2021 BIG TEN MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Tuesday, March 2nd to Saturday, March 6th | Prelims 11am | Finals 5pm Tues, 6:30pm Wed-Sat (ET)
- Where: Ohio State University (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Michigan (1x) (2020 results)
- Streaming: Big Ten Network
- Championship Central
- Live Results
Indiana’s Tomer Frankel will swim a double and Penn State’s Michael Daly has chosen to make his season debut on day 3 of the 2021 Big Ten Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
By adding an extra day for individual races this year, the Big Ten has eliminated a lot of the more common doubles from the championship schedule; for example, there is no 100 fly/100 back double.
But one prominent stack still remains: the 200 free/100 fly double.
The biggest name to take that on will be 20-year old Indiana freshman Tomer Frankel. He’s entered in Thursday’s competition as the top seed in the 100 fly (46.81), and then at the end of the session he’ll have the 4th seed in the 200 free (1:36.40).
The good news for him in the prelims session is that there is 5 heats of 400 IM in between, which should mean at least a 30 minute break between races.
More good news for him is that Thursday’s finals session has no relays in it. That means Frankel won’t have to deal with a triple across an hour and a half long session, just a double.
Presuming he qualifies for NCAAs, this double would get a little tricker. In the NCAA Championship 3-day-plus-800-free-relay format, the 100 fly is followed by the 200 free as the very next event, and the session ends with the 200 medley relay, on which Frankel is currently the butterflier.
The other big entry news for day 3 of this meet is Penn State’s Michael Daly opting for the 400 IM over the 200 free.
After his 800 free relay leadoff earlier in the meet, Daly is now the conference’s 6th-fastest 200 freestyler this season (1:34.39).
By comparison, he hasn’t swum the 400 IM yet this season.
He was 4th in the 400 IM at last year’s Big Ten Championships in 3:43.00, however, and with the top 3 from last year’s meet all not racing this season, he’s now in a position to win that event.
After two days of racing at Big Tens, the Ohio State Buckeyes have begun to separate a little from what has been projected as a tight three-team battle this week. The Buckeyes started with a big diving advantage, and they’ve held on to that lead even while using fewer of their allowable entries in swimming so far. On Tuesday, they had 17 prelims swims, as compared to 18 for Indiana and 19 for Michigan.
They had less entries to use, though, thanks to 5 entered divers. Each team is allowed up to 24 athletes at Big Tens, with divers counting as 1/2 of an athlete. Indiana used just 4 divers, while Michigan used just 2. That means the Wolverines have the possibility of 2 extra swimmers (6 extra swimming events) than does Ohio State, while Indiana gets 1 extra swimmer.
Thursday’s entry counts:
- Michigan – 18
- Indiana – 17
- Ohio State – 14
TEAM SCORES (THROUGH DAY 2)
- Ohio State – 628
- Indiana – 547.5
- Michigan – 526
- Purdue – 414.5
- Wisconsin – 345
- Northwestern – 296
- Penn State – 267
- Minnesota – 259
- Iowa – 250
- Michigan State – 102
More and more swimmers seem to be doing this double, I wonder if some day the NCAA will change the current event lineup
Yes, these doubles are tough but they are used to doing 4/5 a day in duel meets so it isn’t that bad when rested.
Also, they aren’t that many years out of club swimming where it’s normal to do multiple events in a prelims-finals session.
Back in early 90’s Lori Holmes representing Northwestern swam 100 fly and 200 free back to back at Women’s Big Ten Champs and won them both. it was an amazing test that she crushed. Love seeing this. Good luck to Tomer.
So the question for a team like Michigan is, could their next best divers who stayed home have scored more points than their 23rd best swimmer will?
Hide the women and children! Here comes the Indiana Hoosiers, led by The GOAT, Ray Looze!