The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Men’s Swim and Dive team dominated the Gophers on Friday, scoring 177 points, to their 117, and winning all but one event in the pool.
The team has been off to a strong start this season with a 2-1 record, with wins against UW-Green Bay and Notre Dame, earning them an appearance in the rankings for the past few weeks, most recently coming in at number 22. This impressive performance comes after the hiring of the new head coach Jack Brown this season, who has now won his first border battle.
Brown has an impressive legacy to defend, with the Badgers having a winning streak against Minnesota of eight, dating back to 2018. Along with that, last year, Wisconsin hosted a record crowd for the meet against the Gophers, and had a pool record set by then-senior Chris Morris in the 200 meter freestyle.
Sophomore Yoav Romano, junior Luukas Vainio and senior Dominik Mark Torok led the way this year, each winning all of their individual events. Romano also set a new best time in the 1000 meter freestyle, going under 9 minutes for the first time.
The breaststrokers put on a show as well, completing the only sweep of the meet, finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 100 meter breaststroke, and finishing first and second in the 200 meter breaststroke. Redshirt senior Ben Wiegand won the 100, followed by sophomore Nate Harris, who also finished 2nd in the 200 and junior Brayden Henkel. Torok finished first in the 200.
Not only did the upperclassmen perform, the freshmen made their mark as well. Freshmen Enzo Solitario and Adam Graham have had a promising start to the season, and continued that against Minnesota. Solitario finished 2nd in the 200 meter freestyle and 3rd in the 500 meter freestyle, while Graham won the 200 meter backstroke and placed 5th in the 100 meter backstroke.
Other notable performances in the pool included junior Nathan Welker winning the 100 meter backstroke, and the Badgers going 1-2 in the 50 meter freestyle, via Wiegand and senior Cooper Scharff.
In diving, senior Jan Lanser finished second and third in the 1- and 3-meter springboard, respectively.
The Badgers successfully built on their impressive winning streak against the Gophers, including last season’s exciting meet at Soderholm Family Aquatic Center, which came down to the last event to decide the champion.
Up next, the team will split to attend the Texas Invite and the OSU Invite starting mid-next week.
