2021 BIG TEN MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Tuesday, March 2nd to Saturday, March 6th | Prelims 11am | Finals 5pm Tues, 6:30pm Wed-Sat (ET)
- Where: Ohio State University (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Michigan (1x) (2020 results)
- Streaming: Big Ten Network
- Championship Central
- Live Results
The Big Ten Men’s Championships started tonight, with Michigan winning both relays and Minnesota junior Max McHugh posting the fastest 200 medley relay breast split in history.
Besides McHugh’s impressive split, the Big Ten’s breaststroke depth really shone through tonight. After McHugh was the only sub-23 in the field at this meet last year (22.99), this year, four men turned in 22-plus breaststroke splits. Other sub-23 splits included Michigan’s Will Chan (22.67), Purdue’s Trent Pellini (22.82) and Ohio State’s Hudson McDaniel (22.97). Chan now ranks #4 all-time and Pellini eighth.
At the ACC Championships and SEC Championships, there was one 22-point breast leg, each: Louisville’s Evgenii Somov (22.91) at ACCs and Tennessee’s Michael Houlie (22.77) at SECs. There were none at Big 12s, while Pac-12s are running the 200 medley later this evening. By NCAAs, though, the Big Ten will most likely have the lion’s share of 22-second breast splits as a conference.
Looking back to the 2019 NCAA Championships, which is the last NCAA Championships since the 2020 meet was canceled due to the pandemic, only USC’s Carsten Vissering split under 23 in the 200 medley relay finals. Now, with at least six 22-point legs (and probably more after Pac-12s) going into NCAAs, it’s looking like a 23-low split on a medley relay is no longer an edge.
Tonight, Michigan looked dominant, winning the 200 medley by almost a full second and the 800 free relay by over a second. Take a look at the relay split performances below, sectioned by medley leg and then illustrating 800 free relay splits at the bottom.
Ohio State led the way with the top two 800 free relay legs, including lead-off Paul Delakis at 1:31.90, a new lifetime best as he looks to be the 200 free favorite. The Buckeyes also had the best medley anchor with Sem Andreis‘s 18.43, while Michigan’s River Wright posted the field’s best fly leg with a blazing 19.88.
RELAY SPLITS
50 BACK
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Michigan | Wyatt Davis | 21.07 |
| Ohio State | Colin McDermott | 21.25 |
| Indiana | Brendan Burns | 21.31 |
| Penn State | Will Roberson | 21.36 |
| Purdue | Michael Juengel | 21.56 |
| Iowa | Anze Fers Erzen | 21.58 |
| Wisconsin | Wes Jekel | 21.71 |
| Northwestern | Manu Bacarizo | 21.77 |
| Michigan State | Evan Stanislaw | 22.56 |
| Minnesota | Desmon Sachtjen | 22.57 |
50 BREAST
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Minnesota | Max McHugh | 22.40 |
| Michigan | Will Chan | 22.67 |
| Purdue | Trent Pellini | 22.82 |
| Ohio State | Hudson McDaniel | 22.97 |
| Indiana | Zane Backes | 23.22 |
| Wisconsin | Andrew Benson | 23.39 |
| Iowa | Will Myhre | 23.50 |
| Northwestern | Kevin Houseman | 23.60 |
| Penn State | Daniel Raisanen | 24.10 |
| Michigan State | Travis Nitkiewicz | 24.44 |
50 FLY
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Michigan | River Wright | 19.88 |
| Indiana | Tomer Frankel | 20.13 |
| Penn State | Jacob Houck | 20.32 |
| Iowa | Sergey Kuznetsov | 20.57 |
| Ohio State | Justin Fleagle | 20.62 |
| Michigan State | Bradley Sanford | 20.63 |
| Wisconsin | Erik Gessner | 20.72 |
| Purdue | Ryan Hrosik | 20.85 |
| Minnesota | Kaiser Neverman | 21.17 |
| Northwestern | Alessandro Burdisso | 21.27 |
50 FREE
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Ohio State | Sem Andreis | 18.43 |
| Purdue | Nikola Acin | 18.59 |
| Indiana | Jack Franzman | 18.69 |
| Michigan | Gus Borges | 18.73 |
| Penn State | Gabe Castano | 19.08 |
| Minnesota | Lucas Farrar | 19.26 |
| Northwestern | Andrew Zhang | 19.41 |
| Iowa | Seth Miller | 19.41 |
| Wisconsin | Ryan Delaney | 19.42 |
| Michigan State | Kevin Mills | 19.71 |
200 FREE SPLITS
| TEAM | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Ohio State | Paul Delakis |
1:31.90 *lead-off*
|
| Ohio State | Hunter Armstrong | 1:32.66 |
| Michigan | Patrick Callan |
1:32.67 *lead-off*
|
| Michigan | Jake Mitchell | 1:32.95 |
| Indiana | Van Mathias | 1:33.11 |
| Indiana | Tomer Frankel |
1:33.17 *lead-off*
|
| Indiana | Brendan Burns | 1:33.54 |
| Michigan | Wyatt Davis | 1:33.67 |
| Michigan | Danny Berlitz | 1:33.71 |
| Purdue | Nicholas Sherman |
1:33.81 *lead-off*
|
| Wisconsin | Jacob Newmark |
1:34.33 *lead-off*
|
| Penn State | Michael Daly |
1:34.39 *lead-off*
|
| Northwestern | Connor LaMastra | 1:34.49 |
| Ohio State | John Satterfield | 1:34.65 |
| Wisconsin | Josh Dannhauser | 1:34.94 |
| Northwestern | Liam Gately | 1:34.96 |
| Iowa | Mateusz Arndt |
1:35.09 *lead-off*
|
| Wisconsin | Caleb Aman | 1:35.18 |
| Minnesota | Sawyer Grimes | 1:35.21 |
| Northwestern | Ben Forbes | 1:35.24 |
| Iowa | Evan Holt | 1:35.30 |
| Ohio State | Thomas Watkins | 1:35.30 |
| Wisconsin | Andrew Benson | 1:35.79 |
| Northwestern | Aleksa Bobar |
1:35.89 *lead-off*
|
| Purdue | Batuhan Hakan | 1:35.93 |
| Iowa | Andrew Fierke | 1:36.07 |
| Iowa | Aleksey Tarasenko | 1:36.10 |
| Indiana | Jacob Destrampe | 1:36.30 |
| Minnesota | James Freeman | 1:36.37 |
| Minnesota | Cameron Kelley |
1:36.55 *lead-off*
|
| Minnesota | Tom Donker | 1:36.61 |
| Penn State | William Lulek | 1:36.72 |
| Penn State | Lachlan Byrne | 1:36.82 |
| Purdue | Andrew Alders | 1:37.43 |
| Purdue | Jude Wenker | 1:37.46 |
| Penn State | Hayden Harlow | 1:37.50 |
| Michigan State | Aiden Farley |
1:37.78 *lead-off*
|
| Michigan State | James Gavin | 1:38.20 |
| Michigan State | Peter Corsetti | 1:38.70 |
| Michigan State | Jack Hiss | 1:43.69 |
River fast at 19.88!
It seems like having the lanes open in between relays is making a huge difference for the men. Especially for the 200 FR and 200 Medley Relays.