IU Men Sweep Michigan and Iowa to Extend Undefeated Season Record

Indiana V. Michigan V. Iowa (Men)

• November 2, 2019
• Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center
• Bloomington, IN
• Meet Results
• Team Scores
  • IU 245- Iowa 55
  • IU 165- Michigan 135
  • Michigan 218- Iowa 82

The IU Hoosier men hosted the Michigan Wolverines and Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, sweeping both teams and extending their undefeated season dual meet record to 6-0. At the same time, the Michigan men walked away with a victory over Iowa.

Meet Highlights

Michigan led things off in the 200 medley with the quartet of Eric Storms, Will Chan, Miles Smachlo, and Gus Borges winning the event with a time of 1:26.93. Indiana took second at 1:27.62 while the Iowa A-relay finished in 6th (1:30.79). Michigan anchor Borges later was the lone sub-20 swim in the 50 free with his NCAA #10 time of 19.95.

Michigan junior Ricardo Vargas kept the ball rolling with a NCAA #4 time with his 1000 free win (8:59.44). IU sophomore Mikey Calvillo finished second at 9:05.93, ranking 7th in the NCAA. The duo would meet in the 500 free, where Vargas would win with a NCAA #6 time of 4:22.83 and Calvillo settling for second with a NCAA #10 time of 4:25.36.

Yet it was IU senior Mohamed Samy who stole the show with three individual wins for the Hoosiers. His first win was in the 200 free, clocking in the 4th-fastest time in the NCAA at 1:35.30. Michigan’s Patrick Callan now ranks 9th in the NCAA with his runner-up time of 1:36.41.

Samy’s remaining two event wins, 100 free (43.20) and 200 IM (1:44.95), produced nation-leading times.

Iowa’s highest individual placements were both achieved by Aleksey Tarasenko, picking up two 4th-place finishes in the 200 free (1:37.92) and 100 free (44.63).

Shortly after, Hoosier teammate Jacob Steele swept the backstroke events in Bloomington, winning the 100 back (47.99) and 200 back (1:46.41).

IU’s Zane Backes and Michigan’s Tommy Cope battled two thrilling showdowns in the breaststroke events. Backes (53.58) first held off Cope (53.71) by two-tenths in the 100 breast, ranking 4th and 7th in the nation respectively. Cope then bounced back when he popped a nation-leading time in the 200 breast at 1:55.97, leaving Backes four seconds behind in second at 1:59.30.

Similarly, Michigan national teamer Miles Smachlo and IU freshman Brendan Burns were the ones to watch in the 200 fly. The duo’s thrilling race ended with the top two times in the NCAA this season. At the finish, Smachlo touched the wall at 1:44.52, just 0.18s ahead of Burns’ 1:44.70.

Smachlo would then go on to win the 100 fly with an NCAA #3 time of 46.96. Burns (47.75) would finish third behind IU teammate Van Mathias (47.73).

Into the 400 free relay, the IU men were victorious with their quartet of Jack Franzman, Bruno Blasovic, Griffin Eiber, and Samy (2:55.35). The Michigan A-relay would have been second place at 2:56.34, however, suffered a DQ. The Iowa A-relay finished in third at 2:59.81, behind IU’s B-relay (2:58.40).

Next weekend, November 8-9, the Hoosiers will host Louisville and Texas. Meanwhile, both Michigan and Iowa will be preparing for the Minnesota Invitational on December 4-7.

Indiana- Press Release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University men’s swimming and diving teams continued its long unbeaten streak in dual meet scoring after defeating both Iowa (245-55) and Michigan (165-135) at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center on Saturday morning.

TEAM SCORES
Men
Indiana 245, Iowa, 55
Indiana 165, Michigan 135

HOOSIER WINNERS
MEN
Zane Backes – 100 breaststroke (53.58)
Bruno Blaskovic – 400 freestyle relay (2:55.35)
Griffin Eiber – 400 freestyle relay (2:55.35)
Jack Franzman – 400 freestyle relay (2:55.35)
Mory Gould – 1-meter dive (338.95); 3-meter dive (403.85)
Mohamed Samy – 100 freestyle (43.20); 200 freestyle (1:35.30); 200 IM (1:44.95); 400 freestyle relay (2:55.35)
Jacob Steele – 100 backstroke (47.99); 200 backstroke (1:46.41);

NOTABLES
• The Indiana men’s team has won 34-consecutive dual meets dating back to Jan. 16, 2016 against the Michigan Wolverines.
• The Hoosiers tallied a total of 9-of-16 event titles in the meet, including both contested diving events. Samy had his hand in four of the Indiana nine victories.
• Samy posted three event times inside the top-10 nationally to this point in the season, to include the nation-leading time in both the 100 free and the 200 IM and the fourth-fastest time in the 200 free.
• Backes’ time in the 100 breast is the fourth-fastest time swam in the country this season, while Steele clocked in with the 16th quickest touch in the 100 back and the 21st in the 200 back.

