Indiana’s Ray Looze has been named Big Ten Swimming Coach of the Year on the men’s side a week after also earning the honor for the women.
Though neither of Looze’s teams won the Big Ten titles, they both showed up biggest at NCAAs, earning the highest finishes of any Big Ten team at both national championship meets.
The IU men earned a top 10 finish last week, placing 9th overall. That was headed by a 4th-place finish in the 400 free relay to cap off the meet. The Hoosier relay included three straight 42-second splits and a 41.4 anchor from Blake Pieroni, who’s become one of the nation’s better freestylers during his years in Bloomington.
The conference also named two Diving Coaches of the Year. Minnesota’s Wenbo Chen earned his first award on the men’s side after being named women’s coach of the year four times. He also won the women’s award this season. He shares the award with Ohio State’s Justin Sochor, who coached Colin Zeng to the NCAA platform title and earns his first Big Ten yearly accolade.
From the Big Ten press release:
Looze collects Big Ten Swimming Coach of the Year accolades after earning the same honor for women’s swimming last week. He earns the honor for the second time as the Indiana men’s swimming coach, and has earned it four times during his tenure as the women’s coach. This season, he led the Hoosiers to a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, and a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Chen claimed Co-Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year after earning the honor on the women’s side last week. This is the first time that Chen has earned this accolade on the men’s side, and he has recorded the honor four times for women’s diving. Chen coached two divers, Matt Barnard and Manny Pollard, who scored points for the Golden Gophers with top-16 finishes at the NCAA Championships. This honor is the third time a Minnesota coach has earned Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year, and first since KZ Li in 2001.
Sochor earns the honor for the first time in his tenure as Ohio State’s diving coach after leading Zeng and Stephen Romanik, who both scored points for the Buckeyes at the NCAA Championships. This award marks the seventh time an Ohio State coach has won Big Ten Diving Coach of the Year, and first since Vince Panzano in 2007.
Awesome job Ray! You and your staff nailed it this year!