Second-Place Minnesota Sends 11 Into Finals




Feb. 17, 2007

Championships Central | Overall Results

COLUMBUS, Ohio - After more than 100 NCAA qualifying times - including 22 NCAA A-standards - and several new meet records set, the opening day of the 2007 Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion set the tone for an exciting weekend. Day two had high expectations to live up to, and the talented field did not disappoint.

400 IM | Results
Alex Vanderkaay is on track to keeping the 400-yard individual medley title in the family. After his older brother Peter picked up gold for the Wolverines in the 2004 and 2005, the younger Vanderkaay claimed top honors at last year's championships. He earned the top seed in Friday night's final with a time of 3:48.04 - the third-fastest in the country this year.

Vanderkaay will be joined by five familiar faces. His teammate Dane Grenda, Indiana's Steven Murray, Minnesota's Russ Payne and Ohio State's Nate King are all making repeat appearances in the final race. In the prelims, Grenda finished right behind Vanderkaay with a time of 3:48.81, followed by another teammate, freshman Andre Schultz (3:49.45).

Purdue senior Romain Maire earns his second final spot this championships after taking home bronze in Friday's 200-yard individual medley. Murray will look to improve on his third-place finish from a year ago after touching the wall fifth at 3:50.45. Payne and King touched the wall sixth and seventh, respectively, followed by Payne's Gopher teammate freshman Alex Wold.

All of the top eight earned provisional qualification for the NCAAs.

Indiana leads the way in the consolation final with three swimmers advancing. Rookie Aaron Opell earns the event's top seed and will be joined by JK Koehler (11th) and Alec Haley (16th). Wisconsin also features multiple swimmers in the race with Brett Koerten finishing 10th, and Ben Bruce earning 14th.

100 Butterfly | Results
Northwestern's Kyle Bubolz is looking to add his third consecutive gold in the 100-yard butterfly to his trophy case, but to do it the championships record-holder in the event will have to face some highly competitive talent in Michigan freshman Chris Brady.

The Wolverine rookie claimed the top seed in Saturday night's final after edging Bubolz in the last stretch for a 46.83 finish, the second-best mark in the nation. Bubolz touched the wall next at 46.96, followed by Indiana's Ben Hesen at 47.32. Hesen's Hoosier teammates TP Patrick and Nick Walkotten will join him in the final race after finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

Ohio State's Joseph Doyle earned his second individual final spot after claiming runner-up honors in Friday's 50-yard freestyle. The Buckeye senior toched the wall at 47.54. Also making the finals lineup were Michigan's Curtis Dauw (47.64) and Minnesota's Evan Bernier (47.73).

A total of 13 swimmers qualified for the NCAA's at least provisionally.

200 Free | Results
Michigan sophomore Bobby Savulich claimed the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle final after posting a pool-record time of 1:34.97. His performance also earned him an A standard qualification for the NCAAs. He was followed by fellow Wolverine sophomore Sal Barba, who touched the wall at 1:36.10. Next up was Northwestern's Eric Nilsson at 1:36.50, and Minnesota's Igor Cerensek (1:36.66), last year's fourth-place finisher in the event.

The next four touched the wall in less than 0.3 seconds with Purdue's John Schmitt coming in fifth (1:36.73), followed by Minnesota's Mike Woodson (1:36.86), Michigan's Evan Ryser (1:36.99) and Minnesota's Tyler Schmidt (1:37.01), the only other swimmer to have made last year's final.

Minnesota and Wisconsin boast two swimmers a piece advancing to the consolation final, while Michigan State, Penn State, Northwestern and Purdue athletes make up the rest of the event. The preliminary race saw 11 garner at least provisional NCAA qualifying times.

100 Breaststroke | Results
Northwestern's Mike Alexandrov will look for his second individual gold of the championships with the top seed in the 100-yard breaststroke final. The Wildcat senior claimed the title in 2005, but was edged by Indiana's Kevin Swander last year. Between helping Northwestern to two crowns in its 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays on Friday, Alexandrov picked up gold in the 200-yard individual medley.

Touching the wall second was Michigan's Scott Span at 54.06, followed by last year's seventh-place finisher, Minnesota's Colin Lee-To at 54.27.

The rest of the top eight touched the wall within 0.28 seconds. Indiana's Pat Penoyar earned fourth at 54.48, pulling ahead of Minnesota's Jason Timmer (54.55). The last three spots came down to the last second, as Wisconsin's Eric Johnson (54.67) sprinted to a narrow lead over Iowa's Dragos Agache (54.74). A mere 0.02 seconds later, Gopher Drew Knoechel touched the wall, barely beating out Purdue's Aaron 
Koger for the last finals spot by the same time.

100 Backstroke | Results
Matt Grevers continued his quest to become only the fifth swimmer in Big Ten history to win four consecutive golds in two events with the 100-yard backstroke prelims. After winning his fourth straight 50-yard freestyle crown on Friday, Grevers enters Saturday's 100-yard backstroke final as the second seed. The 2005 NCAA Champion in the event, Grevers posted a time of 47.21, edged by Indiana's Ben Hesen for first.

Hesen jumped to a quick lead in the fourth heat and garnered a time of 46.93. Grevers managed to out-stretch Minnesota's David Plummer at the wall, as the junior Gopher finished third with a time of 47.23.

In last year's final event, Grevers edged Hesen by 0.3 seconds to claim the title.

Michigan's Matt Patton and Grevers' teammate Bubolz battled down to the last split-second as the sophomore Wolverine touched the wall at 47.97, edging the junior Wildcat by 0.01 second. Again the last three seeds came down to the wire as Penn State's Patrick Schirk, Minnesota's Dan Berve and Ohio State's Robert Lemyre all touched the wall within 0.08 seconds.

Three-meter Springboard | Results
Ohio State again stated its claim on the diving finals when Buckeyes Nick Hanneman, Hugh Showe and Kellen Harkness swept the three top seeds in the three-meeter springboard final.

After not qualifying for Friday's one-meter final, Hanneman scored a 377.20 to take top honors. Showe, the one-meter champion, came in second with 364.95. Last year's runner-up in the event, Harkness followed in third with 356.60. Another Buckeye, Weston Wieser fell a few points short of the finals but will contribute nine points to the Buckeyes' team score.

Penn State's Mike Alderman was close behind Harkness with a fourth-place tally of 353.10, while last year's champion Taylor Roberts of Indiana will attempt to defend his crown from the sixth seed after posting a score of 338.00.

Purdue also advances three swimmers to the finals with Danny Cox leading the way as the fifth seed. Cox posted a 349.15 followed by Boilermakers Zach Schultz (336.55) in seventh and Jon Perez (335.95) in eighth.

The top eight scores also earned A-standard NCAA qualifying marks.

Ohio State leads the way in the team standings heading into Saturday night's finals session, but the Buckeyes' lead is far from safe as many teams have the potential to take over. Minnesota, which lurks dangerously close in second, has advanced 14 swimmers - 12 of which have earned spots in the championships final. Third-place Michigan follows with 12 advancing and 10 of those slated in finals lineups.

The day two finals begin at 7:00 p.m. ET at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. In addition to these events, conference-swimming champions will be crowned in the 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay.  Check back to BigTen.org for live results and continuing coverage of the 2007 Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving 
Championships.