U-M Readies for Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships

Wednesday, February 20

Bloomington, Ind.

6:30 PM

Michigan

Big Ten Championships

U-M Readies for Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships

2/18/2019 2:21:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: Brad Rudner

» No. 3-ranked Michigan heads to Bloomington, Indiana, for the 2019 Big Ten Championships, Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 20-23).
» The Wolverines are looking to win their fourth consecutive title for the first time since 1995-98.
» All seven sessions will be streamed live via BTN Plus and the BTN2Go app.

• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

The No. 3-ranked University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team begins the postseason this week at the 2019 Big Ten Conference Championships, to be held Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 20-23) at Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The meet will begin with two relays on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., while each of the following three days will see preliminaries at 11 a.m. and event finals at 6:30 p.m.

The Wolverines enter the meet as the three-time defending champions. A fourth win this weekend would give the program its first four-peat since 1995-98.

All seven sessions of the meet will be streamed live via BTN Plus (subscription required) and the BTN2Go app. The Big Ten Network will air a condensed format of the meet on Sunday (Feb. 24) at 10:30 a.m. EST. Bernie Guenther, Margaux Farrell and Gabrielle DiGiovanni will be on the call.

Parking Advisory

The parking lots surrounding the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center are permit only and are not open to fans. Anyone parking in these lots is subject to being ticketed and towed. Only those with valid ADA parking permits will be allowed to park in the CBAC parking lot. All others should park in Memorial Stadium Green Lot (Gate 12) or Orange Lot (Gate 4). Parking is free in the Memorial Stadium lots, and a free shuttle will run every 15 minutes beginning two hours prior to the start of each session and ending 45 minutes after the conclusion of each session. ADA parking with a valid ADA parking permit is free and located next to the CBAC. » Map

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, Feb. 20 (6:30 p.m.)
200-yard Medley Relay
800-yard Freestyle Relay

Thursday, Feb. 21 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
500-yard Freestyle
200-yard Individual Medley
50-yard Freestyle
One-Meter Diving (1 p.m.)
400-yard Medley Relay

Friday, Feb. 22 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
100-yard Butterfly
400-yard Individual Medley
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Breaststroke
100-yard Backstroke
Three-Meter Diving (1 p.m.)
200-yard Freestyle Relay

Saturday, Feb. 23 (Preliminaries at 11 a.m., Finals at 6:30 p.m.)
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (1 p.m.)
1,650-yard Freestyle (4:15 p.m.)
400-yard Freestyle Relay

Scoring Format
A Final Scoring: 32-28-27-26-25-24-23-22
B Final Scoring: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11
C Final Scoring: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Relay Scoring: 64-56-54-52-50-48-46-44-40-34-32-30-28

Note: Only A & B finals (championship & consolation) will be contested in the diving events.

Big Ten Championships History

Titles: Michigan is the most successful women's swimming and diving program in the Big Ten, leading the conference in team titles (17), individual swimming titles (134) and relay titles (58). It also has five conference diving champions.

Last Year: The Wolverines won their third consecutive Big Ten title last year in Columbus, Ohio, earning the program's first three-peat since 1996-98. The Wolverines scored 1,465 points and, despite a disqualification on the first relay of the meet, still won by 312.5 points, the largest margin of victory by any Big Ten team since 2011. Siobhán Haughey won the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard IM and was joined on the top of the championship podium by Yirong Bi (500-yard freestyle), Vanessa Krause (200-yard butterfly) and the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams. » Recap

Awards: Six U-M swimmers have been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships: Jen Eberwein (1998), Shannon Shakespeare (2000), Justine Mueller (2005), Kaitlyn Brady (2006), Lindsey Smith (2007) and Siobhán Haughey (2016). No U-M diver has ever won Diver of the Championships. Additionally, only one Wolverine has won Big Ten Freshman of the Year: Justine Mueller in 2005.

Best Events The Wolverines have multiple Big Ten champions in each swimming and diving event with the most coming in the 200-yard IM (25), the 400-yard medley relay (17), the 200-yard breaststroke (17), the 200-yard backstroke (16) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (16). Only three times in the past 28 seasons has U-M gone without a Big Ten champion: 2002, 2012 and 2013.

