A crazy back-and-forth two-day triangular at Penn State ultimately saw all three teams split wins with one another.
After Virginia led by large margins out of day 1, Michigan and Penn State put together furious comebacks to even things up. Penn State rattled off three straight wins early on to beat Virginia, though Michigan still topped their Big Ten rivals Penn State. But Virginia beat Michigan, leaving all three teams with one win and one loss.
On the men’s side, Michigan was once again overpowering, beating out Penn State and Virginia for the win, although all three teams took individual events.
Women’s Meet
There was drama from the get-go in the women’s meet. Penn State’s Alyson Ackman brought the home team back from second place to beat Virginia 1:41.48 to 1:41.78. Ackman split 22.75 on that leg, and also quick was Carolyn Fittin, 23.82 on butterfly. In fact, Michigan actually led at the 100-mark with Penn State third, but that fierce back half was enough to bring the Nittany Lions back.
Impressive for Michigan: Ali DeLoof outsplit Virginia’s backstroke star Courtney Bartholomew by a wide margin, going 25.19 to Bartholomew’s 25.42.
That started a run of three-straight for Penn State. Megan Siverling went 9:48.52, just beating out Michigan freshman Hannah Moore by a few tenths to win the 1000. Then, just one event removed from the medley relay, Fittin was back to win the 50 free at 23.21, just two one-hundredths ahead of Michigan’s DeLoof. Ackman was third in 23.34.
But then Virginia answered back with three straight of their own. Bartholomew crushed the 100 back in 53.30 (though Michigan went 2-3). Then Laura Simon took the 200 breast (2:15.38) and Ellen Williamson won the 100 fly (54.19) over Fittin.
Penn State ended that run, as Ackman crushed a 1:47.93 to win the 200 free over Virginia sophomore Leah Smith.
Then it was Michigan’s turn to jump to the top. Marni Oldershaw took the 400 IM in 4:21.65, and the first-year Moore was second in a 1-2 sweep for the Wolverines. And in the final individual event, Carey Chen won 3-meter diving, completing a sweep of the boards for Michigan.
The final relay saw even more fireworks. Penn State rolled to a win in 3:20.44, getting a huge 49.72 leadoff from Ackman and a 49.73 anchor leg from Fittin. Michigan took second in 3:20.86, with DeLoof providing the meet’s fastest split at 49.09.
That second-place Michigan squad was originally DQ’d after the timing system showed a false start on Claudia Goswell. But meet officials turned to video replay and ultimately reinstated the Michigan relay after deciding the team had not false started.
That DQ would have given the meet to Penn State, but Michigan rolled those points into a narrow 178-175 win over their conference rivals. Meanwhile Penn State beat Virginia 183-170 and Virginia beat Michigan 184.5-168.5.
Men’s Meet
The men’s meet was much less complex – Michigan made things simple by beating all comers.
That started with a pair of wins out of the gate. The 200 medley relay of Aaron Whitaker, Bruno Ortiz, Dylan Bosch and Paul Powers went 1:28.03 for the win, about a second off their nation-leading time from earlier this year. Bosch was 21.70 on fly and Powers 19.63 on freestyle for the Wolverines.
Then Michigan went 1-2 in the 1000 free, led by Anders Nielsen. The Danish swimmer was 9:11.31 with PJ Ransford second.
Penn State was led by Shane Ryan, who won twice as he continues to heat up this season. Ryan won the 50 free in 20.33, edging out Michigan’s Ortiz and Vinny Tafuto. Ryan would come back to win the 100 fly later on, going 49.21. Tafuto was close behind in 49.30.
The hosts also got a 100 back win from Nate Savoy in 47.87, well faster than the rest of the field. And Matt Stasiunas also added to the win total for PSU, going 1:39.63 to just eke out a win over Virginia’s Austin Quinn in the 200 free.
Once again, the only swimming race Virginia could take was a breaststroke one. Yannick Kaeser was 2:00.83 to win the 200 breast over Matt McNamara after winning the 100 breast Friday night. The Cavaliers also got a diving win from JB Kolod, who completed his diving sweep with a win on 3-meter. Virginia is swimming without 5 men who were suspended earlier this semester, plus one more, freshman Brendan Casey, who was suspended for this meet, the team announced on Friday.
Michigan took the final two events to put their win on ice. Ian Rainey paced the 400 IM, going 3:58.74, and his teammates also took third and fourth. And then the Wolverines went 2:57.05 to run away with the 400 free relay to close things down. That featured a 43.68 anchor leg from Ortiz, plus a 44.1 split from Nielsen early on.
That left the Wolverines on top by scores of 212.5-140.5 over Penn State and 247-102 over Virginia. Penn State also topped Virginia 212-136.
I think I can shine some light on the whole PSU fast times thing. In reality they are a subpar team but they have scammed the system. Swimmers were seen spraying their whole body in Pam cooking oil. I guess to get their times sizzlin’. Either way they have been resting for 3 weeks prior to this meet, in fact last week all they did were starts and turns followed by their patented butt chug of chocolate milk they employed at their UVA/Texas tri meet last year. disregard this meet as any showing to their potency in the big ten
From my insider sources I heard Penn State butt chugged chocolate milk, and had a recovery beer after every swim.
Oh sweetheart how silly that we both posted similar paragraphs luv&<3
I was pretty far up in the stands because I didn’t camp out for tickets but from where I was sitting it looked like Penn State was wearing full body race suits. It’s also the only logical explanation considering they had “fast times”.
Here we go again. Yo, ‘Early’, you are 100% right in every bit of your comment, but there is way more to it. Not only was Penn State swim/dive tapered and shaved, but we also bribed the stroke judges to let only Penn State wear full body suits. It was crazy! Imagine a meet where two of the three teams are in speedos, and the other one, the obviously slower of the three on both sides, wearing full body illegal tech suits. But, the stroke judges did not call a single DQ. That is why they went so fast, not because they always swim very similar times. Also, whenever UM and UVA were warming up the water was slowed down… Read more »
Although we paid off the judges for the suits, one of my swimmers was still DQ’ed in the 1000 for OD’ing on the dew. The whole distance groupexperimented
**So, we paid off the judges for the suits but one of my swimmers was still DQ’ed in the 1000 free for OD’ing on the dew. The whole distance group experimented with the power of the sauce all week leading up to this meet. I argued the official that the supplement was %100 legal but he demanded another 500$ to let it go. Sadly, I couldn’t pay him since Tim had already spent the last of our money on our new multimillion dollar pool that holds a max of 1 athlete and 3 spectators (so Tim can watch the legend, Shane Ryan, swim without having to move, and also invite other swimmers to join in basking in his glory). None… Read more »
Was Penn State shaved or rested? Fast times.
I was pretty far up in the stands because I didn’t camp out for tickets but from where I was sitting it looked like Penn State was wearing full body race suits. It’s also the only logical explanation considering they had “fast times”.
Luckily though we have you begging the question of taper and shaving, which is the last of our problems. I heard they had the aquatic director turn the jets facing whichever way their swimmers were going, helping boost them to the end. No training necessary for this team based off of all the cheating they do. Also, Thursday, they only swam 1,000 yards, but it was practicing celebrating the whole time, just in case they won… Read more »
So where was Brendan Casey this weekend? Didn’t see his name in the results.
Based on your comment history, I think you already know the answer to your question. But you could also find it in the third paragraph from the bottom.
PSU has a great team & it looks like it was a great meet. To bad they have such a poor aquatic center to train & hold meets at. I think they are one of the only teams in big ten with a 6 lane short course pool. Only have outdoor 50 meter to. Must make it hard to recruit top kids to go there.