HAWAII V. MINNESOTA
- January 12, 2019
- Hosts: Hawaii
- Results
- Scores
- Women: Minnesota 157, Hawaii 105
- Men: Minnesota 142, Hawaii 120
Hawaii, for the second week in a row, welcomed a Big Ten team for a balmy dual meet. Minnesota fought to wins on both sides, though the Rainbow Warriors had strong showings and raced a tough meet.
WOMEN’S MEET
Tevyn Waddell and Chantal Nack had triumphant wins for the Gophers, while breaststroke All-American Lindsey Kozelsky raced a couple non-breaststroke events, allowing for Rachel Munson to step up.
Waddell first split a 23.91 fly leg on Minnesota’s 200 medley relay, which squeaked by Hawaii, 1:41.49 to 1:41.72. She followed that up with a 54.07 in the 100 back, winning by a bit over Hawaii’s Karolina Hajkova (54.36), then won the 200 back by a whopping five seconds (1:57.30). Nack posted a 1:48.02 to take the 200 free and a 4:48.68 in the 500 free, denying Hawaii’s Phoebe Hines the distance sweep.
Hines was 2nd in the 500 (4:52.83), but she had previously won the 1000 by a landslide, going 9:52.30.
Munson, meanwhile, battled with Hawaii’s Kionna Clayton in the breaststrokes. Things were tight in the 100, with Munson getting ahead 1:03.71 to 1:03.89, then she was 2:16.37 for a much more substantial win.
Hawaii went 1-2 in the women’s 100 fly with Lucia Lassman (55.17) and Kasey Schmidt (56.66), and then had Anna Kotonen win the 200 IM (2:04.17), but the Gophers’ lead wasn’t going to go away this late in the game. Minnesota stamped out any notions of an upset with a 3:24.47 in the 400 free relay, winning by more than two seconds.
Notably, Kozelsky didn’t compete on relays for Minnesota, and freestyler Mackenzie Padington didn’t compete at all.
MEN’S MEET
The women’s meet was close, and the men’s was even closer, with the Gophers ending up on top by just 22 points.
Freshman breaststroker Max McHugh was vital for Minnesota, going 54.04 to take the 100 breast and 1:59.04 for the 200 breast. While his 200 breast has been as fast as 1:57.91 in dual meets this year, his 100 breast looks to be a dual meet season best.
Things were tight from the get-go, as Hawaii got out to an early win in the opening 200 medley relay, 1:28.90 to 1:29.17. Metin Aydin was 22.84 leading off for Hawaii, and McHugh had a great 24.22 split for Minnesota. Hawaii’s Reed Wynn and Minnesota’s Bowe Becker had nearly identical anchor splits, 19.64 for Wynn and 19.63 for Becker, but Hawaii secured the win there.
With a lot of back and forth wins, it was the distance free depth that swung this meet in Minnesota’s favor. Right after the medley relay, the Gophers put up a 1-3-4 showing in the 1000 free and a 1-2-3-4 in the 200 free. Nick Plachinski was 9:23.10 in the 1000, and freshmen Kristian Hansen (9:35.15) and Aidan Dillon (9:37.05) were there for 3rd and 4th behind Hawaii’s John Clark (9:33.97). Those were season bests for Plachinski and Dillon, faster than both men went at their mid-season invite. Tim Sates posted a 1:39.58 to lead the charge for Minnesota in the 200 free.
Aydin and Kane Follows were lethal in the backstrokes for Hawaii, going 1-2 in both. Aydin won the 100 (48.51 to 48.95), while Follows eked out a dub in the 200, 1:45.37 to 1:45.80. Aydin later won the 200 IM, too, in 1:50.94.
Becker came through, though, going 20.02 in the 50 free and 44.66 in the 100 free. In the last relay, despite Hawaii’s close win (3:00.77 to 3:01.30), the Gophers did enough to finish on top.