwimDive) February 26, 2017
One more diving video! Here's Barnard's last #B1GSD dive. 9.5s and 10s! https://t.co/oq6nzzrWZd
-- Minnesota Swimming (@GopherSwimDive) February 26, 2017
Players Mentioned