Relays/Diving: Michigan is the three-time defending Big Ten champion in the 800-yard freestyle relay and also won the 400-yard freestyle relay at last year's meet. The Wolverines have not crowned a diving champion in any of the three events since 1994 (Cinnamon Woods on platform).

Michigan Top Times and Big Ten Rankings

WEDNESDAY

200-yard Medley Relay
2nd (1:35.86)
Garcia, Tucker, MacNeil, Haughey

800-yard Freestyle Relay
1st (7:01.67)
Bi, C. DeLoof, Haughey, MacNeil

THURSDAY

500-yard Freestyle
Yirong Bi: 2nd (4:37.24)
Sierra Schmidt: 4th (4:38.91)
Becca Postoll: 7th (4:40.63)
Katie Duggan: 22nd (4:49.63)

200-yard IM
Siobhán Haughey: 2nd (1:55.04)
Miranda Tucker: 7th (1:57.05)
Victoria Kwan: 15th (1:58.52)
Jamie Yeung: 17th (1:59.16)
Emma Cleason: 21st (1:59.96)

50-yard Freestyle
Maggie MacNeil: 1st (21.93)
Siobhán Haughey: 2nd (22.07)
Catie DeLoof: 3rd (22.09)
Daria Pyshnenko: 17th (22.94)
Vanessa Krause: 21st (23:04)

400-yard Medley Relay 1st (3:28.87)
Garcia, Tucker, MacNeil, Haughey

FRIDAY

100-yard Butterfly
Maggie MacNeil: 1st (49.97)
Vanessa Krause: 6th (52.73)
Emma Cleason: 12th (53.24)
Miranda Tucker: 13th (53.27)
Alexis Margett: 16th (53.63)
Claire Maiocco: 22nd (54.39)

400-yard IM
Victoria Kwan: 6th (4:11.05)
Jamie Yeung: 15th (4:16.11)
Yirong Bi: 21st (4:19.76)

200-yard Freestyle
Siobhán Haughey: 1st (1:41.77)
Catie DeLoof: 2nd (1:43.84)
Yirong Bi: 5th (1:45.01)
Becca Postoll: 7th (1:46.16)
Sierra Schmidt: 11th (1:46.80)

100-yard Breaststroke
Miranda Tucker: 3rd (59.09)
Jamie Yeung: 5th (59.77)

100-yard Backstroke
Maggie MacNeil: 2nd (51.31)
Taylor Garcia: 11th (53.46)
Catie DeLoof: 13th (53.61)
Chloe Hicks: 17th (53.81)
Katie Minnich: 20th (54.20)

200-yard Freestyle Relay
1st (1:27.61)
Haughey, C. DeLoof, MacNeil, Tucker

SATURDAY

1,650-yard Freestyle
Sierra Schmidt: 4th (16:06.18)
Yirong Bi: 5th (16:14.28)
Becca Postoll: 19th (16:38.40)
Katie Duggan: 22nd (16:43.39)

200-yard Backstroke
Chloe Hicks: 5th (1:54.00)
Maggie MacNeil: 8th (1:55.39)
Catie DeLoof: 12th (1:56.18)
Taylor Garcia: 13th (1:56.59)

100-yard Freestyle
Siobhán Haughey: 1st (46.72)
Catie DeLoof: 2nd (47.76)
Maggie MacNeil: 3rd (48.25)
Yirong Bi: 14th (49.77)
Daria Pyshnenko: 16th (49.85)

200-yard Breaststroke
Miranda Tucker: 5th (2:08.53)
Jamie Yeung: 9th (2:10.26)
Siobhán Haughey: 21st (2:14.62)

200-yard Butterfly
Vanessa Krause: 1st (1:55.14)
Victoria Kwan: 8th (1:57.48)
Sierra Schmidt: 13th (1:58.96)
Emma Cleason: 16th (1:59.42)
Alexis Margett: 19th (1:59.88)
Kate Krolikowski: 22nd (2:00.66)

400-yard Freestyle Relay:
1st (3:14.16)
MacNeil, Haughey, Postoll, Tucker

Team Notes

• Michigan fell one spot to No. 3 in the final CSCAA poll of the season, released last Wednesday (Feb. 13). » Poll

• The Wolverines finished 8-0 in dual meets this season, notching back-to-back undefeated seasons for the first time since 1988-89. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Michigan is 31-2 in dual meets.

