2025 Men’s Big Ten Championships: Day 4 Prelims 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
• Results: Day 1 | Day 2
• Recaps:
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Day 4 Prelims Heat Sheets

Friday was a big shakeout day at the 2025 Big Ten Championships, with the Indiana Hoosiers cementing their path to a fourpeat, Michigan pulling away from Ohio State for 2nd, and USC pulling away from a gaggle of teams chasing them for 4th in their Big Ten debut.

The session will feature some top tier head-to-head matchups like the 100 free, where the top three seeds come from each of the three front-running teams: Gal Groumi of Michigan, Tomas Navikonis of Ohio State, and Rafael Miroslaw of Indiana. The defending champion Bence Szabados of Michigan and Olympian Matt King are lurking in that race as well.

Prelims (10:00 AM Central Time) will be a short session, with heats of the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, and 200 fly. Early heats of the timed finals 1650 free will start at 3:15 Central Time, with finals at 5:30 Central Time. Finals will include the meet-ending 400 free relay.

After a best time for 3rd place in the 100 breaststroke last night (his first in that race in almost two years) , Indiana senior Josh Matheny comes in as the top seed in the 200 breaststroke, where he’s within reach of the Big Ten Championship Record.

Team Standings After Day 3

1. Indiana – 1,067
2. Michigan – 784.5
3. Ohio State – 731
4. USC – 588
5. Minnesota – 512.5
6. Wisconsin – 498
7. Northwestern – 473
8. Purdue – 406.5
9. Penn State – 372.5

Men’s 200 Backstroke – Prelims

• NCAA Record: 1:35.37 – Destin Lasco, Cal (2024 NCAAs)
• Big Ten Record: 1:37.58 – Tyler Clary, Michigan (2009 NCAAs)
• Meet Record: 1:35.87 – Brendan Burns, Indiana (2023)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:56.71
• 2024 NCAA Invited Time: 1:40.62
• 2024 Champion: Brendan Burns, Indiana – 1:39.50

Top 8 Qualifiers:

1. Owen McDonald, Jr, Indiana – 1:39.06
2. Miroslav Knedla, Fr, Indiana – 1:39.59
3. Cornelius Jahn, Fr, Ohio State – 1:40.32
4. Jack Wilkening, Jr, Michigan – 1:40.96
5. David Gerchik, So, Northwestern – 1:41.50
6. Eitan Ben-Shitrit, Jr, Michigan – 1:41.65
7. Inbar Danziger, Fr, Michigan – 1:42.16
8. Blake Rowe, Fr, Purdue – 1:42.46

All-American Owen McDonald positioned himself to finish his first Big Ten Championship meet with a perfect three-for-three in individual events. After winning the 200 IM (1:39.89) and 100 back (44.38) on Thursday and Friday, he is now the top qualifier in the 200 back on Saturday (1:39.06).

Like his previous swims, this was not a personal best, which leaves him within striking range of his 19-year-old freshman teammate Miroslav Knedla, who knocked three-tenths off his best time from the early-season SMU Invitational.

Another freshman, 22-year-old Cornelius Jahn from Ohio State, was the 3rd qualifier in 1:40.32.

In all, this will be a very young group racing in the A-Final, with all 8 swimmers scheduled to return next year.

Of note, Indiana junior Kai van Westering swam 1:39.25 as part of the Hoosiers’ non-scoring roster, which should qualify him for the NCAA Championships individually. That is a new lifetime best for him, improving on the 1:39.27 that earned him 14th in prelims at last year’s NCAA Championships (before adding time, and moving up a slot, in finals).

Men’s 100 Freestyle – Prelims

• NCAA Record: 39.90 – Caeleb Dressel, Florida (2018 NCAAs)
• Big Ten Record: 40.83 – Bowen Becker, Minnesota (2019 NCAAs)
• Meet Record: 41.38 – Ruslan Gaziev, Ohio State (2023)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 49.18
• 2024 NCAA Invited Time: 42.19
• 2024 Champion: Bence Szabados, Michigan – 42.09 (returning)

Top 8:

1. (TIE) Gal Groumi, Sr, Michigan/Dylan Smiley, So, Indiana – 42.09
3. Matt King, Jr, Indiana – 42.12
4. Tomas Navikonis, Jr, Ohio State – 42.13
5. Mikkel Lee, So, Indiana – 42.20
6. Taiko Torepe-Ormsby, Jr, Wisconsin – 42.22
7. Brady Samuels, Sr, Purdue – 42.34
8. Bence Szabados, 5th Year, Michigan – 42.38

Michigan senior Gal Groumi and Indiana sophomore Dylan Smiley tied for the top seed in the men’s 100 free prelims, though they come at those times from different directions.

