2016 Men’s Big Ten Championships: Day 2 Prelims Live Recap

BIG TEN – MEN

• Wednesday, February 24 – Saturday, February 27
• Boilermaker Aquatic Center, West Lafayette, IN (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Michigan (5x) (results)
• Live results
• Live Video ($)
• Championship Central

The Michigan men are looking in solid form to defend their streak of wins in the Big Ten, racing for a 6th consecutive title this year. But, Ohio State and Wisconsin each come into day 2 with a top seed, aiming to ignite the spark for tonight’s finals.

Reminder of Event Scoring:

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 (Plus 17-24 in Diving Prelims)
Relay Scoring: 64-56-54-52-50-48-46-44-40-34

Top 5 Team Standings Through Event 2:

1. Michigan 128
2. Indiana 112
3. Ohio State 106
4. Iowa 100
5. Wisconsin 98

500 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

Half of the members from last year’s 500 freestyle final made it to this year’s prime time race again, including a trio of studs from Ohio State. At the top of the prelims pecking order, however, we saw a 1-2 finish from the University of Michigan, with sophomore PJ Ransford leading the pack with a time of 4:15.85, the fastest of his career.

Danish teammate Anders Nielsen was right behind with his prelims mark of 4:16.13, a couple of seconds off of his runner-up time of 4:14.06 from last year’s Big Ten meet. This morning, Nielsen was the only top 8 swimmer who managed a 23-point in both his opening and closing 50’s, clocking 23.24 to open and 23.75 to close, as a testament to what may be left in the Dane’s tank come tonight’s final. Nielsen also threw down a monster 1:32.36 opening split of his squad’s 800 freestyle relay last night, an outing just .10 of a second shy of Michigan’s program record in the 2free.

Last year’s 500 freestyle Big Ten title winner, Matthew Hutchins from Wisconsin, was in control of his race, comfortably clocking a 4:16.42 to lurk in the 3rd position in tonight’s final.  Hutchins’ fastest of this season was the 4:15.64 he threw down in Texas last December.

The Buckeye bunch includes Brayden Seal as the 4th seed, Joseph Long as the 5th seed and Steffen Hillmer as the 7th seed. The men collected times of 4:18.23, 4:19.75 and 4:21.25, respectively on the morning. Of the 3, Seal saw the biggest time drop from his entry mark, having been assigned his time of 4:21.27, only to hack 3 seconds off during prelims.

Indiana’s Adam Destrampe represents the only freshman of the final, sliding into the 8th seed with a time of 4:21.70, almost 3 seconds under his seed time. Of note, Destrampe’s teammate and 4th place swimmer in last year’s final, Jackson Miller found himself out of this year’s top 8, instead settling for 13th with his time of 4:24.41, well off his 4:16.09 from last year.

No men obtained A cuts from their morning swims, but, with last year’s NCAA D1 invite time sitting at 4:17.15, the top 3 finishers raced ahead of that cut.

Top 8:

1. PJ Ransford, Michigan – 4:15.85
2. Anders Nielsen, Michigan – 4:16.13
3. Matthew Hutchins, Wisconsin – 4:16.42
4. Brayden Seal, Ohio State – 4:18.23
5. Joseph Long, Ohio State – 4:19.75
6. Max Irwin, Indiana – 4:20.16
7. Steffen Hillmer, Ohio State – 4:21.25
8. Adam Destrampe, Indiana – 4:21.70

200 IM – PRELIMS

To say the maize and blue are IM kings is an understatement, as the Wolverines captured the top 3 seeds in this morning’s 200 IM event. Led by senior Dylan Bosch, who placed 6th at NCAAs last year in this event, Michigan also saw senior Peter Brumm and sophomore Evan White create a trio of terror to mark the only sub-1:44 swims of the morning.

For Bosch, his 1:43.04 from today set a new pool record, overcoming the previous mark held by 2012 Olympic gold medalist and former Wolverine swimmer Tyler Clary. Clary’s old record stood at 1:43.23 from 2009. At NCAAs last year, Bosch’s 6th place garnering time was 1:42.62, so the South African is already within half a second from that mark, although Bosch went an incredible 1:41.93 when winning the title at this meet last year.

