Senior All-American Jillian Tyler captured three individual titles to lead the Golden Gopher women’s swimming & diving team to a 169-131 season-opening victory at Michigan on Friday. Junior Hannah Whitehead added wins in two individual events.

Tyler swept the breaststroke events, clocking a time of 1 minute, 0.86 seconds in her specialty the 100-yard breaststroke, and adding her second title in the 200-yard breast in 2:13.59. She also won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:05.03.

Whitehead took care of business in the backstroke winning the 100-yard race in 56.44 seconds and later swimming to the title in the 200-yard event in 2:01.39.

Whitehead and Tyler teamed with Kaylee Jamison and Meaghan Radecke to give the Gophers the momentum with a victory in the 400-yard medley relay to open the meet. The relay posted a time of 3:44.39

“We are very happy with our first outing and starting with a win over a quality opponent in their pool,” said Minnesota co-head coach Kelly Kremer. “Jillian and Hannah did a great job, but probably the highlight of this meet for our team was having Margaret Keefer win her first collegiate title in 1-meter diving.”

Keefer, a freshman from Stillwater, Minn., won the 1-meter diving with a score of 319.35.

After opening with the win in the 400 medley relay, the Gophers took control with a sweep of the top three places in the next two events, the 1,650-yard free and the 200 free.

Ashley Steenvoorden swam to an easy win the 1,650y free clocking a time of 16:32.04, over 26 seconds faster and her teammates Loren Brandon (16:59.01) and Lissa Tommerdahl (16:59.30).

Marissa Davies clocked a time of 1:50.68 to win the 200 free, followed by Kristen Steenvoorden in second (1:51.26) and Lauren Weis (1:51.28) in third.

Minnesota continues its swing through Michigan to start the 2010-11 season with a dual meet at Michigan State on Saturday.