2019 Big Ten Men’s Championships: Day 2 Prelims Live Recap

Big Ten – Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships

The two meet favorites, Michigan and Indiana, split the titles on night 1 of the Big Ten Championships, with Michigan breaking the Meet Record in the 200 medley relay and Indiana breaking a Pool Record in the 800 free relay.

With no Mohamed Sany for Indiana on day 2, the Wolverines have a chance to make some headway against Indiana’s dominant diving group. Michigan holds the top seed in all 3 of the day’s individual swimming events, including the 50 free where Gus Borges split an 18.40 on the 200 medley relay. He’ll face off against defending conference champion Bowen Becker, who’s already time-trialed a 19.00 at this meet.

Men’s 500 Free – Prelims

  • Meet Record – Felix Auboeck, Michigan, 4:09.29 – 2018
  • Pool Record – Clark Smith, Texas, 4:09.72 – 2015
  • Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 4:15.44

Two-time defending 500 free champion Felix Auboeck of Michigan is the top qualifier on Thursday in the 500 free free, swimming a 4:15.13. He was 4:09 in finals at this meet last year and 4:10 the year before, though his 1:32.4 relay split from last night doesn’t indicate that he’s quite in the same form this year as he was last year (where he split about a second faster).

His Michigan teammate, freshman Kevin Callan, took 2nd in 4:16.04, while Indiana’s top finisher, Michael Calvillo, qualified 3rd in 4:17.36.

Conference leader Ricardo Vargas Jacobo of Michigan qualified 4th in 4:17.40, which is 6 seconds off his season-best time this year. In total, the Michigan men put 5 swimmers into the A-final of this race, as compared to 2 Hoosiers and 1 Ohio State Buckeye.

Top 8 in prelims:

  1. Felix Auboeck, Michigan – 4:15.13
  2. Kevin Callan, Michigan – 4:16.04
  3. Michael Calvillo, Indiana – 4:17.36
  4. Ricardo Vargas Jacobo, Michigan – 4:17.40
  5. William Roberts, Michigan – 4:18.08
  6. James Brinegar, Indiana – 4:18.54
  7. Nicholas Hogsed, Ohio State – 4:19.34
  8. Mokhtar Al-Yamani, Michigan – 4:19.84

Men’s 200 IM – Prelims

  • Meet Record – Kyle Whitaker, Michigan, 1:41.14 – 2014
  • Pool Record – David Nolan, Stanford, 1:39.38 – 2015
  • Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 1:43.88

Ohio State junior Andrew Loy swam a 1:42.15 in the 200 IM which ranks him 2nd in the country so far this season nationally in the event (behind only Andrew Seliskar). His previous best time, from last year’s Big Ten Championships, was 1:44.24. The swim is also almost a 4-second drop from his mid-season swim, which mirrors previous seasons where he always had significant improvements from mid-season to Big Tens.

Indiana’s Vini Lanza qualified 2nd in 1:42.78. He’s the defending champion in the even and was the fastest butterfly split in the field, opening in 21.88. Indiana’s Ian Finnerty, the fastest yards breaststroker in history, qualified 3rd in 1:43.26. He had easily the fastest breaststroke split in the field (27.81, nobody else was under 29) and also had the 2nd-best fly split in the field (22.06).

Ohio State moved up big in this race. Besides Loy, sophomore Paul DeLakis improved his spot from a 1:47.64 seed to a 1:43.52 5th place in prelims. Purdue’s Erik Juliusson also jumped up and grabbed a spot in the A-Final, dropping a full second to qualify 8th in 1:44.83.

Minnesota’s Tuoma Pokkinen dropped 4 seconds, but that was only enough to lift him to 9th in 1:45.05.

Top 8 in Prelims:

  1. Andrew Loy, Ohio State – 1:42.15
  2. Vini Lanza, Indiana – 1:42.78
  3. Ian Finnery, Indiana – 1:43.26
  4. Charlie Swanson, Michigan – 1:43.52
  5. Paul DeLakis, Ohio State – 1:43.91
  6. Thomas Cope, Michigan – 1:44.10
  7. Jacob Montague, Michigan – 1:44.29
  8. Erik Juliusson, Purdue – 1:44.83

Men’s 50 Free – Prelims

  • Meet Record – Bowen Becker, Minnesota, 18.69 – 2018
  • Pool Record – Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 18.67 – 2016
  • Estimated NCAA Invite Time – 19.35

Michigan sophomore Gus Borges wasn’t as quick in prelims of the 50 free as he was on the medley relay on Wednesday, but his 19.15 was still enough to grab the top seed through to finals. That put him .01 ahead of defending champion Bowen Becker of Minnesota (19.16) and .03 ahead of Indiana senior Zach Apple of Indiana (19.18).

