The Minnesota Golden Gophers traveled to Iowa yesterday, sweeping the Hawkeyes in duals. The women’s meet featured fourteen individual event wins shared by seven Minnesota double winners, ending in a 192-105 rout. The mens’ meet was much more of a fight, with Iowa and Minnesota trading leads deep into the meet. The #20 Gopher men managed to finally seal the deal with depth in the final events of the night, taking the win with 169.5 points over Iowa’s 130.5.
The most impressive swims of the night for the women were early in the meet. Iowa’s lone win was the 400 medley relay, in which the Hawkeye team of Rowan Hauber, Emma Sougstad, Kelly McNamara and Olivia Kabacinski turned in a 3:44.31, which currently ranks them 9th in the nation. Even though the Gophers had the winning time in the rest of the events through the meet, Iowa actually held them to only three of those events being 1-2 finishes. The most impressive of those second place finishes was McNamara’s 100 fly, her 54.88 nearly stealing the win from Minnesota’s Danielle Nack at 54.86. Another Iowa performance of note was Sougstad’s 1:02.56 breaststroke, finishing just behind Rachel Munson’s B-cut performance (1:02.27) in the 100. Nack and Munson also picked up the wins in the longer distances of their respective strokes.
Minnesota’s most impressive athlete of the night was Samantha Harding, who won both the 1650 and 500 freestyles. Her 4:51.79 in the 500 ranks her at #22, but her mile is the top time in the nation at 16:36.33.
Other Minnesota double winners included Lauren Votava in the 200 (1:50.23) and 100 (50.08) freestyles; Brooke Zeiger in the 200 back (2:02.32) and 200 IM (2:04.39;) freshman Zoe Avestruz taking the 50 free (23.43) and 100 back (55.31;) and diver Yu Zhou taking both the 1 and 3-meter events. Minnesota also ended the night with the #14 ranked 400 free relay, with the team of Avestruz, Nack, Votava and Kaia Grobe finishing in 3:24.57.
The men’s meet was closer than the final score indicates and was certainly worthy of a B1G match-up. The Iowa medley relay team of Kenneth Mende, Jack Smith, Jerzy Twarowski and Roman Trussov made it clear they were ready to push the Gophers when they touched the wall at 3:15.96, which currently ranks the Hawkeyes #4 nationally.
Minnesota immediately answered with wins in the next three events, beginning with Michael Messner turning in the #9 time in the NCAA for the mile at 15:46.35. The Gophers were also able to take first and second for the 200 free with Jacub Maly and Ben Bravence turning in 1:39.54 and 1:39.66 respectively, just before Daryl Turner won the 100 back with 48.39.
Iowa struck back with three wins of their own, starting with Senior Roman Trussov taking the win at 55.98 for the 100 breast. Hawkeye Jerz Twarowski then held off Minnesota’s Nick Orf in the 200 fly, out-touching his 1:48.94 with his own 1:48.29. Iowa also managed to finish 1-2 in the 50 freestyle, with senior Jack Allen first at 20.51, and teammate Jackson Halsmer holding back Minnesota’s Paul Fair by one hundredth, 20.65 to 20.66.
Minnesota capitalized on diving points. Double winner Matt Barnard led a 1-2 sweep of the 3-meter with his 398.83 points and a 1-3 sweep on the 1-meter with 378.60.
The 100 free proved to be a testament to the intensity of this dual, as Minnesota’s Paul Fair and Iowa’s Jack Smith managed to tie at 45.29 for the win. From this point, the lead changed hands a few times. Iowa’s Kenneth Mende won the 200 back in 1:49.37 putting Iowa in the lead, with Minnesota stealing it back on two 1,3,4 finishes. Connor McHugh led their tough scoring in the 200 breast at 2:00.58, barely out-touching Iowas’s Trussov at 2:00.85, both times managing top 20 NCAA rankings. The Gopher’s then took the lead with another 1,3,4 in the 500, led by Messner’s 4:33.59, stealing the team score lead in the process.
Iowa then answered with a 1,3,4 finish of their own to steal it back, this time with Twarowski and Minnesota’s Daryl Turner both turning in B cuts and top 16 ranked times at 48.04 and 48.18 respectively.
It took a 1-3 sweep of the 200 IM to finally put Minnesota over the top, with Jacub Maly and Brian Poon both turning in times ranked in the top 16 as well at 1:49.58 and 1:49.84.
The meet finished with Minnesota and Iowa turning in the #9 and #10 ranked 400 free relay times of the season, with the Minnesota team of Turner, Fair, Noah Busch and Hunter Doerr winning on 2:58.93 over the team of Matt Kamin, David Ernstsson, Halsmer and Smith at 2:59.40.