It didn’t feel much like summer season, with temperatures hovering around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the outdoor Michigan State pool, but the Michigan Wolverines threw things back to summer’s long course meters format with a triangular win over Big Ten foes Purdue and Michigan State.
Michigan won 22 of 26 events to pick up the team title, with Clara Smiddy nabbing wins in all four of her races.
Women’s Meet
Smiddy, a sophomore, swept the backstrokes for the Wolverines, dominating in both. She led a 1-2 of the 100 back with senior teammate Ali Deloof, going 1:04.77 and breaking a pool record by 3 full seconds early on. Later in the meet, Smiddy went 2:17.05 to win the 200 back and break another pool record by 8 seconds.
Perhaps her best swim of the day, though, came leading off the 400 medley relay. Smiddy split 1:04.36, staking her team to a big lead that never waned through the final 300 meters. Emily Kopas, Zoe Mattingly and Ali Deloof joined Smiddy in going 4:19.94 in a 1-2 for the Wolverines.
For her part, Kopas swept the breaststroke races for the Wolverines, going 1:13.66 and 2:40.22. Purdue’s Annie Spalding was second in both. Kopas and Spalding are both currently sophomores.
Smiddy’s fourth win came in the 400 free relay to close the meet. She joined three freshmen – Catie Deloof, Becca Postoll and Siobhan Haughey – in taking the relay in 3:57.49.
Haughey, the team’s import from Hong Kong, was most impressive there, with a 57.87 anchor leg. Haughey also won the 100 free individually, going 57.92 for a new pool record.
Also coming through big for Michigan were senior Marni Oldershaw and freshman Gillian Ryan. Oldershaw took wins in the tough combo of 200 fly (2:22.77) and 200 IM (2:23.01). In the former event, she came from behind to top Michigan State’s Elizabeth Brown (2:24.63) and Brown was third behind Oldershaw and Haughey in the latter race.
Ryan swept the distance races, going 9:01.80 in the 800 free and 4:26.66 in the 400.
Purdue picked up two events wins. Sophomore Kaersten Meitz was impressive, coming off a second-place finish in that 800 free to swim and win the very next women’s event, the 200 free. Meitz was 2:07.32, beating Michigan’s Postoll.
Later on, Meagan Lim came through with a big 100 fly win, going 1:05.20 to lead a 1-2 finish for Purdue with teammate Taite Kitchel.
Scores:
- Michigan 138.5 – Purdue 97.5
- Michigan 156 – Michigan State 80
- Purdue 176 – Michigan State 66
Men’s Meet
Michigan also swept 11 of 13 events on the men’s side, getting individual doubles from Anders Nielsen, Tristan Sanders and Ian Rainey.
Nielsen and Sanders each won two individual races and a relay. The senior leader, Nielsen went 1:54.66 to win the 200 free, leading a 1-2-3-4 for Michigan. He came back to win the 100 free in 52.87, with Michigan once again sweeping the top 4 spots.
A sophomore, Sanders was unstoppable through the backstrokes. In the 100 back, he fought off Michigan State’s Ian Rodriguez in one of the night’s better races, eventually powering away to win 59.33 to 1:00.84. Sanders came back to blow out the 200 back field in 2:07.72. That was a full 5 seconds faster than the next finisher, his teammate (and recent Virginia transfer Kyle Dudzinski).
Nielsen led the 400 free relay to victory at the night’s end. He split 52.74, the fastest of the field, as the Michigan relay went 3:33.19. Joining him on the team were Vinny Tafuto, Jack Mangan and Paul Powers.
Sanders, on the other hand, helped Michigan take the 400 medley relay to kick things off. His 59.92 leadoff powered Chris Klein, Dylan Bosch and Powers to a win in 3:56.92. Notably, Bosch was 56.72 on fly and Powers 52.80 on free for the Wolverines.
Rainey didn’t swim any relays, but won both of his individual events. The sophomore was 2:07.98 to touch out NCAA record-holder Bosch in the 200 fly, a big early-season win for him that came on a last-length comeback. Rainey came through with the blowout 400 free win later on, going 4:05.43 and beating second-place PJ Ransford by almost five seconds.
Purdue managed to steal two events with star breaststroker Marat Amaltdinov. The sophomore took advantage of what’s likely Michigan’s biggest weakness, going 1:05.37 to win the 100 and 2:22.61 to blow out the field in the 200. Amaltdinov also had the medley relay field’s best breaststroke split by a longshot, going 1:03.25 for the Boilermakers.
Other event winners included Ransford in the 800 free (8:36.75), Tafuto in the 100 fly (57.69) and Evan White in the 200 IM (2:10.00).
Scores:
- Michigan 144 – Purdue 91
- Michigan 148 – Michigan State 87
- Purdue 128 – Michigan State 114
