After the first completed day of competition, Indiana University leads by just a margin of 4 points over Michigan and 20 over Penn State/Ohio State. With several key events happening today, day 2, look for major shake-ups to rattle the order of the schools that will only continue to shuffle over the course of the remainder of the meet.
Top 5 Teams After Day 1:
- Indiana 120 pts
- Michigan 116 pts
- Penn State 100 pts
- Ohio State 100 pts (tied)
- Wisconsin 98 pts
In terms of looking at where the points may fall come tonight’s finals, we’ve broken each team’s returning swimmers into a category of either ‘up’, ‘mid’ or ‘down’. For those unfamiliar with the terminology: “Up” means a swimmer who is in the A-final, as those swimmers cannot fall lower than 8th barring a DQ. “Mid” is what we’ll call teams in the “B” final, who are bound from 9th-16th places. “Down” will mean C-finalists, who are between 17th-24th place.
Again, here is the scoring break-down for this meet:
Final Scoring: 32-28-27-26-25-24-23-22
B Final Scoring: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11
C Final Scoring: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Relay Scoring: 64-56-54-52-50-48-46-44-40-34-32-30-28
In terms of overall number of swimmers returning, Indiana leads the pack, but not quite where one may expect. Sophomore defending 500 freestyle Big Ten Champion Kennedy Goss had an off-swim this morning, leaving her out of the A-Final. She is still in scoring contention having placed 13th and in the B-Final, but her point maximum now is at 20 as opposed to a possible 32 in the best case scenario of winning a repeat title.
But, Indiana does have last year’s runner-up Haley Lips ready to score the top prize in the A-final, leading the pack with her 4:37.44. She’s chased closely by a pack of Wolverines which includes sophomore Gillian Ryan and just-added-to-the-Michigan-roster-in-January Yirong Bi.
Indiana also reserved 3 of the 8 slots in the 200 IM event, led by freshman stand-out Miranda Tucker. Veteran Gia Dalesandro and freshman Lilly King also are point-eligible in the final to help add to the Hoosier kitty.
Ohio State’s main action will come in the splash n’ dash, as their star sprinter, Chinese native Zhesi Li had a monster swim of 21.73 to lay waste to the field with the only sub-22 mark. With the other swimmers, including Michigan’s Ali DeLoof well behind in still respectable times of the 22-low-to-mid ballpark, the race tonight appears to be Li’s to lose. Li will be joined by teammates Macie McNichols and Annelise Jongekrijg to have a huge point swing potential in the event.
| Team | Up | Mid | Down |
| Indiana | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Michigan | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| Ohio State | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Penn State | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Northwestern | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Nebraska | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Iowa | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Illinois | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rutgers | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Purdue | 2 | 3 | 2 |
Looks like MI has 3 in top 8 of 200 IM as well and as I saw it Haughey looked like she was coasting. Anxious to see how she does tonight. MI also put 5 divers in scoring position.