2022 Men’s Big Ten Championships: Day 4 Ups/Mids/Downs

2022 MEN’S B1G SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 23-26, 2022
• Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center, West Lafayette, IN
• SCY (25 yards)
• Prelims at 10AM Eastern, Finals at 5:30PM Eastern
• Defending Champions: Michigan (2x)
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• Live Stream: DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4
• B1G Men’s Record Book
• 2021 Men’s B1G Champs Results
• Day 4 Prelims Recap

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

Before running the numbers on tonight’s potential team standings, let’s look at where scores stand after Friday night’s finals session:

Team Scores Through Day 3

1. Indiana: 972.5 points
2. Ohio State: 940.5 points
3. Michigan: 756.5 points
4. Wisconsin: 564.5 points
5. Purdue: 556 points
6. Northwestern: 511 points
7. Penn State: 427 points
8. Minnesota: 404 points

Indiana took over the lead from Ohio State Friday night after going 1-2 in the 200 free, placing 1-3 in the 100 back, winning  3-meter, and snagging 2nd place in the 200 free relay.

Saturday’s prelims session was a huge morning for Indiana who earned a total of 11 ‘A’ final spots including the top 2 seeds in the men’s 200 back with Gabriel Fantoni and Brendan Burns.

The Hoosiers have 3 ‘A’ finalists in the 200 back, 200 breast, and the 200 fly, the last of which Burns also has the top seed spot.

Northwestern is projected to overtake Purdue after earning 5 ‘A’ final spots including 2 sets of 2: #5 Kai Tik Mok and #8 Connor Morikawa in the 200 breast and #2 Federico Burdisso and #8 Connor LaMastra in the 200 fly.

Ohio State is set to defend it’s 2nd place in team scores after earning 5 ‘A’ final spots, but on paper Indiana’s performance this morning has set them up nicely to potentially increase their lead from 30 points to 180 points.

It was a tough prelims session for defending champions Michigan who went into day 4 last year with 5 ‘A’ finalists compared to this year’s two: Jared Daigle in the 200 back and Gal Groumi in the 200 fly.

The Wolverines could also make up some ground in the 100 free ‘B’ final where they occupy half of the heat, though, their position in 3rd place in team standings is projected to be solidified.

Note that we still have platform diving to take into account.

Day 4 Ups/Mids/Downs

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

Scored Prelims

1. Indiana – 353
2. Ohio State – 204
3. Northwestern – 198
4. Michigan – 169
5. Wisconsin – 153
6. Purdue – 132
7. Penn State – 119
8. Minnesota – 117

Day 3 Scores + Prelims Projections

1. Indiana 1325.5
2. Ohio State – 1144.5
3. Michigan – 925.5
4. Wisconsin – 717.5
5. Northwestern – 709
6. Purdue – 688
7. Penn State – 546
8. Minnesota – 521