• Going into the Big Ten Championships, U-M has accumulated 57 NCAA qualifying standards (8 A, 39 B, 10 diving). At last year's Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines had 73 NCAA qualifying standards (13 A, 53 B, 7 diving).

• U-M appears deepest in the freestyle events, having at least two swimmers ranked in the top eight of each of the five freestyle events: four in the 200-yard freestyle, three in the 50-, 100- and 500-yard freestyles, and two in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Last year, the Wolverines scored 484 points across the freestyle events (129 in 200, 107 in 500, 105 in 100, 89 in 1,650, 54 in 50).

• Senior Siobhán Haughey enters her final Big Ten Championships as a six-time Big Ten individual champion, and she will look for a clean four-year sweep of the 200-yard freestyle on Friday. The last Big Ten swimmer to win the 200-yard freestyle in four consecutive years was Michigan's Lindsey Smith from 2004-07. Haughey holds the Big Ten record in the event (1:40.69 from the 2018 NCAA Championships) and has finished first or second in eight of her nine career individual swims at the Big Ten Championships (Note: She initially won the 200-yard IM in 2017 but was DQed after video review).

• Freshman Maggie MacNeil will make her Big Ten Championships debut after a roaring regular season that saw her win six Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors. On Nov. 30 at the UGA Fall Invitational, she became the fourth woman in NCAA history to break the 50-second barrier in the 100-yard butterfly (49.97), well under the previous Big Ten Championships record of 50.45, set by Indiana's Gia Dalesandro in 2017. MacNeil is ranked in the top eight of the Big Ten in five events, including No. 1 in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly and No. 2 in the 100-yard backstroke.

• The Wolverines will have their largest diving contingent in years at the Big Ten Championships. Last year, just three divers -- Christy Cutshaw, Nikki Canale and Dani VanderZwaag -- combined for 104 points on the boards. This year, U-M is sending six divers to the Big Ten Championships: Cutshaw, Canale, Miranda Eberle (transfer from Virginia Tech), Camryn McPherson (transfer from Ohio State), freshman Allie Klein and redshirt freshman Margaret Rogers. McPherson dove for Ohio State at last year's Big Ten Championships, finishing 16th on one-meter, 20th on platform and 24th on three-meter. Eberle was eighth on platform at the 2018 ACC Championships.

• Senior Jamie Yeung and redshirt junior Miranda Tucker form a top 1-2 punch in the breaststroke events. Tucker, who spent her first year at Indiana (2016), is a five-time medalist at the Big Ten Championships, winning four silvers and one bronze. Yeung has had a breakout season, setting career-best times in both breaststroke events at the UGA Fall Invitational in late November.

• Junior Vanessa Krause, the only Indiana native on the roster and the defending champion in the 200-yard butterfly, leads a deep butterfly group this week. Based on the top 24 rankings, U-M has six swimmers slated to score in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly, most on the team for any single individual event.

• Senior Yirong Bi is another former champion, taking the 500-yard freestyle last season. She is a five-time medalist at the Big Ten Championships. Sophomore Sierra Schmidt looks to build off last year's successful rookie campaign that saw her final in three events, while senior Becca Postoll adds depth and scoring potential to the distance events. She swam the 1,650-yard freestyle for the first time in her collegiate career in the team's dual victory over Ohio State and will swim it again this Saturday.

• Senior Catie DeLoof, the third of four DeLoofs to swim at Michigan, looks to build off last year's breakout season that saw her become one of the Big Ten's top sprint freestylers. In 2018, she was third in the 200-yard freestyle and fourth in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. By comparison, DeLoof was 10th in the 100-yard freestyle and 20th in the 50-yard freestyle as a freshman in 2016, and she did not start swimming the 200-yard freestyle until last season.

• Of the five relays, U-M is ranked first in the Big Ten (and will be seeded first) in all but the 200-yard medley relay (second).

Up Next

Sunday, March 3 -- at OSU Last Chance Meet (Columbus, Ohio)
Thu-Sat., March 14-16 -- at NCAA Zone C Diving Championships (West Lafayette, Ind.)
Wed-Sat., March 20-23 -- at NCAA Championships (Austin, Texas)