BIG TEN – MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 27 – Saturday, March 2
- University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Indiana (1x) (results)
- Live results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- Day 2 Scratches
- Thursday prelims heat sheets
Day 2’s finals of the 2019 Big Ten Championships project about-as-equal of scoring as we expected coming into the meet.
Not including diving, and as seeded, Michigan has a 3-point advantage in the session. But they’ll need to do better than that to hold off the lethal Indiana diving group, which put 3 into the A-final on the 1-meter (to 0 for Michigan or Ohio State).
The big race to watch will be the 50 free at the end of the session, where Gus Borges will try to hold off defending champion Bowen Becker and senior newcomer to the conference Zach Apple. The 500 free also brings some intrigue as to whether Felix Auboeck will match his 4:10/4:09 speed that won the last 2 titles in the event, or if he’s more reserved for the conference meet this year.
MEN’S 500 FREE – Finals
- Meet Record – Felix Auboeck, Michigan, 4:09.29 – 2018
- Pool Record – Clark Smith, Texas, 4:09.72 – 2015
- Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 4:15.44
Michigan junior Felix Auboeck erupted in finals of the men’s 500 free, swimming a 4:09.37 to lead a Michigan 1-2-3 finish in the race. That time just misses his own Meet record of 4:09.29 set at last year’s championship. He was out in 1:41.0 and closed in 1:37.3, including a last 50 split (23.23) faster than his first 50 (23.75).
His swim broke Clark Smith’s 2015 Pool Record of 4:09.72.
That swim makes Auboeck the first swimmer in the country to go sub-4:10 this season. Michigan has the 2 fastest times nationally this year, with Ricardo Vargas swimming 4:11.72 for 2nd (he was the fastest in the country coming into the meet). Michigan freshman Kevin Callan placed 3rd in 4:12.53, giving the Wolverines 3 underclassmen (1 freshman, 1 sophomore, and 1 junior) going 4:12 or better.
Indiana’s freshmen held serve where they needed to. Michael Calvillo took 4th in 4:17.22 and James Brinegar took 5th in 4:18.79.
Michigan took a 74-point lead after this race.
Top 8 in finals:
- Felix Auboeck, Michigan – 4:09.37
- Ricardo Vargas, Michigan – 4:11.72
- Kevin Callan, Michigan – 4:12.53
- Michael Calvillo, Indiana – 4:17.22
- James Brinegar, Indiana – 4:18.79
- William Roberts, Michigan – 4:19.35
- Mokhtar Al-Yamani, Michigan – 4:21.36
- Nicholas Hogsed, Ohio State – 4:22.62
MEN’S 200 IM – Finals
- Meet Record – Kyle Whitaker, Michigan, 1:41.14 – 2014
- Pool Record – David Nolan, Stanford, 1:39.38 – 2015
- Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 1:43.88
Last season, the Big Ten Conference, in the whole season, only had 1 swimmer go under 1:42 in the men’s 200 IM.
On Thursday, at Big Ten Championships, there were 3. That was led by a Meet Record from Indiana senior Vini Lanza in 1:41.09 in winning his 3rd-straight title in the event.
Ohio State’s Andrew Loy took 2nd in 1:41.36, while Indiana’s Ian Finnerty took 3rd in 1:41.74. Finnerty split 28.57 on his breaststroke split, but that wasn’t enough to atone for Lanza’s 24.2 freestyle split or Loy’s 23.99 freestyle split when Finnerty ran out of gas to split just 25.16 on the last 50.
All 3 Michigan men dropped time in the final, though on net they lost a point versus prelims. That’s thanks to another big drop from Ohio State sophomore Paul DeLakis, who after taking almost 4 seconds off his seed in prelims knocked another off in finals to place 4th in 1:42.67.
Top 8 in Finals:
- Vini Lanza, Indiana – 1:41.05
- Andrew Loy, Ohio State – 1:41.36
- Ian Finnerty, Indiana – 1:41.74
- Paul DeLakis, Ohio State – 1:42.67
- Charlie Swanson, Michigan – 1:43.33
- Thomas Cope, Michigan – 1:43.37
- Jacob Montague, Michigan – 1:44.06
- Erik Juliusson, Purdue – 1:46.82
MEN’S 50 FREE – FINALS
- Meet Record – Bowen Becker, Minnesota, 18.69 – 2018
- Pool Record – Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 18.67 – 2016
- Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 19.35
Even though his 2018-2019 season hasn’t been as fast as his 2017-2018 season was to this point, Minnesota’s Bowen Becker still had the fortitude to defend his Big Ten title in the 50 free. He swam a 19.11, just barely out-touching the top seed out of prelims, Michigan’s Gus Borges, who was 2nd in 19.12.
Penn State sophomore Gabe Castano was 3rd in 19.20, shaving another few-hundredths off his prelims lifetime best and moving up another spot for the Nittany Lions.
Purdue freshman Nikola Acin won the 50 free in 19.51, continuing a big meet for the Boilermaker swimmers.
