2025 Men’s Big Ten Championships: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2025 MEN’S BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Wednesday, February 26–Saturday, March 1
• Location: Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Defending champions: Indiana men (3x)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide
• Teams: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, USC*, Wisconsin

After an exciting women’s championships last week, the men’s edition of the 2025 Big 10 Championships is also slated to make a splash.

Tonight’s short session will feature the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay to kick-off the action for the week.

In both events, Indiana enters as the top seed, holding NCAA ‘A’ cuts in both relays as well. In the 200 medley relay, Indiana is entered with a season-best of 1:22.64 from the Indiana v. Michigan dual meet, which currently ranks 9th in the NCAA this season following the first two weekends of conference championships. The Indiana men are also seeded with a 6:13.50 in the 800 freestyle relay to easily lead the pack.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:20.15 – Florida, 2024
• Meet Record: 1:22.17 – Ohio State, 2022
• Big 10 Record: 1:21.52 – Indiana, 2023
• NCAA ‘A’ cut: 1:23.62

Results:

1. Indiana – 1:21.39
2. Michigan – 1:22.08
3. Ohio State – 1:23.17
4. Wisconsin – 1:23.74
5. Northwestern – 1:23.82
6. USC – 1:23.97
7. Penn St – 1:24.02
8. Minnesota – 1:24.26
9. Purdue – 1:25.20

Indiana opened the meet with a win as expected, doing so with a new meet and conference record in a time of 1:21.39. Luke Barr led off for the Hoosiers in a 20.64 split on the backstroke to take the team into the wall first. He handed it off to Brian Benzing, who dropped a speedy 22.93 on the breaststroke, giving the Hoziers almost a half second advantage over the field. Finlay Brooks then dropped a 19.43 on the butterfly, maintaining that gap, before Matt King closed out the relay in a 18.39. That time should slot Indiana at 5th in the NCAA this season behind Tennessee, Florida, Texas, and ASU.

Michigan saw a significant drop off of their mid-season mark of 1:23.60, finishing in the runner-up position with a 1:22.08. Every swimmer on the relay dropped a significant amount of time from their mid-season split. Jack Wilkening led off in a 20.88, .2 faster than his split at mid-season to hand it off to Ozan Kalafat on the breaststroke (23.24). Kalafat dropped nearly a half-second on his split compared to mid-season (23.67). Then, Tyler Ray threw down the fastest butterfly split in the field (19.33) to give Michigan a huge boost. Bence Szabados then closed in a 18.63.

The top 3 teams all hit the NCAA ‘A’ cut in the event, with Ohio State rounding out the podium in a 1:23.17.

Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay

• NCAA Record: 6:02.26 – Florida, 2024
• Meet Record: 6:09.85 – Michigan, 2014
• Big 10 Record: 6:06.01 – Indiana, 2018
• NCAA ‘A’ cut: 6:15.80

Results:

1. USC – 6:10.85
2. Ohio State – 6:10.99
3. Michigan – 6:11.10
4. Indiana – 6:11.39
5.  Minnesota – 6:15.06
6. Wisconsin – 6:15.69
7. Northwestern – 6:20.77
8. Purdue – 6:21.94
9. Penn St. – 6:22.37

In a barn-burner of a matchup, the top 4 teams all finished less than a second apart from each other with USC earning its first Big Ten Championship title since moving in from the PAC-12.

Ohio State got off to a quick start at the 200 yard mark with Tomas Navikonis leading the field by a half-second with a 1:31.54 split. He was followed in by Gal Groumi from Michigan (1:32.10), Indiana’s Rafael Miroslaw (1:32.81), and USC’s Luke Maurer (1:33.07). USC, Indiana, and Michigan then pulled ahead on the second 200 thanks to major splits from Oliver Songaard-Andersen (1:31.97), Owen McDonald (1:31.32), and Eitan Ben-Shitrit (1:32.11), respectively.

At that point, it looked like it might just be a 3 team race. However, Ohio State’s Jordi Vilchez outsplit all of his opponents on the third leg with a 1:33.41, making himself the only swimmer to dip under 1:34 on that leg. With all four teams relatively even, it was a sprint to the finish over the final 200. Ultimately, it was USC’s Krzysztof Chmielewski who dropped the hammer on the final leg, catching and passing his opponents with a 1:31.80 split, the 2nd-fastest split in the entire race.

Notably, Texas transfer Caspar Corbeau swam the 3rd leg for Indiana in his first conference championships since the 2023 Big 12 Championships. He split 1:34.28 on his leg of the race. Corbeau hasn’t registered an official 200 freestyle time since 2019, but split a 1:32.30 his last time swimming the 800 freestyle relay back in 2021.

With their performances, all six of the teams in the second heat hit the NCAA ‘A’ cut.

Team Scores Through Day 1

1. Indiana – 116
2. USC – 112
3. Ohio State/Michigan – 110
5. Wisconsin – 100
6. Northwestern – 96
7. Minnesota – 94
8. Penn St. – 86
9. Purdue – 84