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Gopher Swimming & Diving Announces Captains for 2020-21 Season
9/15/2020 11:06:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving
MINNEAPOLIS - Head coach Kelly Kremer announced the Minnesota swimming and diving program's team captains for the 2020-21 season Tuesday morning.
The women's side will be led by seniors Brittany Horn and Abbey Erwin, while redshirt junior Tom Donker and senior Eitan Yudashkin will hold the reins for the men's side. Redshirt senior Sarah Bacon was named the team's diving captain as well.
"This team is blessed with such great leadership," said Kremer of Tuesday's announcement. "Our leaders, led by our chosen captains, remained positive and forward thinking as we concluded an adverse and challenging season this past spring. This new season requires every member to be positive, flexible and forward thinking, and I know we have the right leaders in place."
Horn will be entering her fourth and final year with the Maroon & Gold in 2020-21 after a strong junior campaign where the Appleton, Wis. native registered six top-five finishes throughout the dual meet season. The two-time Academic All-B1G honoree and three-year letter winner is coming off a 2020 Big Ten Conference Championships appearance where she set three personal best times in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events.
Accompanying Horn at the post will be Erwin, who tallied 10 top-five finishes through the 2019-20 dual meet season and NCAA 'B' cut times in both the 500 free and 400 individual medley. Two 'C' finals appearances at the 2020 Big Ten Championships topped off the Boise, Idaho product's impressive junior year, and after being named a 2020 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar over the off-season, Erwin is primed to lead her team both in and out of the pool throughout her senior campaign.
On the men's side, Donker is ready to take his success in the pool to new heights after being sidelined by a wrist injury in 2019-20. His strong sophomore campaign in 2018-19 saw him earn his first Honorable Mention All-American nod of his collegiate career at the 2019 NCAA Championships, as the Zutphen, Netherlands native helped Minnesota's 400 medley relay team to a 10th place finish. The backstroke specialist also notched an individual 15th place finish at the 2019 Big Ten Championships in the 100 backstroke, the team's fastest mark of the 2018-19 season.
The final swimmer of the group, Yudashkin is coming off a junior campaign where he earned a pair of NCAA 'B' cut times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events at the 2020 Big Ten Championships. On top of those times, the Kiryat Motzkin, Israel product was a consistent point scorer for the Gophers through the dual meet season, finishing top-three 17 separate times, and possibly even more remarkably, only touching outside the top-five once.
After taking an Olympic off-year in 2019-20, Bacon is back with the Gophers to defend her NCAA one-meter crown. The two-time reigning NCAA one-meter champ, six-time All-American and newly-named Gophers diving captain set the NCAA Championships meet record in the one-meter springboard event at her last appearance there in 2019 (363.20), beating the previous mark which stood for more than 12 years.
The women's side will be led by seniors Brittany Horn and Abbey Erwin, while redshirt junior Tom Donker and senior Eitan Yudashkin will hold the reins for the men's side. Redshirt senior Sarah Bacon was named the team's diving captain as well.
"This team is blessed with such great leadership," said Kremer of Tuesday's announcement. "Our leaders, led by our chosen captains, remained positive and forward thinking as we concluded an adverse and challenging season this past spring. This new season requires every member to be positive, flexible and forward thinking, and I know we have the right leaders in place."
Horn will be entering her fourth and final year with the Maroon & Gold in 2020-21 after a strong junior campaign where the Appleton, Wis. native registered six top-five finishes throughout the dual meet season. The two-time Academic All-B1G honoree and three-year letter winner is coming off a 2020 Big Ten Conference Championships appearance where she set three personal best times in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events.
Accompanying Horn at the post will be Erwin, who tallied 10 top-five finishes through the 2019-20 dual meet season and NCAA 'B' cut times in both the 500 free and 400 individual medley. Two 'C' finals appearances at the 2020 Big Ten Championships topped off the Boise, Idaho product's impressive junior year, and after being named a 2020 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar over the off-season, Erwin is primed to lead her team both in and out of the pool throughout her senior campaign.
On the men's side, Donker is ready to take his success in the pool to new heights after being sidelined by a wrist injury in 2019-20. His strong sophomore campaign in 2018-19 saw him earn his first Honorable Mention All-American nod of his collegiate career at the 2019 NCAA Championships, as the Zutphen, Netherlands native helped Minnesota's 400 medley relay team to a 10th place finish. The backstroke specialist also notched an individual 15th place finish at the 2019 Big Ten Championships in the 100 backstroke, the team's fastest mark of the 2018-19 season.
The final swimmer of the group, Yudashkin is coming off a junior campaign where he earned a pair of NCAA 'B' cut times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events at the 2020 Big Ten Championships. On top of those times, the Kiryat Motzkin, Israel product was a consistent point scorer for the Gophers through the dual meet season, finishing top-three 17 separate times, and possibly even more remarkably, only touching outside the top-five once.
After taking an Olympic off-year in 2019-20, Bacon is back with the Gophers to defend her NCAA one-meter crown. The two-time reigning NCAA one-meter champ, six-time All-American and newly-named Gophers diving captain set the NCAA Championships meet record in the one-meter springboard event at her last appearance there in 2019 (363.20), beating the previous mark which stood for more than 12 years.
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