Courtesy: Minnesota Athletics
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will head to SMU on Friday to take on the Mustangs in a two-day dual meet.
Action begins at 6 p.m. on Friday evening and 11 a.m. on Saturday morning at the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center. Live streaming will be available through Pony Up TV, while live scoring will be available on the Meet Mobile app.
In their season opener last week, the Gopher women, ranked No. 24 by the CSCAA, defeated Nebraska and South Dakota in a tri-dual, while the Gopher men took down the Coyotes.
The women claimed the top spots in 12 of the 14 events at last Friday’s meet, led by senior Megan Van Berkom with three individual victories in the 200 fly, 200 breast and 400 IM. The men took first in each of the 14 events, led by freshman Davide Harabagiu who won the 100 back, 100 free, and contributed to the winning 200 medley and 400 free relay teams.
Minnesota divers had a strong start to the season as the Gopher men and women took the top two spots in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. In just his first collegiate meet, freshman YuTong Wang scored a 433.30 in the 3-meter, just 17.65 points shy of the school record of 450.95 set by Matt Barnard in 2016.
Wang’s performance earned him Big Ten Diver of the Week honors, after his score was more than 54 points better than the rest of the 1-meter diving field with a score of 379.15 in his collegiate debut. On the 3-meter, Wang’s next closest competitor was almost 98 points away thanks to his 433.30 performance.
Harabagiu also earned conference recognition following his first collegiate meet, being named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after leading the Gopher men’s swimmers with four total victories, including two individual.
In a tri-dual last week, SMU took down both Oklahoma Christian University and the University of Incarnate Word. Men’s swimmer Jack Hoagland earned a top time in the country, as well as set the SMU program record in the 1000 free with a time of 8:55.63 at the meet.