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Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Army Black Knights
- Friday, October 12, 2024
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatics Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Full Meet Results (PDF)
- Team Scores
- Men: #21 Minnesota 181 – #24 Army 100
- Women: #23 Minnesota 222 – Army 59
A record-setting crowd of 1,058 saw the Minnesota men and women take lopsided victories over the visiting Army Black Knights – though the men’s meet was more competitive than the final score showed.. The meet was stop three of swimming influencer Kyle Sockwell‘s 8-stop “dual meet tour,” each of which have pulled in big crowds (including a sold out opener between UNCW and Duke that was ultimately canceled).
The crowd is believed to be Minnesota’s biggest for a dual meet.
The individual highlight of the day was Minnesota freshman Jacob Johnson, who set a school record in just his second intercollegiate swim meet.
Men’s Meet Recap
Johnson, the co-headliner of a banner recruiting class for the Gophers, won the 200 fly in 1:42.41 and the 100 fly in 46.58. The former race was more than three seconds faster than he was against South Dakota a week ago, and just .12 seconds shy of his personal best of 1:42.29 done in prelims at NCSAs in the spring – where he won the 100 and 200 fly in long course finals.
That shaved .06 seconds off the Minnesota school record set by Kaiser Neverman at last year’s Big Ten Championships.
Johnson’s presence has pushed the versatile senior Neverman into other events. That includes on the 200 medley relay, where Johnson split 20.60 on the fly leg and Neverman split 23.58 on the breaststroke leg. Combined with Davide Harabagiu (21.87 back) and Connor Groya (19.79), the Gophers won that race in 1:25.84. Army was only .14 seconds behind, thanks in part to a 22.50 split from Kohen Rankin on the breaststroke leg and a 19.48 anchor from senior Owen Harlow.
Neverman also won the 50 free (19.91) and 200 IM (1:46.85) individually and finished 2nd in the 100 free (44.04).
He was second to Army’s superstar freshman Johnny Crush, arguably their best recruit in the modern era of college swimming. Crush finished 2nd in 44.02. While Harabagiu had a much better split on the medley relay leadoff, Crush won the individual 100 back by .35 seconds, touching in 46.98.
Crush swam the 400 free relay (splitting 42.90), and Neverman didn’t; the result was a dominant Army win in 2:55.77. Minnesota was 2nd in 2:57.26. Another notable split in that race was Army sophomore Thomas Hadji in 42.99. That is almost a second clear of his best flat-start time from last year’s Patriot League meet.
Crush gave Army their only two individual wins of the meet.
“It was so fun to have the swimming and diving community, our alumni, and supporters, show up in full force tonight!” said Minnesota head coach Kelly Kremer. “The energy really pushed us to some great early season performances! Looking forward to building off this is the weeks to come!”
Other Notable Results from the men’s meet:
- Minnesota senior Joe Rudd is still the alpha of the Gopher breaststroke group in spite of the presence of another high profile freshman Joe Polyak. Rudd won the 100 in 53.08 and the 200 in 1:56.26.
- Open water National Teamer Joey Tepper, a 5th year transfer from Tennessee, is making his presence felt in a hurry for the Gophers. He won the 500 free in 4:21.81, more than six seconds clear of teammate and All-American Bar Soloveychik (4:28.03). Tepper also won the 1000 free, though no times were recorded after the bulkhead came loose mid-race.
- Minnesota sophomore Ryan Slonac won the 200 back in 1:45.23. That’s easily his best time in a dual meet and is 2.7 seconds better than he was in October last season.
- Army’s Daniel Verdolaga was 2nd in the 100 fly in 47.65, which is the 4th-best performance in school history. A freshman, he has a personal best of 46.84 from high school.
Women’s Recap
The Minnesota women dominated the meet from start-to-finish, winning all but one event on the day.
That included a pair of individual wins each from Katie McCarthy and Morgan Thomas.
McCarthy won the 1000 free and the 500 free (4:44.69), while Thomas won the 50 free (22.49) and 100 fly (53.23).
For Thomas, a sophomore, those swims both scared her lifetime bests, which are 22.46 and 53.04, respectively, from last season.
Minnesota split their squad between the “A” and “B” relays, with Thomas on the “B”. It was actually the other relay that won, thanks in part to a 22.37 anchor from Hannah Cornish, while Thomas split 23.48 on the fly leg of the runner-up squad. Along with freshman Livi Warner (22.50 free split), the Minnesota women are building a good, mostly-young sprint group this season.
Cornish (50.62), Warner (49.91), Thomas (49.60), and sophomore Mina Kaljevic (49.32) cemented that progress with an authoritative 3:19.45 400 free relay. That’s already within 1.7 seconds of what they swam for 6th at last year’s Big Ten Championships, and Kaljevic’s split was faster than she swam on that relay at Big Tens.
The Minnesota women were already in near-peak form in several places. Sophomore Elise Jacobs won the 200 back in 1:57.85. That’s within .04 seconds of her best time from last season – which was done midseason, as she wasn’t part of Minnesota’s roster at Big Tens.
The Army women’s lone win of the meet came from junior Catriona Gilmore in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.04.
Other notable results from the Women’s meet:
- Warner out-touched Kaljevic in the individual women’s 100 free, 49.77-49.85.