NCAA CUTS
A: None.
B: Zane Backes (100 breast, 53.58); Brendan Burns (100 fly, 1:44.70); Mohamed Samy (100 free, 43.20; 200 free, 1:35.30; 200 IM, 1:44.95);

NCAA Zones Qualifying Scores
1-Meter: Mory Gould (338.95)
3-Meter: Mory Gould (403.85); Seamus Scotty (372.50); Cole VanDevender (324.25)

UP NEXT
The Indiana Hoosier swimming and diving teams will be right back in the pool as hosts of a tri-meet against Louisville and Texas on Nov. 8-9 at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center.

Michigan- Press Release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In its first dual meet since mid-September, the University of Michigan men’s swimming and diving team settled for a split on Saturday morning (Nov. 2), toppling No. 23 Iowa, 218-82, and falling to No. 5 Indiana, 165-135 at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center.

“Our team showed a lot of toughness today,” said head coach Mike Bottom. “They swam well and raced well. We were beaten by a better team today. This is a tough place to compete, but I thought our guys held up really well, even through a DQ on the final relay that, at least by the splits on results, should have impacted more teams than just us. Still, nobody got discouraged and they fought to the very end, which is something we wanted to see today.”

The Wolverines began the meet with a bang, toppling Indiana in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome of sophomore Eric Storms, sophomore Will Chan, senior Miles Smachlo and junior Luiz Gustavo Borges touched first at 1:26.93, but mounted a rally on the back half to do it. Smachlo put the Wolverines back into the lead with a 20.70 split on the butterfly leg before Borges split 19.48 on freestyle coming home. They won by almost seven-tenths of a second.

Junior Ricardo Vargas led a 1-3-4 finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle, winning the event by more than six seconds (8:59.44). He turned it up a notch at the halfway point, splitting sub-27.00 over the last 500 yards. Junior Will Roberts was third (9:07.75) and senior Felix Auböck was fourth (9:07.87).

The Hoosiers won the next three events, but the gains were minimal thanks to Michigan’s depth. After sophomore Patrick Callan took second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:36.41), U-M went 2-3 in both the 100-yard backstroke (Storms, senior Alex Martin) and 100-yard breaststroke (senior Tommy Cope, Chan).

Michigan grabbed momentum back heading into the first diving break from two of the men on the opening relay. Smachlo rallied to beat Indiana’s Brendan Burns in the 200-yard butterfly (1:44.52), while Borges touched first in the 50-yard freestyle (19.95). He was the only man in the field to break 20 seconds.

Cope picked up a big win in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching first by more than three seconds (1:55.97). Senior Charlie Swanson was third (1:59.45) and senior Jeremy Babinet was fifth (2:01.51). Vargas followed that up with another multi-second win, this time in the 500-yard freestyle (4:22.83). Like in the 1,000-yard freestyle earlier, U-M piled up the points, as Callan was third (4:26.09), Roberts was fourth (4:27.57) and Auböck was fifth (4:28.64).

Smachlo finished his sweep of the butterfly events, taking the 100-yard butterfly by almost a full second (46.96). Following the final diving break, Cope (1:45.24) and Swanson (1:48.84) were second and third, respectively, in the 200-yard IM.

Junior Ross Todd was the team’s top performer in the diving well, finishing third on both one-meter (300.45) and three-meter (366.85).

“Even though it’s still early on in the season, we still executed well, though it could be better,” Bottom said. “All the little things in races — breakouts, turns, finishes, overall race strategy — they all could be better. But the desire was there, and we’ll get back to work on all of those things before Minnesota next month.”

Michigan will return to the pool next month for the Minnesota Invite, Dec. 4-8 in Minneapolis. The meet will mimic the postseason, beginning at 6 p.m. CST on Dec. 4, and will continue with preliminaries (10 a.m.) and finals (6 p.m.) sessions each of the following three days. Action will conclude with a long-course time trial on Sunday (Dec. 8) at 9 a.m.

Iowa- Press Release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The 16th ranked University of Iowa men’s swimming and diving fell to No. 1 Michigan (218-82) and No. 7 Indiana (245-55) on Saturday morning at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.

DIVING LEADS THE WAY
Freshman Mohamed Neuman posted Iowa’s top finish of the day off the 1-meter springboard, diving to a score of 329.20. Junior Anton Hoherz placed fourth on the 3-meter springboard with a score of 347.10.

SPRINTS PLACE
Sophomore Aleksey Tarasenko touched fourth for Iowa in the 100 free in a time of 44.63. Tarasenko also tabbed fourth in the 200 free, swimming to a time of 1:37.92.

Sophomore Anze Fers Erzen placed fifth in the 100 back in a time of 55.37. Senior Michael Tenney also posted a fifth-place finish in the 200 fly (1:47.57).

RELAYS COMPETE
The Iowa 200-medley relay team of Fers Erzen, Will Myhre, Tenney, and Joe Myhre grabbed sixth with a time of 1:30.79 to open competition.

The 400-free relay team of Tarasenko, Fiolic, Will Scott, and Joe Myhre finished third in 2:59.81 to round out the Big Ten double dual.

UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes return to competition for their midseason invitational from Dec. 4-7 in Minneapolis.