Minnesota Grand Prix - Day Two

On the second day of competition at the USA Swimming Minnesota Grand Prix, the University of Minnesota men’s swimming and diving team had at least one swimmer finish in the top 10 in every individual event. The Golden Gophers were led by fourth-place finishes by both Curt Carlson and Ivan Gutesa.

Minnesota’s strongest event of the day was the 50 freestyle, which saw four Gophers finish in the top 15. Junior Curt Carlson led Minnesota in the event with a fourth place finish with an NCAA-B qualifying time of 20.26. Michael Richards followed behind Carlson in 20.48, which gave the Falcon Heights, Minn. native a sixth-place finish. Kevin Baseheart won the consolation final in 20.99 and finished ninth overall, while sophomore Zach Bolin finished in 11th (21.20)
      
After finishing third in yesterday’s 100 breaststroke, junior Ivan Gutesa followed up today with a fourth-place finish in the 200 breast in 2:02.01. Finishing behind Gutesa were fellow Gophers Josh Hall in 11th (2:05.46), Zach Weis in 13th (2:05.91), Richards Hills in 14th (2:09.12) and Rob Schaefer in 16th (2:10.39). Former NCAA champion and Bulgarian Olympian Mike Alexandrov finished in second place with a time of 1:57.71.
      
In the 400 individual medley, Gopher captain Alex Wold earned a fifth-place finish with a time of 3:58.00. Senior Rob Schaefer finished in 12th (4:05.70), sophomore Richard Hills finished in 14th (4:09.26) and freshman Michael McBroom finished in 15th (4:11.50).
      
Sophomore Karl Burdis led the Gophers in the 100 backstroke with a seventh-place finish in a time of 50.08. Junior Nadav Kochavi finished in 11th in 51.00.
      
In the 500 free, freshman Matt Benecki led Minnesota with a fifth-place finish in a time of 4:29.98. Alex Wold finished in eighth (4:36.07) and Michael McBroom finished in 16th (4:40.40). Team USA member Michael Klueh won the 500 free in a time of 4:20.34.
      
Minnesota finished 2-3 in the 400 medley relay with the Minnesota A squad taking second in 3:3:18.12, while the Minnesota B squad took third in 3:25.87. The A squad had Karl Burdis, Ivan Gutesa, Kevin Baseheart and Curt Carlson, while the B squad had Mark Solfelt, Josh Hall, Nadav Kochavi and Michael Richards.
      
The University of Minnesota men’s swimming and diving team will finish competing at the USA Swimming Minnesota Grand Prix tomorrow at the University Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. The meet will begin with preliminaries at 9 a.m. and finals will start at 6 p.m. Live stats can be viewed on www.gophersports.com.




Rugile Mileisyte had the highest Washington State finish Saturday Nov. 14, at the second day of the 2009 Minnesota Grand Prix held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. The Alytus, Lithuania native finished runner-up in the 50 freestyle (23.30), 12 tenths of a second behind Chantal Vanlandeghem.
 
The 50 free was a busy event for the Cougars, with seven people making it to the finals session. Freshman Evilina Bieleckaite completed the event in seventh place, while junior Talor Whitaker added seven more points to her meet total with a tenth-place finish. WSU was represented in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 22nd positions of the event by Jennifer Dean, Emma Neely, Jenna Bekker and Melissa Bogert, respectively. Dean also competed in the 500 freestyle where she finished 21st in a time of 5:03.57.
 
Michaela Ahlin took third place in the 400 individual medley, finishing with a finals time of 4:19.35. The time was good enough to meet the NCAA Consideration time standard. WSU newcomer Shelbi Luchini also qualified for the championship final of the 400 IM. The freshman finished with a seventh-place time of 4:28.22.
 
Luchini joined Mileisyte in the 100 backstroke final Saturday night as well. Mileisyte finished fourth (56.11), while Luchini finished 13th (58.44).
 
Jessie Craig and Shawna Keller represented WSU during the finals of the 200 breaststroke. Craig finished in eighth place while Keller took ninth.
The Washington State 400 medley relay teams finished second and fourth in the finals heat, Saturday, just as the 800 freestyle relay teams did the night before. The “A” team consisting of Mileisyte, Keller, Ahlin and Whitaker finished with a time of 3:44.39. Luchini, Craig, Bogert and Neely made up the “B” team which finished in 3:48.78.The meet will resume Sunday with the third and final day of competition beginning at 7 a.m. PT, and finals events starting at 3 p.m. Live results will be posted at www.usaswimming.org.