Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Michigan Gears Up for Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships
2/26/2019 10:22:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
» The Big Ten Championships run Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 27-March 2) in Iowa City, Iowa. Preliminaries are at 11 a.m. CST, with finals following at 6:30 p.m.
» U-M has the most team titles (40) and most individual/relay/diving titles (522) of any Big Ten team. It has finished second each of the last two years.
» All seven sessions will be streamed live via BTN Plus and the BTN2Go app.
THIS WEEK
Wed-Sat., Feb. 27-March 2 -- at Big Ten Championships (Iowa City, Iowa), 11 a.m. (preliminaries)/6:30 p.m. CDT (finals)
Tickets (hawkeyesports.com) | Live Results: Swimming : Diving
Live Video (BTN Plus): Wed | Thu am | Thu pm | Fri am | Fri pm | Sat am | Sat pm
• Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The No. 4-ranked University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team begins its postseason this week at the Big Ten Championships, slated for Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 27-March 2) at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center in Iowa City, Iowa. Preliminaries will begin at 11 a.m. CST, with finals following at 6:30 p.m.
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 (March 3) at 10:30 a.m. EST. Bernie Guenther, Margaux Farrell and Gabrielle DiGiovanni will be on the call.
Schedule of Events
Wednesday, Feb. 27 (6:30 p.m.)
200-yard Medley Relay
800-yard Freestyle Relay
Thursday, Feb. 28 (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, March 1 (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, March 2 (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 has won 40 Big Ten Conference team championships, the most of any conference member (Indiana is second with 26). In total, U-M has won 522 individual, relay or diving titles -- 373 in individual swimming events, 131 on relays and 18 in diving.
Last Year: The Wolverines finished second to Indiana in 2018, scoring 1,617.5 points based on scoring performances from 25 of 26 student-athletes on the championships roster. They won four individual or relay titles, led by Felix Auböck, who completed the distance sweep for the second consecutive year. Charlie Swanson (400-yard IM) and the 200-yard freestyle relay team also captured gold. Eleven student-athletes were named All-Big Ten, and Ricardo Vargas was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Indiana won the team title for the second consecutive year.
Awards: A Michigan swimmer has been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year in 19 of the last 25 seasons: Marcel Wouda (1993), Tom Dolan (1994-95), Derya Buyukuncu (1996), John Piersma (1997), Tom Malchow (1998), Chris Thompson (1999-co, 2001), Dan Ketchum (2002), Peter Vanderkaay (2004-co, 2005, 2006-co), Alex Vanderkaay (2008), Tyler Clary (2009-10), Dan Madwed (2012), Connor Jaeger (2013-14), Dylan Bosch (2015) and Felix Auböck (2017). The Big Ten Swimmer of the Year is voted on by the conference coaches after the NCAA Championships and is announced in early April.
Sixteen Michigan student-athletes have been named Big Ten Freshman of the Year: Scott Ryan (1988), Gustavo Borges (1992), Royce Sharp (1993), Tom Dolan (1994), Jason Lancaster (1995), Chris Thompson (1998), Jeff Hopwood and Tim Siciliano (1999), Dan Ketchum (2001), Brendan Neligan (2002), Peter Vanderkaay (2003), Kyle Whitaker (2011), Dylan Bosch (2014), Evan White (2015), Felix Auböck (2017) and Ricardo Vargas (2018).
Additionally, 12 Wolverines have been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships: Marcel Wouda (1993), Gustavo Borges (1995), Derya Buyukuncu (1996, 1998), John Piersma (1997), Chris Thompson (1999), Alex Vanderkaay (2008-co), Tyler Clary (2009-10), Dan Madwed (2012) and Dylan Bosch (2015-16).
U-M has never had a Big Ten Diver of the Year, though Jason Coben was named Diver of the Championships in 2003 (shared with Marc Carlton of Indiana) and 2004.
Champions: There are two current swimmers who have previously won Big Ten individual titles -- Felix Auböck (2017-18: 500-yard freestyle, 1,650-yard freestyle) and Charlie Swanson (2017-18: 400-yard IM).