Penn State sophomore Gabe Castano qualified 4th in 19.24. That’s half-a-second faster than his previous lifetime best, and makes him just the 2nd Nittany Lion in history to go sub-19.5 in the event, after Shane Ryan’s school record of 19.03 from 2017. His teammate William Roberson qualified 8th and is now #3 in school history with a 19.52.

The Ohio State men cocntinued to move up with big time drops from both Ruslan Gaziev (19.34) and Benjamin Sugar (19.45), though they ultimately finished with the 2 A finalists they were seeded to have anyway.

Top 8 in Prelims:

  1. Gus Borges, Michigan – 19.15
  2. Bowen Becker, Minnesota – 19.16
  3. Zach Apple, Indiana – 19.18
  4. Gabe Castano, Penn State – 19.24
  5. Bruno Blaskovic, Indiana – 19.32
  6. Ruslan Gaziev, Ohio State – 19.34
  7. Benjamin Sugar, Ohio State – 19.45
  8. William Roberson, Penn State – 19.52.

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Dave
5 years ago

I remember watching Gus’ dad swim. I’m older than dirt.

Swim Addict
5 years ago

Did Max McHugh swim this morning?

mynamejeff
5 years ago

My name jeff

Coach Chackett
5 years ago

Foolish Scoring of the Prelims with no diving Starting with the 120 IN, 120 MI and 108 OSU
Indiana 81+119+78 398 Pts
Michigan 155+91+36 402 Pts
Ohio St 24+74+104 310 Pts

OslinFan6
5 years ago

Once again, the pads have failed Ruslan Gaziev. I clocked him at an 18.42, so now we have to see about taking Omega or Colorado Timing Systems to court for robbery; Ruslan Gaziev was robbed of a meet record. Tonight you will all see. Ruslan reminds me of one Chunky Ragù. Chunky was robbed of several meet records in his first term of NCAA eligibility while swimming for Wesleyan. The year was 1875, and a young Chunky split a 17.99 but failed to be recognized for being the first swimmer to split under 18. I say we build a better timing system. Every touchpad design artist will tell you they got in the game because of Jan Erik Eckland. We… Read more »

sven
Reply to  OslinFan6
5 years ago

100% agree, couldn’t have said it better, myself.

IU Swammer
5 years ago

Ups/mids/downs (total)
IU: 6/7/4 (17)
Mich: 9/2/4 (15)
OSU: 5/4/4 (13)

Swimmer
Reply to  IU Swammer
5 years ago

How many people are on the scoring team when there is a C final?

Coach Chackett
Reply to  Swimmer
5 years ago

All of them? I don’t understand the question.

B1G Team total?

Leclave
Reply to  Swimmer
5 years ago

24. Divers count as 0.5

IU Swammer
Reply to  Swimmer
5 years ago

The Big Ten limits the number of people you can bring, not the number of scorers. I think the limit is 24 and divers only count has a half. So everyone swimming and diving in finals, whether A, B, or C, scores.

Observer
5 years ago

Just an observation…
Michigan Men are similar to Indiana women – they could win B1Gs but likely won’t do as well as NCAAs. There strength is in a few outstanding events (IMs, Breaststrokes)
Michigan women are similar to Indiana men – better suited for NCAAs success and a more well rounded roster, but might get hurt at B1Gs due to lack of depth in some races.

Carol Glover
5 years ago

Thanks for posting heat sheets Iowa!

Wut
Reply to  Carol Glover
5 years ago

You know this meet is run by the big ten, right?

frizzaly
Reply to  Wut
5 years ago

Indiana didn’t post heat sheets for the women’s meet so it looks like it’s the prerogative of the host school

Carol Glover
Reply to  Braden Keith
5 years ago

Thanks Braden. I was actually thanking Iowa for posting them. I like to cheer for the swimmers and divers that I know on teams other than IU. Having a heat sheet makes it a lot easier…

What?
Reply to  Carol Glover
5 years ago

Indiana didn’t post cos they didn’t want others to see how they stacked the heats…

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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