THIS WEEK
Wed-Sat., Feb. 15-18 — at Big Ten Championships (West Lafayette, Ind.), 11 a.m./6:30 p.m.
Buy Tickets | Championships Central | Live Results: Swimming : Diving
Live Video | TV: Big Ten Network (Airs Sunday, Feb. 19, 10:30 a.m. ET)
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The defending Big Ten champion and No. 6-ranked University of Michigan women’s swimming and diving team will begin its pursuit of a second consecutive conference crown at the 2017 Big Ten Championships, to be held Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 15-18) at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center in West Lafayette, Indiana. A full event schedule can be found below.
The Wolverines will enter the event as the highest-ranked team in the Big Ten. They are aiming to win back-to-back Big Ten titles for the first time since 1997-98.
The Big Ten Network will air a condensed version of the meet on Sunday (Feb. 19) at 10:30 a.m. ET. Bernie Guenther (play-by-play), former Indiana swimmer Margaux Farrell (swimming color), former Minnesota men’s diver Manny Pollard (diving color) and Gabriella DiGiovanni (reporter) will be on the call. The first six sessions will be streamed online via BTN Plus, while the seventh and final session will be shown live on BTN2Go.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday, Feb. 15 (6:30 p.m.)
200-yard Medley Relay
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Thursday, Feb. 16 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
One-Meter Diving (1 p.m.)
400-yard Medley Relay
Friday, Feb. 17 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
100-yard Butterfly
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
Three-Meter Diving (1 p.m.)
200-yard Freestyle Relay
Saturday, Feb. 18 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (1 p.m.)
1,650-yard Freestyle (4:15 p.m.)
400-yard Freestyle Relay
SCORING FORMAT
A 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
Note:Only A & B finals (championship & consolation) will be contested in the diving events.
BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Titles: Michigan is the most successful women’s swimming and diving program in the Big Ten, leading the conference in team titles (15), individual swimming titles (127) and relay titles (55). It also has five conference diving champions.
Last Year: The Wolverines won their first Big Ten title in 12 years in front of their home crowd at Canham Natatorium. They set 10 school records, claimed 67 NCAA cuts and set 57 career bests. Siobhán Haughey (100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM) and Clara Smiddy (100-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke) each won individual titles. Haughey set Big Ten Championships records in all three of her individual events, leading her to being named Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships. Additionally, Haughey, Yirong Bi, Gabby DeLoof and G Ryan set the Big Ten Championships record for the 800-yard freestyle relay. [ Recap ]
Awards: Six U-M swimmers have been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships: Jen Eberwein (1998), Shannon Shakespeare (2000), Justine Mueller (2005), Kaitlyn Brady (2006), Lindsey Smith (2007) and Siobhán Haughey (2016). No U-M diver has ever won Diver of the Championships.
Best Events: The Wolverines have multiple Big Ten champions in each swimming and diving event with the most coming in the 200-yard IM (24), the 400-yard medley relay (17), the 200-yard breaststroke (17), the 200-yard backstroke (16) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (15). Only three times in the past 28 seasons has U-M gone without a Big Ten champion: 2002, 2012 and 2013.
Relays/Diving: U-M is looking to defend relay titles in the 400-yard freestyle relay and 800-yard freestyle relay. The Wolverines have not crowned a diving champion in any of the three events since 1994 (Platform — Cinnamon Woods).
BIG TEN RANKINGS
Here’s where Michigan swimmers rank in the Big Ten heading into this week’s championship. The top 24 in each individual swimming and diving event score points. Each swimmer is limited to a maximum of three individual events and four relay swims.
50-yard Freestyle
Catie DeLoof: 3rd (22.47)
Siobhán Haughey: 9th (22.60)
Vanessa Krause: 20th (22.97)
Gabby DeLoof: 21st (23.01)
Julia Fiks Salem: 24th (23.15)
100-yard Freestyle
Siobhán Haughey: 1st (48.16)
Catie DeLoof: 3rd (48.72)
Gabby DeLoof: 9th (49.58)
Yirong Bi: 13th (49.83)
Julia Fiks Salem: 22nd (50.19)
200-yard Freestyle
Siobhán Haughey: 1st (1:42.93)
Gabby DeLoof: 4th (1:45.14)
G Ryan: 5th (1:45.67)
Yirong Bi: 5th (1:45.67)
Becca Postoll: 7th (1:46.21)
500-yard Freestyle
G Ryan: 1st (4:34.28)
Yirong Bi: 2nd (4:34.63)
Becca Postoll: 10th (4:41.90)
Celia Keany: 19th (4:48.92)
Jacqui Schafer: 22nd (4:49.81)
1,650-yard Freestyle
Yirong Bi: 2nd (15:51.94)
G Ryan: 5th (15:57.10)
Celia Keany: 17th (16:42.72)
Katie Duggan: 24th (16:54.58)
100-yard Backstroke
