Day 1 Big Ten Round-up: Paul Powers Thriving in the Shadow of Freshman Giant

2015 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, March 26 – Saturday, March 28
• University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM (Central Time)
• Defending Champion: California – results
• Iowa Championship Central / NCAA Championship Central
• Live feed (Thursday night): Hawkeye Sports
• PSA: What to do when live results aren’t updating
• Live results
• Finals recap

BIG TEN STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1:

• 4th: Michigan 105
• 13th: Indiana 29
• 15th: Purdue 20
• 17th: Ohio State 17
• 22nd: Wisconsin 10
• 25th: Minnesota 4
• 26th: Northwestern 2

Iowa City, Iowa- There’s a freshman tearing up the pool at the NCAA Championships whose name isn’t Caeleb Dressel. Michigan’s Paul Powers is off to a very strong start, under the radar, for the Wolverines.

Powers, along with Dressel, represented their teams in the A final of the 50 freestyle, becoming just the fourth and fifth freshman to A final in the 50 freestyle since 2010, the others being Kristian Gkolomeev for Alabama in 2014, Seth Stubblefield for Cal in 2012, and Vlad Morozov for USC in 2011. Jimmy Feigen represented Texas in 2009, and Cesar Cielo swam in the A final for Auburn in 2006. Making the A final in the 50 as a freshman puts Powers in elite company.

Powers took eighth from the eighth seed in the A final with a 19.44. He swam a 19.32 in the prelims. The A final was Powers’ fourth 50 on the day, meaning he could have been tired from the other three. The Michigan freshman star led off both the 200 freestyle relays on Friday, a 19.23 in prelims and a 19.44 in finals.

That eighth place finish and 11 points are crucial to Michigan’s chances of a top three finish in the team race. Through Day 1, Michigan sits in fourth with 105 points, just three points back of Florida’s 108 and 14 behind Cal’s 119 for second.

Powers won’t swim an individual event Saturday, with his other event coming in Sunday’s 100 freestyle, where he is seeded 26th with a 42.90, so he should be fresh for his next individual outing, depending on his relay swims between the two days.

Quick Hits: 

• Anders Nielsen,  Dylan Bosch, and Bruno Ortiz are all off to solid starts for Michigan as well. Nielsen took fourth in the 500 freestyle with a 4:12.16, while Bosch finished sixth in the 200 IM with a 1:42.62. Ortiz took seventh in the 50 with a 19.32.
• Purdue’s Steele Johnson led a pack of Big Ten divers to the top five on the 1 meter board. Johnson took the title with a 468.15, James Connor and Michael Hixon were fourth and fifth for Indiana with scores of 437.85 and 430.90, respectively.
• Ohio State and Wisconsin represented the Big Ten in the B final of the 400 Medley Relay, with Ohio State taking 13th in 3:07.45 and Wisconsin taking 15th in 3:08.26, a school record.
• The Iowa men failed to advance their 400 medley relay to the finals, taking 19th in the prelims with a 3:10.03. It was the Hawkeye’s only event of the day.
• 1650 favorite Jordan Wilimovsky took 15th in 500 with a 4:17.20 after going 4:15.88 in the prelims. Wilimovsky gets better as the distance gets longer, however, so his place should not raise any concerns about his mile on Saturday.