- Meet Results

MADISON, Wis. – Minnesota has always provided a great dual meet each season it appears on the schedule for the Wisconsin swimming and diving program. Not just a Border Battle rival, but an established and consistent opponent.

The Badgers took another step in evening things up in the rivalry's history, as the Wisconsin men topped Minnesota for the second straight season and the UW women knocked off the defending Big Ten champions at the UW Natatorium on Friday night.

"One of the girls came up to me and said, 'You know, my freshman year I was told by two seniors that we'd never beat Minnesota,'" UW head coach Whitney Hite shared. 

"Well, that just happened."

An exhilarating season opener, the men came out on top with a final team score of 159-141, while the women used a relay win in the night's final event to edge the Gophers in dramatic fashion, 152-148.

Three pool records fell for the men and a handful of Badgers captured event titles for each side. Winning two individual titles each were distance swimmers Matt Hutchins and Jess Unicomb, sprint specialists Chase Kinney and Brett Pinfold, plus butterfly swimmer Harrison Tran.

"I'm just proud, because they competed. They were Badgers," Hite said of his team. "I think this was a really good meet. Minnesota is such a good, high-quality program and they're so well coached. They've been good for a really long time. 

"I knew that if we were going to have a chance, we were going to have to be really good. We were."

Wisconsin started and ended its night by sweeping relay events, as the men's and women's 'A' teams claimed both sides of the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. 

The men rewrote two relay pool records in the process. In the 200 medley relay, Pinfold, Jake Mandli, Tran, and Cannon Clifton out-touched the Gophers in 1:29.88 to break a pool record that had been in place since 2004. The men's winning 400 free relay team of Pinfold, Ryan Stack, Hutchins and Clifton won in 2:57.97 also reset the pool record held since 2004 by Minnesota.

Clifton had the third pool record of the night, winning the 50 freestyle in 20.16 seconds to rewrite the record that had stood since 2011.

Another individual standout for the men was Hutchins, who stole the show in distance events with titles in both the 500 freestyle (4:25.50) and 1000 freestyle (9:13.48).

For the women, Danielle Valley had three finishes in the top two. Valley won the 500 freestyle by edging out reigning Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, Samantha Harding, in 4:48.83, which ranks second in the nation this year. Valley finished runner-up in the 1000 freestyle at 9:54.95, which ranks third in the nation this year. She also finished in second place in the 200 individual medley in 2:03.93.

Kinney took home two individual titles of her own, winning both the women's 50 freestyle (22.62) and 100 freestyle (49.90).

Unicomb made the most of her collegiate debut, winning both the women's 100 and 200 backstroke titles. The freshman from Gold Coast, Australia, won the 100 back in an impressive 54.60 seconds and the 200 back in a time of 1:57.45.

Tran captured the men's 100 butterfly title in 48.15 and the 200 butterfly crown in 1:49.19.

Pinfold won a pair of freestyle titles in the men's 100 (44.61) and 200 (1:38.24).

Wisconsin swept the top three spots in the 200 backstroke, as Austin Byrd took home the title in 1:47.48, Todd McCarthy was right behind in second (1:47.80) and Ryan O'Donnell was third (1:49.80).

In a close women's 100 breaststroke race, Anna Meinholz finished second in 1:03.38 and was just out-touched by Minnesota's Rachel Munson. Meinholz was also runner-up in the 200 breaststroke, touching the wall at 2:18.00.

Wisconsin returns to the pool in November for a pair of Big Ten dual meets, as the Badgers will travel to face Indiana on Nov. 13 and Northwestern on Nov. 14.