Michigan Men Take Big Ten Four-Peat, Finish 2014 Championships in Record-Setting Fashion

Big Ten Men

  • Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6:30PM
  • Location: Canham Natatorium, University of Michigan  (Eastern Time Zone)
  • Defending Champion: Michigan (3x) (links to each day’s results)
  • Live Results: Should be here once meet begins
  • Live Video (If available): Here (for a fee, or free for Big Ten Network subscribers)
  • Championship Central

The final day of the 2014 Big Ten Men’s Championships will have little fanfare about the team trophy – the Michigan Wolverines have an essentially insurmountable lead of 193 points (with only A and B finals).

However, there’s at least one NCAA and U.S. Open Record on notice in the final session. Michigan sophomore Dylan Bosch was a 1:40.37 in prelims – which means he’s only six-tenths of a second away from the matching 1:39.65’s done by Michael Phelps and Tom Shields as the fastest time ever in this race. That’s still a good drop, but it’s close enough to watch for. Anything under 1:40 at Big Tens will light up the swimming world for the South African.

Other finals tonight include the 1650 free (featuring defending NCAA Champion Connor Jaeger), the 200 back (featuring defending NCAA Champion Drew teDuits), the 100 free, the 200 breast, platform diving, and the 400 free relay.

For full team scores coming into the session, see our day 3 recap here.
For a setup of finals, see our prelims recap here.

Men’s 1650 Free – TIMED FINALS

After Florida’s Arthur Frayler threw down a big mile at the SEC Championships last week to wrest away the #1 national ranking, Michigan’s Connor Jaeger fired back on Saturday, with a 14:34.19 to run away with the Big Ten title by over nine seconds. It also moved to the fastest time in the nation by almost four seconds.

Northwestern sophomore Jordan Wilimovsky took 2nd in 14:42.99, which crushed his own school record by 13 seconds – a record he set earlier this year. In two years at Northwestern, the international-level open water swimmers has cut 26 seconds off of the Northwestern School Record in this event. That time also moves him into the country’s top four this year.

Wilimovsky was only 8th at Big Tens in this race last season.

Michigan’s Anders Nielsen was 3rd in 14:48.23, and Minnesota’s CJ Smith was 4th in 14:56.18.

Michigan’s second finisher was senior Sean Ryan in 14:58.27.

Wisconsin’s Nicholas Caldwell continues his Wisconsin-bounce back after transferring there from Florida over the summer. He cut 21 seconds off of his seed time and went a 15:02.16. That not only broke a 27-year old school record, but his 9:01.33 split at the 1000 is also a school record.

Finishing out the top eight were Minnesota’s Logan Redondo (15:06.71), and Michigan freshman Cameron Stitt (15:07.39).

Men’s 200 Back – Finals

Indiana’s Eric Ress, finally healthy and with a full year of training behind him, has his eyes on an elusive NCAA Championship (he has several runner-up finishes). That quest took a big step with a nation-leading 1:38.89.

That time broke the Championship Record of 1:39.53 set by Olympian Matt Grevers in 2007.

Meanwhile, the defending NCAA Champion Drew teDuits from Wisconsin started the race right with Ress, but Ress was too strong on the back-half and pulled away. teDuits took 2nd in 1:39.84.

They were two of four swimmers under the NCAA Automatic Qualifying Standard in that event. Ohio State’s Connor McDonald took 3rd in 1:40.74, and Penn State’s Nate Savoy was 4th in 1:41.23. With so many swimmers under the NCAA Automatic Qualifying Standard, all bets are off for swimmers in the 200 back counting on a ‘solid B-time’ in this 200 back for their NCAA invite. Including these results, that’s 14 swimmers under the automatic qualifying standard so far.

Michigan’s Ryutaro Kamiya took 5th in 1:42.17; Ohio State’s Steven Zimmerman was 6th in 1:42.52; Indiana’s James Wells was 7th in 1:43.53; and Iowa’s Dustin Rhoads was 8th in 1:44.93.

Men’s 100 Free – Finals

At the international level, Penn State’s Shane Ryan has been best known as a backstroker. However, he’s showing this week at Big Ten’s that he’s also a great 100 freestyler, giving him a sort of Matt Grevers-like quality.

Perhaps, then, it’s fitting that Ryan broke Grevers’ Big Ten Record in the 100 freestyle in the final of this race, with a 42.08. Grevers was a 42.33 in 2007, and this is the second-straight event in which a Grevers record was broken.

Ryan smoked 50 free champ Derek Toomey to the second turn, and though the two were fairly even over the last 50 yards, Ryan’s early lead was enough for the win. Toomey took 2nd in 42.68, which was almost three-tenths slower than his Meet Record (and top seed) in prelims.

Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz took 3rd in 42.70, as the top three faded back toward the next level of swimmers. Ohio State’s Michael DiSalle continued to make a name for himself with a 42.95 for 5th, followed by Michigan’s Michael Wynalda (43.14), Ohio State’s Josh Fleagle (43.19), Purdue’s Danny Tucker (43.22), and Northwestern’s Chase Stephens (43.39).

Indiana’s top finisher was freshman Anze Tavcar, who won the B final in 43.54. Minnesota freshman Daryl Turner was 10th in 43.65.

Men’s 200 Breaststroke – Finals

Indiana’s Cody Miller wasn’t nearly as fast as he was at this meet last year, but he didn’t need to be either. He dropped 1.2 seconds to claim his 4th-straight Big Ten Championship in the 200 breaststroke. The only other swimmer in conference history to win this event four-straight years was former Michigan great Mike Barrowman from 1988-1991.

