Indiana Men’s Swimming & Diving Wins Their 5th Straight Big Ten Championship

2026 Men’s Big Ten Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, February 25–Saturday, February 28
• Location: Soderholm Family Aquatic Center, Madison, WI
• Defending champions: Indiana men (4x)
• Live Results (also available on Meet Mobile: “2026 Men’s B1G Championship”)
• Live Video ($): B1G+
• Championship Central – Big Ten
• Championship Central – Wisconsin
• SwimSwam’s Meet Preview
• Teams: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, USC, Wisconsin
• SwimSwam Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 Relays | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

The Indiana Hoosiers have completed a five-peat at the Big Ten Championships, winning by 336.5 points. That trails only 2025 in that run as the largest margins of victory.

Final Team Scores

1. Indiana – 1544.5
2. Michigan – 1208
3. Ohio State – 1035.5
4. Northwestern – 840
5. Wisconsin – 832.5
6. Purdue – 783
7. USC – 707.5
8. Minnesota – 644
9. Penn State – 426

The win is Indiana’s 32nd Big Ten Championship all-time, second-most in a conference that awarded its first title in 1911. Only Michigan (42) has more team titles – and the Wolverines had 19 before Indiana won their first in 1961.

This is the 9th title in men’s swimming & diving for Indiana head coach Ray Looze. That moves him into a tie with Northwestern’s Tom Robinson as the 5th-most in conference history.

Most Titles By Head Coaches, Big Ten Men’s Swimming & Diving History

• Doc Counsilman, Indiana – 23
• Matt Mann, Michigan – 17
• Jon Urbanchek, Michigan – 13
• Mike Peppe, Ohio State – 12
• Tom Robinson, Northwestern – 9
• Ray Looze, Indiana – 9
• Mike Bottom, Michigan – 8
• Dennis Dale, Minnesota – 7
• Joseph Henry White, University of Chicago – 3
• August P. Stager, Michigan – 3
• EJ Manley, Illinois – 2
• Glenn Patton, Iowa – 2
• Niels Thorpe, Minnesota – 2

While an improving Michigan program and the Ohio State Buckeyes got some big wins in, Indiana overall dominated the meet thanks to depth in the right places.

They started off slow, with only one win through two days of competition, but came on big late, with multiple 1-2-3 finishes, including the 100 back, 500 free, and 1650 free. While they didn’t win either breaststroke race, the breaststroke group that they are famous for still showed up big – grabbing four in the A Final in the 100 and three in the 200.

Indiana graduates a lot of its firepower, including champions Zalan Sarkany, Owen McDonald and Kai Van Westering, the team is well set up for continued success at the Big Ten level. A swimmer like Raekwon Noel had a big breakthrough meet, and will be hoping for more at the NCAA Championships.

The Hoosiers had 10 total event champions in 21 events.

Indiana’s 2026 Big Ten Champions

• 200 free relay (Mikkel Lee, Dylan Smiley, Travis Gulledge, Vidar Carlbaum) – 1:15.61
• 400 IM – Josh Bey, freshman – 3:34.90
• 100 back – Owen McDonald, senior – 44.52
• 500 free – Zalan Sarkany, senior – 4:09.14 (Meet Record)
• 50 free – Mikkel Lee, sophomore – 18.98
• 200 IM – Owen McDonald, senior – 1:40.11
• 1650 free – Zalan Sarkany, senior – 14:25.40
• 100 free – Dylan Smiley, junior – 41.81
• 200 back – Kai Van Westering, senior – 1:39.19
• 400 free relay (Owen McDonald, Dylan Smiley, Mikkel Lee, Mira Knedla) – 2:46.51

Michigan senior Tyler Ray led all individual scorers with 91 points, and Owen McDonald from Indiana was 2nd in that ranking. Showing the difference between the two teams: the top 8 guys from Michigan scored about as many individual points as the top 8 guys from Indiana did, but the Indiana men just blew the Wolverines with the scoring from the back half of their roster.

Indiana Individual Scoring By Athlete