Abbey Weitzeil Breaks American Record with 20.90 50 Free at Minnesota Invitational; Hoffer at 18.98

Abbey Weitzeil broke the American record in the 50 free. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The 2019 Minnesota Invitational started fast on Wednesday but got even faster on Thursday thanks to Cal’s Abbey Weitzeil and Ryan Hoffer.

Weitzeil broke the American record in the 50-yard freestyle (SCY) in 20.90 seconds to win the event over a trio of Michigan sprinters.

The Cal senior is the first woman to break 21 seconds. She held the previous American record at 21.02.

Abbey Weitzeil dropped 0.26 seconds from her seed time to touch the wall in the record time.

Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil took second in an also-fast 21.60, followed by Wolverine teammates Daria Pyshnenko (22.19) and Miranda Tucker (22.26).

Meanwhile, in the men’s 50 free, Hoffer sprinted to the fastest time of the season, 18.98, to win the event.

Texas senior Maxime Rooney was second in 19.24, followed by Cal’s Pawel Sendyk (19.33) and Michigan’s Gus Borges (19.40).

Here is a look at the other events from Thursday:

DAY 1 RECAP

DAY 2 RESULTS

Men’s Team Scores

1. Texas, 481
2. Cal, 300
3. Michigan, 286.4
4. Arizona, 200.5
5. Iowa, 112
6. Minnesota, 106
7. Harvard, 62

Women’s Team Scores

1. Cal, 457
2. Michigan, 278
3. Texas, 258
4. Arizona, 211
5. Minnesota, 162
6. Harvard, 94
7. Iowa, 90

Women’s 500 Free

Michigan’s Sierra Schmidt held off Texas junior Evie Pfeifer to win the 500 free. Schmidt touched the wall in 4:38.36 just ahead of Pfeifer (4:38.44).

Michigan’s Kaitlynn Sims was third (4:38.73) and Cal’s Robin Neumann was fourth (4:41.87).

Men’s 500 Free

Texas sophomore Drew Kibler and Arizona junior Brooks Fail were both under the previous best time of the season in the NCAA for the men’s 500 free.

Kibler won the event in 4:11.19, while Fail was at 4:11.79. Michigan’s Patrick Callan was third in 4:12.29, ahead of Texas’ Alex Zettle (4:13.14) and Michigan’s Felix Aubock (4:14.00).

Women’s 200 IM

Cal’s Alicia Wilson led a 1-2 finish for the Golden Bears in the 200 IM.

Wilson finished in 1:55.80, ahead of teammate Izzy Ivey (1:56.74).

Texas’ Kelly Pash followed in 1:57.10, ahead of Cal’s Keaton Blovad (1:57.61) and Michigan’s Miranda Tucker (1:57.66).

Men’s 200 IM

Texas turned in a 1-2-2 finish in the men’s 200 IM behind Ryan Harty, Jake Foster and Matthew Willenbring.

Harty won the event in 1:43.51, while Foster, a freshman, and Wellenbring, a sophomore tied for second in 1:43.51.

Michigan’s Tommy Cope was fourth in 1:43.95, ahead of Texas sophomore Braden Vines (1:44.14).

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

The Cal women concluded the session by dropping the second fastest 400 medley relay time of the season in the NCAA, again behind Abbey Weitzeil.

The Golden Bears finished in 3:28.58 to hold off Michigan (3:29.92), Texas (3:32.63) and Minnesota (3:33.38).

Keaton Blovad led off for Cal, splitting a 52.22 in the backstroke. Ema Rajic was next with a 59.17 breaststroke split before Izzy Ivey split a 51.13 in the fly. Abbey Weitzeil threw down a 46.06 to anchor the time for the Golden Bears. It was a strong night indeed for Weitzeil.

Michigan’s relay consisted of Maggie MacNeil (50.81), the third fastest 100 back of the season. Miranda Tucker followed with a quick 58.37 breast. Vanessa Krause went 52.57 in the fly and Daria Pyschnenko split a 48.17 on the anchor.

For Texas, the relay consisted of Claire Adams (51.47), Evie Pfeifer (1:01.07), Kelly Pash (52.14) and Julia Cook (47.95).

Minnesota’s had Emily Cook (53.13), Lindsey Kozelsky (58.42), Tevyn Waddell (52.41) and Jordan McGinty (49.42).

Men’s 400 Medley Relay

The three fastest relay times in the 400 medley were all achieved on Thursday in Minnesota, two of them by Texas.

The Longhorns went 1-2 in the event, just ahead of Cal.

Texas’ “A” team clocked the fastest time in the NCAA this year at 3:01.51.

Texas had its “B” team go 3:03.55 to finish ahead of Cal (3:03.89), all ahead of the previous top times of the year.

The winning Texas relay consisted of Ryan Harty (45.28), Caspar Corbeau (51.08), Maxime Rooney (44.38) and Daniel Krueger (40.77).

The B team had Chris Staka (45.35), Charlie Scheinfeld (51.72), Alvin Jiang (43.82) and Luke Bowman (42.66).

Cal’s relay had Daniel Carr (45.83), Reece Whitley (50.72), Ryan Hoffer (45.06) and Pawel Sendyk (42.28).

But with all of the fast swimming in relays and sprints, the night belonged to Abbey Weitzeil with her American record.

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