For Groumi, that’s .34 seconds slower than he went mid-season at the Georgia Tech Invite, while for Smiley, that’s about a half-second improvement on his lifetime best from the mid-season Ohio State Invitational. Smiley in total has dropped nine-tenths in this event this season.

Big names stacked up behind them, with Olympic relay gold Matt King qualifying 3rd in 42.12 and the defending champion Bence Sazabados of Michigan sneaking in 8th with a 42.38.

The finals will have to ramp up in intensity to see any new qualifiers for NCAAs – while the top four were all under the invite time from last year, right now it appears as though it will take sub-42.00 to earn an invite this year.

Men’s 200 Breaststroke – Prelims

• NCAA Record: 1:46.35 – Leon Marchand, Arizona State (2024 NCAAs)
• Big Ten Record: 1:48.76 – Max McHugh, Minnesota (2022 NCAAs)
• Meet Record: 1:49.45 – Max McHugh, Minnesota (2022)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:50.65
• 2024 NCAA Invited Time: 1:53.12
• 2024 Champion: Jassen Yep, Indiana – 1:50.40 (returning)

Top 8:

1. Jassen Yap, 5th Year, Indiana – 1:51.20
2. Josh Matheny, Sr, Indiana – 1:51.47
3. Toby Barnett, So, Indiana – 1:52.44
4. Ben Dillard, 5th Year, USC – 1:52.69
5. Caspar Corbeau, 5th Year, Indiana – 1:52.95
6. Chun Chan, Fr, USC – 1:53.20
7. Jozsef Polyak, Fr, Minnesota – 1:53.40
8. Ozan Kalafat, Jr, Michigan – 1:53.63

With a hoard of high profile teammates chasing him, Indiana 5th year Jassen Yep took pole position on his title defense in the 200 breaststroke, swimming 1:51.20 in the morning heats.

While the two were not racing in the same heat (Yep was in heat 4, Matheny in heat 5), Yep really turned on the gas in the final 50. He was at 1:21.95 at the 150 before splitting 29.25, while Matheny was 1:21.75 at the 150 before finishing in 29.72. The next-best finisher was another Hoosier, Caspar Corbeau, in 29.45, which ultimately landed him as the 5th seed in 1:52.95.

Toby Barnett, who was 1:51 at last year’s Big Ten Championship is the 3rd seed, while USC’s Ben Dillard interjected himself into the Indiana part as the 4th seed in 1:52.69.

While Dillard was faster mid-season (1:52.09), this shows a change of pattern for him this season – he was only 12th at Pac-12s last year in 1:55.92, and finished at 1:54.40 at NCAAs, in spite of clocking a time of 1:52.50.

Men’s 200 Butterfly – Prelims

• NCAA Record: 1:37.17 – Luca Urlando, Georgia (January 2025 Dual Meet)
• Big Ten Record: 1:38.71 – Brendan Burns, Indiana (2022 NCAAs)
• Meet Record: 1:39.22 – Brendan Burns, Indiana (2021)
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:40.05
• 2024 NCAA Invited Time: 1:42.10
• 2024 Champion: Gal Cohen Groumi, Michigan – 1:39.60 (returning)

Top 8:

1. Krzysztof Chmielewski, So, USC – 1:40.72
2. Jacob Johnson, Fr, Minnesota – 1:40.86
3. Colin Geer, So, Michigan – 1:41.45
4. Michal Chmielewski, So, USC – 1:41.65
5. Diego Nosack, So, Northwestern – 1:41.66
6. Tomer Frankel, 5th Year, Indiana – 1:41.79
7. Tyler Ray, Jr, Michigan – 1:41.86
8. Charles Jones, Jr, Wisconsin – 1:42.50

USC sophomore Krzysztof Chmielewski entered the 200 fly heats as the heavy favorite and big top seed, and he cruised to pole position for finals with a 1:40.72.

He remains the favorite, but hot-on-his-heels is Minnesota freshman Jacob Johnson in 1:40.86. For Johnson, that is his 4th time breaking the Minnesota Record in his inaugural college season. He first broke it with a 1:42.41 against Army on October 11; three weeks later he dropped that down to 1:41.70. Then, at the midseason Minnesota Invite, he swam 1:41.56 in finals, which stood as the record until now.

He is now the second-fastest freshman in the country this season behind only Florida State’s Logan Robinson, who swam 1:40.34 at the ACC Championships last week.

Charlie Jones from Wisconsin also snuck into the A-Final with a 1:42.50; he broke the Wisconsin School Record with a 1:41.29 time trial on Wednesday, swimming 1:41.29. That took out Dominik Mark Torok’s 1:41.76 from last season.