Big Ten Conference Round Up: Michigan, Indiana finish top five in 800 freestyle relay

2015 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, March 26 – Saturday, March 28
• University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM (Central Time)
• Defending Champion: California – results
• Iowa Championship Central / NCAA Championship Central
• Prelims (& Thursday finals) Live feed: Hawkeye Sports / Finals Live feed: ESPN3 (Friday & Saturday)
• PSA: What to do when live results aren’t updating
• Live results
• Day two finals recap

BIG TEN STANDINGS

• 3. Michigan
• 11. Indiana
• 15. Ohio State
• 19. Purdue
• 20. Wisconsin
• 21. Penn State
• 33. Minnesota
• 34 Northwestern

Continuing on a strong 200 freestyle performance that included four A finalists, the Big Ten sent two teams to top five finishes in the 800 freestyle relay. Michigan and Indiana finished fourth and fifth in 6:16.05 and 6:17.09, respectively, both added slightly from their prelim times.

Michigan is in good shape for the future in the relay as well, only Justin Glanda will graduate from the quartet that also includes junior Anders Nielsen, who finished second in the 200 freestyle individually, sophomore Jack Mangan, and junior Dylan Bosch. 

USC’s Christian Quintero is a senior as well, which opens the door for Nielsen in 2016.

Indiana is in a similar situation, losing only Steven Schmuhl from their quartet that includes freshman Blake Pieroni, who A finaled in the 200 freestyle, and sophomore’s Jackson Miller and Anze Tavcar. 

Also representing the Big Ten in the top 16 were Wisconsin, who finished 9th. The Badgers will only graduate Nick Caldwell from their relay. The other three legs are sophomores.

This bodes well for the Big Ten in the coming years, losing only one swimmer on each of these relays, and having A finalists Nielsen return for Michigan and Pieroni back for Indiana will only help build these relays more.

Ohio State’s relay may suffer next year, as they will graduate Rowan Williams and Michael Disalle from their 13th place relay. Disalle was an A finalist in the 200 freestyle as well, finishing seventh with a 1:33.22. Josh Fleagle also represented the Buckeyes in the A final.

Quick Hits

• Indiana continues to score big in diving. James Connor and Michael Hixon finished fourth and second, respectively on the three meter board.
• Michigan is quietly having a very good NCAA Championships. The Wolverines are third, and had solid performances on their relays to help them stay in the top three. Dylan Bosch should finish high in the 200 butterfly tomorrow, meaning the Wolverines will score big points there as well.
• Shane Ryan of Penn State, last seasons runner up in the 100 backstroke, took third behind Stanford’s David Nolan and two time champion Ryan Murphy of Cal.

Updated to reflect the correct Wisconsin graduate.