Top 8 in Finals:
- Bowen Becker, Minnesota – 19.11
- Gus Borges, Michigan – 19.12
- Gabe Castano, Penn State – 19.20
- Zach Apple, Indiana – 19.23
- Bruno Blaskovic, Indiana – 19.28
- Benjamin Sugar, Ohio State – 19.44
- Ruslan Gaziev, Ohio State – 19.60
- William Roberson, Penn State – 19.75
Men’s 1-Meter – FINALS
- Meet Record – 493.60
- Pool Record – 468.15
Indiana entered the men’s 1-meter just a single point behind Michigan. They came out of the event with a 46-point lead, thanks in large part to a 1-2 finish from senior James Connor (467.60) and Andy Capobianco (458.90).
Purdue’s Greg Duncan took 3rd with a score of 420.65.
Indiana has won 6 out of the last 7 Big Ten titles on the men’s 1-meter.
Top 8 in Finals:
- James Connor, Indiana – 467.60
- Andy Capobianco, Indiana – 458.90
- Greg Duncan, Purdue – 420.65
- Hector Garcia, Penn State – 419.40
- Joey Cifelli, Purdue – 399.25
- Nick Yang, Minnesota – 387.65
- Brandon Loschiavo, Purdue – 337.35
- Anton Hoherz, Iowa – 320.65
Men’s 400 Medley Relay – FINALS
- Meet Record – 3:01.30, Indiana, 2018
- Pool Record – 3:01.23, Texas, 2015
Indiana won their 4th-straight Big Ten title in the 400 medley relay, touching in 3:01.63 for the 2nd-fastest time in Big Ten Championship history.
The relay of Gabriel Fantoni (45.15 – back), Ian Finnerty (50.51 – breast), Vini Lanza (44.83 – fly), and Zach Apple (41.14 – free). combined for a 3:01.69. Of the 3 seniors on the relay (Finnerty, Lanza, Apple), only Lanza was on all 4 winning relays, having swum the butterfly leg on each.
Indiana’s time is by far the fastest in the country this season, almost 2 seconds faster than the next-best team, SEC Champions Missouri, in 3:03.37.
Michigan took 2nd, over 3 seconds back, with 4 non-seniors on their relay.
Top 8 in Finals:
- Indiana – 3:01.63
- Michigan – 3:04.90
- Minnesota – 3:05.46
- Ohio State – 3:06.20
- Purdue – 3:07.70
- Wisconsin – 3:08.08
- Iowa – 3:09.35
- Northwestern – 3:09.98
Scores After Day 2:
The scores sit about where expected after day 2 at the Big Ten Championships, with Indiana sitting 54 points ahead of Michigan, with a 47-point diving advantage making up the bulk of that gap. Indiana still has the advantage of 3 individual swims left from Mohamed Samy, one of their top individual scorers. He didn’t swim any races, including relays, on Thursday.
Ohio State and Purdue moved up all-over-the-place on Wednesday, but still sit solidly in 3rd and 4th place, with big point gaps in either direction of their score.
- Indiana – 544
- Michigan – 490
- Ohio State – 375
- Purdue – 303
- Minnesota – 259
- Iowa – 235
- Penn State – 233
- Wisconsin – 211
- Northwestern – 157
- Michigan State – 105
Anyone know a link to video of the 50 free final last night?
Is that wall in the photo a list of Michigan athletes who went to the Olympics?
Yes
You took the bait. Don’t take the bait.
Caps representing the countries that they represented at the Olympics, yes.
Matt Hurst has done an awesome job with sprint group since his arrival in Happy Valley, Unfortunately an clueless ex boxer drives the bus in state college. Watch the slide to 9th start tomorrow.
IU has the #1 back, breast, and free splits and Lanza’s fly was #2 only because his reaction time was over .4. Pretty impressive.
How would Michigan State do if they competed in Michigan’s high school meet? Top 5? Top 10?
Harsh
The program has been at the bottom forever. Blame the AD. Same for other programs in the conference who haven’t improved their ranking for decades.
If you’ve ever been to their campus you will see that they have huge gigantic state of the art buildings designed strictly for basketball and football. This is while, the swim team is training in a 1930s pool that makes an ordinary ymca pool like IUPUI. They also share trainer facilities with wrestling in the schools very outdated recreation center.
I went to their facility recently. They have done what they could with the pool. But i was left shaking my head when i looked at their trophy case. Not much recent history but tons of past history. Olympic medalists, NCAA champions, American records, etc. But the case, which was right outside the coaches office, had an inch of dust, dead bugs, faded paper and pictures and looked like it hadn’t been touched in 50 years. At least have some pride of your past. Maybe bring some recruits in and tell them there’s not much lately but this is what we want to get back to.
IU up 54 points – Not bad in that they are not rested. Looks like an ez win and then on to the BIG MEET.
Can you go away.
Haha don’t worry bout keyboard warriors 😂 they’re a joke
you consider juniors underclassmen?
I don’t claim the authority to make such decisions. The dictionary, however, seems to be split. Merriam-Webster says freshmen and sophomores. Google says it’s anyone who’s not a senior.
hmm, interesting – I’ve always heard that only freshmen and sophomores are underclassmen
Interesting, since Google also says upperclassman is a junior or senior. So Google thinks juniors are both under and upperclassmen at the same time 🙂
Anyone know what suits Indiana men are wearing?
I’m not watching but is it the new mizunos?
Actually it’s probably Venzo since they’re tyr sponsored
It’s some new black suit?