MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – July 31. – UNIVERSITY of Minnesota sources have announced the Golden Gopher men's swimming team will be well represented at the 2004 Summer Olympics, posting five in Athens, Greece.
Sophomores Mario Delac and Igor Cerensek will compete for Croatia. Delac will compete in the 200 free and the 400 free relay, while Cerensek will be a member of the 400 free relay. Cerensek and Delac were outstanding in their first year at Minnesota, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors and first-team All-America honors in the 200 and 400 free relays.
Sophomore Mike Brown will compete for Canada in the 200 breaststroke. Brown finished his freshman campaign in the 2002-03 season, earning All-America and All-Big Ten Second Team honors. Brown took the 2003-04 season off to train for the Olympics. He holds the school record in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:55.63.
Making their second trip to the Olympics will be former Gophers Allen Ong and Martin Gustavsson. Ong will swim the 50 and 100 free for Malaysia and Gustavsson will represent Sweden in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Both Ong and Gustavsson swam in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Ong completed his Gopher career in the 2002-03 season, finishing with nine All-America honors. Ong was a three-time first-team All-Big Ten, swimming with Minnesota's Big Ten Champion relays. He is ninth all-time among the school performers in the 100 free.
Competing one season with the Golden Gophers, Gustavsson quickly left his mark on the program. As a freshman at Minnesota, Gustavsson broke the Big Ten and school record en route to winning the 200 breaststroke at the 2001 Big Ten Championships and was a two-time All-American at the NCAA Championships. In just one year, Gustavvson set the school record in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events.