Big Ten Saturday Recap: Minnesota Wins Tri-meet; Ohio State 2nd at Notre Dame Invite

Minnesota closed out its regular season with a pair of Big Ten victories Saturday afternoon, defeating Northwestern and Purdue.

The No. 24 men beat Purdue 192-160 and Northwestern 258-93. The No. 18 women beat Purdue 212-141 and Northwestern 283-70.

The Purdue women beat Northwestern 269-84 and the men won 256-88.

Junior Bowne Becker captured the Gophers first top finish of the day completing the 100 free in 43.18. Teammates Tim Sates and Kyle Van Niekerk were right behind Becker in the 2-3 spots to give Minnesota the sweep.

Sophomore Tumoas Pokkinen led the charge in the 100 butterfly with a top time of 47.92. Matt Thomas captured the third place finish at 48.42 while Becker touched in just behind Thomas at 49.14.

In the 500 free Minnesota saw finishes in four of the top five spots. Sophomore Nick Saulnier placed second in the event touching the wall at 4:33.74. Junior Nick Plachinski (4:35.13), freshman Kristian Hansen (4:35.32), freshman Cameron Kelley (4:35.41) touched in 3-4-5 respectively.

Senior Brooke Zeiger started the Minnesota women off strong, finish first in the 400 IM in a time of 4:22.53. Zoe Avestruz moments later gave Minnesota another victory beating out a host of Boilermakers in the 100 free (49.88).

Senior Danielle Nack completed of the butterfly events. Nack’s strong 100 fly finish of 52.69 out touched the competition in over two and a half seconds.

Sophomore Lindsey Kozelsky displayed another dominate performance in the 200 breast out touching the Purdue’s Cady Farlow at 2:11.86.

Purdue’s Emily Meaney opened and closed her five-dive list in strong fashion, winning on the platforms with a score of 327.25. She bested the reigning NCAA platform champ, Northwestern’s Olivia Rosendahl, by 38 points.

Nick McDowell and Kaersten Meitz completed weekend sweeps of the distance freestyle events by both winning the 500 Saturday.

Ohio State second at Notre Dame invite

The No. 16 Ohio State men’s team placed second with 933.5 points, and the No. 11 Ohio State women’s earned a third-place showing with 735.5 points. Notre Dame swept both team titles scoring 988.5 points on the men’s side, and the women’s team collected 1,023.5 points for gold.

In the men’s meet, Iowa was third (691), followed by Wisconsin (601) and Missouri State (409).

For the women, Akron was second (842), followed by Ohio State Wisconsin (650.5), Iowa (395.5) and Missouri State (eight).

Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson won the 200-yard backstroke, winning the event with a time of 1 minute, 54.33 seconds.

Three Hawkeyes posted runner-up finishes in juniors Kenneth Mende and Jack Smith, along with sophomore Michael Tenney.

Mende posted a runner-up finish with a time of 1:46.75 in the 200 back. Smith posted an NCAA “B” qualifying time of 44.18 in the 100 free, before Tenney finished second in the 200 fly with a time of 1:49.18.

Rutgers tops Nebraska on senior night

Rutgers swimming and diving heads into championship season with winning momentum following a 186-167 dual meet victory over Nebraska on Saturday at the Rutgers Aquatic Center.

The session began with a ceremony honoring the careers of the four members of the Class of 2018: Thomasin Lee, Larissa Neilan, Karli Rymer and Addison Walkowiak. Joined by family, coaches and support staff on deck, the seniors walked through a tunnel formed by their teammates before receiving flowers and being knighted by the armor-clad and sword-wielding Scarlet Knight.

Saturday’s winning ways began in the first individual event, when freshman Sveva Schizzano claimed her first event victory as a Scarlet Knight in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16:50.69.

Meanwhile, Walkowiak was busy sweeping the dual meet diving events. She celebrated Senior Day with a win on the 1-meter boards with a score of 309.07, good for her 12th event victory of the season.

Sophomore Clare Lawlor was 2-for-2 in event wins this weekend, taking the 50-yard freestyle sprint in 23.90, her fastest time since a 22.85 at the Texas Invitational in November. Sophomore Sarah Davis was third in 24.48.

Illinois wins tri-meet

The Illini beat Youngstown State 155-85, Olivet Nazarene 180-59 and Butler 192-39.

Monica Guyett won the 1000 free (10:26.96). Emma Curtis won the 50 free (24.36). Sam Stratford won’t he 200 IM (2:05.63) and the 200 fly (2:06.87). Madeline Kuhn won 1-meter diving (278.82) and 3-meter (275.25). Michelle McCord won the 200 back (2:05.54).

Penn State divers win

Penn State senior Connor Scanlon won the men’s 1-meter, while Kamryn Umbel led the Penn State women in the 3-meter on the first day of competition in the Penn State Diving Invitational Saturday afternoon in McCoy Natatorium.

Scanlon bested his teammates and La Salle, Loyola and Drexel to win the 1-meter with 324.25 points, and he posted a score of 338.80 in the prelims. Junior Jack Crow and freshman Bryce Hoch placed third (285.70) and fifth (269.45), respectively. Crow (312.95) and Hoch (285.25) also had strong preliminary efforts.

Umbel (256.45) and sophomore Christina Crowell (241.60) led the women’s 3-meter after the preliminaries, but less than 20 points separated the top five in the evenly matched field that included La Salle and Loyola. The top three positions in the finals were then decided by less than three points, as Sydney Szopo of La Salle ultimately won in the finals with a score of 247.15, and was closely followed by Loyola’s Lindsey Staszewski (245.55) and Umbel (244.55). Senior captain McKayla Mawn (225.15) was fourth and Crowell was fifth (218.00).

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