Postmeet Notes: Big Ten Championships - Day 4 - University of Michigan Athletics

Feb. 28, 2015

• The Big Ten Network will show the meet in a condensed version tomorrow (Sunday, March 1) at 11:30 a.m. EST.

• The championship is the University of Michigan's first Big Ten team title of the 2014-15 academic year.

• Michigan has now won 39 Big Ten titles, the most of any team in the conference. The Wolverines have now won 505 total championships at Big Tens -- 359 in individual swimming events, 128 on relays and 18 in diving.

• The Wolverines won all five relays at the same Big Ten Championships for the second time in school history (2013).

• The Big Ten Championships have been held in Iowa City nine times. In those instances, U-M has come back to Ann Arbor with the title on six occasions (1934, 1941, 1948, 1958, 2012, 2015).

• The true senior class of Richard Funk, Justin Glanda, Bruno Ortiz and Kevin Bain will leave with four Big Ten titles, one national title and a 36-0 record in dual meets.

• The Wolverines had 35 lifetime best swims over the four-day meet.

• Though it won, Michigan's margin of victory was considerably smaller this year (137 points) than it was in both 2014 (325 points over Indiana) and 2013 (235 points over Indiana).

• During its five-year winning streak, Michigan has won 52 percent at the Big Ten Championships (55 of 105).

• U-M had 17 swimmers in the water this morning for preliminaries. Of those, 12 came back for finals.

• PJ Ransford does not yet appear on the school's top-times list for the 1,650-yard freestyle but now does in the 1,000-yard freestyle. He went 8:50.27, putting him in fifth all-time.

• Last year in the 1,650-yard freestyle, U-M went 1-3-4-8 and scored 61 points, though two of those swimmers -- Connor Jaeger (1st) and Sean Ryan (4th) -- graduated. All four men that swam the mile on Saturday are non-seniors.

• Aaron Whitaker was one of the meet's breakout stars, scoring championship appearances in three events. He was second in the 100-yard butterfly and sixth in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday and fourth in the 200-yard backstroke on Saturday. He contributed 44 points across those three events as well as assisting on two winning relays.

• Evan White had two runner-up finishes at the Big Ten Championships (200-yard butterfly, 200-yard IM), finishing second to Dylan Bosch in both races. He was also fourth in the 100-yard butterfly.

• Dylan Bosch came into this week with two Big Ten titles, winning the 200-yard butterfly in 2013 and 2014. He won five more over the four days (three individual, two relay), giving him a total of seven.

• Bruno Ortiz won the 100-yard freestyle for the second time of his career (2013). He will graduate as a 16-time Big Ten champion.

• The old Big Ten and U-M record in the 400-yard freestyle relay was held by Bobby Savulich, Chris Brady, Tyler Clary and Evan Ryser (2:50.16 from 2009).

CAREER BESTS
1,650-yard Freestyle
Ian Rainey -- 15:09.59

200-yard Backstroke
Tristan Sanders -- 1:40.90 (No. 2 in U-M history)
Aaron Whitaker -- 1:41.39 (No. 3 in U-M history)
Jack Mangan -- 1:43.39 (No. 9 in U-M history)
Will Raynor -- 1:44.72

100-yard Freestyle
Bruno Ortiz -- 42.46 (T-No. 1 in U-M history)
Paul Powers -- 42.90 (T-No. 5 in U-M history)
Vinny Tafuto -- 43.90

100-yard Breaststroke
Chris Klein -- 1:55.08 (No. 4 in U-M history)

200-yard Butterfly
Evan White -- 1:42.32 (No. 5 in U-M history)