Senior Manny Pollard and junior Matt Barnard helped the Gophers finish 20th at the 2016 NCAA Championships, the team’s highest finish since 2013.
Pollard earned All-American honors after taking fifth on the platform dive with 393.75 points, the highest NCAA finish of his career.
He also was 13th in the 1-meter dive with 344.80 points.
“Coming into the [platform] event today, I really wanted to [make the] final, but more importantly, I wanted to enjoy my last competition,” Pollard said. “While my performance [on the 1-meter] wasn’t my best, I was very happy to get a 10. Another goal of mine was to get a 10 every year of college, and having that [platform] dive be my last dive as a Gopher made it extremely special.”
Barnard placed seventh on the 3-meter dive with 381.00 points and was also named an All-American.
He took ninth on the platform dive with 399.15 points after placing third in the event a year ago.
“Competing at NCAAs is always great. It’s loud, and everyone in the meet is a strong competitor,” Barnard said. “I am pretty happy overall. I came away with more points this year, so I can’t be disappointed.”
In the pool for the Gophers, junior Jakub Maly placed 22nd in the 200 individual medley after tying his own school record with a time of 1:44.53.
The Vienna, Austria, native also finished 18th in the 400 individual medley with a 3:43.54.
Sophomore Conner McHugh took 22nd in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 53.01.
The 200 medley relay team of McHugh, juniors Daryl Turner and Paul Fair, and freshman Bowe Becker placed 16th with a time of 1:26.09.
