Phoebe Bacon, Freestyle Depth help Wisconsin to Sweep of Minnesota

Phoebe Bacon; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Phoebe Bacon, Freestyle Depth help Wisconsin to Sweep of Minnesota

Phoebe Bacon scored a pair of wins, and Wisconsin flexed its freestyle depth to lead the way to a pair of wins over Minnesota. The men’s team topped the Golden Gophers, 163-135, while the women claimed a 172.5-127.5 victory in the border battle.

Bacon won the 100 backstroke in 54.02 seconds. She also won the 200 back in 1:57.17 by more than two seconds over teammate Kaylyn Schoof in a 1-2-3 finish. Bacon was denied a clean sweep by .09 seconds, overtaken on the final 50 of the 200 individual medley by Minnesota’s Megan Van Berkom, who won in 2:01.37.

Wisconsin also dominated the distance freestyle events, epitomized by a sweep of the top four in the 500 free. Paige McKenna was first in that race, and the freshman also won the 1,000 free in 9:47.70. Second in the 500 was Abby Carlson, who had earlier won the 200 free.

Big Ten Swimming

Mackenzie McGonagha won the 200 fly and was second in the 100 fly to Mallory Jump. Lillie Hosack won the 50 free and swam on the Badgers’ winning 200 medley and 400 free relays. Isabel Lampre was also on both of those squads.

Minnesota scored points by taking the top four spots in each diving event. Sarah Bacon was the top scorer on both boards, scoring 371.78 points on 3-meter and 334.35 on 1-meter. Grace Bennin won the 200 breaststroke, was second to teammate Emma Lezer in the 100 breast and added third place in the 200 IM.

“That was a fun meet against a tough rival with a number of really strong performances from both teams!,” coach Yuri Suguiyama said in a team release. “It’s never easy to go on the road in the Big Ten and I thought we handled racing in this environment well. One of the things we stress as a program is staying in the moment and taking it one race/dive at a time no matter what our opponent is doing. That allows you to weather the ebbs and flows of momentum in a competition like this one. We’re back to work for another month and then we’ll be back here again for Minnesota’s invitational which will give us the opportunity to race some of the best teams in the country.”

The Badgers’ distance contingent led the men. Yigit Aslan swept the 1,000 free and 500 free by large margins. Jake Newmark won the 200 free and 100 free.

Wes Jekel scored points all over the board. He led Eric Gessner in a 1-2 in the 100 back in 48.03. He was second in the 200 back and added a top-three sweep in the 200 IM. Gessner claimed the 100 fly ahead of teammate Drew Nixdorf, who had won the 200 fly.

A compelling diving competition was split between the teams. Wisconsin’s Tazman Abramowicz tallied 366.08 points to win 1-meter. The runner-up on the lower board, Jake Butler of Wisconsin, rallied to win the three-meter in 388.20, with Abramowicz second in 377.63.

Max McHugh swept the breaststroke events, winning the 100 in 52.73 and the 200 in 1:56.14. Both are top-five times in the nation this season. He swam breaststroke on the Golden Gophers’ winning 200 medley relay. The anchor on that relay, Lucas Farrar, won the 50 free and was second in the 100 free. Gavin Olson won the 200 back.

“It was good; this was our best performance of the year,” Minnesota coach Kelly Kremer said. “Wisconsin is a really good group on both sides, and they did a good job. It was fun to elevate the competition a little bit. But I’m really proud of our teams. It’s early, but we’re headed in the right direction. We’ll learn from this and keep moving forward.”

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