Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon and Indiana’s Skyler Liu Pick Up Big Ten Championship Honors

2025 BIG TEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • Dates: Wednesday, February 19 – Saturday, February 22
  • Location: McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, Columbus, OH
  • Teams: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin
  • Championship Central
  • Live Results
  • Recaps:

For the second straight year, Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon was named the Swimmer of the Championships at the Big 10 Championships, while Indiana’s Skyler Liu picked up Diver of the Championships honors.

Bacon, a US Olympian, won all three of her individual events at the meet for the first time in her career. She opened the weekend by posting a time of 1:53.12 in the 200 IM, hitting an NCAA ‘A’ cut en route to winning the event by over 1.5 seconds. Bacon then dominated the 100 backstroke, hitting another NCAA ‘A’ cut to finish in a time of 50.14, leading the field by over half a second. However, Bacon’s most impressive performance was almost certainly her last one as she threw down a 1:48.75 in her signature 200 backstroke to dominate by 2 seconds.

Throughout the weekend, Bacon also played a pivotal role on Wisconsin’s relays, competing on the 200 medley, 800 freestyle, 200 freestyle, and 400 medley relays. On both the 200 medley and 400 medley relays, Bacon swam butterfly for the Badgers, splitting impressive times of 22.23 and 50.20. Those relays finished 3rd and 2nd, respectively. The Badgers also finished 5th in both the 800 freestyle relay and 200 freestyle relay with Bacon’s assistance.

Indiana’s Liu also won her award for the 2nd year in a row after dominating the diving competition. Opening the weekend on the platform diving event, Liu posted a score of 366.90 points over 5 dives to win by 32 points over her competition. Notably, that score would have been good enough to win the NCAA title last season. She then followed-up with an equally-dominant performance on the 3-meter board, racking up a score of 379.70 points to easily overtake the field.

Including Bacon and Liu, there were 20 athletes named to the All-Big Ten First Team. Michigan led the way with 9 athletes on the list, while Indiana placed 7 athletes on it. Several athletes were also named to the All-Big Ten Second Team and All-Freshman Teams based on their championship performances.

2025 All-Big Ten First Team

2025 All-Big Ten Second Team

2025 All-Freshman Team

In This Story

3
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

3 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You
2 hours ago

Really hope Phoebe keeps going until L.A. in 2028 she’s great

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON
3 hours ago

Bacon, somewhat under the radar, had a fantastic meet. And she always peaks when it matters most. She could be headed to :49 and 1:47 along with a :49 fly split. Look out.

Viking Steve
3 hours ago

Great to see Pheobe getting even better in a post-olympic year. Not easy….

About Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller

Nicole has been with SwimSwam since April 2020, as both a reporter and social media contributor. Prior to joining the SwimSwam platform, Nicole also managed a successful Instagram platform, amassing over 20,000 followers. Currently, Nicole is pursuing her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After competing for the swim …

Read More »