Trailing by a point after Friday’s NC State explosion, the Minnesota men battled back to thump the Wolfpack on day 2, racing out to a 192-159 decision.
The Minnesota women doubled their lead after day 1 to win 190.5 to 156.5, keeping a perfect 7-0 season alive into February.
Between men and women, Minnesota closed the meet with a suffocating run of 9 straight victories, many in touchouts, and the final race aided by an NC State false start on the 400 free relay.
Full meet results here, including both days of swimming.
The comeback started inauspiciously, with NC State winning the 200 medley relays on both sides. The team of Zina Grogg, Lauren Poli, Ashlyn Koletic and Riki Bonnema went 1:40.72 to beat Minnesota’s A by a second, while Andreas Schiellerup, Derek Hren, Barrett Miesfeld and Jonathan Boffa went 1:27.98 to top the Gopher men.
Minnesota thoroughly dominated 3-meter diving, with Sarah McCrady‘s 341.40 leading a 1-2-3 charge for the women and Manny Pollard‘s 378.98 doing the same for the men.
Kelsey Liu topped the 400 IM in 4:23.02 for NC State, but Minnesota went 2-3-4 to keep things close. On the men’s side, Brandon Hatanaka pulled out a 3:54.04 to top Christian McCurdy at just the right time to help Minnesota build it’s lead to 9.
Lauren Votava went 50.12 in the 100 free, finally breaking through to win a sprint race for the Gophers after NC State had a field day on those short races Friday night. On the men’s side, though, a fired-up Wolfpack went 1-2 over Minnesota’s Derek Toomey, with Jonathan Boffa going 43.95 and David Williams finishing in 44.42. Toomey was 44.54, and in a testament to how deep the sprints were this weekend, the entire top 5 were sub-45, meaning it took a 44-second race just to put up a single point.
Alexia Zevnik went 1:59.52 to power away with the women’s 200 back, and it began to look like NC State might fire off another run of wins like they did Friday night. But Minnesota suddenly broke through, rattling off 9 straight wins to close the meet.
First it was Carl Newenhouse in the 200 back. The sophomore went 1:46.71 to touch out Stephen Coetzer by just .19. Then Becca Weiland, who’s quietly become a top-tier butterflyer for the maroon and gold, tore away for a 53.26 win in the 100 fly over NC State’s Zina Grogg. By this point the Gopher women had cruised to a comfortable lead, while the men’s meet was still neck and neck.
One night after busting a season-best 1:44 in the 100 fly, senior Kyler Van Swol came out with Act II: a 46.90 win in the 100 fly, another season-best, just beating out NC State’s Barrett Miesfeld.
Rising distance stud Kiera Janzen went 4:53.15 to win the 500 free, and fellow junior Jessica Plant followed her in for the 1-2 finish. The men one-upped that, with CJ Smith (4:27.24), Ben Bravence (4:27.69) and Logan Redondo (4:31.83) putting on a devastating blow and staking the men’s team to a 15-point lead with two events to go.
Kierra Smith, beaten in the 100 breast yesterday, fired back with a 5-second win in the 200 breast, going 2:12.29 to top Kayla Brumbaum of NC State. The knockout punch for the men’s meet was Nick Hatanaka‘s 2:02.56 win in the 200 breast, a half-second faster than his NC State challenger.
With the meet all-but-sealed up, the Gopher teams swept the 400 free relays. The women’s squad of Becca Weiland, Lauren Votava, Tori Siminec and Blake Zieger went 3:21.65, powered by Votava’s 49.7 split to win. NC State was just behind in 3:22.38.
The meet ended exactly how it began: with a winning NC State relay team disqualified for a false start. The Wolfpack women jumped on the 200 free relay to open Friday night, and the men did the same in the 400 free relay Saturday afternoon. NC State’s men fell behind early when Kyler Van Swol led off in 44.1 for the Golden Gophers, and the false start was on second swimmer David Williams as he tried to run down Minnesota. The DQ opened the door for Minnesota’s Van Swol, Daryl Turner, Carl Newenhouse and Derek Toomey to win in 2:56.74. This event was littered with fast splits – besides Van Swol’s leadoff, Minnesota got a 43.5 out of Turner and a 43.6 from Toomey, while NC State had a 43.8 on Williams’ leg and a 43.2 from anchor Jonathan Boffa.
The home win moved the Golden Gopher women to a perfect 7-0 on the season with only a Triple dual with Wisconsin and Purdue still looming. The Gopher men are 6-1 with the only loss coming to #3 Florida back in October.
I feel bad for the kid that did the false start. Word around town is that the flaring temper tantrums on deck are becoming more frequent. Melt downs leading to screaming matches on deck are not unusual. Unhappy swimmers lead to crappy swimming with mistakes. Time will tell.