2014 Big Ten Men’s Championship Fan Guide: The Wolverines Will Be Hard To Beat

B1G Men

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, February 1st; prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
• Location: Canham Natatorium, University of Michigan (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Michigan (results)
• Live Results: Swimming | Diving
  
• Live Video (If available): 
  
• Championship Central 

4-DAY SCHEDULE

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: 

Saturday: 

STARS

INDIANA: Eric Ress (senior backstroker), James Wells (senior backstroker/butterflier), Cody Miller (senior breaststroker/IM’er), Steve Schmuhl (junior butterflier), Anze Tavcar (Freshman sprinter), Darian Schmidt (senior diver), Emad Abdelatif (senior diver), Conor Murphy (senior diver) – Indiana has a huge diving group that will help bring in points for the hoosiers. They need support in the sprint freestyle events, which may limit the teams relays. They have a solid group of swimmers that will score points in all three of their individual events.

IOWA: Grant Betullus (junior backstroker), Roman Trussov (sophomore breaststroker), Andrew Marciniak (senior breaststroker), Tyler Lentz (Senior IMer), Dustin Rhoads (senior backstroker) – The Hawkeyes are down a bit after losing a few contributors from last year, and at this point, are fighting to stay towards the middle of the pack.

MICHIGAN: Bruno Ortiz (junior sprinter/breaststroker), Connor Jaeger (senior distance), John Wojciechowski (senior butterflier), Kyle Whitaker (senior IM’er), Dylan Bosch (sophomore butterflier/IM’er), Mike Wynalda (Senior freestyler), Richard Funk (Senior breaststroker) – The defending national champions lost a few contributors from last year but still have an incredible amount of depth. With several “A” cuts already, this team will not be fully tapered, but should still take control of the meet this year.

MICHIGAN STATE: Bryan Williams (senior butterflier), Kyle Workman (junior butterflier), Alec Kandt (Freshman breaststroker), Oguz Aslanoglu (Freshman sprinter/butterflier) – This is a young team led with very few swimmers ranked within the top eight. The spartans need to continue to build up and gain experience.

MINNESOTA:  Derek Toomey (senior sprinter), CJ Smith (junior distance), Kyler Van Swol (Senior butterflier), Daryl Turner (Sprint freestyle/backstroke/butterfly) – Toomey will have to lead the Golden Gophers this season. They have many experienced stars along with a few fresh faces that will allow the team to get closer to a top 3 finish.

NORTHWESTERN: Jordan Wilimovsky (sophomore distance), Uula Auren (junior breaststroker), Chase Stephens (Senior sprinter), Andy Jovanovic (Freshman butterflier/backstroker) – Northwestern is another team that needs to build up and gain experience over the next few years. Stephens has had a great year, and is one of the top seeds in the 50 freestyle.

OHIO STATE: Tim Phillips (senior butterflier/sprinter), Shane Miszkiel (senior diver), Connor McDonald (junior backstroker), Josh Fleagle (sophomore sprinter), Michael DiSalle (sophomore sprinter) – Tim Phillips will be the one to watch for the buckeyes after a semester with David Marsh and SwimMAC. Connor McDonald and Shane Miszkiel will also be big contributors. McDonald is the top seed in the 200 backstroke with an “A” cut time and Miszkiel will take on the large group of Indiana divers.

PENN STATE: Shane Ryan (sophomore sprinter/backstroker), Sean Grier (senior backstroker/butterflier), Nate Savoy (junior backstroker), Matt Salig (senior butterflier), John Hauser (senior freestyler), James Wilson (senior breaststroker) – We should expect to see much stronger relays from this team this year. There is a strong group that will be able to come together, especially with the medley relays, although their freestyle relays will be competitive as well.

PURDUE: Jamie Bissett (junior diver), Danny Tucker (senior sprinter), Guillermo Blanco (junior IM’er), Filip Bujoczek (freshman freestyler), Lyam Dias (junior breaststroker/IMer), Layne Rogers (sophomore diver) – Danny Tucker will lead the team and will have support from the IMer’s and divers. The Boilermakers are regaining their strength and climbing their way up the rankings.

WISCONSIN: Drew Teduits (junior backstroker), Nicholas Caldwell (junior freestyler), Nick Schafer (junior breaststroker), Andrew Suchla (freshman diver) – The Badgers took a big hit with the loss of last year’s senior class. The team is weaker this year and will need to develop and work to fill the large holes this year. The team still has Drew teDuits, who was the NCAA champion in the 200 backstroke last season.

Showdowns

• 100 Backstroke: Going into the meet, there are already six swimmers between 46.7 and 47.0, and none of the swimmers have reached the A cut in this event. With the national depth in this event this year, this event will be a dogfight to make it into finals and post times that are strong enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Shane Ryan and Nate Savoy put Penn St at the top of the rankings in this event, but several other swimmers are within striking distance, and are very capable of swimming faster than they have this season. Eric Ress and Drew teDuits are both not far off, along with Ohio State’s Conor McDonald and Iowa’s Grant Betulius.
• 200 IM: This is another event with a lot of very competitive swimmers, but no “A” cuts. Qualifying for the A final of this event will most likely take a 1:45, which would have been a good A final at NCAA’s a few years ago. The level of competition around the country and within the conference has really stepped up and that will be very evident in this event. Cody Miller, Kyle Whitaker, and Dylan Bosch have already been 1:45 or better, and along with that group, you have individuals from the other teams that will really give that group a great push. Purdue’s Guillermo Blanco, Ohio State’s Steven Zimmerman, Indiana’s Steve Schmuhl will all be close. This event was completely Indiana and Michigan last year, but we should see new faces making it back to finals this year.
• 100 Freestyle: Last year it took a 43.14 to get an invite to the NCAA Championships in the 100 freestyle. The fastest time in the conference this year is 43.26 from Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz. Michigan was the runner up in the 400 freestyle relay, and nobody on that relay was above 43. There is a lot of speed in the conference, so we should see plenty of guys step up and make a statement.

Standings

The Michigan men were hit with a lot of graduations from their NCAA Championship team, and though their progression this year hasn’t been the same as last year, they’re still just way, way too deep. They’re seeded to have over 60 scoring individual swims: which is almost double anyone else in the conference.

The Indiana men will rack up massive points in the diving, just as they did last year, and though Ohio State has some good ones of their own (senior Shane Miszkiel), nobody can match the sheer number of divers Indiana will put forward.

But the question is, can Ohio State put enough forward on diving that their superior swimming depth gets them into 2nd place? They lost their best sprinters, but after the top few in the conference (Bruno Ortiz, Derek Toomey, Danny Tucker), there’s not a ton of depth. That means that Josh Fleagle and Vlad Komarov and Michael DiSalle should be able to get the Buckeyes enough points in those sprint events to not get hurt too badly.

We still have to see where Tim Phillips comes out after his semester at SwimMAC, but we think the Buckeyes will have enough to get it done for 2nd. They’ve had some deep recruiting classes of late that should serve them well here.

Purdue is a better team with Tucker’s emergence, but Penn State is a better team too with Shane Ryan’s return. We like Penn State to jump up to take that #5 spot, even without a big diving presence.

1. Michigan
2. Ohio State
3. Indiana
4. Minnesota
5. Penn State
6. Purdue
7. Wisconsin
8. Iowa
9. Northwestern
10. Michigan State