In second place, with an equally-noteworthy swim, was Purdue junior Lyam Dias. He’s become a real star on this Purdue team, and his 1:53.06 in finals took 2nd place and broke his own School Record from prelims by 1.4 seconds.

Michigan’s Richard Funk took 3rd in 1:53.49, followed by Wisconsin junior Nicholas Schafer in 1:55.12.

Michigan’s Matt McNamara (1:55.75) and Christopher Klein (1:56.05) took 5th and 6th, respectively, followed by Indiana’s Donald Hurley (1:56.19) and Ohio State’s Daniel MacDonald (1:57.71) to round out the A-final.

In the B-final, Iowa’s Andrew Marciniak knocked two seconds off of his prelims time with a 1:55.89 for 9th overall. That was the second-fastest swim in Iowa history, and left him only .05 seconds shy of the school record.

Men’s 200 Fly – FINALS

Michigan’s South African sophomore sensation Dylan Bosch won his second-straight Big Ten title in the 200 fly with a 1:40.54. That was a hair slower than he was in prelims (there he set the Meet Record) but still left him well clear of teammate Kyle Whitaker, who was 2nd in 1:41.90.

Indiana’s Stephen Schmuhl took 3rd in 1:43.33, which is a new lifetime best for him.

Michigan wound up with four of the top five spots in this race; Peter Brumm took 4th in 1:43.92, and John Wojciechowski took 5th in 1:44.08 – those are both times that would have been invited to NCAA’s last season, but will be firmly on the bubble this season.

Minnesota’s Kyler van Swol took 6th in 1:44.61, with Ohio State’s Tamas Gercsak (1:44.78) and Minnesota’s Nick Orf (1:44.89) rounding out the A-final.

Men’s Platform Diving – FINALS

Indiana platform specialist Conor Murphy took his second-straight Big Ten title off of the platform, posting a score of 434.85 to make a huge jump after sitting second in the preliminary rounds.

Purdue’s Nathan Cox took 2nd in 419.20, followed by Minnesota’s Manny Pollard in 3rd.

Michigan’s Timothy Faerber took his second-straight 4th-place finish at this meet, after doing the same on the 3-meter on Friday. If they can get him into NCAA’z through the zone diving, that would be a huge wildcard bonus for them if he could score at NCAA’s.

Men’s 400 Free Relay – FINALS

On paper, the Michigan men don’t have quite the sprint depth that they did last year. In the water, though, they’ve proven still might strong, at least in the 400 free relay. Michigan broke the Big Ten Championship Record.

The winning relay consisted of Bruno Ortiz (43.13), Anders Nielsen (43.22), Justin Glanda (42.70), and Michael Wynalda 942.03), who has been big on Michigan anchors all week long. The Wolverines actually trailed eventual runners-up Penn State by almost a second before Wynalda dove in.

Penn State would wind up 2nd in 2:51.32, led off by a Shane Ryan 42.53.

Ohio State was 23rd in 2:41.68, including a Josh Fleagle anchor, and Minnesota was a 2:52.32 to round out the top four under the NCAA Automatic Qualifying Standard.

Purdue placed 5th in 2:53.55, which was just .07 seconds away from the automatic qualifying mark as well, but they’re already into the meet in the 200 free relay, so a provisional mark will be good enough for an entry in Austin.

Final Team Standings

The Michigan Wolverines won their 4th-straight Big Ten title. While it seems like their dominance has stretched somewhere close to “forever,” that’s actually the first time they’ve four-peated since the 1992-1995 seasons, when Jon Urbanchek was still the coach.

1. Michigan – 889
2 .Indiana – 564
3. Ohio State – 515
4. Minnesota – 378
5. Penn State – 349.5
6. Purdue – 329.5
7. Wisconsin – 299.5
8. Iowa – 188
9. Northwestern – 158
10. Michigan State – 107.5

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DutchWomen
10 years ago

How about first year HC Tim Murphy of Penn State…the women were lights out last week, and the men followed up with a fantastic showing this week…easily their best Big Ten finish in years. Note that 4 of the 5 teams that finished below them have 50 meter pools to call home….PSU doing this with a dungeon of a tank built in the 60’s!!

jman
Reply to  DutchWomen
10 years ago

PSU did swim well. But Purdue outswam them and should have been 5th. But the great officials who didn’t call dolphin kicking on Miller did call a too large size logo on a Purdue suit to dq their 800 free relay. Those lost 24 pts. would have put them in 5th.

Peterdavis
Reply to  jman
10 years ago

Tough way to go out but a well-known rule. Vividly remember coloring out logos with markers to avoid DQ when we were between brands and stuck with otherwise illegal suits at conference one year.

N3Man
10 years ago

Jman,

Yes, those are defined in the rule book as butterfly kicks. I saw two off of turn 5 – obvious from the stands, and just as the race was tightening up. What a shame to see a repeat of last season.

jman
10 years ago

For some reason Miller only decided to take 2 dolphins off his walls. Likely explains his slower times.

bobo gigi
10 years ago
Elite-o-meter
10 years ago

Connor Jaeger: ELITE. Throwing down a 14:34 at this point in the season makes one wonder how low into the 14:20s he has the ability to go.

Eric Ress: Elite. A very impressive 1:38 from the senior tonight. The 200 back will be one of the best races to watch at NCAAs, with Ress and Teduits both being contenders for the title.

Cody Miller: pretty elite. Not an incredible time, considering Cordes goes 4 seconds faster, but going 4 for 4 is no small feat.

Dylan Bosch: quite elite. Not shields or phelps level elite, but quite elite nonetheless.

Overall a strong showing from the conference as a whole. It’ll be fun to watch some incredibly elite times get… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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