Michigan
Indiana
Wolverines Split With No. 23 Iowa, No. 5 Indiana
11/2/2019 12:15:00 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
» The Wolverines settled for a split on Saturday (Nov. 2), beating No. 23 Iowa (218-82) and falling to No. 5 Indiana (163-135).
» Ricardo Vargas put up two dominant victories in the distance freestyle events, winning the 500-yard freestyle by nearly three seconds and the 1,000-yard freestyle by more than six seconds.
» Miles Smachlo swept the butterfly events and Luiz Gustavo Borges broke the 20-second barrier to win the 50-yard freestyle.
Site: Bloomington, Ind. (Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center)
Score: #5 Indiana 165, #6 Michigan 135; #6 Michigan 218, #23 Iowa 82
Records: U-M (3-1, 1-1 B1G), IU (4-0, 2-0 B1G), Iowa (2-2, 0-2 B1G)
Next U-M Event: Wed-Sun., Dec. 4-8 -- at Minnesota Invite (Minneapolis, Minn.), 10 a.m./6 p.m.
• Complete Results (PDF)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In its first dual meet since mid-September, the University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team settled for a split on Saturday morning (Nov. 2), toppling No. 23 Iowa, 218-82, and falling to No. 5 Indiana, 165-135 at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center.
"Our team showed a lot of toughness today," said head coach Mike Bottom. "They swam well and raced well. We were beaten by a better team today. This is a tough place to compete, but I thought our guys held up really well, even through a DQ on the final relay that, at least by the splits on results, should have impacted more teams than just us. Still, nobody got discouraged and they fought to the very end, which is something we wanted to see today."
The Wolverines began the meet with a bang, toppling Indiana in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome of sophomore Eric Storms, sophomore Will Chan, senior Miles Smachlo and junior Luiz Gustavo Borges touched first at 1:26.93, but mounted a rally on the back half to do it. Smachlo put the Wolverines back into the lead with a 20.70 split on the butterfly leg before Borges split 19.48 on freestyle coming home. They won by almost seven-tenths of a second.
Junior Ricardo Vargas led a 1-3-4 finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle, winning the event by more than six seconds (8:59.44). He turned it up a notch at the halfway point, splitting sub-27.00 over the last 500 yards. Junior Will Roberts was third (9:07.75) and senior Felix Auböck was fourth (9:07.87).
The Hoosiers won the next three events, but the gains were minimal thanks to Michigan's depth. After sophomore Patrick Callan took second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:36.41), U-M went 2-3 in both the 100-yard backstroke (Storms, senior Alex Martin) and 100-yard breaststroke (senior Tommy Cope, Chan).
Michigan grabbed momentum back heading into the first diving break from two of the men on the opening relay. Smachlo rallied to beat Indiana's Brendan Burns in the 200-yard butterfly (1:44.52), while Borges touched first in the 50-yard freestyle (19.95). He was the only man in the field to break 20 seconds.
Cope picked up a big win in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching first by more than three seconds (1:55.97). Senior Charlie Swanson was third (1:59.45) and senior Jeremy Babinet was fifth (2:01.51). Vargas followed that up with another multi-second win, this time in the 500-yard freestyle (4:22.83). Like in the 1,000-yard freestyle earlier, U-M piled up the points, as Callan was third (4:26.09), Roberts was fourth (4:27.57) and Auböck was fifth (4:28.64).
Smachlo finished his sweep of the butterfly events, taking the 100-yard butterfly by almost a full second (46.96). Following the final diving break, Cope (1:45.24) and Swanson (1:48.84) were second and third, respectively, in the 200-yard IM.
Junior Ross Todd was the team's top performer in the diving well, finishing third on both one-meter (300.45) and three-meter (366.85).
"Even though it's still early on in the season, we still executed well, though it could be better," Bottom said. "All the little things in races -- breakouts, turns, finishes, overall race strategy -- they all could be better. But the desire was there, and we'll get back to work on all of those things before Minnesota next month."
Michigan will return to the pool next month for the Minnesota Invite, Dec. 4-8 in Minneapolis. The meet will mimic the postseason, beginning at 6 p.m. CST on Dec. 4, and will continue with preliminaries (10 a.m.) and finals (6 p.m.) sessions each of the following three days. Action will conclude with a long-course time trial on Sunday (Dec. 8) at 9 a.m.
Players Mentioned
