Michigan Still With Many Scorers; Top Seeds Spread Out on Final Day of 2013 Big Ten Championships

Natalie Schumann and Jessica Campbell are leading our coverage of the Big Ten Men’s Championships. This report was written by Schumann, who is a journalism major at Indiana.

200 Backstroke

Indiana’s Eric Ress secured the top seed with a pool record time of 1:40.29. Ress finished third in yesterday’s 100 backstroke and will be joined tonight by teammate James Wells (1:41.33, fourth), two-time B1G 100 backstroke champion. Wisconsin’s Andrew Teduits (1:40.50, second) and Penn State’s Nate Savoy (1:41.03, third) round out the top four in what is sure to be an extremely close race.

Ohio State’s Steven Zimmerman (1:42.55), Michigan’s Ryutaro Kamiya (1:42.72), Ohio State’s Connor McDonald (1:42.83), and Michigan State’s standout Jacob Jarzen (1:42.92) were the remaining top eight finalists. Wells, Teduits, Savoy, Zimmerman were all top eight last year, although only a 1:43.92 was necessary to make the final compared to the 1:42.92 needed to make tonight’s final.

100 Freestyle

Minnesota’s sprinter Derek Toomey continued his streak of fast swims at this meet, qualifying first with a 42.60. He broke the pool record as well as Matt Grevers’ meet record set in 2005. Toomey’s time this morning would have placed fifth at last year’s NCAA meet. Michigan’s 50 freestyle champion Bruno Ortiz was second with a 42.84, followed by teammate Zach Turk (42.90) and Purdue’s 50 freestyle runner-up Daniel Tucker (42.94). All four top qualifiers were faster than last year’s B1G championship time of 43.11.

Michigan’s 100 butterfly champion Sean Fletcher qualified fifth (43.11), followed closely by Northwestern’s Chase Stephens (43.14), Michigan’s Miguel Ortiz (43.36) and Indiana’s 50 freestyle finalist Daniel Kanorr (43.36). 2012 B1G champ Jason Schnur of Ohio State failed to make the finals. Typical of the sprint events, tonight’s final could go any number of ways, but with eight total finalists Michigan looks to claim a large number of points again.

200 Breaststroke

Cody Miller was at it again, grabbing the top seed with a 1:53.50 and just edging out Michigan’s Richard Funk (1:53.72). Miller looks to win his third straight B1G title in this event after last night’s B1G record-setting 100 breaststroke win. Wisconsin’s Nicholas Schafer took third with a 1:55.48, followed by Indiana’s Sam Trahin (1:55.61) and freshman teammate Tanner Kurz (1:56.39). Iowa’s Andrew Marciniak (1:56.54), Michigan’s Kyle Duckitt (1:56.70), and Purdue’s Lyam Dias (1:56.74) finish out the top eight qualifiers.

Last year, a 1:58.00 made top eight; this morning, it barely made top 16. Others to watch include 400 IM champion Michael Weiss of Wisconsin (1:56.82, ninth) and Minnesota’s 100 breaststroke finalists Joshua Hall and Max Cartwright (both 1:57.04). Tonight will ultimately be a battle between Miller and Funk, but Indiana’s two finalists could score valuable points as well.

200 Fly

With a new B1G, meet and pool record, Michigan’s 200 IM runner-up Dylan Bosch qualified first with an astounding 1:41.21, which would have been third at 2012 NCAA’s. Bosch, just a freshman, was nearly a second and a half faster than last year’s championship time (former Wolverine Daniel Madwed went 1:42.67 to win it). Teammate Kyle Whitaker was second (1:43.18), with Indiana’s Steve Schmuhl third (1:43.53) and Ohio State’s Tamas Gercsak fourth (1:43.84). Two other Wolverines made the top eight, with John Wojciechowski qualifying fifth (1:44.70) and Peter Brumm in sixth (1:44.89), followed by Wisconsin’s Daniel Lester (1:45.08) and Ohio State’s Luke Stirton (1:45.46).

Standings and Up/Downs (no diving included)

Michigan, with 16 swimming scorers tonight and a huge advantage, it would seem, into the 400 free relay have all-but-sealed the team title. Now the focus will be on getting as many guys as possible qualified for NCAA’s, so expect that to possibly play into the relay decision.

Team Standings after 3 days, followed by up/downs

1. Michigan     601
2. Indiana        464
3. Ohio State   335
4. Minnesota   247
5. Purdue         216
6. Iowa             190
7. Wisconsin    187
8. Penn State    150
9. Northwestern 100
10. Michigan State  86