2018 Men’s B1G Championships: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2018 MEN’S B1G CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2018 Men’s Big Ten Championships kick off tonight with finals of the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Indiana Hoosiers look to defend their title this year but could have a tough battle against rival Michigan.

MEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY:

  1. GOLD: Indiana, 1:23.95
  2. SILVER: Minnesota, 1:24.25
  3. BRONZE: Ohio State, 1:24.52

Indiana freshman Gabriel Fantoni is already making a big impact for his team. Fantoni gave the Hoosiers the lead by over 6 tenths with his 20.98 backstroke split. Ian Finnerty followed that up with a 23.50 through the breast leg, while Vini Lanza threw down a sub-20 with a 19.98 on the fly leg. Ali Khalafalla sealed the deal for the Hoosiers, anchoring in 19.52 to hold off Minnesota, who got a blistering 18.24 free split from Bowen Becker. In addition to Bowen’s free splti being the fastest of the field, the Gophers had the fastest breast split with a 23.40 from Conner McHugh.

Ohio State secured the last spot on the medal stand, while Michigan touched 4th in 1:24.79.

MEN’S 800 FREE RELAY:

  1. GOLD: Indiana, 6:11.50
  2. SILVER: Michigan, 6:16.51
  3. BRONZE: Ohio State, 6:16.92

The Hoosiers were out to the early lead again with a 1:33.19 leadoff from Mohamed Samy. On the 2nd leg, Blake Pieroni charged to a 1:31.51, matching Michigan’s Felix Auboeck (1:31.51) but still holding Indiana’s lead. The Hoosiers built their lead to 5 seconds as they won the race, with Vini Lanza (1:33.49) and Ian Finnerty (1:33.31) taking on the back half. Michigan held off Ohio State for silver as the Buckeyes took 3rd with a 1:32.93 from freshman Paul DeLakis on the 2nd leg.

TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY 1:

  1. Indiana University                128   2. Ohio State University             108
  2. Michigan, University of           108   4. University of Minnesota           106
  5. Iowa, University of                96   5. Wisconsin, University of, Madi     96
  5. Pennsylvania State University      96   8. Purdue University                  90
  9. Northwestern University            80  10. Michigan State University          68

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YoungFish11
6 years ago

Would love a list of best splits in the country by grade. Would love to see stand-out swimmers from each time, conference, relay, stroke/split, etc. Just an idea 🙂

Tea rex
6 years ago

Geez – last weekend, most people missed Mauro Castillo dropping a 45-mid fly. Now we got Finnerty going 1:33.

I guess if we got Dressel invading the breaststroke, the breatstrokers are striking back

IM FAN
6 years ago

1:31.51 for Auboeck. I’m favoring him for the 500 and 1650 at NCAAs.

PNW
6 years ago

Shoutout to Ian Finnerty for being a breaststroker and putting up a 1:33.3 on the 800 free relay. Love seeing versatile breaststrokers

Right
Reply to  PNW
6 years ago

As well as breaststroker Paul Delakis with the 1:32.9. A freshman. Much more impressive

Phil McDade
Reply to  Right
6 years ago

DeLakis was a 1:36.10 200 freestyler from a flat start as a junior in high school, and splitting 43-mids on 100 free splits as a junior and senior in high school. He has always been a very good freestyler. I’m not so sure he’s a breastroker as much as a very solid IMer with good breaststroke skills and really good freestyle skills.

SwamSwim
6 years ago

Bowen Becker oh my lanta ? 18.2 is no joke ????

Friuti
6 years ago

https://twitter.com/GopherSwimDive/status/966482306725699584
Here’s about half of the 2 Med, doesn’t really look like Khalafalla had that bad of a start but definitely was not sharp the first 25.

ACC
Reply to  Friuti
6 years ago

It looks like his hands might have split apart on the dive, he was basically at a standstill on the breakout.

Friuti
Reply to  ACC
6 years ago

Ah, I see that yeah. Start itself wasn’t bad but he didn’t look like he was going anywhere on the breakout.

Iufan
Reply to  Friuti
6 years ago

Thanks for sharing! Yeah, something weird happened once he entered. IU had over a second lead over the 2nd place team but several teams almost caught him off that start.

Swim Fan
6 years ago

Why did Michigan play their takeovers so safe?

Jerimiah Knots
Reply to  Swim Fan
6 years ago

so they dont get disqualified

Ned
6 years ago

Go Gophers!!!!

About Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh

Lauren Neidigh is a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Arizona (2013-2015) and the University of Florida (2011-2013). While her college swimming career left a bit to be desired, her Snapchat chin selfies and hot takes on Twitter do not disappoint. She's also a high school graduate of The …

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