Clara Smiddy: 5th (53.07)
Catie DeLoof: 7th (53.44)
Gabby DeLoof: 10th (53.57)
Emily Eastin: 21st (54.34)
Jacqui Schafer: 22nd (54.41)
200-yard Backstroke
Clara Smiddy: 2nd (1:54.33)
Gabby DeLoof: 4th (1:54.57)
Emily Eastin: 12th (1:56.55)
Jacqui Schafer: 16th (1:56.67)
Becca Postoll: 19th (1:57.21)
100-yard Breaststroke
Emily Kopas: 6th (1:00.30)
Yirong Bi: 15th (1:02.05)
Carolyn McCann: 18th (1:02.31)
Madison Horton: 21st (1:02.46)
Annalisa Perez: 22nd (1:02.58)
200-yard Breaststroke
Emily Kopas: 4th (2:09.98)
Siobhán Haughey: 5th (2:10.05)
Carolyn McCann: 13th (2:13.71)
Samantha Yeo: 17th (2:15.13c)
Madison Horton: 20th (2:15.50)
Jamie Yeung: 24th (2:16.28)
100-yard Butterfly
Vanessa Krause: 5th (53.04)
200-yard Butterfly
Vanessa Krause: 1st (1:55.76)
Astrid Swensen: 12th (1:58.91)
Yirong Bi: 22nd (1:59.89)
200-yard IM
Siobhán Haughey: 1st (1:56.22)
Clara Smiddy: 9th (1:59.58)
Emily Kopas: 11th (1:59.84)
Becca Postoll: 15th (2:00.51)
400-yard IM
Yirong Bi: 4th (4:09.62)
Becca Postoll: 19th (4:18.40)
Astrid Swensen: 21st (4:18.70)
200-yard Freestyle Relay
Vanessa Krause, Siobhán Haughey, Catie DeLoof, Gabby DeLoof: 1st (1:28.92)
400-yard Freestyle Relay
Siobhán Haughey, Gabby DeLoof, Catie DeLoof, Becca Postoll: 1st (3:13.65)
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Yirong Bi, Siobhán Haughey, Gabby DeLoof, G Ryan: 1st (6:59.46)
200-yard Medley Relay
Catie DeLoof, Emily Kopas, Vanessa Krause, Siobhán Haughey: 2nd (1:38.31)
400-yard Medley Relay
Gabby DeLoof, Emily Kopas, Vanessa Krause, Siobhán Haughey: 2nd (3:34.54)
c — Course Conversion
TEAM NOTES
• Michigan is the highest-ranked Big Ten team in the latest CSCAA/TYR Top 25 poll, released on Jan. 31. The Wolverines are ranked No. 6, ahead of Wisconsin (No. 12), Indiana (No. 15), Minnesota (No. 19), and Ohio State (No. 22). [ Poll ]
• The Michigan women’s swimming and diving team has steadily risen through the national ranks since Mike Bottom took over in September 2012. Last year, Michigan ended a 12-year title drought and finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships.
| Season | Duals | NCAA | B1G | B1G Champions | All-Americans |
| 2012-13 | 5-4 (4-2 B1G) | 36th | 6th | 0 | 0 |
| 2013-14 | 6-5 (3-4 B1G) | 30th | 5th | 1 | 1 |
| 2014-15 | 9-2 (7-0 B1G) | 22nd | 3rd | 1 | 1 |
| 2015-16 | 8-1 (6-0 B1G) | 10th | 1st | 7 | 6 |
| 2016-17 | 5-1 (4-0 B1G) | — | — | — | — |
• One of the biggest risers is sophomore Catie DeLoof, and her ascension mirrors that of her oldest sister, alum Ali DeLoof (2013-16), the school record-holder in all three of the events listed below. Their progression from year one to year two at Michigan is similar:
| Season | 50 FR | 100 FR | 100 BK |
| 2013-14 | 23.50 | 50.80 | 53.28 |
| 2014-15 | 22.70 | 49.76 | 52.15 |
| Year | 50 FR | 100 FR | 100 BK |
| 2015-16 | 22.97 | 49.30 | 54.14 |
| 2016-17 | 22.47 | 48.72 | 53.44 |
• Sophomore Siobhán Haughey has won all seven of her individual swims across the team’s three dual meets in the second half of the season. She is the defending Big Ten champion in the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard IM.
• Three women set school records during the first part of the season: Siobhán Haughey (200 FR), G Ryan (500 FR) and Vanessa Krause (100 FL). Since Mike Bottom took over in September 2012, every school swimming record has been broken except for the 200-yard butterfly (Caroline Rodriguez, 2009) and 200-yard freestyle relay (Kaitlyn Brady, Margaret Kelly, Hannah Smith, Lindsey Smith, 2007).
• Freshman Kristen Hayden leads a five-woman diving contingent this week, having posted team-best scores on one-meter (300.90) and three-meter (323.30) this season. She is one of three divers on the team to have NCAA Zone Diving cuts on both events, joining seniors Keegan McCaffrey and Allie Murphy (also on platform).
• Freshman Vanessa Krause — an Indiana native — has plugged the team’s hole in the butterfly. In the last four Big Ten Championships, Michigan has sent only two swimmers to the event final in either the 100-yard butterfly (Courtney Beidler in 2013) or 200-yard butterfly (Ashley Cohagen in 2013). Krause currently ranks No. 1 in the 200-yard butterfly and No. 5 in the 100-yard butterfly.
• Going into last year’s Big Ten Championships, Michigan had accumulated 28 NCAA ‘B’ times. To date this season, it has nearly twice that many (51 — 7 A, 44 B). Similarly, U-M had 34 times that ranked in the top 24 of the Big Ten going into last year’s meet, compared to 56 this year.
UP NEXT
Sunday, Feb. 26 — at Last Chance Meet (Columbus, Ohio)
Thu-Sat., March 9-11 — at NCAA Zone C Diving Championships (Bloomington, Ind.)
Wed-Sat., March 15-18 — at NCAA Championships (Indianapolis, Ind.), 10 a.m./6 p.m.
News courtesy of Michigan Athletics.
You can tell this article was written & put out by MI swimming itself – it’s all about how great THEY are. With that being said, I do think they will run away with title & prob break many records!! Go Blue.