Diving: In the diving events, Michigan has won 18 conference titles across all boards. The last U-M diver to win a conference title was Jason Coben, who won both one-meter and platform in 2004. Michigan has not had a student-athlete win three-meter since Matthew Chelich in 1979.
Big Ten Rankings (Top 24)
WEDNESDAY
200-yard Medley Relay
2nd (1:25.25)
Williams, Montague, Smachlo, Borges
800-yard Freestyle Relay
2nd (6:17.78)
Auböck, Callan, Al-Yamani, Borges
THURSDAY
500-yard Freestyle
Ricardo Vargas: 1st (4:11.45)
Patrick Callan: 2nd (4:12.56)
Felix Auböck: 3rd (4:13.06)
Will Roberts: 5th (4:20.47)
Dylan Boyd: 15th (4:24.43)
Bora Unalmis: 18th (4:25.32)
Andrew Babyak: 24th (4:26.39)
200-yard IM
Charlie Swanson: 2nd (1:44.13)
Tommy Cope: 3rd (1:44.23)
Jacob Montague: 4th (1:44.26)
Jeremy Babinet: 14th (1:46.67)
Jared Daigle: 18th (1:47.53)
Kai Williams: 22nd (1:48.15)
50-yard Freestyle
Luiz Gustavo Borges: 1st (19.11)
Will Chan: 7th (19.75)
Miles Smachlo: 16th (19.93)
James Jones: T-18th (19.97)
400-yard Medley Relay
2nd (3:05.72)
Williams, Cope, Smachlo, Borges
FRIDAY
100-yard Butterfly
Miles Smachlo: 2nd (46.05)
James Jones: 4th (46.90)
Jon Burkett: 7th (47.13)
Alex King: 24th (48.28)
400-yard IM
Charlie Swanson: 1st (3:39.58)
Tommy Cope: 2nd (3:42.65)
Ricardo Vargas: 3rd (3:45.04)
Will Roberts: 4th (3:48.79)
Felix Auböck: 8th (3:49.93)
Jared Daigle: 10th (3:50.66)
Bora Unalmis: 12th (3:51.47)
Ian Miskelley: 13th (3:51.66)
Tim Hanson: 14th (3:51.69)
David Cleason: 18th (3:53.32)
Stephen Holmquist: 21st (3:53.88)
200-yard Freestyle
Patrick Callan: 2nd (1:33.89)
Felix Auböck: 4th (1:34.66)
Mokhtar Al-Yamani: 5th (1:34.96)
Tommy Cope: 8th (1:35.25)
Luiz Gustavo Borges: 9th (1:35.70)
Kai Williams: 15th (1:36.56)
100-yard Breaststroke
Will Chan: 3rd (52.55)
Mason Hunter: 4th (52.77)
Jacob Montague: 5th (52.89)
Tommy Cope: 6th (53.12)
Jeremy Babinet: 7th (53.25)
Charlie Swanson: 9th (53.33)
AJ Bornstein: 23rd (55.00)
100-yard Backstroke
Kai Williams: 19th (47.91)
Jon Burkett: 20th (47.96)
Eric Storms: 21st (47.98)
Jared Daigle: 23rd (48.48)
200-yard Freestyle Relay
2nd (1:18.07)
Borges, Jones, Smachlo, King
SATURDAY
1,650-yard Freestyle
Ricardo Vargas: 1st (14:35.04)
Felix Auböck: 3rd (14:56.67)
Will Roberts: 5th (15:02.67)
Andrew Babyak: 16th (15:24.52)
200-yard Backstroke
Kai Williams: 4th (1:42.63)
Jared Daigle: 12th (1:44.60)
Bora Unalmis: 15th (1:45.55)
100-yard Freestyle
Luiz Gustavo Borges: 2nd (42.53)
James Jones 8th (43.40)
Will Chan: 22nd (44.24)
200-yard Breaststroke
Charlie Swanson: 1st (1:53.68)
Tommy Cope: 2nd (1:53.70)
Jacob Montague: 3rd (1:53.86)
Mason Hunter: 6th (1:55.19)
Jeremy Babinet: 8th (1:56.05)
AJ Bornstein: 11th (1:56.59)
Leo Zabudkin: 15th (1:57.88)
200-yard Butterfly
Miles Smachlo: 1st (1:41.84)
Mokhtar Al-Yamani: 11th (1:46.50)
Will Roberts: 12th (1:46.64)
Jon Burkett: 18th (1:47.40)
Ricardo Vargas: 20th (1:47.89)
400-yard Freestyle Relay
2nd (2:52.70)
Borges, Chan, Swanson, Smachlo
Team Notes
• The Wolverines held firm at No. 4 in the latest CSCAA poll, released on Jan. 23. » Poll
• Going into the Big Ten Championships, U-M has accumulated 64 NCAA qualifying standards (2 A, 51 B, 11 diving). At last year's Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines had 78 NCAA qualifying standards (11 A, 58 B, 9 diving).
