The Michigan women’s swim team successfully defended their Big Ten title last week in West Lafayette, beating runners-up Indiana by 162 points. This marked the 16th Big Ten title for the Wolverine women and their first back-to-back run since 1997 and 1998.
Michigan entered the final day of the meet up only 14.5 points on Indiana, but got points in 26 of 28 entries on the last day to pull away for the win.
“It felt more like a team victory than even last year,” said head coach Mike Bottom. “We accomplished what we set out to do and everybody contributed to that. This team grew up a lot this week. I couldn’t be prouder of their effort and performance.”
Michigan senior Maddy Frost put together a video looking inside of the Michigan team atmosphere, which can be watched below. We post a lot of these types of videos, but this one has some particularly cool elements – one of which is a first-hand perspective on the title plunge at the end, and one is a look inside a pre-meet huddle with Mike Bottom, one of the great coaches in the United States, and hearing what it is that he says to his team right before they go out and win a title. That’s rare, and very cool, access.
This video would be a great response to people who question why athletes compete in the NCAA rather than just training/competing LC all year! A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer, being part of something bigger than yourself (TEAM) is FUN, and motivation for celebratory moments like this is key to achieving your personal best performance! I suggest that one reason so many swimmers from the USA perform at their best for their country at big international championship meets is that they have developed in a system where doing their best for their club/school team at the end of the season, rather than just for individual success or fame, is the primary focus. Great song on this video, by the… Read more »
Looks like a lot of fun! Now it is the men’s turn. Many are looking for a psych sheet– anybody know if a psych sheet has been posted? Meet starts tomorrow. Ohio State is the host.
So do schools value their conference titles? It seems like some universities care more about who wins conference than NCAAs and sacrifice a taper for certain swimmers when they don’t need to, what’s the deal?
X swimmer – most teams care more than they say they do. Everyone wants to win the conference title. There’s typically only a handful of teams actually in contention for an NCAA title, so most teams sit down and discuss whether they care more about moving up a couple of spots at NCAAs or winning a conference title – and where the program sits in its overall development can impact that. In 2015, I’d say NC State going after winning ACCs was probably the right move – having that to wave around can be big for recruiting, especially in ACC country where the schools are all so geographically close together. Going after a conference title can be a long term… Read more »
How fun, great memories for the girls. MI looks to be at the top of Big 10 for at least the next few yrs anyhow. They are not graduating many top seniors and if I remember get MTucker next yr along with Sierra Schmitt!!!!! I think a dynasty has started!!
doubt if they get tucker
She’s already training there??
https://youtu.be/OaIcVHt041w She’s there.
This video reminds me of a comment on a Mike Bottom thread about a month back in which a poster replied that no one cared about conference championships. As you can see here, that’s true except for the kids that actually win them.