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
TEAM SCORES (THROUGH DAY 2)
- Ohio State – 628
- Indiana – 547.5
- Michigan – 526
- Purdue – 414.5
- Wisconsin – 345
- Northwestern – 296
- Penn State – 267
- Minnesota – 259
- Iowa – 250
- Michigan State – 102
Ohio State has opened up a lead of over 80 points on Indiana after the first day of individual events, with Michigan pulling right up behind Indiana in the title hunt.
One of the big swims for Ohio State tonight, aside from their wins in the 200 IM and 50 free, came in the 400 medley relay. West Virginia University transfer Hunter Armstrong led off in 44.92, which is an enormous best for the sophomore. Armstrong was 46.22 previously, a time he swam at the 2020 Big 12 Championships when he was with the Mountaineers.
Though OSU didn’t win the relay, settling for third, Armstrong has emerged as the surprise favorite for the 100 back title Friday night. Last year in the 100 back final, a 46.22 would’ve taken fifth, as Indiana’s Gabriel Fantoni won easily with a 44.92– that’s the exact time Armstrong went tonight.
Fantoni was 45.26 leading off Indiana’s medley tonight, and while the senior has experience on his side, Armstrong might have the momentum.
Meanwhile, the Hoosiers defended their 400 medley relay title from 2020, hitting nearly the same time as last year. In terms of the field’s top splits, Armstrong was the only sub-45 on back, while Max McHugh was 50.09 to lead five swimmers under 51 on respective breast legs. Eight teams had breaststrokers split sub-52.
Indiana’s Brendan Burns and Michigan’s River Wright were both 44.8s on their respective fly legs, while Purdue’s Nikola Acin led the anchor legs with a 41.44.
RELAY SPLITS
100 BACK
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Ohio State | Hunter Armstrong | 44.92 |
| Indiana | Gabriel Fantoni | 45.26 |
| Michigan | Wyatt Davis | 45.68 |
| Penn State | Michael Daly | 46.07 |
| Wisconsin | Wes Jekel | 46.27 |
| Purdue | Michael Juengel | 46.97 |
| Iowa | Anze Fers Erzen | 46.98 |
| Northwestern | Manu Bacarizo | 47.00 |
| Minnesota | Gavin Olson | 47.31 |
| Michigan State | Evan Stanislaw | 49.16 |
100 BREAST
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Minnesota | Max McHugh | 50.09 |
| Michigan | Will Chan | 50.65 |
| Ohio State | Hudson McDaniel | 50.85 |
| Indiana | Zane Backes | 50.85 |
| Northwestern | Kevin Houseman | 50.93 |
| Purdue | Trent Pellini | 51.01 |
| Iowa | Will Myhre | 51.50 |
| Wisconsin | Andrew Benson | 51.67 |
| Penn State | Daniel Raisanen | 53.13 |
| Michigan State | Jonathan Lee | 54.84 |
100 FLY
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Indiana | Brendan Burns | 44.79 |
| Michigan | River Wright | 44.85 |
| Wisconsin | Erik Gessner | 45.40 |
| Ohio State | Sem Andreis | 45.47 |
| Iowa | Sergey Kuznetsov | 46.37 |
| Purdue | Nicholas Sherman | 46.50 |
| Penn State | Jake Houck | 46.62 |
| Minnesota | Kaiser Neverman | 46.75 |
| Michigan State | Bradley Sanford | 46.91 |
| Northwestern | Connor LaMastra | 46.92 |
100 FREE
| SCHOOL | SWIMMER | SPLIT |
| Purdue | Nikola Acin | 41.44 |
| Indiana | Jack Franzman | 41.67 |
| Ohio State | Paul Delakis | 41.93 |
| Michigan | Gus Borges | 41.98 |
| Penn State | Will Roberson | 42.56 |
| Iowa | Aleksey Tarasenko | 42.67 |
| Minnesota | Lucas Farrar | 42.81 |
| Northwestern | Andrew Zhang | 42.95 |
| Wisconsin | Jake Newmark | 43.05 |
| Michigan State | Stephen Freitag | 44.74 |
Fun note about Hunter Armstrong, he’s a pretty damn good magician.
Big ten breastroke looking to prove they’re still the breastroke conference after the fast swims from the other power 5 conferences.
Damn those breastrokers be eating!