Brumm entered today’s race with a seed time of 1:49.75 and his career-fastest is the 1:45.00 he threw down back in 2014. The senior stopped the clock today at a remarkable 1:43.71, crushing a best time and landing the 2nd seed headed into tonight’s final after not having swum the event at last year’s Big Ten Championships.

Also sub-1:44 is Michigan’s Evan White. White finished 2nd to Bosch at the 2015 edition of the meet, scoring a time of 1:43.24.  White just off that today, registering a prelims time of 1:43.78. A 1:47.99 is what White scored in a meet just this past January, so he’s well on track to giving his teammates a battle for the Big Ten title.

Also claiming 3 of the 8 A-final spots is Indiana University, who sees Hoosiers Ian Finnerty (1:44.14), Blake Pieroni (1:44.44) and Vinicius Lanza (1:44.51) enter tonight’s race as the 4th, 5th, and 6th seeds, respectively. For Pieroni, the sophomore already turned heads with his scorching lead-off 200 freestyle leg for Indiana’s 800 freestyle relay last night, firing off a 1:32.71 for a new school record. His 200 IM swim now marks his personal best in that event as well.

Last year’s invite time was steady at 1:44.58, so remarkably the top 6 finishers all clear that threshold.

Top 8:

1. Dylan Bosch, Michigan – 1:43.04
2. Peter Brumm, Michigan – 1:43.71
3. Evan White, Michigan – 1:43.78
4. Ian Finnerty, Indiana – 1:44.14
5. Blake Pieroni, Indiana – 1:44.44
6. Vinicius Lanza, Indiana – 1:44.51
7. Jakub Maly, Minnesota – 1:44.88
8. Andrew Appleby, Ohio State – 1:44.89

50 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

Last year’s Big Ten Champion in the splash n’ dash event, Paul Powers from Michigan, wasted no time getting down to business establishing himself as the man to beat once again. He kicked off his invidual events with a super swift 19.03 50 yard freestyle to take the top seed and rake in new pool and meet records in the process.

Powers ‘powered’ his way to a new personal best and Michigan school record shaving .27 of a second off of his 19.30 winning time from this same meet last year. With all eyes on Florida’s Caeleb Dressel, who blew our minds with an 18.23 NCAA and American Record in the event last week, anything in the 19-low range that seemed spectacular has been downgraded ever so slightly now. An 18-high would be stunning for this sophomore.

Indiana’s Ali Khalafalla slammed down a new Hoosier record in 19.30 to claim the 2nd seed, followed by Purdue’s Adam Johnston‘s 19.58 to round out the top 3.

Last year’s top 8 field contained key swimmers who have moved on, such as Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz (graduated), Penn State’s Shane Ryan (red-shirting), Ohio State’s Josh Fleagle (red-shirting) and Buckeye Michael DiSalle (graduated), giving the young 2016 field plenty of space to make their mark in the fast-as-an-eyeblink race.

When comparing the top 8 times from the ACC prelims, also occurring today, the outcome was remarkably similar: Bilis, NCSU – 19.00 was top seed, Mylin, FSU was final seed in 19.73, just for perspective.

Powers was the only guy in West Lafeyette this morning to nail an NCAA A cut, although Khalafalla also sneaked under last year’s invite time of 19.52.

Top 8:

1. Paul Powers, Michigan – 19.03
2. Ali Khalafalla, Indiana – 19.30
3. Adam Johnston, Purdue – 19.58
4. Matt McHugh, Ohio State – 19.64
5. Jason Chen, Michigan – 19.65
6. Bowen Becker, Minnesota – 19.68
7. Anze Tavcar, Indiana – 19.69
8. Cannon Clifton, Wisconsin – 19.71 & Mossimo Chavez, Ohio State – 19.71 – SWIM-OFF REQUIRED

50 FREESTYLE – SWIM-OFF

Wisconsin earned a 2nd swimmer for tonight’s A-Finals, as Cannon Clifton beat out Buckeye Mossimo Chavez to claim the 8th and final spot in tonight’s 50 yard freestyle. As such, he and Hutchins will be swimming in title-winning positions in tonight’s events.

Results:

1. Cannon Clifton, Wisconsin – 19.57
2. Mossimo Chavez, Ohio State – 19.95