• In 2018, U-M went 1-2-3 in the 500-yard freestyle, 400-yard IM and 1,650-yard freestyle at the Big Ten Championships. Heading into this year's meet, the Wolverines have the top three seeds in the 500-yard freestyle (Ricardo Vargas, Patrick Callan, Felix Auböck) and 400-yard IM (Charlie Swanson, Tommy Cope, Vargas). Vargas (1st), Auböck (3rd) and sophomore Will Roberts (5th) are slated to swim in the final heat of the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday.
• Based on the above rankings, U-M is deepest in the IM and breaststroke events. The Wolverines have a whopping 11 swimmers ranked in the 400-yard IM and seven in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes. Six of the fastest swimmers in school history in the 100-yard breaststroke are on the 2018-19 roster: Jacob Montague (3rd), Jeremy Babinet (4th), Will Chan (5th), Mason Hunter (8th), Tommy Cope (9th) and Charlie Swanson (10th).
• Sophomore Luiz Gustavo Borges has developed into one of the Big Ten's best sprinters, moving to third and fourth, respectively, in school history in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles. He is the top seed in the 50-yard freestyle (19.11). Only one man in program history -- Paul Powers -- has gone under 19 seconds in the event (18.80 in 2017). Borges is following in the footsteps of his father, Gustavo Borges, who was Big Ten champion in the 50-yard freestyle -- among his many accolades -- back in 1993. Interestingly, the younger Borges can surpass his father on the school's all-time list in the 100-yard freestyle: Gustavo is No. 3 (42.46 in 1994), while Luiz Gustavo is No. 4 (42.53).
• Junior Miles Smachlo is primed for a big week at the Big Ten Championships. A finalist in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events in each of his first two years, Smachlo enters the week ranked No. 1 in the 200-yard butterfly and No. 2 in the 100-yard butterfly. He is also ranked in the top 24 in the 50-yard freestyle (16th) and will likely choose that as his third event over the 200-yard IM, which he had swum previously (10th in 2018, 18th in 2017). He has not raced the 200-yard IM this season.
• Freshman Mason Hunter broke out with two great swims at the Michigan First Chance Meet last weekend (Feb. 23-24) at Canham Natatorium. He cut a second-and-a-half off his previous career best in the 100-yard breaststroke (52.77), good for No. 4 in the Big Ten this season and No. 8 in school history. Hunter, a four-time state champion in Georgia, dropped nearly six seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke (1:55.19), the sixth-fastest time in the Big Ten this season and 10th-fastest in school history.
• Last year, Ross Todd became the program's first diver to qualify for the platform final in four years and finished fifth. The four divers on the roster -- Todd, Jake Herremans, Chris Canning and Steven Anderson -- combined to score 98 points, more than quadrupling the diving total from the previous year (21). Collin DeShaw did not compete last year (redshirted due to injury), but he has prior experience at the Big Ten Championships, scoring points in all three events in 2016 (12th on 1M, 22nd on 3M, 24th on PL) and on three-meter in 2017 (16th).
Up Next
Tuesday, March 5 -- host Michigan Last Chance Meet (Canham Natatorium), 5 p.m.
Thu-Sat., March 14-16 -- at NCAA Zone C Diving Championships (West Lafayette, Ind.)
Wed-Sat., March 27-30 -- at NCAA Championships (Austin, Texas)
Players Mentioned
