Minnesota men, women outswim Wisconsin

The Gophers men’s swimming and diving team opened its season with a 183-105 victory over Wisconsin on Oct. 29 in Madison, Wis.

Minnesota won 13 of 16 events.

Head men’s and women’s coach Kelly Kremer was satisfied with the season opener.

“I was really pleased,” Kremer said. “It was our first real competition on the men’s side, and against a quality opponent like Madison, they did an outstanding job of really competing from start to finish.”

Sophomore Kyler Van Swol led the team with four wins. Van Swol won the 200-yard butterfly, the 100-yard butterfly and was part of both the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay that placed first.

Junior Josh Hall set a pool record at the Natatorium in the 100-yard breaststroke.

“To see a guy like Josh Hall step up and break a pool record in that pool — a very old pool — I’m very happy,” Kremer said.

Hall’s time of 55.18 seconds was also an NCAA automatic qualifying time.

Kremer also said that he was impressed with the freshman class. Freshman C.J. Smith contributed a win in the 1,000-yard freestyle, posting a time of 9:18.36.

Coming off the win, Kremer’s expectations for the season are high.

 “I think we’re going to surprise people and that’s our goal. People are probably not going to give our men the type of respect that they deserve; I think we’ll earn it,” Kremer said.

Gophers women best Badgers, move to 4-0

The Minnesota women’s swimming and diving team rolled over Wisconsin 177-121, winning nine of 16 events and pushing its record to 4-0 (2-0 Big Ten).

Freshman Tori Simenec contributed another strong performance, winning the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard butterfly and placing first in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Simenec also contributed three victories during the Gophers’ last meet.

Sophomore Maggie Keefer posted NCAA Zone Diving qualifying marks in the one-meter dive (315.30) and three-meter dive (301.80).

Sophomore Tess Behrens and senior Ashley Steenvoorden also contributed two wins apiece.

Head coach Terry Nieszner cited this as an example of the team’s balance.

“To have freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors winning events — that just makes us a solid, well-balanced team,” Nieszner said.

The 400-yard relay team, comprised of freshman Jessica Plant, Simenec, senior Marissa Davies and sophomore Erin Caflisch, finished at 3:23:15, edging out Wisconsin’s highest-finishing team by more than three seconds.

“Ending up with the 400-yard freestyle relay — that’s kind of always our goal, and this year again we had two freshmen, a sophomore and a senior, and we came out and beat them handily in the event,” Nieszner said.

Moving forward, Kremer acknowledged that both the men’s and women’s teams have to focus on the “little things,” such as relay exchanges and starts.

Both teams return to action Nov. 4 to take on the Hawkeyes in Iowa City, Iowa.